TiVo Premiere Goes Elite
TiVo just keeps upping the ante with their Premiere line of DVRs, and the newly announced TiVo Premiere Elite is no exception. Packing support for four CableCARD tuners, MoCA bridging, and 2 TB of storage along with all of the streaming service support that TiVo has been bundling in for a while now, the Premiere Elite looks to be a beast of a DVR. According to the datasheet and the Networking Options section of the TiVo website, the Premiere Elite also supports streaming shows from one TiVo DVR to another, though it appears that might be limited to streaming to another TiVo Premiere. At $500, the TiVo Premiere Elite even seems priced right, though as always, one must add in the price of the TiVo service.
Right on schedule, coinciding with the 2011 CEDIA Expo, TiVo has made the TiVo Premiere Elite official. The 2 terabyte, quad tuning digital cable DVR will hit Magnolia outposts, TiVo.com and custom installers by the end of the year… assuming the FCC grants TiVo an analog tuner waiver (which is highly likely).
I’ve been a fan of Tivos from
I’ve been a fan of Tivos from the beginning, but I’m not exactly sure how I feel about the newest generation. Having four tuners definitely puts them ahead of the game with respect to their cableco counterparts, but it seems to me that Tivo is pricing themselves right out of the market. For $1,000 ($500 for the Elite plus $500 for lifetime service) you can build yourself a pretty good HTPC with a Ceton InfiniTV4 that has capabilities above and beyond what any Tivo can do. In order to use the streaming capability you have to buy another Tivo with lifetime, although I believe the lifetime service on additional Tivos is discounted. Still, you can put together a 2nd PC or get an extender for far less than what a 2nd Elite with service will cost.
I retired both of my S3 Tivos when I got my InfiniTV4. I sold the 2nd unit and now I’m using the original S3 with lifetime as a tuner for my 42″ Sony monitor. I have deleted all season passes and no longer use any of the DVR features. Even though I’m paying for two cablecards (grandfathered in at the $2.99 monthly rate) it’s still cheaper than renting an HD box from Verizon.