Monthly charge changing for Virgin Media's TiVo: £3 per TiVo from November?

Want to stream content for TiVos ordered
from November? It will this extra, per month

According to comments on Virgin Media's Facebook page, the monthly charge for TiVo will be changing from November, and not for the better.

All TiVos ordered before November are charged at £3 per month per account, so for example, 2 TiVos on one account would cost £3 per month.

According to the Facebook comments by a Virgin Media Staff Member, TiVos ordered from 1st November will be charged at £3 per TiVo. For the above example, that will be £6 per month.

This would be a disappointing move, especially if multi-room streaming is enabled in the 15.2 software update. Virgin, this would a great way to kill off enthusiasm for those considering buying a 2nd TiVo for multi-room streaming!

Those considering streaming content from TiVo to TiVo may want to reconsider, or order a 2nd TiVo within the next week or so and avoid paying £36 extra per year for their 2nd TiVo.

More confirmation from Virgin Media to follow if and when its received.

Virgin Media's Cindy Rose on TiVo 3rd Party Micropayments; Core features; Adoption Curve

An interview with Cindy Rose (Virgin Media's Executive Director of Digital Entertainment) is online at New Media Age. Below are a few TiVo-related snippets:

We are researching the possibility of introducing micropayments on the TiVo platform [from third parties like ITV for their Catch-Up content] and I can imagine there being a place for it in the world of gaming, and other areas like fantasy football where you would want a micropayment mechanism of some sort. We’re working a lot with Facebook, which is doing some great things in this space.

With TiVo, we decided not to market the most advanced and sophisticated features that would be exciting to the techophiles, but to hone in on the core features...we marketed all the things that have solved problems that were annoying people, instead of the most advanced things – we will get to that later.

We’re seeing a more accelerated adoption curve than I expected. I’m big on the customer journey – taking people along with you as you move toward the end game when the TV resembles more of a web experience. I expected people to use the EPG and try the odd search or browse the odd collection, dabble in the odd app. But we are finding the adoption effect is faster than expected. The discovery tools are working so people are not only watching what they know and love already, but are discovering new stuff.

 Read the full interview at New Media Age.

More details for Virgin Media's Winter 2011 software update for TiVo

Scarlett Johansson wasn't happy to discover that access to
Red Button content wasn't included in the Winter software update

Some follow-up details regarding the pilot for the Winter 2011 software update for Virgin's TiVo:

• The pilot was only rolled out to 3500 TiVo customers in Crawley and Cambridge. The new software version is 15.2
• Early feedback suggests that the pilot includes performance improvements. This would be in sync with the software for the Premiere Elite which, despite having the same memory and CPU as the Premiere, boasts performance improvements.  That software is expected to be rolled out for the Premiere (which Virgin's TiVo is based on).
• Posts at Cable Forum (here and here) suggest that support for multi-room streaming is included. This, again, would also be in sync with the software released for the Elite. Streaming was enabled a while ago for the Premiere but someone at TiVo later flicked the 'off' switch for that (I'm guessing that was a pilot in itself). 
• Just to clarify, the pilot software does not and will not instantly provide access to Red Button content to BBC, Sky Sports etc. when its downloaded to your TiVo. The pilot software provides support for developers to create Red Button apps at a later date.

Limited pilot for Winter 2011 software update unleased for Virgin Media's TiVo; Includes Spotify Support

Whoa, no PIN nagging and Stop means Stop!?! Rejoice!

From Virgin's Help and Support Forum:

This week we have begun a limited pilot of our next TiVo software release. This new software includes many new improvements as well as key developments that will enable the launch of future products. We’ll be rolling it out to everyone well before Christmas. Here’s a sneak peek of what you can expect:

• Spotify Support: We’ll support Spotify’s high quality streaming format, which will enable the Spotify Premium App on the TiVo platform.
• Red Button: This update adds extra functionality necessary to support Red Button services developed by our channel partners, such as BBC, ITV, and Sky Sports
• TiVo App support: We've enabled the connection of your TiVo box to iOS devices through your wireless router to use our fantastic TiVo app, which allows you to control the TiVo box, browse, search and manage recordings all from your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch.
• A new look for YouTube: We’ll support Google’s completely revamped YouTube app, which allows for a more relaxed viewing and browsing experience, and supports HD video!
• Full BBC iPlayer integration: We’ve changed the way Catch-up TV through BBC iPlayer works. Every BBC iPlayer programme will now be available through Search & Browse, including much more HD content, and you’ll never use up a tuner for BBC iPlayer viewing.
• Express Series Links: Create a Series Link with default settings at the click of a button.
• Multi-tap text entry: Use the number keys on your remote like a mobile phone for text entry for typing into search.
• Automatic Padding: We’ve had tremendous feedback from customers about clipped recordings, so we’ve installed a default level of padding for all recordings.
• Improved Parental Controls: We’ve made some changes with PIN entry requirements to suit every household. In the new update, PIN challenges on pre-watershed playback of programmes in My Shows become optional. We’ve also added the ability to require PIN to access any application.
• Skippable Music Playlists: Playlists on Music on Demand will be skippable by track
• Live Pay-per-view Events: Live pay-per-view events become bookable with your remote control.
• HD Upscaling: As promised on this forum, we’ve addressed the issue with our picture quality and this new update features better standard definition picture quality with improved upscaling.
• Connection reliability: HDMI and SCART compatibility improved.
• Info and Stop button functionality improved: You’ll be able to use the ‘info’ button in the TV programme guide and the mini guide, while the Stop button now works as you would expect.
• Video Preview for every channel: Every channel will keep playing in the TV Guide window, including all the Sky channels.

There are plenty more updates already in the pipeline and, as ever, we will use your feedback to continue to improve our TiVo service.

We’ll be keeping you up to date on this forum.

Thanks,

Simon Hunt
Product Director (TV)
Virgin Media

There's plenty to like there. Finally, pressing stop will stop the recording and pressing info will give info! The days of  PIN nagging are coming to an end, and it will also be nice to watch the likes of Sky Sports News and not have the preview picture and sound go when accessing a TiVo Menu. SD picture quality will be improved and as for Red Button - this update appears to be the dependency which will allows red button support in the future.

The big addition to the previously leaked list of features is support for Spotify. There's still no official word from Virgin regarding pricing.

The only disappointment is the automatic padding - it defaults to 1 minute before and 4 after. However, there appears to be no way to alter these defaults, so customers who don't want padding will have to reset the defaults when creating Series Links and recordable Wishlists. Also, where's the reminders?

Still, the update is very welcome, hopefully it will include some performance improvements as well.

Sky Anytime comes to Virgin Media, and TiVo

Virgin Media are in the process of adding truckloads of addition VOD content from Sky Anytime. At present, none of that content is showing up via TiVo's search functionality but that will hopefully be fixed in the not too distant future.

TiVo Premiere Elite: Why it could be good for your Virgin Media TiVo

The TiVo Premiere Elite has launched in the States. The newest TiVo box contains four tuners, 2TB of recording capacity and by the sounds of it, updated software which finally activates the 2nd CPU core which, among other things, appears to have halfed the boot-up time. The software also appears to support multi-room streaming between Premieres.

There's a great thread at the TiVo Community Forum which details performance improvements over the Premiere. Another thread contains first impressions about the new box.

What the frack does any of this have to do with Virgin Media you ask? Well, a modified version of this software will hopefully be released for the Premiere and eventually (please?) Virgin Media's TiVo box which is based on the Premiere. With any luck the 2nd core, along with other performance improvements, will help speed up the user interface.

And before anyone asks, no - the updated software for the Elite doesn't feature a completed HD user interface, or reminders.

As for the Elite itself - is there a UK market for a box which can record 4 programmes while allowing you to watch a 5th? (Or record 3 programmes while watching live TV?) I'm thinking 'yes' myself but that's just me

Either way, it would reduce the chances of recording clashes. If Virgin decide to offer the Elite as an option to their customers (and at what price) remains to be seen.

Why you should consider turning off Overlap Protection for Virgin Media's TiVo

When TiVo encounters a recording clash, it will (by default) clip the lowest priority recording by up to 5 minutes, instead of cancelling that recording.

That sounds nice, but, why have your recordings clipped? Why not have the whole recording plus your padding too? There is indeed a way to have all of your cake and eat it too. How? Simple:

Turn off Overlap Protection.

What I hear you cry? Didn't your father teach you to always use protection?!!? Bear with me.

TiVo is smart, in that when a clash occurs, it will attempt to locate a repeat of the cancelled recording and it will record that instead. For Series Link recordings, it will search for a repeat on the same channel. For Wishlists, TiVo will search all channels.

Turning off Overlap Protection tells TiVo not to clip any recording when there's a clash and to always hunt for a repeat to record. The trick is, to reorder your recording priorities so that the programmes which aren't repeated have higher priority compared to the shows which are repeated. As I've previously stated, you can have a quick look at the upcoming episodes list to see if episodes of a programme are repeated throughout the week.

For instance, I've noticed that programmes broadcasted on BBC 1 HD (including the likes of Doctor Who, Merlin and Waterloo Road) don't seem to be repeated on that channel, but they are repeated on the BBC HD channel (while we still have it that is). If you have a Series Link for a BBC 1 HD programme, give that high priority.

If in doubt, give your Series Links higher priority compared to Wishlists. A Series Link for Castle on Alibi for instance, will hunt for repeats on Alibi, whereas a Wishlist for the same programme will find repeats on Alibi, Alibi +1, Alibi HD (when that launches next year) and any other channel Castle is on.

Overlap Protection is switched on by default. Since turning it off 3 weeks ago, I've not missed any recordings, and that's with padding set to 1 minute before and 5 minutes after for all recordings. There's some vigilance required on your part as far as checking for repeats is concerned, but in return you can use padding without worrying about programmes not being recorded as a result of a clash.

Still not convinced? Well, bear in mind that when Overlap Protection is on, and a recording will be clipped by more then 5 minutes, TiVo will cancel the recording and go hunting for repeats anyway.