# Premier HD interface speeded up yet?



## jstaso (Mar 9, 2004)

When the Premier first came out, I heard that the HD interface was very slow and people were still using the classic screens. Has the HD speeded up any yet?


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## caddyroger (Mar 15, 2005)

jstaso said:


> When the Premier first came out, I heard that the HD interface was very slow and people were still using the classic screens. Has the HD speeded up any yet?


It has been speeded up but some still says it slow. when it first came out I could press the page down go take a piss and com back and still not has changed. Now I can get to the door and it has changed. It depends on your thinking of speed.


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## rahnbo (Sep 12, 2010)

I have seen no improvement in Tivo Premiere HDUI performance in about a year. Actually I don't think I've ever seen any improvement.


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## shadowfrom88 (Jan 6, 2011)

I hate to think anyone out there is having issues with their premieres.....but i havent had any issues, in fact my premiere is extremely quick. I have owned several different DVRs in the past ten years and my premiere (speed and functionality) blows them all away. I wonder if the speed issue is more related to broadband speed than hardware/software. I may be comparing apples to oranges here but I remember ten years ago when i had my first internet experience.....all my friends that lived in town (with DSL connections) raved about the internet and all the cool things they could download and websites they could visit. I had dial-up 56k connection, everything about the internet was miserably slow and frustrating and I could not fathom how anyone could possibly enjoy the internet.

Now before everyone jumps down my throat, my friends also have a premiere and their unit is considerably slower than mine.....but so is their internet connection. I have an average download speed of 25mb, theirs is 5mb.


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## sabixx (Oct 20, 2010)

the permieres speed issues don't seem to be caused from broadband, I have comcast 50 mbps and its still slow.

its not as slow as it used to be though,I use to get spinning green arrows from going down in the list,that issue seems to have gone.


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## TivoInNY (Dec 19, 2002)

I've had a Premiere since launch, and while the speed of the HDUI still leaves a bit to be desired (especially when scrolling up and down through lists), it's as fast or faster than cable DVRs and I'm pretty sure that there has been some incremental improvement in the last few (and far between) releases. Frankly, it's at a point where I don't notice the speed anymore as an issue and have actually grown to like the HDUI. Stability has also improved significantly for me. No issues for months now.

Anyway, just my $0.02.


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## HeatherA (Jan 10, 2002)

My HDUI has a very slight lag especially when deleting shows or jumping from one page of listings to the next. it's slight, but there. Not anything bad enough to keep me from using the HDUI menus.


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## jonny_ns (Feb 13, 2003)

Button presses lag by about .5 - 1 second when using the HDUI menu. I can't tolerate it. The SDUI menu is considerably quicker, so that's what I use. YMMV.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

jonny_ns said:


> Button presses lag by about .5 - 1 second when using the HDUI menu. I can't tolerate it. The SDUI menu is considerably quicker, so that's what I use. YMMV.


That would be annoying if mine took that long to respnd to a button press. For my Premieres the button press is acknowledged right away. If mine took half a second to one second I would have had serious reservations about using the hdui. i would have been forced to use the SDUI like you did.
Fortunately my Premieres have given me very few issues.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

jstaso said:


> When the Premier first came out, I heard that the HD interface was very slow and people were still using the classic screens. Has the HD speeded up any yet?


Yes. Over a year, the HDUI went from a "D-" to about a "C-" (by my expectations). Most of the improvement within the first two updates, with none in the last few. So while there has been improvement, in many people's opinion (mine included), it is still unacceptably slow and/or unresponsive. Especially when compared to other 2011 equipment. Other people seem to have less issues with it- perhaps theirs works better, or their expectations are lower.

And yes, I have a rock solid, 25 Megabit internet connection with very low latency. And no, the basics of the user interface should NOT be dependent on your Internet connection speed.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

crxssi said:


> Yes. Over a year, the HDUI went from a "D-" to about a "C-" (by my expectations). Most of the improvement within the first two updates, with none in the last few. So while there has been improvement, in many people's opinion (mine included), it is still unacceptably slow and/or unresponsive. Especially when compared to other 2011 equipment. Other people seem to have less issues with it- perhaps theirs works better, or their expectations are lower.
> 
> And yes, I have a rock solid, 25 Megabit internet connection with very low latency. And no, the basics of the user interface should NOT be dependent on your Internet connection speed.


Actually, the idea of the basics of your DVR's user interface being dependent on whether or not you have an internet connection at all seems pretty bizarre.


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## rahnbo (Sep 12, 2010)

unitron said:


> Actually, the idea of the basics of your DVR's user interface being dependent on whether or not you have an internet connection at all seems pretty bizarre.


Seems insane to me. And I don't know about ya'll but I've been bombarded with ads for Bounty paper towels on just about every single screen this weekend. Of course those ads pop up before the menu items I want to see so I guess Tivo thinks its more important for me to know about the quicker picker upper before I can list the shows in my "Glades" folder.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

rahnbo said:


> Seems insane to me. And I don't know about ya'll but I've been bombarded with ads for Bounty paper towels on just about every single screen this weekend. Of course those ads pop up before the menu items I want to see so I guess Tivo thinks its more important for me to know about the quicker picker upper before I can list the shows in my "Glades" folder.


Is this something specific to the SDUI? I use the HDUI and it's rare that I even notice any advertisements on the TiVo.

We watched four, hour long network broadcast shows last night(3 - NCIS, 1 Law and Order LA). I never noticed any advertising. Neither did my girfriend.


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## rahnbo (Sep 12, 2010)

aaronwt said:


> Is this something specific to the SDUI? I use the HDUI and it's rare that I even notice any advertisements on the TiVo.
> 
> We watched four, hour long network broadcast shows last night(3 - NCIS, 1 Law and Order LA). I never noticed any advertising. Neither did my girfriend.


Nope, it's in both. Every week its something new. This week it's bounty. Its usually cars or something but can vary. I think it depends on your market because one time I set up a Tivo for someone 300 miles away and go totally different ads.


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## Scot Kight (Nov 6, 2003)

for those who are under the belief that Tivo is on par with the rest of the available DVRs, you are either extremely lucky with your premier and have code the rest of us don't or extremely misinformed as to the speed available on other DVR units. Even the terrible moto fios interface is faster than scrolling around on the tivo premier hd interface. Tivo SD interface is slower as well by a touch, but much more effective and easy to use.

I appreciate that you may have some bad experiences in the past but you really need to compare to current hardware to see that the hd interface on the Tivo is not up to par. The idea of it being based on flash and not optimizing user interface over "extra bits" is not a good UI decision. Not to mention being dependent on network speed (25Mb here, so that is not my problem).

All of the HTPC interfaces, plus moxi and a few newer satellite dvrs are faster experiences by an order of magnitude. My faith in Tivo has been shaken by the inability for them to improve the performance to match the rest of the industry. 

Of course DirecTV's dvr is... Well I would switch to some other service before I had to use that thing. The DirecTivo really needs to happen again for them. Move them up about 5-6 years from where that thing is now.


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## DaveWhittle (Jul 25, 2002)

I got the Premiere at launch over a year ago and originally had a couple freezes and slow HDUI, but within a month or so there was an update or two that seemed to solve these issues. Now it's been mostly trouble-free since. 

I like the HD interface. It's not super-quick, but acceptable. Some of the deeper screens aren't HD, the ToDo list most noticeable. But it operates great as a DVR, and I don't mind the minimal advertising. Overall, very pleased with my TiVo Premiere, and it's much better than the Comcast DVR and the multiple DirecTV HR-2x's I've tried.


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## DeWitt (Jun 30, 2004)

Scot Kight said:


> Even the terrible moto fios interface is faster than scrolling around on the tivo premier hd interface. Tivo SD interface is slower as well by a touch, but much more effective and easy to use.


Faster than SD? I have a Fios DVR in the house as well as two Tivos and this makes me laugh. I will acknowledge that the HD interface is not super speedy, I time page down at a litttle over .5 sec, but the SD on the premiere is virtually instantaneous.


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

FIOs is offering their new 500gb DVR for 3 months free of charge around here.

It's not on the 1.9 update yet, but it is much more responsive than the Premiere interface.


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## sbiller (May 10, 2002)

Is it plausible that the Premiere UI performance is out of TiVo's hands?

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r25973553-TiVo-TiVo-Premiere-Q~start=20


> I believe it's more the version of flash versus the processor / memory.
> --
> Jason Nealis,
> Sr. Director, Video Product and Video Operations


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## rahnbo (Sep 12, 2010)

sbiller said:


> Is it plausible that the Premiere UI performance is out of TiVo's hands?
> 
> It doesn't matter. I bought 2 Tivo Premiere's. They both suck. A year has passed and they still suck. They both have the Tivo logo on them and the money was paid to Tivo. End of story.
> 
> No offense to the poster intended.


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## tomhorsley (Jul 22, 2010)

sbiller said:


> Is it plausible that the Premiere UI performance is out of TiVo's hands?
> 
> http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r25973553-TiVo-TiVo-Premiere-Q~start=20


It isn't out of Tivo's hands. Their hands could decide (correctly) that flash was simply a rotten idea and redo the interface using something with better performance. There are plenty of fast responsive interfaces on hardware that is older, slower, and less powerful than the chips in a Tivo. Using flash was simply a moronic technical decision (which I suspect wasn't even technical, but political).


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

tomhorsley said:


> It isn't out of Tivo's hands. Their hands could decide (correctly) that flash was simply a rotten idea and redo the interface using something with better performance. There are plenty of fast responsive interfaces on hardware that is older, slower, and less powerful than the chips in a Tivo. Using flash was simply a moronic technical decision (which I suspect wasn't even technical, but political).


Technically, why? What specifically is it about Stagecraft that makes it a bad choice on the Premiere hardware?


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## jonja (Feb 23, 2007)

tomhorsley said:


> It isn't out of Tivo's hands. Their hands could decide (correctly) that flash was simply a rotten idea and redo the interface using something with better performance. There are plenty of fast responsive interfaces on hardware that is older, slower, and less powerful than the chips in a Tivo. Using flash was simply a moronic technical decision (which I suspect wasn't even technical, but political).


My heart sank when I heard the Premiere was going to use Flash. Smacks of overpaid American executive leadership at its finest. I am sure Adobe played golf with some TiVo execs and that is how the hare brained scheme to use Flash was hatched. After being ostracized by Steve Jobs on the iOS platform, Adobe is desperate for find new ways to maintain marketshare.

There are so many better, faster UI technologies out there, although most of them are harder to program than Flash. But given the sluggish pace of adding new UI screens to the Premiere over the past year, it is clear that superior ease of development was not such an advantage after all --- not when pitted against terrible performance on TiVo hardware.

Look at how quickly TiVo was able to get their iPad app to market using Apple's development platform for iOS. This app is the only thing giving me faith that TiVo still gainfully employs UI designers -- just apparently not on the UI of the TiVo itself! I blame Flash for this because when they are working on an alternative platform, they still do and even finish good work.

They should embed WebKit and use HTML 5. They could also use jQuery (very fast) or even Dojo (better for the web, but maybe not for a TiVo). Jettison Flash before it is too late and embrace the vastly superior open source alternatives.


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## dtplink (Oct 13, 2004)

We develop with Flash every day and it's true good Flex developers are hard to find. I'm shocked to see flashes of old and standard UI "flash" on screen when I invoke the HDUI menu selection. It's not the development environment, it's the developers. Which leads me to believe that the iPad app is a contract job. It's got potential to be the next great TiVO UI. Of course it is still flaky, buggy and having occasional connection problems, but managing and searching for shows is very fast and efficient. Hopefully the IOS UI will feed back to their thinking about what to do for the on screen UI.


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## jclem (Aug 20, 2008)

rahnbo said:


> Seems insane to me. And I don't know about ya'll but I've been bombarded with ads for Bounty paper towels on just about every single screen this weekend. Of course those ads pop up before the menu items I want to see so I guess Tivo thinks its more important for me to know about the quicker picker upper before I can list the shows in my "Glades" folder.


ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!! Ads on Tivo now. Other than time shifting, not having to watch commercials is the best thing about DVRs. What is going on??
Maybe I'll send the new Premiers back and stick with my series 3 HD's.


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## tomhorsley (Jul 22, 2010)

orangeboy said:


> Technically, why? What specifically is it about Stagecraft that makes it a bad choice on the Premiere hardware?


Maybe it isn't a bad choice, maybe it is Tivo developers having no idea how to use it, but the existing interface as it runs on my Premier obviously sucks. Either flash or the developers have no idea how to do something as simple as scroll a list. Paging through shows or deleting a show obviously spends many seconds re-rendering the new list from scratch (and if it really takes that much time to render a list in flash, that would clearly make it a bad choice for an interface that spends much of its time presenting lists). Also, we have been told many times that the reason they can't use the 2nd core is because of problems with the flash library. I don't believe the 2nd core should have any real impact on user interface performance, but the fact that they have to disable it because of flash certainly calls into question the competence of the flash developers as well.


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## DonaldBurns65144 (Jan 11, 2011)

rahnbo said:


> Seems insane to me. And I don't know about ya'll but I've been bombarded with ads for Bounty paper towels on just about every single screen this weekend. Of course those ads pop up before the menu items I want to see so I guess Tivo thinks its more important for me to know about the quicker picker upper before I can list the shows in my "Glades" folder.


Don't know if this will solve your quicker picker upper problem or not, but there's a setting (look around in settings) for more or less ads. Don't know why anyone would want more ads, but whatever floats your boat....... for me I want a no freaking ads never ever setting! Bought a DVR to not have to see commercials. Also stopped going to supermarkets with LCD screens screaming ads at you in the checkout lines.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

tomhorsley said:


> Maybe it isn't a bad choice, maybe it is Tivo developers having no idea how to use it, but the existing interface as it runs on my Premier obviously sucks. Either flash or the developers have no idea how to do something as simple as scroll a list. Paging through shows or deleting a show obviously spends many seconds re-rendering the new list from scratch (and if it really takes that much time to render a list in flash, that would clearly make it a bad choice for an interface that spends much of its time presenting lists). Also, we have been told many times that the reason they can't use the 2nd core is because of problems with the flash library. I don't believe the 2nd core should have any real impact on user interface performance, but the fact that they have to disable it because of flash certainly calls into question the competence of the flash developers as well.


It's been my experience that Flash is capable of disabling things all on its own, especially when you don't want it to.


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## rahnbo (Sep 12, 2010)

DonaldBurns65144 said:


> Don't know if this will solve your quicker picker upper problem or not, but there's a setting (look around in settings) for more or less ads. Don't know why anyone would want more ads, but whatever floats your boat....... for me I want a no freaking ads never ever setting! Bought a DVR to not have to see commercials. Also stopped going to supermarkets with LCD screens screaming ads at you in the checkout lines.


Yes set those to Less on day one. There is no off setting unfortunately and it seems every once in a while they get a big fat paycheck to stick an add all over my Tivo that I can't avoid. What really makes them think that when I delete a program and see an add for Bounty that this will make me want to buy that product? I guess even worse are who are the people these ads work on?


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## jclem (Aug 20, 2008)

DonaldBurns65144 said:


> Don't know if this will solve your quicker picker upper problem or not, but there's a setting (look around in settings) for more or less ads. Don't know why anyone would want more ads, but whatever floats your boat....... for me I want a no freaking ads never ever setting! Bought a DVR to not have to see commercials. Also stopped going to supermarkets with LCD screens screaming ads at you in the checkout lines.


OK folks, I found it--- pretty well hidden in settings. I don't know if it will help, but I set mine to 'less'. Here's where it is: Settings and Messages/ Settings/ Displays/ Improve Discovery Bar Rec's/ and, all the way at the bottom of a 13 item list, is 'Advertising' with setting options of less, average and (believe it or not) more.


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