# Roku app?



## sangahm (Nov 28, 2010)

Anyone know the status of the Tivo app for Roku?

Is there a way to get the beta from somewhere?


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## Covert Rain (Mar 9, 2016)

sangahm said:


> Anyone know the status of the Tivo app for Roku?
> 
> Is there a way to get the beta from somewhere?


I was just going to post something similar. Last thing I heard they showed a Roku client behind closed doors. I have not heard if it was moving forward. Desperate for Roku content on the TIVO.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Wasn't that demo like 2 years ago? At this point it seems like maybe they've given up on it.


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## Covert Rain (Mar 9, 2016)

Dan203 said:


> Wasn't that demo like 2 years ago? At this point it seems like maybe they've given up on it.


I believe it was Jan 2015 (CES). So, it's been more than a year.


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## davezatz (Apr 18, 2002)

Covert Rain said:


> I believe it was Jan 2015 (CES). So, it's been more than a year.


CES 2014 and 2015.

http://zatznotfunny.com/2014-01/tivo-coming-roku/
http://zatznotfunny.com/2015-01/tivo-chromecast-roku-clients/


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## Aero 1 (Aug 8, 2007)

Forget the Roku, they should do an Apple TV 4 app. The proc is beefy enough to transcode mpeg2 natively, won't even need a TiVo stream.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

That is more likely because they can just port their iOS app over.

Roku uses a special language called bright script, or something like that. They're running tests allowing some companies to deploy HTML5 apps instead, but that hasn't gone wide yet. Maybe that's what TiVo is waiting for?


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## bonscott87 (Oct 3, 2000)

Aero 1 said:


> Forget the Roku, they should do an Apple TV 4 app. The proc is beefy enough to transcode mpeg2 natively, won't even need a TiVo stream.


Problem is that not many people have an Apple TV. If you're going to develop a streaming app the Roku is the first thing you do as soooooooo many people have one. Heck both my mom and in-laws in their 70s have one.
Next would be FireTV from Amazon, Chromecast and then Apple TV at a distant 4th.

However nothing says Apple couldn't just slide some moola over to Tivo to develop for them first.


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## Aero 1 (Aug 8, 2007)

bonscott87 said:


> Problem is that not many people have an Apple TV. If you're going to develop a streaming app the Roku is the first thing you do as soooooooo many people have one. Heck both my mom and in-laws in their 70s have one.
> Next would be FireTV from Amazon, Chromecast and then Apple TV at a distant 4th.
> 
> However nothing says Apple couldn't just slide some moola over to Tivo to develop for them first.


its not a problem. the roku software sucks, its hardware sucks now and its feeble to what it can do. The roku 3 can barely launch Pluto TV without lag, it flies on the apple tv 4.

Tivo has less than a million retail customers, who cares many more people have roku's. there are more apple tvs out there than there are Tivo's. Roku is sold in less than 6 countries i believe and none of them are in europe (except the UK), where apple tv and tivo have a selling presence.

Tivo, if smart, which they are not, will have to go to a polished platform where the customers are, the hardware is robust and the possible monetization exist. its not on the roku.


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

Maybe I'm wrong but it seems TiVo has abandoned their plans to expand to streaming boxes. They did the Fire TV app and then basically abandoned it. At one point they were pushing this idea to their MSO partners. Maybe they have changed course.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Aero 1 said:


> Roku is sold in less than 6 countries i believe and none of them are in europe (except the UK), where apple tv and tivo have a selling presence.


TiVo is a US only product, so that doesn't really matter.

That being said I still think we'll see an AppleTV version before Roku. The new AppleTV uses a variation of iOS so it should be relatively simple to just port their existing iOS app to the platform. This is basically what they did with the Android app for FireTV.


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## Aero 1 (Aug 8, 2007)

Dan203 said:


> TiVo is a US only product, so that doesn't really matter.
> 
> That being said I still think we'll see an AppleTV version before Roku. The new AppleTV uses a variation of iOS so it should be relatively simple to just port their existing iOS app to the platform. This is basically what they did with the Android app for FireTV.


i should of been more clear, the tivo software is more global than roku through MSO's.


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## gcw07 (Oct 30, 2007)

Dan203 said:


> That is more likely because they can just port their iOS app over.
> 
> Roku uses a special language called bright script, or something like that. They're running tests allowing some companies to deploy HTML5 apps instead, but that hasn't gone wide yet. Maybe that's what TiVo is waiting for?


Brightscript is one of the options. For standard developers on Roku, that is what most use. The new Screengraph (HTML5/XML) software was deployed a couple months ago. So most things can now use that. However if your a Roku partner, there are other language options (Marmalade and supposedly a secret option for full HTML5 usage). So I don't think the language is what is holding them back. Probably just not profitable enough to spend the time doing.

Porting to iOS or Android would be easier since Tivo switched to HAXE. So that may be a trivial thing for them to do and would possibly push those platforms ahead of Roku.


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## gcw07 (Oct 30, 2007)

Aero 1 said:


> i should of been more clear, the tivo software is more global than roku through MSO's.


I'm not sure it is really that much more global. Last I saw Tivo had around 4.8 million subscribers. Not sure how many MSO units are out there with their software on it, but would guess not much more then a few million units. Roku at the end of 2014 had over 10 million units sold. So they may be pretty close to each other in terms of units out there.


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## tampa8 (Jan 26, 2016)

Aero 1 said:


> its not a problem. the roku software sucks, its hardware sucks now and its feeble to what it can do. The roku 3 can barely launch Pluto TV without lag, it flies on the apple tv 4.
> 
> Tivo has less than a million retail customers, who cares many more people have roku's. there are more apple tvs out there than there are Tivo's. Roku is sold in less than 6 countries i believe and none of them are in europe (except the UK), where apple tv and tivo have a selling presence.
> 
> Tivo, if smart, which they are not, will have to go to a polished platform where the customers are, the hardware is robust and the possible monetization exist. its not on the roku.


The Roku 4 is tremendously fast why compare the Roku 3 to the Apple 4. Roku has about a 40% market share in the U.S. to Apple TV 17%, why wouldn't Tivo want their app on a Roku? That there may be more Apple TV's than private Tivo subscribers has no relevance especially when Roku has more than twice as many as Apple.
It may well be easier/quicker to get onto Apple, from that standpoint they may get onto Apple first and there is no reason not to be on Apple. But not for the reasons you gave over a Roku.


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## Aero 1 (Aug 8, 2007)

tampa8 said:


> The Roku 4 is tremendously fast why compare the Roku 3 to the Apple 4. Roku has about a 40% market share in the U.S. to Apple TV 17%, why wouldn't Tivo want their app on a Roku? That there may be more Apple TV's than private Tivo subscribers has no relevance especially when Roku has more than twice as many as Apple.
> It may well be easier/quicker to get onto Apple, from that standpoint they may get onto Apple first and there is no reason not to be on Apple. But not for the reasons you gave over a Roku.


because the roku 3 is the only "stable" platform and thats saying it mildly. even though its software is now dated and terrible and it cant output the correct colorspace, the roku 3 and the roku 2 (2015 model, not the 2013 model) are the only ones that have not been bricked by the new firmware.

as for the roku 4, its pretty much DOA but im sure aaronwt will come and say that his is fine (everything he owns never has a problem). its being recalled now for the 3rd time because they forgot to put thermal paste on the cpu and cooling pad, audio output is broken, 4k output is broken and the software is stagnant.

Market share doesnt matter like i said, there are less fire tv's than the others, but Tivo released an app for that platform.

its not to say that tivo wont support roku, but until roku straightens itself out, they wont develop an app. but this is tivo, theyll probably come out with a paid roku app that doesnt work and never mention it again, like the nero tivo software.


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

TiVo was showing off a Roku client demo over a year ago so discussing how they might implement if they were to start today it is probably pointless.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

I never understood why TiVo would want to put an app on Roku to start with, as I have zero belief that it would sell any more DVRs for TiVo and certainly reduce Mini sales and use up money/resource that TiVo could use to improve their own app selection. 

Now if Apple was willing to make their iTunes library available on Tivo DVRs I could see TiVo putting a TiVo app on an Apple TV, other wise again nothing in it for TiVo. Might explain why TiVo actually did an Amazon app.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I think the demand for Roku, AppleTV, FireTV is mainly from those who travel and want a way to watch recorded content on hotel TVs. Those devices are poor substitutes for Minis inside the home. Navigation and trick play are terrible compared to a Mini due to the transcoding required to support those platforms.


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

Dan203 said:


> I think the demand for Roku, AppleTV, FireTV is mainly from those who travel and want a way to watch recorded content on hotel TVs. Those devices are poor substitutes for Minis inside the home. Navigation and trick play are terrible compared to a Mini due to the transcoding required to support those platforms.


Sling is a huge reason I have a fire stick. To take on the road.


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## Aero 1 (Aug 8, 2007)

Dan203 said:


> I think the demand for Roku, AppleTV, FireTV is mainly from those who travel and want a way to watch recorded content on hotel TVs. Those devices are poor substitutes for Minis inside the home. Navigation and trick play are terrible compared to a Mini due to the transcoding required to support those platforms.


since you are in the business, do yourself of a favor if you dont have the equipment, get an hdhomerun network tuner (either the CC one or the Connect, you dont even need the one that transcodes to h264), an apple tv 4 and the $25 Channels app. it is the best integrated TV/app "solution" on the market.

the channels app is fantastic and fast with a free guide. it connects and streams the mpeg2 file to my HDHR Connect instantly with no lag like a tivo mini to a tivo. the app also buffers up to an hour and trickplay is amazine. no lag and the track pad scrubbing on the remote with your thumb is fast and the thumbnail previews are instantaneous.

its amazing what two guys did with the channels app on good hardware. it smokes the tivo on speed, usability and presentation.

Im also beta testing the HDHomerun DVR and the Channels Beta app that hooks to it. I have a cheap WDmy cloud NAS with the recording engine (it can be installed on pretty much anything) on it and use the channels app as a DVR to control it, playback recordings and manage DVR functions. once this is polished and released to the public, it will be a serious DVR contender for the younger generation of consumers.

that is where multi room, integrated TV/DVR, OTT, etc market is going.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Aero 1 said:


> because the roku 3 is the only "stable" platform and thats saying it mildly. even though its software is now dated and terrible and it cant output the correct colorspace, the roku 3 and the roku 2 (2015 model, not the 2013 model) are the only ones that have not been bricked by the new firmware.
> 
> as for the roku 4, its pretty much DOA but im sure aaronwt will come and say that his is fine (everything he owns never has a problem). its being recalled now for the 3rd time because they forgot to put thermal paste on the cpu and cooling pad, audio output is broken, 4k output is broken and the software is stagnant.
> .............


 Only some of the Roku4 units are being recalled. Most are fine. My Roku 4 did have an issue where it wouldn't come out of standby. But the last update fixed that. Otherwise mine is not on the recall list(i did not receive a notification email) and I don't have the red color problem. It has been quiet and cool running. . But I also don't use my Roku4 on a regular basis. I have seven devices now with 4K streaming apps so my Roku4 isn't used that much.


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