TiVo Extends Viewing Experience
At one time, TiVo was the cutting-edge way to watch your missed TV shows. Then along came similar DVR services from your cable provider, followed by the ability to watch past episodes on the Internet. Sadly, after all that, TiVo no longer stood out in the crowd and, if you were like me, you ended up ditching it because it didn’t make sense to keep the service anymore.
For those of you who decided to hang onto your TiVo, last week TiVo announced the TiVo Mini, which promises to extend your TiVo experience to a second TV in your home, and without purchasing a second DVR. The Mini is not a DVR but extends the value of your TiVo four-tuner DVR, TiVo Premiere 4 or TiVo Premiere XL4. It uses one of these DVR’s tuners to enable the control and access of content on a TV in another room of the house.
The TV connected to the Mini displays the same TiVo interface you’re familiar with and uses a regular TiVo remote control. You also can begin a show in one room and finish it in another.
“The TiVo Mini answers the demand for a simplified whole-home viewing experience and a more cost-effective solution than putting another DVR or cable set-top box in another room,” says Jim Denney, general manager and vice president of product marketing for TiVo Inc. “With so many viewing options in a compact form factor, TiVo Mini makes it easier to get more value from your existing home-entertainment setup by further enabling you to watch what you want, where you want it.”
On the plus side, your TiVo Mini can turn your second TV into a TiVo, rather than purchasing another DVR.
A few drawbacks: It requires the four-tuner TiVo, and you have to pay additional fees. It does not work over Wi-Fi, and does not deliver Amazon, Netflix or provide all TiVo features.
TiVo Mini will cost you $99.99 plus a $5.99 per month subscription (or $249.98 for a lifetime subscription). Visit tivo.com/mini to purchase one or for more information.
Click Chick’s Mobile App of the Week: CBS
CBS finally joined the club and released an app that allows iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users to stream full-length, HD-quality episodes of their favorite CBS programs. For those of you not on an iOS device, CBS promises a similar app to be released later this year for all major mobile and tablet platforms, including Android and Windows 8 phone users.
Currently, most of the major networks have streaming apps available, including NBC, ABC, TBS and TNT, to mention a few.
The free CBS app includes offerings from its primetime, daytime and late-night schedules. The daytime and late-night programming will be available within 24 hours after initial airing, while most primetime programs will be available on the eighth day after broadcast. The new CBS app will integrate the existing CBS Connect App experience by the start of the fall TV season. At that time, the app will offer integrated social feeds, live events that allow you to directly engage with the talent, and second-screen experiences synched to the broadcast with additional content for select shows such as Hawaii Five-O.
