Hulu Plus on TiVo Premier Hands On
I guess I’m a bit disappointed by this report of the latest integration from TiVo but not all that surprised. That being said I think it’s still a value add to the platform that some people will enjoy. Kind of reminds me of when Microsoft added “Internet TV” with a vision of integration that was short of expectations and its potential.
What we mean is that Hulu Plus on the TiVo is exactly like the others, and nothing like a TiVo. Launching Hulu via the TiVo My Shows menu is almost as jarring as switching inputs on your TV, with the exception of not switching remotes, obviously. The scrub bar changes, the menus are different, even the info view looks different. So while Netflix, Blockbuster, and all the other TiVo add-ins carry on the TiVo experience, Hulu Plus does not. Now we admit this complaint is mostly superficial — the real failure is the lack of unified search, making TiVo Premiere’s universal search feature not so universal. That’s right, when you search for The Office on your TiVo Premiere with Hulu Plus, you’ll see results from your DVR, the guide, Netflix, and Amazon VOD; but you won’t see results from Hulu Plus. TiVo tried to reassure us by saying “we are working on integrating the content into TiVo Search and plan to update with that functionality soon after,” but we have a bad feeling this will be right after the rest of the Premiere UI is converted to HD.