TiVo’s new Premiere DVRs

TiVo Premiere is the first true overhaul of the TiVo experience since the company changed our TV-watching world over a decade ago. True, TiVo didn’t invent the DVR, but the company did such a good job making it usable that the word “TiVo” has become a verb, one that’s synonymous with all DVRs, just as Kleenex is to tissues. This fourth-generation TiVo features cosmetically -tweaked hardware, but it has significant changes under the hood and, more important, it introduces a redesigned interface and new features optimized for high-definition TV and a Web-connected era.

The new interface makes TiVo all the more appealing; however, cost remains the primary barrier to adoption. TiVo Premiere is $299 for the basic 320GB model, plus monthly service fees that start at $13, with discounts for long-term contracts. (For more recording capacity, there’s the $499 1TB TiVo Premiere XL, which can record 150 hours of high-def video.)

The new TiVo Premiere units are slimmer and sleeker than previous revisions, with simple, colored circular lights on the front to show you if the unit is on or recording a program, or what actions you may be performing with the remote. Sadly, the handy OLED screen from the Series 3 that displays the time and names of the shows being recorded has been excised. Older TiVos could record two channels at once from cable or over-the-air, but required two single-stream CableCards to receive two cable channels. By contrast, Premiere has a single CableCard slot, but supports multistream cards (M-cards), so it can still record two channels at once, even while you watch a previously-recorded show. Though the menus have slightly altered names and a new look, navigation in general will be familiar to anyone who has used TiVo before. The channel guide can be switched between the excellent two-pane Live Guide view and the familiar Grid view you find on most other DVRs.