If you’re still using your ancient TiVo DVR to watch recorded shows from the previous century, we’ve got some bad news: After nearly two decades, TiVo says it will stop supporting it Series 1 DVR at the end of next month.
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After 17 Years, TiVo Discontinuing Service For Series 1 DVR
By 8.17.16
Rovi Buys TiVo For $1.1B
By 4.29.16
Rovi and TiVo are getting hitched. The technology maker announced Friday that it would pay $1.1 billion to bring the set-top box recorder under its wing. [More]
New TiVo Bolt Will Let You Skip Some Ad Breaks With Push Of A Button (For $150/Year)
By 9.30.15
TiVo’s new Bolt DVR has some neat-sounding functions — the ability to skip ad breaks at the press of a button [big asterisk] or speed up what you’re watching by 30% without screwing with the audio — and it’s also 4K compatible and provides an all-in-one portal for access to streaming services like Netflix and Amazon. But it does so, not just at a hefty retail price, but with a subscription requirement that might turn potential customers away. [More]
Netflix Deal With Oculus & Samsung Means You’ll Actually Have Something To Watch With That VR Headset
By 9.24.15
So you’ve got your cool virtual reality headset, and you’re just dying to try it. But what are you supposed to watch on it? Until now, there’s been a limited amount of content available for VR headsets. That’s all changed now, as Netflix announced a deal with Oculus and Samsung that includes a virtual reality version of Netflix’s entire library. [More]
TiVo Invokes Aereo’s Corporate Corpse To Market An “Exclusive” Deal That Costs $70 More Than No Deal At All
By 7.6.15
Aereo only operated for two years, and in that time the company commanded a small but loyal fan base. Customers in the cities where the streaming service operated enjoyed being able to capture, record, and stream local over-the-air broadcasts… until the company got shot down by the courts and went bankrupt. Now, another company is trying to fan those flames of affection for its own marketing — and the deal on offer is not good at all. [More]
TiVo Gets Approval From Bankruptcy Court Judge To Buy Some Aereo Assets
By 3.13.15
If Aereo wasn’t dead already, the announcement from TiVo that it’s successfully snagged the former streaming service’s trademarks and customer lists will certainly send any hopes that the company could resurrect itself six feet into the ground. After an assets auction last month where companies picked over Aereo’s bones, TiVo says a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge has approved its purchase of those assets. [More]
TiVo Picks At The Scraps Of Aereo’s Remains
By 2.27.15
It’s been about eight months since a divided U.S. Supreme Court thrust a dagger through the gut of streaming video startup Aereo, and three months since the company filed for bankruptcy protection. And any hope that the company might be sold or resurrected has vanished with news that its name and patents have been sold off like parts of an old used car. [More]
TiVo’s New Cable-Free Over-The-Air DVR Tries To Fill Streaming Vacancy Left By Aereo Demise
By 8.25.14
Aereo might have been shut down by the Supreme Court, but the reason they were open in the first place is because consumers want a way to record and stream broadcast TV without subscribing to cable. There are some homebrew workarounds, but none of them are seamless. Now TiVo, one of the first companies to make the whole home-DVR idea actually work, is trying to fill the vacancy. [More]
Raiders Of The Lost Walmart Uncover Ancient, Mysterious Flip Camera
By 8.19.14 — Updated: 5.1.17
The Raiders of the Lost Walmart are a band of brave retail explorers who comb the world’s big-box stores in search of retail antiquities at comically high prices. They carefully excavate clearance racks in order to find the most ancient pieces of technology available. In this set of field notes, Raiders report finding a fast-food promotional game, an obsolete camera from a defunct company, and a wireless adapter from a TiVo of generations past. [More]
TiVo E-Mails Me Coupon Code, Reserves Right To Remove Discounts After Order
By 7.31.14
When TiVo was offering a great price on their Roamio DVRs, reader Victor thought that his mother-in-law could use one. He thought about it, put one in his virtual cart, and then took some time to decide. Like many retailers will do, TiVo sent him an e-mail with a $50 off coupon to entice him back. How could he resist? He placed the order, and that’s where things started to go wrong. [More]
Netflix Is The Newest Channel In The Lineup For Some Cable Customers
By 4.25.14
Netflix and cable companies: they’re natural enemies, like cats and dogs or Superman and Lex Luthor. And yet for as hard as some cable companies are working to compete against Netflix, others appear to have worked out an accord. For customers of three smaller cable providers, Netflix is now a channel they can surf to just like any other. [More]
It’s A Bit Boring To Watch People Try To Break World Record For Binge-Watching
By 1.7.14
Last night, about 12 hours before CES threw open its door to attendees, three folks gathered in the TiVo booth in order to begin their attempt at breaking the world record for TV binge-watching. Not even a full day in, and it’s kind of a sad sight. [More]
TiVo Adds Mandatory Binding Arbitration For Customers: Here’s How To Opt Out
By 8.21.13 — Updated: 8.22.13
We at Consumerist have crusaded against the evils of mandatory binding arbitration for most of the last decade. Companies love it, though, because it means we can’t sue them. TiVo is only the latest company to insert language requiring customers to use arbitration and give up their right to sue. You can opt out of that provision, though, if you want to. [More]
My DirecTV Tivo Has Been Resetting For 12 Days And No One Seems To Care
By 11.20.12
UPDATE: DirecTV tells Consumerist it will credit affected customers’ accounts when the issue is resolved.
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Since the first week of November, DirecTV customers with Tivo Series 2 DVRs have been smashing their head against the wall (not literally, we hope) trying to get people to do something about their DVRs resetting randomly and frequently throughout the day. [More]
Time Warner’s Copy Protection Might Just Drive TV Lover To Piracy
By 6.12.12
Instead of a cable company-provided DVR, Leon uses a TiVo. It gives him greater flexibility, since he can transfer programs to his backup hard drives to free up space, then transfer the programs back when he is woefully short on entertainment. Only the cable networks and Time Warner Cable don’t want us to be able to do this. Where Leon lives, every program that’s not on one of the over-the-air broadcast networks is copy-protected. He can’t copy any of these shows to his backup drives. It’s as if it were 1990, and every time Leon ejected a recorded TV program from his VCR, a cable company employee stormed through the door, confiscated it, unspooled the tape, and set it on fire. Only less labor-intensive. [More]
TiVo Twists AT&T's Arm, Gets It To Cough Up $215 Million Patent Settlement
By 1.4.12
If TiVo is in the news in these days of its irrelevance, it’s usually because it’s won another massive settlement dispute with a company it accused of ripping off its tech. After getting $500 million from Dish Network last year, TiVo has now shaken down AT&T for $215 million. [More]
Dish Pays TiVo $500 Million DVR Patent Settlement
By 5.3.11
TiVo has long alleged Dish Network violated its DVR patents, and the satellite provider has settled things by giving TiVo $500 million to put the issue behind them. TiVo can now presumably exact similar settlements from Microsoft, Motorola, Verizon and AT&T, which it’s also suing. [More]
Appeals Court Gives Both Dish, TiVo Reasons To Be Happy, Sad
By 4.21.11
TiVo and Dish Network are locked up in a never-ending lawsuit over the satellite provider’s alleged violation of TiVo’s DVR patents, and a U.S. Federal Court of Appeals ruling Wednesday only served to muddle the picture. [More]
