# TiVo for almost no tablets



## tomhorsley (Jul 22, 2010)

OK, my brand new Nexus 7 tablet with a 1280x800 screen and a quad core processor is apparently too feeble to run TiVo for tablets. I don't know who the heck TiVo has doing android development for them, but they are apparently totally unable to design apps that accomodate any teensy variation from their expected geometry. Get a clue!


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## compnurd (Oct 6, 2011)

Should this be in the Main TiVo Forums... Not the Premiere one?


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## tomhorsley (Jul 22, 2010)

compnurd said:


> Should this be in the Main TiVo Forums... Not the Premiere one?


As far as I know these apps only work with the Premiere (or at least only do useful things with the Premiere).


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

Welcome to Android. 

I had a similar issue with Crackle. They have an app that isn't compatible with the Droid Charge. It is only incompatible because it is marked as using a feature that supposedly the Charge doesn't have according to the database. The same thing with the CW app which works since I was able to get it from the Amazon app store. 

You might try reaching out to support via the app page in the play store to see if they can update it or add it to Amazon's app store.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

tomhorsley said:


> OK, my brand new Nexus 7 tablet with a 1280x800 screen and a quad core processor is apparently too feeble to run TiVo for tablets. I don't know who the heck TiVo has doing android development for them, but they are apparently totally unable to design apps that accommodate any teensy variation from their expected geometry. Get a clue!


Yep. And my 4.7" Evo LTE phone is just as powerful as the Nexus 7, same amount of memory, lots more storage, and has almost the same resolution (1280 x720) pixels. The lines are really blurred and they can't seem to handle the variations.

But the real question is- the tablet app being so *incredibly slow*, would you even WANT to run the "tablet" version? Seriously- you might want to side-load the phone app version instead.


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## tomhorsley (Jul 22, 2010)

crxssi said:


> But the real question is- the tablet app being so *incredibly slow*, would you even WANT to run the "tablet" version? Seriously- you might want to side-load the phone app version instead.


But I can't know how slow it is till I actually see it .

The phone version loads fine from the play store, so no side loading was required, and I have it working now.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

Gee, there's a certain fruit company that makes a tablet that'll work...


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

mattack said:


> Gee, there's a certain fruit company that makes a tablet that'll work...


Oh yeah, that overpriced, locked down one....

BTW- Android tablets work just fine. The problem is not the tablet, it is TiVo's software. Apparently they can't pick a good programming team for the leading mobile platform.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

crxssi said:


> BTW- Android tablets work just fine. The problem is not the tablet, it is TiVo's software. Apparently they can't pick a good programming team for the leading mobile platform.


Do you know how hard it is to write a UI that can scale and function properly at a bunch of different resolutions? Especially one that is custom and doesn't use native controls, like the TiVo app. The problem with Android is that it's too segmented. To many different devices with slightly different hardware specs. Most developers are forced to pick a couple of popular devices and target them.

The one good thing about Apple products being locked down is it limits the number of devices, and variations, that you have to target.

Dan


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## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

Dan203 said:


> Do you know how hard it is to write a UI that can scale and function properly at a bunch of different resolutions? Especially one that is custom and doesn't use native controls, like the TiVo app. The problem with Android is that it's too segmented. To many different devices with slightly different hardware specs. Most developers are forced to pick a couple of popular devices and target them.
> 
> The one good thing about Apple products being locked down is it limits the number of devices, and variations, that you have to target.
> 
> Dan


there would be much less of a problem if tivo was forced to pick a couple of popular devices and target them- but whomever they outsource is slow as dirt and takes months and months to update anything. In android land that's an eternity.

It's the same problem with all their development in the past few years- it's woefully slow. The HDUI isn't done, the HME Apps (or whatever they are called) barely get updated even when they break, the IOS versions of apps dont even come out all that fast, etc, etc.

They could probably pick 5 android tablets to develop for and hit the vast majority of the android market. But they dont bother and so they annoy everyone.

(and for the record I dont even know that it's all that tough- The only "weird thing" is the remote and even using the phone app on the xoom, the first 'official' google tablet, worked just fine with the right settings. it may be hard with the tools android gives you but plenty of other developers, big and small, figure it out. )


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## dswallow (Dec 3, 2000)

Dan203 said:


> Do you know how hard it is to write a UI that can scale and function properly at a bunch of different resolutions? Especially one that is custom and doesn't use native controls, like the TiVo app. The problem with Android is that it's too segmented. To many different devices with slightly different hardware specs. Most developers are forced to pick a couple of popular devices and target them.


Sounds like a problem easily solved with Windows.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

dswallow said:


> Sounds like a problem easily solved with Windows.


Eeeew- "barf"!


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

Dan203 said:


> Do you know how hard it is to write a UI that can scale and function properly at a bunch of different resolutions? Especially one that is custom and doesn't use native controls, like the TiVo app. The problem with Android is that it's too segmented. To many different devices with slightly different hardware specs. Most developers are forced to pick a couple of popular devices and target them.


There is actually very little fragmentation in Android tablets... fragmentation is more an issue on phones (for now). Just about every 10" tablet is based on the Nvidia Tegra 2/3 with nearly the same chipset, cpu, GPU, amount of RAM, resolution, and OS (3 initially, now 4 on most everything, 4.1 coming).

The most major problem with the tablet app is exactly the same problem as on the HDUI- it has to wait forever while stuff "loads" all the time from either your TiVo or from TiVo's servers. The phone app, on the other hand, doesn't do that unless you ask it to.... so it is much, much faster.

Deleting a bunch of shows in "Suggestions" is a nightmare on the tablet app. On the phone app, selecting and deleting is dozens of times faster- AND they give an option to even select multiple things at once and THEN delete, which is much much faster still.


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## Worf (Sep 15, 2000)

Yeah, the Android tablet space is much less fragmented, but then again, honeycomb tablet manufacturers were basically forced to it - there were very limited modifications they could make and still be able to release it.

Yes, tablet manufacturers had to have Google's blessing to release a Honeycomb tablet. First, there were a HUGE pile of NDAs on what could be released (no source code to Honeycomb - in fact, Google required developers with access to the Honeycomb source to be strictly controlled - you couldn't for example walk out with it on a thumb drive or a laptop). Google also required developers to sign a non-fragmentation agreement promising that the developer would do very litttle other than porting it.

And since Honeycomb never went to AOSP, anyone who dared release a Honeycomb tablet was risking expulsion.

(AOSP and Android share a common code base, but Android source access is much more strictly controlled than AOSP. On phones, Google withholds the Google Apps unless the phone meets some limited requirements, but on tablets, Google controlled it all. At least until ICS where a tablet version was released as AOSP).

Edit: How do I know? I saw the agreements you had to sign to get access to it. No, I didn't sign as I didn't need it.


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## poofy (Jan 16, 2012)

MichaelK said:


> there would be much less of a problem if tivo was forced to pick a couple of popular devices and target them-


I have Samsung Galaxy 10.1 and 7 tab2 tablets and also the new Samsung Galaxy S3 cell phone (popular devices as you call them).

Tivo app for Android runs flawlessly on all of them.


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## tomhorsley (Jul 22, 2010)

Dan203 said:


> Do you know how hard it is to write a UI that can scale and function properly at a bunch of different resolutions?


Yep, I'm writing one now. The anser is: Not really any more difficult that writing one for a fixed geometry if you know ahead of time you want to support any resolution screen. In fact, if you are doing all custom stuff, it is even simpler since you aren't going to be using as much of the native android structuring anyway.


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## JACKASTOR (May 26, 2011)

tomhorsley said:


> OK, my brand new Nexus 7 tablet with a 1280x800 screen and a quad core processor is apparently too feeble to run TiVo for tablets. I don't know who the heck TiVo has doing android development for them, but they are apparently totally unable to design apps that accomodate any teensy variation from their expected geometry. Get a clue!


I am running it no problem. With no tweaks to do so.


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

Why doesn't this work on my [email protected]??!


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## tomhorsley (Jul 22, 2010)

JACKASTOR said:


> I am running it no problem. With no tweaks to do so.


Weirdly, I am now as well. When I tried it before, it installed, but refused to run, popping up a message saying my device didn't meet its exclusive requirements.

Maybe installing the phone app first made it like me better.

I'll have to see how it works when I get it home and try to talk to my TiVo.


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## bd177 (Oct 22, 2010)

JACKASTOR said:


> I am running it no problem. With no tweaks to do so.


Me too.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

dswallow said:


> Sounds like a problem easily solved with Windows.


Windows is a PITA to write resizing into too. I think they offer some automatic flowing in .net, but if you're writing native code you basically get a message with the new size and you have to manually resize/move every control. It's a huge PITA which is why a lot of apps use fixed dialogs rather then allowing to be resized.

Dan


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## aristoBrat (Dec 30, 2002)

crxssi said:


> BTW- Android tablets work just fine. The problem is not the tablet, it is TiVo's software. Apparently they can't pick a good programming team for the leading mobile platform.


FWIW, TiVo's not alone.

Here's a partial list (from an androidcentral thread) of apps that either wouldn't load (or work properly) on the Nexus 7 immediately following its release:

Draw Something
AccuWeather
Comcast on Demand
Xfinity Player App
Photobucket
USAA
Sirius XM
NBA Jam
Fandango
Adobe Photoshop Touch
SamsClub
Instagram
USA Today
CNN
Delta Airlines
HBO Go
BestBuy
Walmart
Home Depot
Doodle Jump
Any Electronic Arts apps

IIRC, I thought I read somewhere that many of the apps not working were because they check the OS version when they start. If the OS version is older (or newer) than whatever the developer checks for, then the app doesn't meet the apps 'exclusive' requirements and won't run. Apparently a lot of developers put the top end OS at 4.0.x, so trying to run that app on a tablet running the new 4.1 Jelly Bean OS (like the Nexus 7) crapped them out.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

aristoBrat said:


> FWIW, TiVo's not alone.
> 
> Here's a partial list (from an androidcentral thread) of apps that either wouldn't load (or work properly) on the Nexus 7 immediately following its release:
> [...]
> IIRC, I thought I read somewhere that many of the apps not working were because they check the OS version when they start. If the OS version is older (or newer) than whatever the developer checks for, then the app doesn't meet the apps 'exclusive' requirements and won't run. Apparently a lot of developers put the top end OS at 4.0.x, so trying to run that app on a tablet running the new 4.1 Jelly Bean OS (like the Nexus 7) crapped them out.


You are correct. This is a problem. In an effort to prevent a user from being upset that an app genuinely won't work, we are put in a position that they artificially won't work, exactly as you describe. The reality is that probably 80+% of the apps would work flawlessly, and another 15+% would work with a minor quirk or two, leaving maybe 5% with a genuine problem. But developers are so scared that someone will leave negative feedback, they would rather lock people out of things not tested.

It would make far more sense to allow users to install whatever they want, but if it doesn't match what is tested, give them a big warning screen. And prevent the user from leaving feedback (ratings) if it is not in the "approved" list. As it is now, when you search for an app on Google Play, if it does not match your OS version or device, it doesn't even show up in a search!

Of course, this is a digression from the purpose of this forum- TiVo; except in how it relates to how TiVo has restricted THEIR app. Case in point- they didn't "allow" tablets to install the phone app. But when I side-loaded the phone app on my Xoom (since it was not an "allowed"/"approved" device), it worked flawlessly except for a misdrawn picture of the remote. Guess what? I couldn't care less about that feature, and I would not rate the program down because of it, regardless, because I knew it was screen-size dependent.

Fast forward many months.... now we have a specific "tablet" application that is a tremendously slower and less functional than the "phone" app.... and I am still not "allowed" to load the phone app on my tablet (without finding an apk somewhere and side-loading it)!


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## mikeyts (Jul 10, 2004)

Doesn't the TiVo For Tablets app released in June (as opposed to the phone-oriented one released in March) have a tablet size limitation? Are there any 7" tablets on which you can download it directly from the Play Store?


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

mikeyts said:


> Doesn't the TiVo For Tablets app released in June (as opposed to the phone-oriented one released in March) have a tablet size limitation?


When it first came out, I think there were some issues with specific resolutions on which it would complain and abort and the next rev removed that restriction. At that point, it ran on my 10" Xoom, which is 1280x800.

But phone resolutions are not what they used to be.... my 4.7" Evo LTE screen is also 1280x720!! Almost the same as the Xoom. The Galaxy S III is the same.


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## mikeyts (Jul 10, 2004)

The TiVo for Tablets app is not designed for phones, is it? If it doesn't work well on a phone, I don't think that anyone can validly complain.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

mikeyts said:


> The TiVo for Tablets app is not designed for phones, is it? If it doesn't work well on a phone, I don't think that anyone can validly complain.


What is a phone and what is a tablet? In the Apple world, since users have no choices, it is well defined.

However, with the most popular mobile environment, Android, there are tons of choices. There are phones almost as big as tablets. There are phones with higher res screens than tablets. There are phones that are faster and have more resources than tablets. And of course, the reverse for all three.


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## curiousgeorge (Nov 28, 2002)

crxssi said:


> Oh yeah, that overpriced, locked down one....
> 
> BTW- Android tablets work just fine. The problem is not the tablet, it is TiVo's software. Apparently they can't pick a good programming team for the leading mobile platform.


Same story, new platform. Their TiVo programmer and platform choices are terrible and result in shoddy/slow execution. It's been this way since about 2004-5 or so and has gotten worse. It makes me wonder if they're outsourcing core stuff - it's so awful.


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## JACKASTOR (May 26, 2011)

mikeyts said:


> Doesn't the TiVo For Tablets app released in June (as opposed to the phone-oriented one released in March) have a tablet size limitation? Are there any 7" tablets on which you can download it directly from the Play Store?


To be fair I had to manually download it. But that was due to the country restriction being set to US only and not Canada. I had the same issue with the app for the iphone but that was worked around easily by setting up a US iTunes account. Something that google prevented me from doing.

regards

Jack


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