# I Really, really HATE my TiVO Premiere



## Captainfrogbert (Feb 8, 2011)

I've finally decided, after about 9 months of hassles and frustration that I really, really HATE the UI on the TiVo premiere. It is PAINFULLY SLOW, the fact that the highlight seems to have NO RELATIONSHIP to the information below it, meaning the screen CONSTANTLY jumps up and down based on who knows what criteria, it randomly deletes shows because it suddenly decides to re-draw the screen just as I hit the delete button, it takes a ridiculously long time to scroll because the programmers obviously decided it's MUCH more important to load the marketing data rather than the show data, so you have to wait ant wait while it write to the screen, blanks out, then re-writes to the screen.

It is, without a doubt, the single WORST user experience I have EVER HAD. I HATE THIS MACHINE!!

Not to mention that the option to save a show is hidden two (slowly loading) screens deep so managing your recording is just as frustrating as anything else in this awful system. Of course the marketing info that they're obviously selling is right there at the top so what a coup for TiVO. And why is it that I can find the name of an actor, in search, for someone who hasn't made a movie in years, but finding a SHOW that I know is coming on in three weeks (outside the TiVO's current show window, even though the show has been advertising FOr MONTHS, and is in its second, third or higher season -- so the info should be out there) is impossible. SO I have to "wish list" it which is all but useless because that doesn't guarantee the show will record if another "higher" listed show is on at the same time and wish list shows don't appear in the hierarchy.

TiVO is so awful, I can't stand it.


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

It sounds like you should sell it.


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## TIVO_GUY_HERE (Jul 10, 2000)

I'll give ya $50.00 for it.


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

I don't think we'll be hearing from the OP again...


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## curiousgeorge (Nov 28, 2002)

I hope you feel better now because TiVo obviously couldn't care less about their users and are in no hurry to fix the Premiere. After almost one year we have had no significant fixes at all. But we have plenty of new marketing. Welcome to TiVo 2.0 - ugh.



Captainfrogbert said:


> I've finally decided, after about 9 months of hassles and frustration that I really, really HATE the UI on the TiVo premiere. It is PAINFULLY SLOW, the fact that the highlight seems to have NO RELATIONSHIP to the information below it, meaning the screen CONSTANTLY jumps up and down based on who knows what criteria, it randomly deletes shows because it suddenly decides to re-draw the screen just as I hit the delete button, it takes a ridiculously long time to scroll because the programmers obviously decided it's MUCH more important to load the marketing data rather than the show data, so you have to wait ant wait while it write to the screen, blanks out, then re-writes to the screen.
> 
> It is, without a doubt, the single WORST user experience I have EVER HAD. I HATE THIS MACHINE!!
> 
> ...


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## MikeAndrews (Jan 17, 2002)

Go to Settings->Display->Choose menu style->Use Classic (SD) menus

Feel better now?

You're welcome.


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## crazywater (Mar 7, 2001)

TIVO_GUY_HERE said:


> I'll give ya $50.00 for it.


$55 !


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## lujan (May 24, 2010)

This is not the experience of the majority of users. There must be something wrong with your TiVo or your internet connection causing all of these problems.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

The Op could always go to a Cable Company DVR. Many of which won't see anything past 7 to 10 days and has no wish list.

If the OP thinks the Premiere is awful they should try some of the Comcast or FiOS DVRs they have around here. The Premiere easily beats those.


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## Raver (Feb 25, 2009)

Love the first post made is a negative one....


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## JohnnyCruzr (Mar 19, 2009)

crazywater said:


> $55 !


$56


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## curiousgeorge (Nov 28, 2002)

lujan said:


> This is not the experience of the majority of users. There must be something wrong with your TiVo or your internet connection causing all of these problems.


Bulk deletes with the "clear" button (mis)behaves exactly as described on all three of our Premeres and both the Premieres of our neighbor which are each hooked to a 16mb connection. It is and always has been the unfinished, buggy HDUI, which is why it's on the SDUI for two out of three of our boxes.


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## Stormspace (Apr 13, 2004)

TiVo should never have based the speed of the UI on an internet connection, period. What happens when your connection is down? Does the UI not work at all, timing out after a *long* time? I don't have a premiere, but isn't the default UI the flash based one? Are you asked which one you want to use during guided setup?


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

Raver said:


> Love the first post made is a negative one....


another DISH shill trolling some negative crap as if they are a user actually experiencing any of that


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## GumboChief (Aug 27, 2004)

I went to cancel my service on a series 2 last week, but agreed to try a premiere when she told me I could pay $7/month for the service.

Supposed to show up today, and I have the cablecard in my hand. We'll see how it goes.


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## mishafp (Nov 8, 2006)

Stormspace said:


> TiVo should never have based the speed of the UI on an internet connection, period. What happens when your connection is down? Does the UI not work at all, timing out after a *long* time?


I had Internet go down for 10 minutes and it worked very fast- just no adds bar at the top. There was a warning on the screen that some of the features were disabled in the meanwhile.


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

curiousgeorge said:


> Bulk deletes with the "clear" button (mis)behaves exactly as described on all three of our Premeres and both the Premieres of our neighbor which are each hooked to a 16mb connection. It is and always has been the unfinished, buggy HDUI, which is why it's on the SDUI for two out of three of our boxes.


Never had a single wrong delete on my Premieres or TiVos for that matter. I run the HD UI on 1 and haven't upgraded the bedroom TV yet so I can't on the second one.


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## magnus (Nov 12, 2004)

Can't we get someone to remove troll threads?


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## Stormspace (Apr 13, 2004)

mishafp said:


> I had Internet go down for 10 minutes and it worked very fast- just no adds bar at the top. There was a warning on the screen that some of the features were disabled in the meanwhile.


That's good to know. Maybe he can speed it up by putting his connection on a timer?


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## curiousgeorge (Nov 28, 2002)

innocentfreak said:


> Never had a single wrong delete on my Premieres or TiVos for that matter. I run the HD UI on 1 and haven't upgraded the bedroom TV yet so I can't on the second one.


Do you use the "clear" button or select delete item? I can't delete more than about 4 in a row with the clear button or risk it grabbing the wrong things to delete when it redraws.


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## HellFish (Jan 28, 2007)

Although I always use the clear button and never have a problem, I can see how you would. I rarely delete 4 things simultaneously. I either delete single items or entire folders.

On a side note, I've noticed the past few weeks, deleting something seems to actually delete it. I haven't had things mysteriously reappear since 14.7 came along.


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

curiousgeorge said:


> Do you use the "clear" button or select delete item? I can't delete more than about 4 in a row with the clear button or risk it grabbing the wrong things to delete when it redraws.


Clear. I usually do mass deletions since I will watch multiple shows on one TiVo and then delete all of them off another TiVo.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

curiousgeorge said:


> Do you use the "clear" button or select delete item? I can't delete more than about 4 in a row with the clear button or risk it grabbing the wrong things to delete when it redraws.


I am using only the SDUI.

I, too, can rarely delete more than 4 or 5 rapidly, using the clear key, without it accidentally deleting the wrong program because of redrawing issues.

Further, the outstanding bug that was never fixed on the HD also affects the Premiere, so that about every third such deleting session, it throws me out of that folder and tells me that there are no programs left in the folder (which, of course there are) and I have to go back into the folder to view the programs that are still there.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

HellFish said:


> On a side note, I've noticed the past few weeks, deleting something seems to actually delete it. I haven't had things mysteriously reappear since 14.7 came along.


As MY side note, ever since 14.7 came along, about every fourth time I try to press "play" while fast forwarding through video with my Slide remote, it will completely ignore me. And it will ignore repeated pressing of play several times in a row until I have zoomed several or a few dozen minutes into the program. Then I have to rewind and try again. For me, 14.7 fixed nothing and instead gave me a big, fat, huge bug that I NEVER had before.

http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=463987


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## Claire199 (Dec 3, 2010)

We were early users of Tivo, had the Tivo 1s and 2s. We then chose to go with our Charter cable-provided DVRs as part of a package as we were switching to high def t.v. Charter was renting Moxi dvrs w/12 hours HD storage. We were fine w/that for several years, but found that the space limitation was unacceptable, at least in our family room. So..we asked for a dvr w/more storage space, and they replaced our family room Moxi with a Motorola dvr, which was so clunky, counter-intuitive, and really just junk, imo, that within weeks I'd had enough. Charter is phasing the Moxi out. So...we took a look at Tivo again, and the Premiere *seemed* to be comparable to Moxi, and it had all that space. So...we bought one for our family room and left the Moxis in the bedrooms. We cannot use the new hd menus as they are very, very slow, so we use the classic interface. Without the new hd interface, it is not comparable to Moxi.

Also, whether on the hd menus or the classic, the VOD has not worked. I was able to watch one Amazon movie that took about 2 1/2 days to download. I joined Netflix and have not successfully downloaded one movie. In fact, I avoid the VOD menus because the screen goes black and generally ends in a Tivo restart.

We had trouble with our set-up, a lot of trouble, but we decided to wait for updates thinking that Tivo would be madly working on them - starting with the Menus. Are they? Nothing at all has changed. What is taking so long? They can "copy" Moxi.

If I had it to do over, I would probably buy a Moxi, and if the first one worked out, more Moxis to replace our rentals. It's not like we're able to do the internet stuff with Tivo, and that's why we chose it over Moxi.

Finally, we are not tech savvy, so any "fixes" other owners or Tivo offer up that are not very user friendly are rather useless to us. We bought the Tivo Wireless N Adapter, and it works. We pay for 25 mbps internet speed, and have tested it on internet sites that do it for free. The results have been approx. 7 mbps, and as I understand it, that is plenty fast enough for our purposes.

Sorry, Captainfrogbert. I too am unhappy with my new premiere, but I haven't been able to tolerate the slowness of HD interface to know much about it.


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## tomhorsley (Jul 22, 2010)

I wouldn't call this a Troll thread. I would call it an accurate description thread. The only thing that keeps me using the Premiere is that the Comcast scientific atlanta DVR was (unbelievably) 1000 times worse .


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## Audiovidman (Jan 21, 2011)

I have two Premiers and everything works fine. There is nothing else out there that works like TiVo. You could be stuck with the cable company DVR....



Captainfrogbert said:


> I've finally decided, after about 9 months of hassles and frustration that I really, really HATE the UI on the TiVo premiere. It is PAINFULLY SLOW, the fact that the highlight seems to have NO RELATIONSHIP to the information below it, meaning the screen CONSTANTLY jumps up and down based on who knows what criteria, it randomly deletes shows because it suddenly decides to re-draw the screen just as I hit the delete button, it takes a ridiculously long time to scroll because the programmers obviously decided it's MUCH more important to load the marketing data rather than the show data, so you have to wait ant wait while it write to the screen, blanks out, then re-writes to the screen.
> 
> It is, without a doubt, the single WORST user experience I have EVER HAD. I HATE THIS MACHINE!!
> 
> ...


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

Captainfrogbert said:


> It is, without a doubt, the single WORST user experience I have EVER HAD. I HATE THIS MACHINE!!


I have no faith that this is an honest opinion of someone's Premiere experience. More likely, this is another one and done poster simply looking to get a rise out of the TiVo community.

Not that the P unit does not have issues. But the worst experience? Please!

Another one for the ignore thread. While we wont hear from the captain again, I don't need to see a bunch of other posts complaining about this and that.


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

Captainfrogbert said:


> It is, without a doubt, the single WORST user experience I have EVER HAD. I HATE THIS MACHINE!!


I have no faith that this is an honest opinion of someone's Premiere experience. More likely, this is another one and done poster simply looking to get a rise out of the TiVo community.

Not that the P unit does not have issues. But the worst experience? Please!

Another one for the ignore thread. While we wont hear from the captain again, I don't need to see a bunch of other posts complaining about this and that.


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## lujan (May 24, 2010)

curiousgeorge said:


> Bulk deletes with the "clear" button (mis)behaves exactly as described on all three of our Premeres and both the Premieres of our neighbor which are each hooked to a 16mb connection. It is and always has been the unfinished, buggy HDUI, which is why it's on the SDUI for two out of three of our boxes.


Maybe I don't have problems with bulk deletes 'cause I never use them? I delete one show at a time when I'm through watching it.


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## David Platt (Dec 13, 2001)

jrtroo said:


> I have no faith that this is an honest opinion of someone's Premiere experience. More likely, this is another one and done poster simply looking to get a rise out of the TiVo community.


I have no faith that this is an honest opinion of someone's TiVo experience because of the following line, because that's simply not how a TiVo works:



Captainfrogbert said:


> SO I have to "wish list" it which is all but useless because that doesn't guarantee the show will record if another "higher" listed show is on at the same time and wish list shows don't appear in the hierarchy.


Of course WishList shows appear in the priority hierarchy. You can prioritize them just like you can any other show.


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## Riverdome (May 12, 2005)

lujan said:


> This is not the experience of the majority of users. There must be something wrong with your TiVo or your internet connection causing all of these problems.


Can someone explain (or point to a relavent source) how the home internet connection has anything to do with the speed of the Tivo menus? I've been putting off upgrading to a S4 because of all the negative talk but have a very reliable home network with plenty of internet bandwidth. If that is going to make my experience better than what some others are reporting?


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## Videodrome (Jun 20, 2008)

Is that second core working yet ? Is the M card working on Series 3 yet ? I am going back to media center when my tivo dies.


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

Why wait?


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## L David Matheny (Jan 29, 2011)

Riverdome said:


> Can someone explain (or point to a relavent source) how the home internet connection has anything to do with the speed of the Tivo menus? I've been putting off upgrading to a S4 because of all the negative talk but have a very reliable home network with plenty of internet bandwidth. If that is going to make my experience better than what some others are reporting?


The TiVo Premiere HDUI shows various things that are downloaded in real time from the Internet. I tried it and quickly switched to the SDUI, but I believe the complaint is that it waits for this optional eye candy to load, which slows everything down. Optional items (or probably any items that might take time to load) should be invoked as subprocesses by the main thread and allowed to display asynchronously as they become available, while the main thread goes ahead and displays the essential content that the user actually requested. Multiple processors would help, but even with only one processor there's no excuse for running everything as a single thread. It's just sloppy, unsophisticated programming.


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## Riverdome (May 12, 2005)

Thank you for explaining, I just might give it a try.


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## Raver (Feb 25, 2009)

I vote for this thread to be deleted, the OP hasn't reposted any info....just a troll.


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## Claire199 (Dec 3, 2010)

Did anyone see this? "Charter Announces Next Generation TV Strategy With TiVo" - Tivo Web Site Link: http://*******.com/4v2svmz (I guess links are not allowed, so google it)

Well, I feel sure Tivo will have the hd interface fixed, and although the storage is much less, 45 HD hours, that is adequate for one room with on-demand available. I really miss the on-demand primetime as well as the free & pay movies. Netflix is nice but not spontaneous since we can't stream at this point.

Otherwise, I've been happy w/Charter (since they vastly improved their customer service a couple of years ago). I called our Charter and it will be available to us sometime this year.

The Premiere we just bought will move to our kids' t.v. room. Maybe one day it will work properly.

I am so happy about this! It will be great! Yay!


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## Claire199 (Dec 3, 2010)

_"I vote for this thread to be deleted, the OP hasn't reposted any info....just a troll."_

I don't understand why you think the OP is a troll. I really, really dislike my premiere as well. There are a lot of problems with it.


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## Andyistic (Sep 25, 2009)

orangeboy said:


> I don't think we'll be hearing from the OP again...


He was probably taken down by a Tivo hitman.


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## Andyistic (Sep 25, 2009)

Claire199 said:


> _"I vote for this thread to be deleted, the OP hasn't reposted any info....just a troll."_
> 
> I don't understand why you think the OP is a troll. I really, really dislike my premiere as well. There are a lot of problems with it.


Probably because he failed to reply in this thread.
Or maybe he just killed himself after posting.


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## Videodrome (Jun 20, 2008)

Claire199 said:


> _"I vote for this thread to be deleted, the OP hasn't reposted any info....just a troll."_
> 
> I don't understand why you think the OP is a troll. I really, really dislike my premiere as well. There are a lot of problems with it.


Because you have tivo orthodox here, if you say you dislike tivo or anything about people immediately attack. There is no room for a reasoned discussion.


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## Riverdome (May 12, 2005)

Videodrome said:


> Because you have tivo orthodox here, if you say you dislike tivo or anything about people immediately attack. There is no room for a reasoned discussion.


There is no question that the OP was not interested in a 'discussion' s/he was just venting.


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

Videodrome said:


> Because you have tivo orthodox here, if you say you dislike tivo or anything about people immediately attack. There is no room for a reasoned discussion.


umm, you did note the post count for the OP right?
You did note that there has been a rash of one and done posts here lately, right?
Or are you saying we can have a reasoned discussion over a one post troll? Yet, that would start with you reasonably detecting troll threads and then looking for or starting a reasonable thread to have this reasonable discussion in.
Or do you just simply prefer jumping in the middle of threads to make your pronouncements?


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## Raver (Feb 25, 2009)

Claire199 said:


> _"I vote for this thread to be deleted, the OP hasn't reposted any info....just a troll."_
> 
> I don't understand why you think the OP is a troll. I really, really dislike my premiere as well. There are a lot of problems with it.


That's fine to complain that it has issues, we are here to help and figure ways to address ones concerns. The OP first post is a rant, that has inaccurate information, its known that supporters of other formats come and post such juvenile posts and then never return to clarify or attempt to workout the issues, again the OP hasn't returned and doubtful they will. Is Tivo perfect, no but if you want help we are here. If you want to just complain about it, sell it an move on.


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## Stormspace (Apr 13, 2004)

Likely they wanted to complain and found that TiVo couldn't give a rats *** and decided to come here. Or it's a Troll.


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## indychris (Jan 15, 2011)

ZeoTiVo said:


> umm, you did note the post count for the OP right?
> You did note that there has been a rash of one and done posts here lately, right?
> Or are you saying we can have a reasoned discussion over a one post troll? Yet, that would start with you reasonably detecting troll threads and then looking for or starting a reasonable thread to have this reasonable discussion in.
> Or do you just simply prefer jumping in the middle of threads to make your pronouncements?


Well, I'll tell you, the OP could almost be my post as well, and I sure don't have a 'respectable' post count. I am terribly disappointed with my Premier. Coming from a Dish 722, I had some expectations of greater capabilities, and an interface that is less buggy. Instead I got just the opposite: Fewer features (aside from some of the streaming options--I really do like one panel access for netflix and Amazon VoD) and a much buggier interface with a remote that seems to intermittently not want to talk with the unit...oh, and those wonderful ads that pop up every time I want to delete something. For the people who supposedly mastered the DVR, it seems like it is lackluster at best.

I'm keeping it b/c I'm not subscribing to any satellite or cable for at least a year and this is a reasonably priced alternative, but I am definitely less than thrilled with the unit.


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

indychris said:


> oh, and those wonderful ads that pop up every time I want to delete something.


I have no idea what you are talking about. I don't see any pop up ads when I go to delete something or any pop up ads for that matter.


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## Claire199 (Dec 3, 2010)

Quote: _"If you want to just complain about it, sell it an move on."_

People have a right to come here and complain about tivo. If you don't like it, you should move on.


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## chrispitude (Apr 23, 2005)

Sorry, I don't think this is a troll thread. The OP pretty much summed up my sentiments as well. There's no crime in wanting the Premiere to be better than it is. In fact, I think it's safe to say we all agree it should be better than it is. The only question is, how accepting are you of its flaws? Some people accept the SD interface as a "solution", and some people still want an HD interface that works. Personally, I've given up on the HD interface.


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## curiousgeorge (Nov 28, 2002)

Raver said:


> That's fine to complain that it has issues, we are here to help and figure ways to address ones concerns. The OP first post is a rant, that has inaccurate information, its known that supporters of other formats come and post such juvenile posts and then never return to clarify or attempt to workout the issues, again the OP hasn't returned and doubtful they will. Is Tivo perfect, no but if you want help we are here. If you want to just complain about it, sell it an move on.


What's the inaccurate information in the OP? He pretty much sums up the problems with the 3 boxes we have and our neighbor's, too. This isn't a defective one-off, it's documenting the unfinished, buggy crap TiVo has foisted on the world with the Premiere HD UI and left virtually untouched for almost a year now.


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## Raver (Feb 25, 2009)

Claire199 said:


> Quote: _"If you want to just complain about it, sell it an move on."_
> 
> People have a right to come here and complain about tivo. If you don't like it, you should move on.


You missed my point, sure complain but just to complain for the sake of complaining isn't really achieving anything. Specifically why don't you like it and let's see if there is a to correct the problem or way around it. The knowledge of this board is best suited to do so. Most rational people who really want to find resolve to their issues find solace here and find help. Those just just drop in and troll "sort of a hit an run" comment really do what? Submit them to Tivo is an option. I would hope we are beyond just complaining, it looks like the OP took my suggestion and moved on. Nice just pull one piece of the post out offering nothing. I provided a solution for the OP.


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

curiousgeorge said:


> What's the inaccurate information in the OP? He pretty much sums up the problems with the 3 boxes we have and our neighbor's, too... <snip editorial>


I personally didn't understand some of the ramblings of the OP:



Captainfrogbert said:


> ...the fact that the highlight seems to have NO RELATIONSHIP to the information below it, meaning the screen CONSTANTLY jumps up and down based on who knows what criteria...
> 
> ...it suddenly decides to re-draw the screen just as I hit the delete button...
> 
> ...


The other things mentioned, such as the Season Pass/WishList priorities just exemplifies the OP made no effort to learn about the device purchased, and wanted it to do things that clearly weren't possible (create a Season Pass for something not in the current Guide Data).

From the troubleshooting section of the Premiere Complete Guide:


> Is there a way to record a show that will not be aired for
> weeks or months?
>  Create an auto-recording WishList Search for shows that are not
> yet listed in the guide. See page 27 for more.
> ...


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## ltxi (Feb 14, 2010)

There is nothing wrong with the Premiere that just using SD menus can't fix. Third best unit I've ever had. DTS2s probably first. Still in service, ten year old upgraded Sony 2000 second only because of it's lack of MRV and internet connection capability. High def is nice, but was really driven to what I have now....PXL and two HDXLs only because of Comcast going "totally" digital.


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## forum junkie (Oct 2, 2004)

Sorry but I just have to ask - if you didn't want to hear any complaining, why would you even go to a thread titled "I really, really, really hate my TIVO" ? Sure there are those who offer helpfull work arounds and that is great for many but for others, a product released as ready for prime time more than a year ago should not need them. And, to say just using SD menu's is a cure ignores the fact that the HD UI was one of the most advertised features before release.

In truth this thread is just like thousands of others over the years. As an old Microsoft BETA tester, there were those who just had to have the latest and greastest and so what if it had problems and there were those who cursed them as the most buggy piece of crap in the world over every little problem. But the title of the thread usally told you what to expect.


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## Claire199 (Dec 3, 2010)

I found this forum when I was researching whether to purchase a Tivo. I was looking for the positive and the negative, reviews, if you will. After reading many threads, with reservations, we decided to purchase one based a lot on our own early experiences w/Tivo, which were very good. Even though I regret the purchase, or at least the timing, we did make the decision knowing there were problems, and I do think that Tivo will fix them although I am surprised and disillusioned that the interface has not yet been fixed. As I said in an earlier post, we had (still have) Moxis and the Tivo HD interface is similar, which is a big deal to me, and I thought that by now we would be using it. I've been asked by a friend my opinion about the Premiere, and I said that I wish I had waited to buy mine. That's my opinion, and I offer it to anyone that happens to be researching Tivo. I know that when I found this forum, I was looking for honest information and opinions about Tivo. I would have been a lot more angry had we not known of the Premiere issues before we bought it.

I came back when upon initial set-up, my husband and I could not get the Tivo to work. It took us two or three days to get the first download. I was glad to find out that it was a problem that many people were having and not a defective Tivo.

As I posted on this thread, Tivo and my cable carrier have made a deal, and I plan to rent two from them as soon as they have them. The one I have now will go upstairs for my kids because I like having the on-demand. I am confident that Tivo will have fixed their problems by that time.

I post on forums to get help and offer help where I can. Sometimes I may be venting too, but I think that is helpful to others as well. I wouldn't tell anyone having problems to sell their new Tivo and move on.


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## caddyroger (Mar 15, 2005)

ltxi said:


> There is nothing wrong with the Premiere that just using SD menus can't fix. Third best unit I've ever had. DTS2s probably first. Still in service, ten year old upgraded Sony 2000 second only because of it's lack of MRV and internet connection capability. High def is nice, but was really driven to what I have now....PXL and two HDXLs only because of Comcast going "totally" digital.


 The only problem is Tivo advertised the HDUI as one of the main features of the premiere. If you can not use the HDUI it is false advertising. 
I guess you would ok if you paid for a car with a v8 but it came with a 4 cylinder.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

ltxi said:


> There is nothing wrong with the Premiere that just using SD menus can't fix.


WRONG!
* 14.7 brought a major bug with the Slide remote: ignored keypresses that affects the SDUI.
* 14.7 brought a major bug with the Slide remote: unable to boot with dongle installed- using SDUI doesn't fix that.
* Many people have the "no response from user input" on units using the SDUI (me too).
* Many people are still plagued with tuning adapter issues- which using the SDUI does not help.
* SDUI still suffers from the delete-too-fast and it gets out of sync problem.
* SDUI still suffers from the nasty "this folder is empty" bug.
* SDUI doesn't offer a modern Netflix app (neither does the HDUI).
* SDUI doesn't give one ANY options for backup (neither does the HDUI).
* SDUI doesn't improve the horribly, horribly slow boot time.
* SDUI doesn't give you any non-MRV streaming options.

And on and on. Yes, the unit works a LOT better in SDUI (and that is all I use now), but saying there is "nothing wrong" with the Premiere while in the SDUI is just not accurate.


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## indychris (Jan 15, 2011)

innocentfreak said:


> I have no idea what you are talking about. I don't see any pop up ads when I go to delete something or any pop up ads for that matter.


Oh for crying out loud, did I not use the insider lingo? 

Some type of banner ad. I clicked on some hawaii ad once by accident. completely fried my premiere until I unplugged it and restarted.

The ads pop up at other times, too, usually with some other actual menu items. Not familiar enough with TiVo to know where off the top of my head.


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## lamotte (Oct 11, 2004)

then shut up and go and stop crying about it. for the most part i love mine have been some problems but for the most issue free that just my idea and bye


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## chrispitude (Apr 23, 2005)

lamotte said:


> then shut up and go and stop crying about it. for the most part i love mine have been some problems but for the most issue free that just my idea and bye


Mature response. Where else is he supposed to go to vent his frustration, if he's "not allowed" to do it on a TiVo community forum?


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## brettatk (Oct 11, 2002)

indychris said:


> Oh for crying out loud, did I not use the insider lingo?
> 
> Some type of banner ad. I clicked on some hawaii ad once by accident. completely fried my premiere until I unplugged it and restarted.
> 
> The ads pop up at other times, too, usually with some other actual menu items. Not familiar enough with TiVo to know where off the top of my head.


I think you know the difference between "popup" and "reside on the menu", you merely wanted to stir things up a bit more. If you are surfing the web on your browser, popups can be very distracting. On the tivo, the ads merely show up on the menu and if you wish to click them then so be it, there is no distraction whatsoever. Ads have never bothered me from day 1. Not sure how you can blame anyone other than yourself for accidentally clicking on one.

IMO, the only people who have a gripe are the ones who bought the Premiere when it was first available. They didn't know about these problems. Anyone who bought one recently should have done their research before buying. They knew what they were getting and should live with their decision hoping that some of the issues will eventually be addressed.


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

Well OP has legitimate complaints. The Premiere is annoyingly sluggish. Affects everything including his not being able to quickly save a show.

I don't see that the grass is greener on the other side though. 

at least in my case for the price I paid for the Premiere. $350 with lifetime. 


His wishlist complaint is ....minor. Come back in a week and set up the season pass for the show that is 3 weeks out. Put a reminder on your calendar on your computer. Or create a wishlist now, put it to #1 and clear everything off the To Do list for said wishlist until your show appears a week later.



But the Premiere is disappointing because the Premiere could really rock. If it was fast and responsive. If it had modern versions of its internet services. If it had a few more refinements in the DVR software. ......

It's disappointing because it has stood still and seems to be losing ground.


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## Videodrome (Jun 20, 2008)

lamotte said:


> then shut up and go and stop crying about it. for the most part i love mine have been some problems but for the most issue free that just my idea and bye


Well you dont have to read this thread either. He is proof of what i just said.


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## indychris (Jan 15, 2011)

brettatk said:


> I think you know the difference between "popup" and "reside on the menu", you merely wanted to stir things up a bit more. If you are surfing the web on your browser, popups can be very distracting. On the tivo, the ads merely show up on the menu and if you wish to click them then so be it, there is no distraction whatsoever. Ads have never bothered me from day 1. Not sure how you can blame anyone other than yourself for accidentally clicking on one.
> 
> IMO, the only people who have a gripe are the ones who bought the Premiere when it was first available. They didn't know about these problems. Anyone who bought one recently should have done their research before buying. They knew what they were getting and should live their decision hoping that some of the issues will eventually be addressed.


I was not attempting to elicit some emotional response. Guess I wouldn't have figured that most here would be so intellectually weak as to get tied in knots over the use of 'pop-up'. I simply grabbed that term as the banner ads 'pop up' in a menu list at the conclusion of a show and at other times.

I wasn't attempting to be technical; just describing what it does. 

Sorry if I offended your sensitivities.


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## sockgap (Sep 20, 2006)

I feel your pain, OP. The HD UI implementation is horrible. It feels stupid that I have to use the ten year old SD menu UI instead, which makes it the equivalent of a Series 3 with no front panel display. 
And is the Premiere still only using one of its two CPU cores, as rumored?


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## Videodrome (Jun 20, 2008)

sockgap said:


> I feel your pain, OP. The HD UI implementation is horrible. It feels stupid that I have to use the ten year old SD menu UI instead, which makes it the equivalent of a Series 3 with no front panel display.
> And is the Premiere still only using one of its two CPU cores, as rumored?


There already plans for media center Tvs, I didnt purchase the premiere for many reasons first the dual core thing not working. Because it never will.


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## MrSkippy53 (Jan 27, 2011)

I don't hate my premiere I am just not very happy.... I did not buy a unit that was SDUI only. So I totally agree we should not have to "down grade" to the SDUI because there HDUI implementation sucks. Second All TiVo owners have to pay a months service fee. Then they subject us to "save $5 on your next purchase of ....." so we pay for there service of delivering ads that choke up te HDUI? Not cool. 

And to the people who post "sell it and move on". Ok buy hardware that does not operate as it should, lock user into a 1 year min contract. So active it. 1-2 weeks to get the cable guy out to correctly install a cable card. A few weeks to play with and find bugs and.... Now you have a ton of fees to cancel sub, not to mention loss if you resell. 

Point is TiVo needs to step the plate and correct the issues. Or not and keep loose g business. It's not like people save much money monthly I buying a TiVo, paying sub, then they would to use a Cable Co DVR.


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## RoyK (Oct 22, 2004)

Videodrome said:


> There already plans for media center Tvs, I didnt purchase the premiere for many reasons first the dual core thing not working. Because it never will.


I vaguely recall stating something similar about the second core never being activated nearly a year ago...

In defense of TiVo marketing. I don't recall their advertising ever claiming the second core did anything --- only that it was there.......


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## D'oh (Feb 9, 2011)

Yeah, the HD UI is very slow, but I'm still happy with the unit overall.

Use a Scientific Atlanta DVR for a while, and a VCR looks attractive.


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

crxssi said:


> WRONG!
> * 14.7 brought a major bug with the Slide remote: unable to boot with dongle installed- using SDUI doesn't fix that.
> * SDUI doesn't give one ANY options for backup (neither does the HDUI).
> .


My Premiere boots just fine with the slide remote dongle plugged in. Something is wrong with your Premere or dongle. 
As for backup, TivoToGo works MUCH better on the Premiere than on previous models. Network transfers speed is one ot the major reasons I upgraded from a THD.

Most of the rest of your issues I can see but mostly work around. Boot time is a non issue, the tivo only needs to boot once every few weeks to sometimes months.

I did find that setting the output to 1080i fixed sped up the HDUI a good bit for some reason.

If they could JUST get rid of that damn pause when paging down a list the rest would be pretty minor. I do admit my 'ignore the user timeouts' are much shorter that what you are talking about. Usually only a few seconds.

I have had the digital sound cut out at random UI interactions but playing a show or live tv brings it back.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

jcthorne said:


> My Premiere boots just fine with the slide remote dongle plugged in. Something is wrong with your Premere or dongle.
> 
> 
> > Well, *my* Premiere will boot with the dongle plugged in, but there is a thread with several people who have reported the problem (and if there are several posts here about it, it probably affects many more people out there). And even TiVo support told them to boot with it unplugged.


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## TVCricket (Mar 7, 2010)

I've had mine for a few months and love it. Try using an R-10 for a while with its constant rebooting when you press back on the remote. The Premiere is an iPhone compared to what I used for 6 years.


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## Mike_Wolf (Sep 27, 2010)

Yeah I mean I've noticed it being quicker the past few weeks. I dunno, maybe I just have gotten used to it. I don't really give it any thought anymore. I've only used the HDUI. Do I look forward to the performance boost when the second core is enabled? Yes. Do I hope that the rest of the menu's get replaced with the HD version? Yes. Do I wish TiVo would give everyone a free year of service? Yes. Do I regret buying my TiVo? No.


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## Mike_Wolf (Sep 27, 2010)

JohnnyCruzr said:


> $56


$56.05


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

Mike_Wolf said:


> Do I look forward to the performance boost when the second core is enabled? Yes.


As has been said over and over, there is no guarantee there will be any huge performance increase when or if the second core is ever activated. That said, I certainly wish they would at least try. TiVo has never stated why the other core is unused. Linux has supported multiprocessing forever. It could be that there is no point because perhaps nothing in the UI is threaded. It could be some or all units have hardware problems with it on. It could be one of their proprietary, non-Linux drivers is crap and doesn't work properly in that mode. It could be it is so far down on their priority list that it just hasn't even been looked at. Who knows.


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## curiousgeorge (Nov 28, 2002)

crxssi said:


> As has been said over and over, there is no guarantee there will be any huge performance increase when or if the second core is ever activated. That said, I certainly wish they would at least try. TiVo has never stated why the other core is unused. Linux has supported multiprocessing forever. It could be that there is no point because perhaps nothing in the UI is threaded. It could be some or all units have hardware problems with it on. It could be one of their proprietary, non-Linux drivers is crap and doesn't work properly in that mode. It could be it is so far down on their priority list that it just hasn't even been looked at. Who knows.


And advertising for TiVo software engineers on the TiVo Central screen doesn't exactly inspire confidence in their hiring strategy or the depth of their existing software talent pool.


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## Johncv (Jun 11, 2002)

tomhorsley said:


> I wouldn't call this a Troll thread. I would call it an accurate description thread. The only thing that keeps me using the Premiere is that the Comcast scientific atlanta DVR was (unbelievably) 1000 times worse .


Cisco (formerly Scientific Atlanta) also build the new Virgin Media TiVo box. How can one company build one box that look like dream and at same time build other boxes that are crap.


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## daveak (Mar 23, 2009)

Mike_Wolf said:


> $56.05


$57


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## Mike_Wolf (Sep 27, 2010)

crxssi said:


> As has been said over and over, there is no guarantee there will be any huge performance increase when or if the second core is ever activated. That said, I certainly wish they would at least try. TiVo has never stated why the other core is unused. Linux has supported multiprocessing forever. It could be that there is no point because perhaps nothing in the UI is threaded. It could be some or all units have hardware problems with it on. It could be one of their proprietary, non-Linux drivers is crap and doesn't work properly in that mode. It could be it is so far down on their priority list that it just hasn't even been looked at. Who knows.


Yeah I'm aware of the fact that there may not be a performance boost, but I too would at least like to see, I mean if your gonna use a dual core processor at least use it to its full potential. As you said it could be anything, or no reason at all as to why its not enabled, but hopefully that wil change. 


daveak said:


> $57


57.50 and a date with your mom  j/k


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## argusx (Dec 7, 2008)

I realize TiVo's aren't perfect, but they are way ahead of whoever is in second place. Cable DVR's? I've seen them, no thanks. I wonder if this guy eliminated all the extra output resolutions and limited it to only the highest his TV can actually use? That goes a long way toward helping responsiveness issues. That was the first thing I did after I set the box up. Looking through the settings, I saw every available resolution was set for output. 'What the heck do I need all that for?' was the first thing that went through my mind. I locked it to 1080i, and from looking through the forums later, saw that I had unknowingly saved myself untold grief.


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## indychris (Jan 15, 2011)

argusx said:


> I realize TiVo's aren't perfect, but they are way ahead of whoever is in second place. Cable DVR's? I've seen them, no thanks. I wonder if this guy eliminated all the extra output resolutions and limited it to only the highest his TV can actually use? That goes a long way toward helping responsiveness issues. That was the first thing I did after I set the box up. Looking through the settings, I saw every available resolution was set for output. 'What the heck do I need all that for?' was the first thing that went through my mind. I locked it to 1080i, and from looking through the forums later, saw that I had unknowingly saved myself untold grief.


Maybe they're ahead of Cable Boxes, but the Dish 722 we just replaced with the Premiere was WAY ahead of my Premiere in terms of reliability and interface. I've had more freezes and reboots in 6 weeks with my Premiers than I did in 7 years with my Dish units, and I not once had a problem with remote delays or an unusable HD interface on my 722. I'd hardly call the Premiere _'way ahead'_ in those areas.

I'm very pleased that many people haven't had that frustration, but many of us apparently have.


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## slowbiscuit (Sep 19, 2006)

If you're on Dish, sure. But Tivo is a replacement for a cable DVR, not satellite. And Tivo is indeed light-years ahead of almost anything cable has.


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## indychris (Jan 15, 2011)

slowbiscuit said:


> If you're on Dish, sure. But Tivo is a replacement for a cable DVR, not satellite. And Tivo is indeed light-years ahead of almost anything cable has.


So then what I deduce from you're statement is that you recognize that TiVo isn't near at the top of their game, but you're okay with that as long as their better than _somebody_? 

I guess I've got too much of my dad in me who always said that _if something is worth doing, it's worth doing right_.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

indychris said:


> So then what I deduce from you're statement is that you recognize that TiVo isn't near at the top of their game, but you're okay with that as long as their better than _somebody_?
> 
> I guess I've got too much of my dad in me who always said that _if something is worth doing, it's worth doing right_.


+1

If most of the competition is a "D" and your product is a "C", I am not sure that is anything to be all that proud of. Years ago, TiVo *was* an "A", but it is slowly slipping further and further behind the curve (of reliability and customer satisfaction). Some of the cable boxes now are not all that bad. And it won't be long before they are faster, more stable, and higher capacity. They might not offer Amazon, Netflix, or YouTube video, but customers can already get that in their TV's, Blu-Ray players, or game consoles... so that isn't much incentive to go with TiVo anymore.

You don't stay #1 by betting your company that everyone else can't do better.


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## slowbiscuit (Sep 19, 2006)

Did I say that I was happy with Tivo? Hell no, all I said was that they were way better than what cable has - mentioning Dish is an apples to oranges comparison. I and plenty of others lay into them on a regular basis for sitting on their ass and not doing stuff that tons of folks would like to see. Jeez, start with fixing the Premiere and add streaming to stop crippling MRV for a bunch of your customers, for one thing.

You infer way too much in what I said.


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## daveak (Mar 23, 2009)

Maybe you can say TiVo is the best option for cable users. And a Dish DVR is the best option for Dish users. And a DirecTV DVR is the best option (When will we see another TiVo for this?) for DirecTV users. Now which has the best DVR out of all of them? It may not matter to some, for different reasons.


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## slowbiscuit (Sep 19, 2006)

One problem with the comparison is that you don't have a choice of DVRs with satellite - you're stuck (or not, depending on perspective) with whatever they want you to use. And many folks, like myself, either don't want anything to do with sat because it goes out in heavy rain/snow, can't get it because of line-of-sight or other local issues, or whatever. 

We do have choices on cable, so it's best just to compare a Tivo with a cable DVR, or a Moxi, or a Win7 PC with the Ceton card here. Anything that works on cable, in other words. If you want to compare Tivo to anything on sat, the Coffee House forum is a great place for that (but it's been beaten to death there).

There are no right/wrong answers and no 'best' DVR anyway, it's all a matter of tradeoffs.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

When comparing TiVo to other products there are 2 ways to look at it.

The first is personally:

What alternatives do you have personally and how does TiVo compare to the actual alternatives that you have.​
The Second is globally:

How does TiVo compare to the whole universe of devices that provide similar functions.​
On a global bases TiVo does not appear to be doing so well compared to the whole universe of devices with similar functions.

However for me on a personal bases my TiVo's are in my opinion my best option and either outperform or cost less than all my alternatives.

Thanks,


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## indychris (Jan 15, 2011)

atmuscarella said:


> When comparing TiVo to other products there are 2 ways to look at it.
> 
> The first is personally:
> 
> ...


The third way to look at it would be holistically which could maybe suggest that since TiVo may not be winning many battles on the personal level, they don't seem to be competing all that well on the global level.


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## alokkola (Apr 18, 2006)

crxssi said:


> +1
> 
> If most of the competition is a "D" and your product is a "C", I am not sure that is anything to be all that proud of. Years ago, TiVo *was* an "A", but it is slowly slipping further and further behind the curve (of reliability and customer satisfaction). Some of the cable boxes now are not all that bad. And it won't be long before they are faster, more stable, and higher capacity. They might not offer Amazon, Netflix, or YouTube video, but customers can already get that in their TV's, Blu-Ray players, or game consoles... so that isn't much incentive to go with TiVo anymore.
> 
> You don't stay #1 by betting your company that everyone else can't do better.


Echos my thoughts too!!

Look at the chart in the article TiVo Loses 223,000 Net Subscribers In Latest Quarter
I don't get it even after this terrible chart, how are Tivo Executives still in the company. I use Tivo everyday but it is no way close to Top-Of-Line gadget it once used to be and very little value for the money it sells for. Personally, I would have never bought it today. My guess is there are very few Tivo competitors in market because smart companies are all vying for online TV.

Lately my Tivo Premiere has been stable even with HD menus. There are 2 things that seem to have fixed my issues, thanks to TivoCommunity: 1) Using a hardwired connection 2) Keeping only 1 video output (1080i)


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## baimo (Mar 2, 2006)

I like my tivo premiere. actually i bought a second one. But I bought it to replace my cablevision scientific atlanic cable box. The SA box had a guide that was so small, slow and useless, it gave me plenty of reason to buy the tivo.

Is there another product that you can buy that will replace my cablebox's basic interface with a great guide and dvr functionality? My tv's are pioneer elite models and their native guide is better than the SA box, but then I would not have a dvr function.

The recording and internet shows interface certainly could use improvement, but I think it is the best current alternate to my cable company's lousy STB/dvr>


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## GOOSE111655 (Jun 29, 2007)

netringer said:


> Go to Settings->Display->Choose menu style->Use Classic (SD) menus
> 
> Feel better now?
> 
> You're welcome.


The same problems can, and do, happen using SD menus. Feel stupid now?


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## shwru980r (Jun 22, 2008)

trip1eX said:


> at least in my case for the price I paid for the Premiere. $350 with lifetime.


How did you get one so cheap?


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## MrSkippy53 (Jan 27, 2011)

shwru980r said:


> How did you get one so cheap?


Www.woot.com


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

alokkola said:


> Echos my thoughts too!!
> 
> Look at the chart in the article TiVo Loses 223,000 Net Subscribers In Latest Quarter
> I don't get it even after this terrible chart, how are Tivo Executives still in the company. I use Tivo everyday but it is no way close to Top-Of-Line gadget it once used to be and very little value for the money it sells for. Personally, I would have never bought it today. My guess is there are very few Tivo competitors in market because smart companies are all vying for online TV.
> ...


Mine have always been stable with multiple resolutions checked. I have them all checked except for 480i. It behaves the same as all the TiVos I've owned since 2004 with resolution changes. The same as any other device when changing between multiple resolutions.
Although the Premiere is the fist Tivo to handle 1080P24.


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## bbaucom (Apr 18, 2011)

This seems like the right place to post my first post.

I did a survey a couple of weeks ago for Tivo which was centered around the poor functionality and crashes I, and many other people experience. So, obviously they know they have issues and hopefully are working on them.

That being said, when I'm paying a monthly subscription fee for service, it would be nice if my device didn't crash. Would be nice to be able to use the HD menu's without thinking they will increase the rate at which my system crashed.

I had a crash last night while I was watching something on netflix. I set the stop watch on my phone and it took about 8 minutes for the tivo to finish it's boot cycle... what gives? And then after the boot it was very unstable and my playback stuttered many times ( 30Mbps/ 30Mbps internet w\ nothing else using it ).

Anybody have an idea if they're fixing these issues or if they will upgrade peoples boxes?


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

That boot time is normal for TiVos.

As far as crashing, some poeple have problems and some don't. I don't have those issues with my five Premieres. They run and only reboot when there is a software update applied.

So far I have not heard a reason why some people do have problems and other people don't.


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## indychris (Jan 15, 2011)

bbaucom said:


> This seems like the right place to post my first post.
> 
> I did a survey a couple of weeks ago for Tivo which was centered around the poor functionality and crashes I, and many other people experience. So, obviously they know they have issues and hopefully are working on them.
> 
> ...


Netflix seems to be the common denominator for most of my crashes. I stopped using my Premiere for Netflix (which is utterly ridiculous that this would be the solution) and my Premiere has been much more stable. I'm paying my $19.99/mo right now, but I find myself using my TiVo less and less and my EyeTV on my Mac Mini more and more.

I can guarantee one thing: This is my first and LAST TiVo product ever. Poor OTA reception, TERRIBLE delivery of Netflix, virtually unusable HDUI, frequent delays in remote control responsiveness... I know and am glad that many people have had much better results with their Premiere, but this thing might quite literally become my boat anchor for my bass raider come day 366.


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## Jeeters (Feb 25, 2003)

Netflix crashes even my old TiVo HD; it's not a Premiere-only problem. The Netflix functionality is worthless, as far as I'm concerned, and I pretend it doesn't exist. I just use a Roku box, instead.


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## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

Jeeters said:


> Netflix crashes even my old TiVo HD...


Even after the latest software update? The last update for the TivoHD was supposed to fix this. I've never had the problem, but I have read that it was fixed for most people.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

Jeeters said:


> Netflix crashes even my old TiVo HD; it's not a Premiere-only problem


That's because it is most likely the EXACT same code as on the HD. The Netflix sub-application has not been changed in several YEARS.... it looks and acts exactly the same and has the same crappy interface. Just about every other Netflix-able device is better or extremely better (faster, more stable, more control, more features).


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## Jeeters (Feb 25, 2003)

crxssi said:


> That's because it is most likely the EXACT same code as on the HD. The Netflix sub-application has not been changed in several YEARS.... it looks and acts exactly the same and has the same crappy interface. Just about every other Netflix-able device is better or extremely better (faster, more stable, more control, more features).


Yeah, I know. The Netflix interface on the TiVo looks almost exactly like the interface that the Roku had way back when it was first released. They're night and day, now, given how many updates the Roku box (and other devices) have had since the original release.


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## Dr_Diablo (Nov 24, 2003)

I had better success with the S3 then I am with the Premere unit

Bout ready to put a cap in it.. lol


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

crxssi said:


> That's because it is most likely the EXACT same code as on the HD. The Netflix sub-application has not been changed in several YEARS.... it looks and acts exactly the same and has the same crappy interface. Just about every other Netflix-able device is better or extremely better (faster, more stable, more control, more features).


Still the best Netflix video quality is from the TiVo since it has native resolution output. I send mine thorough an Algolith Flea and a DVDO DUO, and the picture quality is much better than any other Netflix device I've seen.

There is no question though that the Netflix application on TiVo is long in the tooth.


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## Dr_Diablo (Nov 24, 2003)

steve614 said:


> Even after the latest software update? The last update for the TivoHD was supposed to fix this. I've never had the problem, but I have read that it was fixed for most people.


Was told today a new updates due out within the week to address issues within the units... like we haven't heard that before....


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## Stevesreed (Jun 24, 2002)

aaronwt said:


> Still the best Netflix video quality is from the TiVo


My Apple TV 2's Netflix playback is better, the menus system is far better, it plays videos the tivo got stuck on (dropped audio, etc)

Tivo is pretty much the worst Netflix client available at this time. And the screen clear/flick when the Netflix app starts up on the Premier is just embarrassing. I swear they must have had an intern programmer write it in his spare time....


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Stevesreed said:


> My Apple TV 2's Netflix playback is better, the menus system is far better, it plays videos the tivo got stuck on (dropped audio, etc)
> 
> Tivo is pretty much the worst Netflix client available at this time. And the screen clear/flick when the Netflix app starts up on the Premier is just embarrassing. I swear they must have had an intern programmer write it in his spare time....


What is this "screen clear/flick"?
My Netflix application starts right up. Now if I'm currently at a different resolution than the netflix application you will have an HDMi handshake when the rsolution changes. But that is the case with every HDMI device out there.

As far as playing the videos, I've not had any problems with the videos I've streamed from netflix on my TiVos. But threre could be a problem with specific titles perhaps.


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## Dr_Diablo (Nov 24, 2003)

tomhorsley said:


> I wouldn't call this a Troll thread. I would call it an accurate description thread. The only thing that keeps me using the Premiere is that the Comcast scientific atlanta DVR was (unbelievably) 1000 times worse .


The cable company DVR's are 20 yr old tech, far worse then what Tivi offers, yet for what we are exected to pay the service should be worth the cost.

Too bad they/Tivo aren't forced to issue refunds when their service craps out as it does 90% of the time


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

Dr_Diablo said:


> The cable company DVR's are 20 yr old tech, far worse then what Tivo offers,


Maybe at YOUR cable company, but not at Cox.


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## Dr_Diablo (Nov 24, 2003)

I researched their model on the net, is how I found out the age of their recorder


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## randy1649 (Apr 18, 2011)

Well I just got 2 premiere's and have no issues at all. I had the mediacom "multi-room" PACE cable boxes and they were AWFUL!!! Multiroom, all recordings go to one drive, so all pace units can view whatever is recorded. Never worked right... Many shows would not show up on all pace units, only one unit. And many times a show only recorded for 5 seconds then ended. Just a lot of weird. With these tivo boxes, I find I can transfer a recording from premiere #1 to #2 in minutes. Took 3 minutes to transfer a 30 minute rerun of Two and a Half Men from one box to the other recorded in HD. I also have netflix and amazon accounts that I need to get added as soon as I get time.
But to answer the op's question.... no, no problems here. Menus are fast, logical (I can figure things out without using the book), functional (tivo thought of everything users might need), and many user options/settings to suit your liking. Plus the sharing or transfer between 2 units works really well. And I really like the horizontal program guide menu system as opposed to the usual vertical view on satellite boxes and cable boxes. I do not see what is not to like? Especially if you are coming from a cable DVR box or satellite DVR. My only issue is the price for service, especially folks with more than one premiere. At least up to three units should be covered under one price plan in the household. Or if nothing else, the first for $19, then additionals @ 1/2 off. But when I think about it, the cable company charged $17 per dvr box. So this is only $2 more per box. And with a lot more features!!!!


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## Dr_Diablo (Nov 24, 2003)

crxssi said:


> As MY side note, ever since 14.7 came along, about every fourth time I try to press "play" while fast forwarding through video with my Slide remote, it will completely ignore me. And it will ignore repeated pressing of play several times in a row until I have zoomed several or a few dozen minutes into the program. Then I have to rewind and try again. For me, 14.7 fixed nothing and instead gave me a big, fat, huge bug that I NEVER had before.
> 
> http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=463987


I have the same problem with the use of the remote... It's annoying at best


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## chucker (Apr 24, 2011)

I am very happy with my Premiere. It's the 6th TiVO for me and I have yet to be disappointed with it. My .02


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

Dr_Diablo said:


> Was told today a new updates due out within the week to address issues within the units... like we haven't heard that before....


I don't remember anything so specific that did not happen, even if it took an extra week. Where did this come from, a CSR (dubious)? Or a more reliable source (TiVo Margret, ect)?


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## TVCricket (Mar 7, 2010)

4 months after dropping Directv, I'm still loving my Premiere.


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## upatoi15 (Jan 2, 2008)

I agree with the original poster ' Captainfrogbert' I totally agree with his frustration. The Tivo Premiere seems to me like a device that was rushed out with a poorly developed user interface. Don't get me wrong, the interface is a step forward , and I welcome anything in HD (!!! ) , but there are far too many bugs and annoyances that keep this model from progressing Tivo forward as a brand and company. The HDUI is sluggish and to the average person, is intimidating. I agree, the marketing used on this system is , in my opinion, thrown at your face with ads. The whole idea behind this device is lost because the aim is to satisfy the customers, not the marketing companies. I understand Tivo needs the money, but to junk up the system with add and bloatware is frustrating for the people that actually fork up the money to have a satisfying user experience. I participated in the beta program, and let me tell you, the way the software is now is nothing compared to what it was. So many common and obvious bugs that it was just sad. 

I guess what I'm trying to say is that Tivo Premiere , although originally thought to advance the service, ended up doing the opposite. A sluggish, poorly designed interface with a aim at marketing and ads rather than a focus on what consumers really want: a device that's simple and just works! While the Pandora service is a great app on the Premiere, the major apps like Netflix are filled with bugs, annoyances, and I'm sure, don't get much app support. 

Tivo may better start looking at software development, since this is their strong point. The might be even better at hardware development, who knows. I'm sure these concerns are now being addressed within the company. If not, the programmers (the software brain of the company) , may need to have their voice and opinions heard. 

I just hope it's not too late for Tivo. They were the first major brand of DVR that hit mainstream, and it would be a shame if they were bought out or disbanded. Some of the customer support I have received from them as been top notch with very friendly and helpful employees. Come on Tivo, you can do it! re-invent yourself and get it together!

Google TV looks like an awesome alternative that I see picking up major speed in the TV / DVR / software market in the near future. If Tivo can rebound, I think that would be great. However, in a world of continuous technology change and innovation, I have to be realistic and think that this might signal the end of an era for the Tivo brand. Google is such a strong name brand and they have the financial backing , hardware, and software support to make a huge impact in the TV / DVR market. 

For now, I might want to consider getting a DVR from the local cable company, at least you can order PPV!


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## tomhorsley (Jul 22, 2010)

upatoi15 said:


> For now, I might want to consider getting a DVR from the local cable company, at least you can order PPV!


I hate and despise the way my tivo works, as a software developer myself, I am far too aware of the things it could do versus what it does do, but as rotten as the tivo is, I switched to tivo in order to get rid of the 1000 times worse comcast cable box/dvr. Despite all the shortcomings, the tivo is infinitely superior to the monstrously awful comcast/scientific atlanta dvr.


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## curiousgeorge (Nov 28, 2002)

upatoi15 said:


> .... I participated in the beta program, and ...


Ruh Roh...isn't that a violation of the terms of your past beta NDA?


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

upatoi15 said:


> Google TV looks like an awesome alternative that I see picking up major speed in the TV / DVR / software market in the near future. If Tivo can rebound, I think that would be great. However, in a world of continuous technology change and innovation, I have to be realistic and think that this might signal the end of an era for the Tivo brand. Google is such a strong name brand and they have the financial backing , hardware, and software support to make a huge impact in the TV / DVR market.
> 
> For now, I might want to consider getting a DVR from the local cable company, at least you can order PPV!


Well any credibility you might have had was blown with these last 2 paragraphs.

Associating the word "awesome" with Google TV at this point means you have no idea what is going on with it. Also associating the word "DVR" with Google TV further assures us you don't know what you are talking about and are just posting wishful thinking.

Also having a TiVo DVR usually has nothing to do with if you can order and watch PPV. You just have to order it with your phone. Now VOD is another topic.

Thanks,


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## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

curiousgeorge said:


> Ruh Roh...isn't that a violation of the terms of your past beta NDA?


I don't think a casual mention of being in a beta program is in violation of the NDA.
Now, had he mentioned what was contained within that beta program, that would be a different story.


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## curiousgeorge (Nov 28, 2002)

steve614 said:


> I don't think a casual mention of being in a beta program is in violation of the NDA.
> Now, had he mentioned what was contained within that beta program, that would be a different story.


I *think* the TiVo beta NDAs frown upon or prohibit mention of current or past beta involvement. Of course, I could be mistaken.


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## magnus (Nov 12, 2004)

curiousgeorge said:


> I *think* the TiVo beta NDAs frown upon or prohibit mention of current or past beta involvement. Of course, I could be mistaken.


I think that I would leave it to TiVo to decide what they meant. However, I'm thinking that it's not a good idea to mention anything like that at all but what do I know.


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## Stevesreed (Jun 24, 2002)

aaronwt said:


> What is this "screen clear/flick"?
> My Netflix application starts right up. Now if I'm currently at a different resolution than the netflix application you will have an HDMi handshake when the rsolution changes.


My Tivo is set to ouput only 1080i, so there should never be any HDMI handshaking happening except at startup.

When I start Netflix there is brief flicker, as the screen clear to blue then black, then the "please wait" icons shows up correctly center and size on the screen, then it flickers and shrinks to about 1/2 size and moves the the upper left part of the screen, then after a brief pause the Netflix screen shows up.

When I exit Netflix, the 1/2 size "please wait" shows up in the center of the screen, then the screen clears with a horrible blocky diagonal stair step look, and the HD menus return.

It's very amateurish and looks like crap.

If none of that sounds familiar to other people, maybe it's just my unit, but I doubt it. I can upload a video to you tube showing what it looks like, if no one else is seeing it...


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Stevesreed said:


> My Tivo is set to ouput only 1080i, so there should never be any HDMI handshaking happening except at startup.
> 
> When I start Netflix there is brief flicker, as the screen clear to blue then black, then the "please wait" icons shows up correctly center and size on the screen, then it flickers and shrinks to about 1/2 size and moves the the upper left part of the screen, then after a brief pause the Netflix screen shows up.
> 
> ...


 I don't see any flickering on mine. I just set my PXL on 1080i fixed output. When I select Netflix the please wait shows up center screen, then it disappears and is a black screen for a split second and then my instant queue pops up with the first nine shows listed.


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

Not that this resizing on Netflix isn't mildly annoying, but it certainly is low priority for the things that must be updated on the Premiere.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

I'll need to check my other Premieres. My PXL did not exhibit the resizing issue.

At least this gave me a chance to delete my PS3 from my Netflix device list so i could add my PXL to the list. I think I'll be dumping my PS3 sooner rather than later now. The only thing it has now for me is 1080P24 and DD 5.1 from Netflix. All the other applications are as good or better on other devices now.


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## Stevesreed (Jun 24, 2002)

jrtroo said:


> Not that this resizing on Netflix isn't mildly annoying, but it certainly is low priority for the things that must be updated on the Premiere.


I agree , it's definitely not high priority, but it's just part of the overall "lack for polish" of the Premiere. It's something that should not have gotten past QA initially, let alone be left in for over a year. Netflix streaming was even on of the touted features when the Premiere was launched.

I do think finishing the HD interface is high priority though. Yesterday, I accessed a menu item that took me to SD menus, then I picked something from there and it switched back to HD menus for that option, then did the reverse as I backed out. Pathetic.

Even fairly normal activities, like reading incoming messages from Tivo about channel line up changes, drop me into SD menus.


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## 241705 (Mar 9, 2010)

Stevesreed said:


> Even fairly normal activities, like reading incoming messages from Tivo about channel line up changes, drop me into SD menus.


Although it doesn't bother me too much when the Premiere drops into the SD menus for some functions, I would think making the messages menu part of the HDUI should not have been a big deal to implement.


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## wb3fsr (Feb 13, 2011)

$55.55


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## wb3fsr (Feb 13, 2011)

Videodrome said:


> Is that second core working yet ? Is the M card working on Series 3 yet ? I am going back to media center when my tivo dies.


Any date for second core update?


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## TheWGP (Oct 26, 2007)

wb3fsr said:


> Any date for second core update?


No - and it's widely speculated the second core will never be turned on, because apparently Flash (which the HDUI uses) cannot support the second core at this time. Yes, the underlying Linux supports multithreading, and there could be some easy "different tasks on different cores" situations - but it's all up to Tivo's decision on that as to what's worth doing.

At this time, there's been no indication that they EVER plan to activate the second core. It may someday happen, but I wouldn't count on it when making purchase or subscription decisions.

As an aside - there IS supposed to be some kind of update coming, from the hints we've heard on Twitter - but that's at least "next month" territory, if not longer than that. There are so many outstanding issues that it's anyone's guess what, if anything, they will fix or update, and if I even tried to list them all I'd spend all evening writing the list. Well, maybe not literally all evening, but you get the idea...


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## Videodrome (Jun 20, 2008)

wb3fsr said:


> Any date for second core update?


Tivos history is enough to tell you NEVER.

1. MCARD series 3, never happened
2. Netflix update
3. second will never happen.

Answer buy a series 5.

They will add a larger space, and dual core support. (maybe)


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## curiousgeorge (Nov 28, 2002)

Videodrome said:


> Tivos history is enough to tell you NEVER.
> 
> 1. MCARD series 3, never happened
> 2. Netflix update
> ...


I think TiVo is dreaming if they think a lot of the longtime users (and even new users) they screwed on Premiere are going to buy a Series 5. They have a lot of goodwill to repair with some solid updates that FIX the buggy/sluggish mess that is the Premiere before there's a chance of that happening.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

curiousgeorge said:


> I think TiVo is dreaming if they think a lot of the longtime users (and even new users) they screwed on Premiere are going to buy a Series 5. They have a lot of goodwill to repair with some solid updates that FIX the buggy/sluggish mess that is the Premiere before there's a chance of that happening.


Interesting my Premiere cost less and works better than my TiVo HD. So I am not sure how I got screwed.

Does the Premiere need to be improved? Sure it does.

Is it still a great DVR? Yes it is and the best at doing what I want it to do.

Did TiVo mess up with the so called HDUI? Sure did, they would have been better off never releasing it from all the complaints around this forum. But seeings they did they do need to fix it.

Does any of the above mean if I needed a new DVR tomorrow I wouldn't be looking at a TiVo? Given my current options, I can say with near 100% assurance that if I needed another DVR tomorrow it would be another TiVo and very very likely a Premiere.

Of course I also don't know why TiVo would need to release a "Series 5" anytime before cable cards are replaced. The Series 4 platform has more than enough potential to go through at least one hardware refresh.

Thanks,


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## fishcube (May 11, 2011)

Can I use the premiere without Internet hook-up?


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

fishcube said:


> Can I use the premiere without Internet hook-up?


Kind of. You have to buy the optional modem and use it with a telephone line and you have to turn off the HDUI. Honestly if you don't have high speed Internet access you would be better off with a TiVo HD.

Good Luck


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## Videodrome (Jun 20, 2008)

The fact that premiere doesnt cache all that info, says it majorly flawed. Anything that depends on a 100% internet connection is just asking for trouble.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

atmuscarella said:


> Interesting my Premiere cost less and works better than my TiVo HD. So I am not sure how I got screwed.


Lots of people here feel differently. Personally, I feel somewhat screwed. It didn't cost less than my HD did. It is less stable than my HD was. And it didn't give me much of anything new or improved (that I care about) compared to my HD. Faster network helps a bit and some additional disk space are the only things that I value from the Premiere; and those were not worth dropping many hundreds of dollars on a new unit and all the frustration that has gone along with it.

If I knew then what I know now, I would not have upgraded. And if they can't or won't fix and improve the series 4, you can bet a series 5 is simply not going to be on the radar for a lot of people.



> The Series 4 platform has more than enough potential to go through at least one hardware refresh.


Theoretically yes- most of us suspect that 99% of the problems are all software. But as they have proven, even after one year and two months, they can't or won't fix all the current problems, much less do anything more advanced (and there are a loooong list of possible improvements). I wouldn't count on the next "update", if it ever arrives, fixing or adding much. Yes, I am turning THAT bitter now.


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## curiousgeorge (Nov 28, 2002)

crxssi said:


> I wouldn't count on the next "update", if it ever arrives, fixing or adding much. Yes, I am turning THAT bitter now.


Sucks, right? I hate that I've become so negative on TiVo, too. It's just that they've done absolutely nothing to avert that outcome.

And the news that the update coming next month STILL doesn't restore Parental Controls they took out of the HDUI is really crappy. It will be 1.3 YEARS since release by then. Crazy bad customer service, which is very unlike "TiVo classic". Another reason I simply stopped recommending TiVo at all.


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## caddyroger (Mar 15, 2005)

crxssi said:


> Lots of people here feel differently. Personally, I feel somewhat screwed. It didn't cost less than my HD did. It is less stable than my HD was. And it didn't give me much of anything new or improved (that I care about) compared to my HD. Faster network helps a bit and some additional disk space are the only things that I value from the Premiere; and those were not worth dropping many hundreds of dollars on a new unit and all the frustration that has gone along with it.
> 
> If I knew then what I know now, I would not have upgraded. And if they can't or won't fix and improve the series 4, you can bet a series 5 is simply not going to be on the radar for a lot of people.
> 
> Theoretically yes- most of us suspect that 99% of the problems are all software. But as they have proven, even after one year and two months, they can't or won't fix all the current problems, much less do anything more advanced (and there are a loooong list of possible improvements). I wouldn't count on the next "update", if it ever arrives, fixing or adding much. Yes, I am turning THAT bitter now.


I agree with you. $800 just to have a little more transfer speed was $700. to much.Even at today's prices it still to much.


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## DonaldBurns65144 (Jan 11, 2011)

Videodrome said:


> Tivos history is enough to tell you NEVER.
> 
> 1. MCARD series 3, never happened
> 2. Netflix update
> ...


IMHO, second core support will be added to their series 5 quad core units - 2 years after introduction. LOL


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## DonaldBurns65144 (Jan 11, 2011)

curiousgeorge said:


> Sucks, right? I hate that I've become so negative on TiVo, too. It's just that they've done absolutely nothing to avert that outcome.
> 
> And the news that the update coming next month STILL doesn't restore Parental Controls they took out of the HDUI is really crappy. It will be 1.3 YEARS since release by then. Crazy bad customer service, which is very unlike "TiVo classic". Another reason I simply stopped recommending TiVo at all.


I recently posted a problem email to Tivo, got a canned reply that they'd get back to me with a detailed answer. Nothing so far, but I did get a request to fill out a service feedback survey. Boy did I ---> Level of meeting my needs: 0-0-0-0-0


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

DonaldBurns65144 said:


> I recently posted a problem email to Tivo, got a canned reply that they'd get back to me with a detailed answer. Nothing so far, but I did get a request to fill out a service feedback survey. Boy did I ---> Level of meeting my needs: 0-0-0-0-0


http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=8368038#post8368038


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## Chris Gerhard (Apr 27, 2002)

I have been trying to decide whether to pick up a Premiere with lifetime at $470 or purchase lifetime for a third TiVoHD I already own. I still see a number of unhappy Premiere users after reading this thread and I only need the most basic TiVo functionality, I use mine to timeshift OTA and I use YouTube and Pandora. I can't see anything changing for me, I much prefer Blu-ray and DVD for movies and won't bother with streaming or VoD as a result of that fact. I would have to be able to get a special deal to buy lifetime on the TiVoHD and I don't know if that is possible. The deal with the Premiere, buy it at $270, add $200 lifetime, makes me think I should be able to buy lifetime for a TiVoHD for $200 to add to my account. I doubt if any profits are associated with the Premiere at $270.


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## b_scott (Nov 27, 2006)

magnus said:


> Can't we get someone to remove troll threads?


you don't have to be a troll to feel this way. I feel this way a lot of the time.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

aaronwt said:


> I'll need to check my other Premieres. My PXL did not exhibit the resizing issue.
> 
> At least this gave me a chance to delete my PS3 from my Netflix device list so i could add my PXL to the list. I think I'll be dumping my PS3 sooner rather than later now. The only thing it has now for me is 1080P24 and DD 5.1 from Netflix. All the other applications are as good or better on other devices now.


I tried out my non XL premiere with Netflix and it did do the resize thing. I have no idea why the non XL did and the XL did not.

But it looks like I will be using my Premieres for Netflix until Boxee fixes their Boxee Box firmware. Which makes anything with stereo pcm audio useless to watch from the Boxee Box when using a receiver.


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## larrs (May 2, 2005)

atmuscarella said:


> Interesting my Premiere cost less and works better than my TiVo HD. So I am not sure how I got screwed.
> 
> Does the Premiere need to be improved? Sure it does.
> 
> ...


+1- I am using the HDUI and I believe it has gotten more stable. I am happy right now. Would I like it finished? Yes. But I can more than live with it right now.


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## larrs (May 2, 2005)

Stevesreed said:


> My Tivo is set to ouput only 1080i, so there should never be any HDMI handshaking happening except at startup.
> 
> When I start Netflix there is brief flicker, as the screen clear to blue then black, then the "please wait" icons shows up correctly center and size on the screen, then it flickers and shrinks to about 1/2 size and moves the the upper left part of the screen, then after a brief pause the Netflix screen shows up.
> 
> ...


I think it happens on mine but it hasn't annoyed me to the point of even thinking about it...and we watch NF a lot.

Hey, I am still living with a BD player that takes a minute to load a disc. Maybe that's why I don't notice the issue and maybe that's why the HDUI doesn't bother me.


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## TheWGP (Oct 26, 2007)

larrs said:


> +1- I am using the HDUI and I believe it has gotten more stable. I am happy right now. Would I like it finished? Yes. But I can more than live with it right now.


I kind of agree - yeah, rebooting every few days to a week gets old fast, and yeah, having to teach my kids how to do "thumbs up thumbs down play play" is REALLY not something I should be doing - but still, it's something I can live with and get plenty of use out of. I'd get even MORE use out of it if issues were fixed, especially if the Netflix client were modern and supported subtitles... oh, and didn't crash the box.


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## b_scott (Nov 27, 2006)

aaronwt said:


> I'll need to check my other Premieres. My PXL did not exhibit the resizing issue.
> 
> At least this gave me a chance to delete my PS3 from my Netflix device list so i could add my PXL to the list. I think I'll be dumping my PS3 sooner rather than later now. *The only thing it has now for me is 1080P24 and DD 5.1 from Netflix.* All the other applications are as good or better on other devices now.


that's the main reason I use it. If that's not important to you, then I don't know what to tell you.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

b_scott said:


> that's the main reason I use it. If that's not important to you, then I don't know what to tell you.


the picture quality is also an issue. The PS3 doesn't provide the best quality esepcially if it does any scaling.

But yes, 1080P24 and 5.1 audio from Netflix is the main reason I keep the PS3 around now.


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## b_scott (Nov 27, 2006)

aaronwt said:


> the picture quality is also an issue. The PS3 doesn't provide the best quality esepcially if it does any scaling.
> 
> But yes, 1080P24 and 5.1 audio from Netflix is the main reason I keep the PS3 around now.


"best" is relative, of course. Of Netflix streamers, it provides the "best" quality.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

b_scott said:


> "best" is relative, of course. Of Netflix streamers, it provides the "best" quality.


Best resolution yes, but the picture coming from the PS3 also has other issues.

Picture quality wise I would typically prefer the 720P Netflix from the TiVo, upscaled and processed with my equipment over the 1080P from netflix on the PS3(of course that will also depend on how good the encode is). And then if it's 720p from the PS3 there is no question what I get from my TiVo and scaled/processed with my equipment is much better looking.

Ideally 1080P24 and 5.1 DD would be on all Netflix devices, then i wouldn't even consider using the PS3 for Netflix streaming.


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