TiVo Premiere, TiVo's Next DVR?

[Skaggs]

TiVo Premiere, TiVo's Next DVR?
From the TiVo Blog, December 30, 2009



It looks like somebody at TiVo may have screwed up when they packaged Patrick McCarron’s newly purchased TiVo HD. Like any good geek, Patrick went ahead and read the instructions for his new DVR. To his surprise, the instructions describe how to setup a TiVo Premiere or a TiVo Premiere XL not a TiVo HD!

I figured it was a simple re-branding until I looked to the picture on the bottom of the page for where to put the CableCard. I already own a TiVo Series 3, which takes the two cards in the back, and the TiVo HD takes two cards in the front. So I was surprised to see this picture to show a single slot on the back. That’s when I noticed that this didn’t match my TiVo HD at all, and is in fact a new un-released TiVo model called the TiVo Premiere!

What do you think? Could this be the Series 4 TiVo that we’ve all been waiting for? Let me know what your thoughts are and whether or not you think we will see this device at CES?

[Chris Miller]

I don't think it's a Series 4, that is supposed to be a Tru2Way box. I think it's just a cost reduced version of the TiVo HD/HD XL. With no one making single stream cards anymore, the second cable card slot on most TiVo HDs was going empty.

The phone jack and S-Video jacks are gone, I wonder what other cost sayings were made with this design. TiVo made a few announcements in 2009 about reducing the HD cost (which itself was a cost reduced S3 with m-card support).

The simplified design also makes sense if more cable companies deploy Tivo boxes. They would want want the simplest design possible. It's odd that they moved the cablecard slot to back, that just makes it annoying to install the card. Granted, it's usually a one time annoyance, but I'll bet it saved a few pennies on the design.

[hurnik]

Only problem is that TW in many places has been telling customers they can ONLY use Single stream cards because TW says they don't have M-cards. Wonder how that'll play out.

[Skaggs]

Time Warner has the M-cards. The Customer Service Reps and/or 1st line install technicians will tell you they don't. Here's two threads from the AlbanyHDTV forum that describe what you have to do to get the M-cards:

1. My own experience getting two M-cards (one for each of my two TiVos)

2. An article in Sound & Vision Magazine describing how to "score" an M-Card

[hurnik]

I was referring to TW in general. On the Tivo communities there's hordes of postings about TW stating there''s no M-cards and forcing people to rent 2 S-cards.

And WHY TW Albany STILL has their frontline techs tell you no M-cards is beyond me.

Personally I think it's nothing but a ploy to either discourage you from using something other than their STB or a way to try to scam you into more money by renting an additional cable card.

[Chris Miller]

It's probably a moot point. I don't think anyone is still making s-cards.