Samsung to manufacture future boxes for Virgin Media's TiVo

Various sources have reported that Samsung have won the contract to make future TiVos for Virgin Media. Pocket-Lint reports that the new boxes will be rolling out later this year and they look very similar to the existing Cisco hardware.

This is the second time that Samsung have taken over the manufacturing of TV boxes for Virgin. The TV Drive (now known as the V+ HD) was initially made by Scientific Atlanta (now known as Cisco). Since then, Samsung have made the V+ HD boxes, and those boxes featured a significant performance increase over the Scientific Atlanta hardware.

However, any hopes that future TiVo owners may have for a faster Samsung TiVo (compared to the Cisco boxes) appear to have been dashed, with Virgin Staff on Cable Forum stating that the Samsung TiVos will have identical performance, hardware and technology.

Major software update for Virgin Media's TiVo will contain support for iPad Companion App

From NASDAQ:

AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 09/08/11 -- TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO), a leader in advanced television services and personal video recorders (PVRs), and Virgin Media Inc. (NASDAQ: VMED) (LSE: VMED), the UK's leading digital entertainment provider, today announced details of a key new feature coming to their next-generation connected TV offering which will allow customers to take control of the TiVo powered service through a cutting-edge iPad companion app. The feature will be made available as part of the first major software update for the system and is designed to build on the user experience of the award-winning service. Virgin Media plans to roll-out the software update, which will feature the companion app as well as other new features to be announced, in the coming months.

The TiVo companion app will allow Virgin Media customers to use their Apple iPads to interact directly with their TiVo service and extend their viewing experience beyond the remote control. After installing the free TiVo companion app, users can interact with the elegant, intuitive TiVo user interface directly on their iPads to search across Virgin Media's content, including the TV Guide and thousands of hours of content available through its video on demand library, without interrupting what they are already watching on TV. With just a couple of swipes on the iPad user can immediately and seamlessly begin viewing the content they have discovered via their TiVo app right on their TV.

Cindy Rose, executive director of digital entertainment at Virgin Media, said, "The way viewers watch television is changing faster than ever. Partnering with TiVo has helped us develop the most advanced and flexible TV system in the UK ensuring our customers are able to enjoy the best connected television offering available in the market today. In less than a year since launch we are already building new features to offer our customers more ways to enjoy their service with an unprecedented user experience, and maintaining our position at forefront of technological innovation in TV. The companion app and other forthcoming enhancements we are working on form part of our long term strategy to deliver the most dynamic and user friendly multi-screen entertainment experience in the U.K."

Since its launch in December 2010, the Virgin Media: TiVo service has been heralded by mainstream media(1) as 'the most sophisticated piece of hardware you can connect to your television.' Users of the product are able to enjoy a host of content ranging from hundreds of traditional television channels to a myriad of content streamed directly from the online sources via BBC iPlayer and YouTube through its built-in broadband connection as well as Virgin Media's vast video on demand library all seamlessly folded into TiVo's award-wining user interface with its easy-to-navigate search and discovery functionality.

Joshua Danovitz, VP & General Manager, International, TiVo Inc., said, "Virgin Media is a partner that recognizes where the future of television is headed. Through working with TiVo, Virgin Media has quickly implemented an award-winning user interface with TV's most innovative features and functionality, available anywhere in the U.K. With the initial rollout of Virgin Media: TiVo Service underway, it is already driving more measurable user satisfaction than any other hybrid television experience in the UK further demonstrating that TiVo continues to be the best way to watch television, bar none."

TiVo and Virgin Media made this announcement during the 2011 IBC Conference which runs from September 8-13 in Amsterdam.

You can check out large photos of the App here, here, here and here. Meanwhile, Nick Ontiveros, Virgin Media head of TV Strategy (Digital Entertainment), posted on the Help and Support Forums that:

 ....the introduction of new features to TiVo planned for the second half of this year will not come all in a single update.

I just hope to set expectations because it seems that a rumour has been heavily perpetuated on this board that there is one all encompassing update to come. In actuality, there will be a large update, but other feature updates will follow very soon after this update (as their introduction had the update itself as a dependency).

The actual contents of the update (or should that be updates?) remain secret to anyone outside the beta trial panel, but we do know that improved picture quality for standard definition content is among the list of issues which Virgin are looking to fix. Red button functionality is probably on the list somewhere, indeed the website states that "Red Button functionality will be coming in the future to our TiVo service."

Virgin Media highlight 'unexpected challenges' and fixes for TiVo Metadata; New feedback tool coming soon

After yesterday's announcement that Virgin Media will allocate more resources towards resolving the EPG/Metadata issues which have plagued TiVo so far, comes another Help and Support Forum post, this time by Stephen Featham (Director, Digital Entertainment Technical Operations, Virgin Media):

When we decided to partner with TiVo for our next generation TV service, we realised the quality of metadata (programme information) would be a key element to the success of the product. Quite simply, the features that make TiVo so great require better, more detailed schedule data than any other products on the market today.

So, we selected TiVo's long term partner, Tribune Media Services (TMS), as our provider of metadata. TMS has a really deep understanding of how metadata drives key parts of the TiVo service and the importance of getting it right.

But as you'd expect with the launch of any new product, we've had some unexpected challenges along the way which we have been working hard to resolve. I'd like to explain two of these and what we've done to fix them.

Challenge 1:
We're aware there have been some occurrences where a series has not recorded when a Series Link is set to NEW only. (It's worth pointing out right now that no other product attempts to offer such flexibility with a Series Link.) One of the key pieces of information TiVo uses to decide if a programme is NEW is something called the 'Original Air Date' (forever now referred to as the OAD!). The OAD is set as the first date that a particular episode of a programme was aired in the UK. TiVo describes a programme as NEW if it airs within 28 days of the OAD.

This situation threw up two issues. The first was caused by another feature of TiVo, the Episode Guide. To ensure the Episode Guide was as detailed as possible, we had to merge parts of TMS' US database with the one for the UK. To do this, we picked a historic date whereby the US OAD would take precedence over that of the UK. However, some US shows were inadvertently affected when there was a long gap between the US and the UK airing. As time has gone on, the number of shows that could be affected by this has reduced greatly.

The second was in relation to channels broadcast in Northern Ireland. That is, Virgin Media provides the RTE and TG4 channels to customers in N.I. However, some US shows are shown on both the Irish channels and on UK channels. Sometimes the 'Irish' airing is well in advance of the 'UK' airing. If that date difference is more than 28 days, TiVo would not apply a NEW tag to the 'UK' airing. TMS have been working hard to make sure their systems take this situation into account and any shows aired since July 1st should no longer suffer from this problem. Just as a tip and to ensure you don't miss any shows, you can also select 'NEW & reruns'.


Challenge 2:
We've discovered there are some challenges around 'Non-episodic programme information'. TiVo loves to know specific information about each and every programme, however some UK broadcasters aren't used to providing this for all shows.

This has lead us to use generic 'series information' for some shows and this causes the following issues:

1) all showings of a programme will be recorded regardless of the Series Link setting and 2) when a Catch-Up TV show is available in the reverse EPG, TiVo doesn't always know which episode to play. We're working with TMS and our channel providers to increase the amount of episodic information in the schedule.

So in summary, I hope this helps to clarify how we are dealing with some of the challenges we are facing. We're working closely with TMS to improve our operational compliance processes to ensure other mistakes don't slip through. We really appreciate your feedback and please continue to use the Survey Monkey link to report any problems so that we can resolve these as quickly as possible. We're also working on a better way for you to report issues directly to us and I'll be in touch once it's up and running.

Personally, I think its great to (finally) see this feedback from Virgin regarding this issue. Hopefully they, Tribune and certain broadcasters can resolve these issues and provide the quality metadata which our TiVos deserve and can make great use of.

Virgin Media to dedicate more resources to fix EPG errors for TiVo

Responding to the continued reports of EPG errors for Virgin Media's TiVo,  Nick Ontiveros (TV Strategy, Digital Entertainment) posted on Virgin's Help and Support Forums that:

I am aware that we are dedicating more VM resource towards spotting errors - although, as you know that we outsource the management of our EPG data, we don't want you as customers to be the ones to have to spot these things. It's our job to provide you a TV service that entertains you, and that's all we want you to do when you are using TiVo.

More EPG metadata woe for Virgin Media's TiVo

The curse of incorrect EPG metadata supplied to Virgin Media's TiVo continues, with series link issues for Doctor Who (BBC 1), Lost Girl (Syfy), Football First (Sky Sports) and Strike Back (Sky 1) being reported on Virgin's Help and Support Forums.

I had a little rant (OK, big rant) about this a while ago and things don't seem to be improving, with the current Doctor Who issue being a repeat of a eariler reported issue (next week's episode on BBC 1 isn't scheduled to record for series-links because TiVo has that episode marked as one from an older series).

Some of Virgin's TiVo customers are fast running out of patience with Tribune's inability to supply correct data to their next-generation PVRs, and are awaiting an official response from Virgin. Meanwhile, it may not be a bad idea to check your planned recordings page just to see if TiVo is actually going to record the programmes you've asked it to.

Is Virgin Media's TiVo smart? Yes. Could it be smarter? Yes

Thursday nights between 9pm - 10pm have becoming known as Triple-Tuner Thursday for my TiVo, with the following programmes set to record in Primetime:

• Warehouse 13 (Syfy HD, Wishlist)
• Torchwood: Miracle Day (BBC One HD, Series Link)
• The Killing (C4 HD, Series Link)

Now, I was watching Rangers struggling in their Europa League football clash against the mighty NK Maribor, on ESPN HD.  In order to continue watching the football, one of those three scheduled recordings had to be cancelled in order to free up one of TiVo's three tuners.

Captain Jack Harkness examines TiVo's series-link code for
possible improvements

Ideally, TiVo should have sacrificed either Warehouse 13 or Torchwood: Miracle Day - both of tonight's episodes for those shows have repeats coming up later this week - but The Killing doesn't. In the end, TiVo offered Torchwood, and I accepted the offer to cancel the recording in order to continue watching the football.

Now, TiVo is smart enough to seek out and record alternative recordings - for Wishlists, it will search all channels, and for series-links, it will search the same channel.

Trouble is, the repeated episode of Torchwood isn't on BBC One HD - its on BBC HD and several variations of BBC One - but not on BBC One HD, hence no repeat was scheduled to record. Luckily I noticed this (via the Upcoming Episodes list) and was able to manually set the repeat (on Tuesday) to record.

To be fair, Torchwood will be on BBC iPlayer/Catch-Up TV for the next week, but if it wasn't on one of the terrestrial channels offering catch-up content, I would have missed the repeated thrilling (hopefully!) episode. In short - it would be a nice tweak if TiVo searched all channels for alternative recordings for series links.

Time for a rant: EPG Metadata Rage for Virgin Media's TiVo

Virgin? Tribune? I find the quality of EPG
metadata for my TiVo disturbing.

TiVo is a great PVR, but a PVR is only as good as the EPG data it receives. Sadly, the data (provided by Tribune) simply isn't accurate enough:

So far, these are just some of the issues I've encountered recently:

• I've had 2 episodes of The Dead Zone from The Horror Channel not recorded. 
• Episodes 6 & 7 of The Kennedys from BBC HD not recorded. 
• Duplicates galore of a Falling Skies episode from FX HD recorded.
• An alternative broadcast recording of Knight Rider from 5*? Wrong episode. 
• A suggested episode of Smallville from Syfy? It was part of a film instead. 
• Suggested episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Syfy? Wrong episodes.
• Suggested episodes of Angel on Syfy? Wrong episodes.
  
• The 'record New episodes only' Wishlist for Warehouse 13 on Syfy? It recorded 3 'new' episodes before the new season started last week.

That's not including TiVo 's online TV guide insisting that this week's England vs. Holland football match wasn't called off, 48 hours after the FA called the game off. Or the series link for Doctor Who which for a while, was configured to record episodes from the old series. And that's before the corrupted EPG download which disabled series link recording for the best part of a weekend.

Virgin opened up a feedback page where TiVo customers could report EPG Metadata errors. I've reported a few, but no longer. Why? Why should I? Or why should you for that matter? Why should customers who are already paying an additional £3 per month have to correct EPG metadata errors? Shouldn't that data be reasonably accurate to start with? Wouldn't - shouldn't - TiVo customers be enjoying the content recorded by TiVo, instead of having to report EPG metadata issues with it?

I don't know why the metadata is so inaccurate. I suspect part of the problem is due to TiVo's lack of a dynamic EPG, meaning that late changes to programme schedules aren't picked up as quickly as other platforms like Digital Terrestrial (Freeview) and Digital Satellite (Sky, Freesat).

But that leaves the remaining metadata for the programme schedule which hasn't been effected by late changes. What's going wrong with that metadata? How is it checked before its sent out to the 50,000+ TiVo's in Virgin Media land? Why is it so inaccurate? Why are we being asked to help check it? Is this just a Virgin Media issue or do other Tribune clients such as Microsoft, Google, Comcast and IMDb have the same issue with the metadata they receive?

Frankly, after sitting down to watch Episode 6 of The Kennedys, only to realise that I was actually watching Episode 8 because TiVo didn't record Episodes 6 and 7 of a show I'd series-linked, I'm past caring whose at fault, or why this issue is happening so often - I just want it fixed, and a quick look at Virgin's Help and Support Forums (here, here and here) reveals that I'm not alone.

Granted, the V+ HD isn't in the same league as TiVo, but as far as series links are concerned, I can't remember encountering so many EPG errors on that PVR which resulted in unrecorded content.

If Virgin are remotely serious about introducing TiVo as the future of watching TV, and bringing all of their 3.7 million TV customers onto the TiVo platform, then I urge them (and Tribune) to do whatever it takes to get this metadata issue fixed. Quickly. Recording content correctly is among the core functionality of any PVR, let alone TiVo, and Virgin's next-gen PVR simply isn't doing this often enough at the moment for Series Links  - let alone for TiVo extras such as Wishlists and Suggestions.