Comcast Certifies TiVo Software

[HDFreud]

Comcast Certifies TiVo Software

From Boardband reports link:

Over six months after Comcast set-top boxes utilizing TiVo's software debuted at CES, the cable giant has officially certified the platform for deployment to customers. The companies originally annoucned a deal to work together in March 2005.

Neither Comcast nor TiVo said when customers could expect to receive the TiVo software, which will be delivered over the cable network to Comcast's Motorola digital video recorders. Due to specific Comcast and hardware requirements, the interface differs greatly from TiVo's standalone offerings, but the basic features are the same.

I hope this means that we are going to get to uese all those ports that we have in the back of the sets taht are not currently used now.

 

[Marcus Carr]

 

[HDFreud]

Nice. Did you photoshop that or is that actual?

 

[Marcus Carr]

Engadget HD

 

[LonghornXP]

Hey you all I just got to play with the Tivo software for about an hour today but I'm going to say right away it will be worth the extra cost. First besides the one second lag after pressing guide until all the programming details come up the system is wicked fast. Also its not even a full one second lag but you notice it. Now to describe this better the instant you press Guide the entire guide grid itself comes up right away including the boxes for all the channels and such. It just takes a small amount of time until the name of the shows and such show up within those grid boxes. The key part is that you know what the box is doing the instant you press guide.

Beyond the above moving within the guide itself is very fast in every aspect. Also I see almost no lag when you press the REC button as the window pops up instantly asking to confirm everything. Also the Tivo software on the Moto box now remembers what you have recorded. So for those series recordings even if the show itself is still flagged as new even though its a repeat the Tivo software "will not" record the show again if it remembers that it was recorded before even if you watched it and deleted it. That is the feature I was waiting for and now I see its here.

The key is that the entire system is just really fast with no lags or delays at all. Also even if the box does start to lag in the future and start to queue the commands like on current Moto boxes you won't have to worry anymore about if you pressed the darn button or not. When you press any button like FF etc you will hear the famous ding type sound.

Either way I have this good feeling that the lag issues will be gone from the Tivo software and I now firmly believe this whole lag queue issue wasn't the box but the iguide software. Also you all will love and I mean love the way the Tivo software presents all the Video On Demand content because lets just say it was done in a wicked good way. I would upgrade at an extra charge to the Tivo software just for the VOD interface alone that is how good it really is.

I'm also told that nearly all of New England will have access to order the Tivo software in early august with some area's of New England maybe getting access in late July. So its coming very very soon and the months I gave above will be public releases that any Comcast DVR customer can order.

 

[HDFreud]

Longhorn, do you know if we are going to be able to have access to some of TiVo's other features such as the ones they deploy in their Home Media platform?

 

[LonghornXP]

Longhorn, do you know if we are going to be able to have access to some of TiVo's other features such as the ones they deploy in their Home Media platform?

Sadly no at least not at first but I have been told that multiroom viewing will be a feature but it would work over existing coax cables using the Motorola FollowMe platform (whatever its called) but intergrated within the Tivo GUI. That will be the hope media option aspect of it. I also believe that a version of the TivoToGo software will be created for use with the Comcast boxes but it will fully support DRM in that you cannot burn a title to DVD for example. But if you have a media streamer for a portable player that will support WMV DRM playback it will work from what I hear. Also if you transfer the title to say a laptop the title itself will no longer play on the DVR until you delete the file on the laptop while connection to the internet and you must delete it via the TivoToGo software. Doing that will allow your DVR the ability to play it back again. That only applies to shows flagged as copy once such as what HBO wants todo. Now if a show isn't flagged it can be played back on any device connection but I'm not sure about DVD backups again.

I'm also told that copy once titles may support DVD backup but you won't be able to burn a second copy and the disc you created will have sometype of DRM to stop you from ripping it but again this stuff is early enough I cannot give specific details as I believe not many people fully know what the limits will be.

 

[Chris Freeland]

LonghornXP, when is the Tivo upgrade going to be available Nationwide? And how much extra cost is it going to be?

 

[LonghornXP]

LonghornXP, when is the Tivo upgrade going to be available Nationwide? And how much extra cost is it going to be?

Most if not all of New England will have the Tivo software rolled out within the month of August. After New England has completed the rollout "and" no new major bugs in the delivery system are found the nationwide rollout will start. I don't believe we will see any major bugs found in the delivery system so with that said the nationwide rollout will occur over a three month period. A very large portion of Comcast markets will see the software available in September but of course we are bound to see some markets lagging behind until October and maybe even November but it won't be many markets.

Beyond the above information I'm hearing the pricing will be an extra 3.99/month per HD DVR you want Tivo on. This price above is in addition to the current price you currently pay for your HD DVR. I'm also hearing that triple play customers who order all premium movie channels via a bundle or regular price will have the option of Tivo software at no extra charge. Now the free Tivo upgrade is being greatly considered but I have yet to get this confirmed nor denied yet but I believe I should have a specific answer later this month on this.

 

[scooby2]

See anything about changing the receiver/remote IR settings to allow more then one box in the same room?

 

[piranha10]

Longhorn,

A couple quick questions;

Is the guide layout you show above the only one available or can you switch to the familiar “Tivo Style” guide format we are all familiar with? (with the DirecTivos for instance you can switch between the DTV and Tivo style guides)

Overall does the rest of the software and menus “feel the same” as the Tivo or another words if I hand this thing over to my wife in kids that have been raised on Tivos will they even know anything has changed?

Other than the Comcast logo seen above did you see any additional Comcast advertising or branding clutter in any of the menus or other interface screens?

How big again are the standard issue hard drives that come with the Motorola’s? Any hint if Comcast is going to either upgrade to larger drives or allow us to add external drives (unlikely I would assume).

Thanks

 

[LonghornXP]

Longhorn,

A couple quick questions;

Is the guide layout you show above the only one available or can you switch to the familiar “Tivo Style” guide format we are all familiar with? (with the DirecTivos for instance you can switch between the DTV and Tivo style guides)

Overall does the rest of the software and menus “feel the same” as the Tivo or another words if I hand this thing over to my wife in kids that have been raised on Tivos will they even know anything has changed?

Other than the Comcast logo seen above did you see any additional Comcast advertising or branding clutter in any of the menus or other interface screens?

How big again are the standard issue hard drives that come with the Motorola’s? Any hint if Comcast is going to either upgrade to larger drives or allow us to add external drives (unlikely I would assume).

Thanks

The guide in the picture in this thread is the "only" guide available at launch. I have been directly told that the Tivo Live guide as its called "will" 100% be coming shortly after the software is out and launched. I'm 100% sure the live guide is coming just to make sure you all know okay.

Most of the GUI feels the same as say a DirecTivo but a few things are different and IMO I think some of the changes are even better on the Comcast Tivo. For the most part a past Tivo user will feel right at home but again a few little things might take you by surprise.

While using the software I didn't see any advertising or anything like that at all but I have a feeling this will be coming for one reason which I'll state. I've been told directly by Comcast that they still haven't installed the Tivo advertising server software yet. It may be called something different but you get the drift but its said to be coming in early 2008. I'm told it won't be as bad as you all think and most of the ads will be in the messages section and not really in the guide itself and no pop-ups either.

The biggest drive in current Moto boxes is 160GB and I'm not aware of any plans that Moto has for bigger hard drives. I also asked if external hard drive support would be added and was told they didn't know yet. I didn't have access to an external hard drive to test it either. I was told that a new firmware update for the Moto box itself would need to be installed which will increase the limit of the size the box will see. Right now if you plug in say a big 320GB hard drive in place of the current internal hard drive and format it the firmware will still only see 160GB of that 320GB drive.

Also to answer the question from the previous poster I didn't see an option to select a different RF channel to allow two boxes to not conflict on remote commands so sorry.

 

[jgantert]

So this is only for the motorola boxes? My area uses SA8300HD DVRs, so I can assume TiVo won't be an option for my area?

-John

 

[Bobby]

The Tivo addition will come to the SA boxes later in the game. I've heard sometime in the 1st quarter 2008.

 

[baloo75]

Any idea if if the Tivo software will have a 30 sec skip? While the Tivo's FF and Rew are much nicer than what is in iGuide I still like the 30 sec skip feature.

Also with the main rollout are you saying that by Nov most markets will have OCAP capability? Isn't that much sooner than others have said?

 

[LonghornXP]

Any idea if if the Tivo software will have a 30 sec skip? While the Tivo's FF and Rew are much nicer than what is in iGuide I still like the 30 sec skip feature.

Also with the main rollout are you saying that by Nov most markets will have OCAP capability? Isn't that much sooner than others have said?

I never checked if the 30 sec skip worked or not so sorry. The markets that will get the Tivo software "do not" need to be upgraded with OCAP. But those markets will need to install the TVWorks OCAP software layer though. The Tivo software is OCAP compliant but it was tested and running using the TVWorks software which allows the software and many other OCAP based software to run in markets that haven't upgraded to full OCAP yet. Now most of the New England market has been upgraded to full OCAP but it wasn't just for the reason of running the Tivo software.

So any multiroom viewing features that I'm told will be coming down the line will require full OCAP support at the cable plant. Sorry I cannot say when they are coming but you all will find out sooner rather than later though.

 

[baloo75]

Thanks Longhorn. One other question, is the onscreen guide widescreen? Does it use the entire width of the screen or does it still display with black bars like iGuide? Don't know if the Moto HW even supports widescreen overlays but thought I would ask.

 

[brianr0131]

Thanks Longhorn. One other question, is the onscreen guide widescreen? Does it use the entire width of the screen or does it still display with black bars like iGuide? Don't know if the Moto HW even supports widescreen overlays but thought I would ask.

My Moto only has bars when you're on HD Programming. If you're watching anything in SD it's full width. I thought all motos were like this for some reason.

 

[baloo75]

It only has bars on HD because your TV or the box is stretching the SD picture including the guide. Ideally when you have an HD box the guide would utilize the entire screen available to it, for an HD signal this would include the areas of the display that are currently black. I believe the DishNetwork receivers do this, not sure about the Tivo S3.

 

[LonghornXP]

The widescreen GUI output when tuned into an HDTV is a limitation of the current iguide software or so I've been told. The demo I was shown did indeed have the black bars on the left and right sides of the screen when tuned into an HDTV channel. I was told that this would be corrected before the public release as they did make a 16x9 GUI interface along with a 4x3 GUI interface. But again this is what I was told and I didn't exactly trust the information from the people who gave it. What I did confirm was stuff I saw with my own eyes without having to trust these people.

Sadly to say I would bet that the Tivo software will have the same issues with regards to no widescreen output of the GUI while tuned into an HDTV channel.