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TiVo is Making It Easier For Avid TV Fans To Catch All Their Fall Shows

Sep 09, 2014 Posted by in Features | Comments

If you’re anything like me, in a couple weeks your DVR will be running non-stop until the winter, with so many new and returning shows filling up every tuner every hour of primetime. TiVo has made some changes recently to help avid TV viewers like us prepare for and tackle the the upcoming primetime TV onslaught. I have had had TiVo for almost 15 years now, since the original Series 1 model!

Last year Tivo introduced their 6-tuner Roamio model. I find this extremely useful as I can pretty much set anything I want to record and (for the most part) not have to worry about disrupting some delicate, Jenga-like Fall primetime TV DVR schedule.

Now TiVo has announced a new Season Pass Update which allows you to search for any upcoming program by name and set a season pass for it months before the show even airs. So you don’t have to wait until the first episode appears in the guide (usually just 2 weeks before it airs)—just get out that list of all of the new shows you’ve heard about and set all your season passes right away! Or if a show you heard great things about just ended and is no longer in the guide, no problem, you can still set a season pass for it!

TiVo has also made it less expensive to expand your viewing into multiple rooms. Last year they introduced the TiVo Mini, which allows you to access your 4+ tuner TiVo box in another room. The main problem with this was that the $100 box also required a monthly service fee or $150 lifetime service. Starting today, and running through January 6, they have changed the pricing model, and removed the service fees. So now the box just costs a one-time fee of $150 and includes lifetime service! I have one of these in my guest room and it works great! I didn’t even have to set up any new network cables—it communicates with my Roamio via MoCA using the existing cable wires.

For cord-cutters, TiVo is introducing the $50 (plus service fees) 4-tuner antenna-only TiVo Roamio OTA model, which will be available at Best Buy starting September 14.

I love the ability to stream and download programs from my TiVo to my iPad/iPhone, but Android users have not been able to do this. TiVo recently announced that streaming will be available from the Android app sometime this month.

While TiVo currently supports Netflix, Hulu Plus, and OnDemand (in some areas), there are also rumors that Amazon Instant and Vudu will also be coming soon to TiVo boxes (something that is really needed for those cord-cutters!).

And if all that isn’t enough, TiVo is also set to announce the $5K rack-mountable TiVo Mega, which will allow viewers to store 4000 hours of HD programming!