Wouldn’t It Be Great If TiVo Had These Features?

TiVo Box

Here’s a list of features that I would like TiVo to incorporate into the existing generation of TiVo DVR (Series 2) or at the very least into the next generation (Series 3?). This list will continue to grow as I think of new add-ons. Let me know if you have any thoughts that you think I should add.

  • Multiple tuners: How many times do you have to stop recording a show because another show that you like is on. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a multi-tuner TiVo that didn’t require you to go with DirecTV?
  • HME Apps: I know HME is still in beta however, I’d like to hear some type of time table as to when TiVo plans on deploying HME apps to the “regular” user.
  • Multiple user support: Don’t show me my wife’s recordings. I’m sick of seeing “Friends” & “Dawson’s Creek” in my “Now Playing List”. Would this be too difficult for the average user? Maybe it could be a sorting option in the “Now Playing List”?
  • 6 Responses to “Wouldn’t It Be Great If TiVo Had These Features?”

    1. Grant says:

      Still waiting for their dual tuner HD Tivo w/ CableCARD support that they said is supposed to arrive sometime in 2006. By then that’ll probably be obsolete like their current units are. I hope they aren’t released for Comcast with a limited feature set.

    2. MegaZone says:

      Oh, a few… http://www.megazone.org/TiVo/TiVo-RFEs.html

    3. Alex says:

      Oh, a few… http://www.megazone.org/TiVo/TiVo-RFEs.html

      Wow! That list sure is complete. Nice job!

    4. Michael Maggard says:

      Dual-tuners aren’t any good unless you’ve got dual video sources - eg dual cable boxes. Then you’ve got the hell of connecting both of them to your TiVo, of reconciling possibly different service plans (box A has Basic, box B has Extended Digital) etc.

      Frankly a better (IMHO) strategy would be for TiVo to finally implement cooperative recording among HMO devices and encourage folks to buy that 2nd TiVo. That way if a program scheduled on TiVo #1 conflicts or is cancelled half-way through it can instead be (resume) recorded on TiVo #2.

      Imagine your housemate sits down at the TV/TiVo and finds it recording “Greatest Knitting Hits”. When they quickly change channel to “America’s Funniest Cat Pictures” the TiVo would offer to continue recording the current program, cancel recording, or continue recording it on another available TiVo.

      The same for recording “The Wonder of Salt” at the same time as “How to Whistle”. Instead of offering to cancel the previously scheduled recording the TiVo could instead offer to cooperatively share the recording tesk with another TiVo in the household.

      Thus TiVo sells more boxes, more subscriptions, old TiVo’s stay in the household longer (& off Ebay), folks don’t need to face the 2-cable-box-bill-&-wiring hurdle for dual tuners, and the TiVo lovin’ gets spread around the household a bit more.

    5. Alex says:

      Michael,
      You’ve made a good point. I didn’t think of it that way. From a cheap person’s perspective, I would rather they implement dual-tuners so that I don’t have to pay for another subscription. In any case, I like your idea as well.

    6. Martin says:

      2 Words: “Channel Lock.” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been watching Live TV, but 15-20 minutes behind. SOmebody sits on the remote or fat-fingers the channel button, the channel changes and you’ve just lost 20 minutes of a show.

      It should ask you if you want to change the channel, just as it does when a show is recording, but the feature should only be enabled if you’re behind, not if you’re watching true “Live TV”

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