# Does anyone LIKE the HDUI?



## mask2343 (Jan 6, 2003)

I just purchased the Tivo Premiere with the Woot deal last week. Looking at these boards is getting me nervous. Seems like EVERYONE is complaining about the HDUI freezing. Has ANYONE had a good experience? Is this just a case of the people who have no problems don't post here?


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## plazman30 (Jan 23, 2005)

I like the HDUI. Had my Premiere since October. It has never frozen on me. I started with 14.6. Just got 14.7 last week and have had no issues with it either.

I liked the Premiere enough that I bought another one. I wish the woot deal would have been sooner. I bought my original from woot back in September for $169.


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## Kivo (Feb 20, 2003)

Yes. I love the HDUI. I just wish they would finish it.


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## mask2343 (Jan 6, 2003)

Kivo said:


> Yes. I love the HDUI. I just wish they would finish it.


Can you explain? Are there sections that do not have HD?


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## Johnwashere (Sep 17, 2005)

Most of the screens you look at most are hd. The now playing list is HD. Season pass manager, settings, and many other pages are not hd. Ive had my premiere for many many months and Ive only had it freeze on me 1 time.


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

mask2343 said:


> I just purchased the Tivo Premiere with the Woot deal last week. Looking at these boards is getting me nervous. Seems like EVERYONE is complaining about the HDUI freezing. Has ANYONE had a good experience? Is this just a case of the people who have no problems don't post here?


To better your question on the HDUI you should put up a poll.
My wife found the HDUI too complicated with all the stuff on the screen and made me go back to the SDUI, but on v14.6 I never had any hangs or problems on the HDUI for the few weeks we used it, and it was fast enough to work with, but the wife wins.


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## rahnbo (Sep 12, 2010)

No. I like the look and features of the HDUI but the performance is horrible in my opinion. The alternative is to switch to the SDUI. . . but once in a while it locks up for about 10 minutes at a time. Despite that I still prefer the SD over the HDUI.


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## news4me2 (Jul 10, 2010)

mask2343 said:


> Seems like EVERYONE is complaining about the HDUI freezing. Has ANYONE had a good experience? Is this just a case of the people who have no problems don't post here?


I can say that I have been happy with my TIVO Premiere's... While I have experienced occasional glitches related to lockups and delay's of the HDUI, it seems that each successive TIVO software release has improved system responsiveness. For those issues I have experienced, none caused me to call TIVO Support or seek help in these forums. Having never owned a TIVO prior to my Premiere purchases last year, I really have no reference point to the speed or responsiveness that long time TIVO owners speak about, but after comparing the two UI's on my Premiere, my preference is to use the HDUI.


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## reeseg (Jun 24, 2005)

I was actually having great luck with the HDUI until the 14.7 rollout. For me, the extended web search into shows on Amazon and Netflix was awesome - if - it would just work. Lately, downloading Amazon shows while using the HDUI almost guarantees a Green Donut and a long wait.

While excellent in principle, to be able to search across multiple sources, there are obviously some key issues still in the code that is affecting a lot of people. 

For me, I'm turning off the HDUI until such time as TiVo provides some stability.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

Even if it performed as fast or faster than the "classic" UI (which it doesn't) I just don't like it and would still opt not to use it given a choice. HD UI looks too much like a spammed web page for my taste.


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

I like it, but I wish we had more control over it and more customization options.


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## caddyroger (Mar 15, 2005)

I like the HDUI but I can not not use it because of it slowness. By tivo not fixing this I will not be buying any more tivo's


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## dtyree (Dec 24, 2010)

I've had the Premiere for about a month so far. I use the HDUI and it's ok. i get the green doughnut every once in a while though. 
no lockups at all. 
i still get the impression that the whole interface is unfinished, some things are HD and some things are still SD. almost like a beta product...........


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## smbaker (May 24, 2003)

I prefer the HDUI over SD and use it. Only had a few (half dozen or less) problems in several months of ownership. I do have a stable reliable internet connection, and I'm told that makes a difference. 

I am mildly annoyed every time it switches to an SD screen. Would it kill Tivo to find a week or two of developer time in the LAST NINE MONTHS to get these menus completed? Products should be completed before selling them to the consumer, not after. Lots of people bought the Premier on the assumption that Tivo would eventually finish the interface, an assumption that is not proving to be true.


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## rahnbo (Sep 12, 2010)

news4me2 said:


> I really have no reference point to the speed or responsiveness that long time TIVO owners speak about, but after comparing the two UI's on my Premiere, my preference is to use the HDUI.


Switch to the SDUI for a few days, then try switching back the HDUI and you'll have your point of reference.


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## SQUIDWARD360 (May 28, 2010)

I have no problems with the HDUI. Only froze once or twice in the last six months. I only wish the audio wouldn't cut out for that second when I switch from Live TV to the Tivo menu.


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## DaveWhittle (Jul 25, 2002)

Like and use the HD-UI with no problems.


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## ltxi (Feb 14, 2010)

SQUIDWARD360 said:


> I have no problems with the HDUI. Only froze once or twice in the last six months. I only wish the audio wouldn't cut out for that second when I switch from Live TV to the Tivo menu.


I wonder.....how would you, or anyone else who seems to tolerate this and much worse HDUI behavior, react if your car/laptop/ISP/home furnace/electric company/whatever acted like this? Wake up and smell the pathetic roses.


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## shadowfrom88 (Jan 6, 2011)

Ive had my premier for a few weeks now and love the HDUI. Not a single freeze or hitch in the operation. It runs fast and smoothly. I believe that the people that have had the most problems are probably running slow internet connections. If you have fast internet, you'll have a fast premier.


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

ltxi said:


> I wonder.....how would you, or anyone else who seems to tolerate this and much worse HDUI behavior, react if your car/laptop/ISP/home furnace/electric company/whatever acted like this? Wake up and smell the pathetic roses.


Or we don't have the issues you have.

Mine works fine.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

shadowfrom88 said:


> Ive had my premier for a few weeks now and love the HDUI. Not a single freeze or hitch in the operation.


A few weeks is enough to get a feel for it, but not enough to judge reliability. My Premiere was reliable for several months before I starting having reliability issues.



> It runs fast and smoothly. I believe that the people that have had the most problems are probably running slow internet connections. If you have fast internet, you'll have a fast premier.


Can't speak for others, but I have a very fast and reliable wired Internet connection. The HDUI is slow, slow, slow. I only use the SDUI now. And even that can freeze on occasion.

Reliability is something easily quantifiable. Speed is not. To me, the HDUI is painful to use- overall about 400% or more slower than the SDUI. But even the SDUI isn't fast enough. Even though it is faster on the Premiere than the HD, that doesn't say much, because I wasn't happy with the speed of the HD, either.


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## rahnbo (Sep 12, 2010)

crxssi said:


> Can't speak for others, but I have a very fast and reliable wired Internet connection. The HDUI is slow, slow, slow. I only use the SDUI now. And even that can freeze on occasion.
> 
> Reliability is something easily quantifiable. Speed is not. To me, the HDUI is painful to use- overall about 400% or more slower than the SDUI. But even the SDUI isn't fast enough. Even though it is faster on the Premiere than the HD, that doesn't say much, because I wasn't happy with the speed of the HD, either.


Same here. I have a reliable 10 megabit connection and even when it's wide open (nothing else using it) the HDUI is slow. I don't think it is fair for people to keep blaming internet connection speed for the poor HDUI performance. Granted, it may be a factor in some cases but not all. I think for some people it's perception. They either don't use Premiere in a way that they would notice the poor performance or the simply don't mind it. I suppose there is the possibility that some people have a super fast uber Premiere box, but I have two and they're equally bad.


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## plazman30 (Jan 23, 2005)

It would be nice if they made the Season Pass Manager in the HDUI. I do find myself going in there more often than I thought.


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## mishafp (Nov 8, 2006)

Mine is working just great, although I've only had my Premiere for a week or so. Already a couple of suggested movies in the top bar that I didn't know where out on free TV that I TIVOed and enjoyed.


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## Davelnlr_ (Jan 13, 2011)

I didnt have any issues with it, but switched to the SD GUI, as its new (coming from a DirecTv DVR), and I was familiar with the old Series 1 GUI. Ill probably switch back to the HDGUI once I get more accustomed to the Tivo again.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I like the idea of it, but it's too damn slow to actually use.

Dan


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## mrsean (May 15, 2006)

I couldn't stand the cluttered mess look of the HDUI long enough to tell whether the speed sucked or not. I agree with the other poster that we should have an option to turn off all the annoying and unneccessary screen garbage.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

mrsean said:


> I couldn't stand the cluttered mess look of the HDUI long enough to tell whether the speed sucked or not. I agree with the other poster that we should have an option to turn off all the annoying and unneccessary screen garbage.


I agree with you that it is way to cluttered and we do have a way to turn it off - switch back to the SDUI which works just fine for what I need an UI to do.

Thanks,


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## jmatero (Apr 9, 2003)

I guess I'm in the minority. I hate the hd menus. Terrible design. With HD you gain real estate on the SIDES. What do they do? Shrink everything that used to be displayed in an entire screen and move it to the BOTTOM half of the menu to plug other shows and a preview up top. People love TiVo because it is still the best DVR... And most importantly ease of use.


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## DaveWhittle (Jul 25, 2002)

DaveWhittle said:


> Like and use the HD-UI with no problems.


jinxed myself... got the green donut last night. 

Thumb down, Thumb up, play play fixed the lockup.


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

HDUI is sluggish. 

That's the main problem. Lack of responsiveness.

It works though.

I don't use it more than I have to. Certainly not to browse content with or use the streaming features etc. Too slow for that. 

Just set up a wishlist for the australian open and annoying to use. Got the green circle of waiting. Of course that was in SD. As it switches to SD for some things. And was annoyed that in 2010 I can't correct a a typo without deleting everything after the typo.


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## belunos (Sep 19, 2002)

I rather dislike it, but mostly because it's slow. It was fast at first, then I added an expander and shows started filling in. Visually.. I dunno, it feels like a trade off in some aspects. You get the handy menu thing to the right, but navigating it feels kludgy.. stuff like that. I would rather the whole thing be an obvious advancement rather than have pros and cons vs the non hd ui


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

I like the HDUI that they have started. I use it and have no issues. I have a good cable internet connection and TiVo is on wired network. That can make a difference

I have a second delay here or there but no big deal to me


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

I've had my Premieres since launch. They have been very reliable and I love the HDUI. When I'm at my girlfriends house I can't stand using her S3 boxes anymore because of the old UI..


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

HDUI, SDUI - I use them both between my Series 3 and Premiere - doesn't matter much to me. I watch the shows I record, and don't spend much time in the UI at all.


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## Slomo (Jan 22, 2011)

Reply to post #19.

This is not the case at all for us. We have 20Mb/s download speed, our computers are lightning quick and our Premiere is a slug in the HDUI mode. Lots of green donuts, sometimes for 15 minutes or longer. Me thinks there's a problem.


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## Lostie4ever (Jan 20, 2011)

I have only had my premiere for a few days so I have no experience with reliability yet. I have been using the HDUI and it is fast and responsive for me. I have everything hardwired on my network and middle of the road internet package with comcast. Netflix and Amazon vod has worked fine for me also.

I wonder what causes some premieres to be slow and some not?


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## rahnbo (Sep 12, 2010)

Lostie4ever said:


> I wonder what causes some premieres to be slow and some not?


To some degree it could just be expectations and perception of the user. I have two Premiere and think they're painfully slow in HDUI. I don't think it was all that slow in the beginning but as the units filled up with shows, SP's, etc they got noticeably slower to the point I switch to the SDUI. Many want to blame slow internet connections but I know that's not the problem in my case. Even if it was the problem then that is poor design by Tivo to make basic DVR functions depend on internet connectivity.


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## Geemer (Mar 21, 2008)

My wife and I like the HDUI. That said, a bit of a speed up would be nice. Our Premier XL is where a Series 3 used to be so our main point of comparison is between those two models.


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## Mover480 (Jan 15, 2006)

I was worried about the HDUI before I purchased the Premier XL about a month ago. Seemed like most folks thought it was slow and unresponsive. Got the box, set it up and couldn't be happier! Use the HDUI exclusively. I have it hard wired to the router and use DSL. It's quick. I particularly like the transfer speeds to the PC. Getting around 4 MB/sec.
As long as the LAN and Internet connection are working right, this thing rocks! I suspect that most of the problems people are having are due to poor network connections.


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## HellFish (Jan 28, 2007)

Do you use SDUI or HDUI
I didn't see this posted, but here is a poll from Nov. Surprisingly, despite the impression you get around here, more people use the HDUI.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

HellFish said:


> Do you use SDUI or HDUI
> I didn't see this posted, but here is a poll from Nov. Surprisingly, despite the impression you get around here, more people use the HDUI.


Yes, several percent more than half. That, in and of itself, speaks volumes to how poor the HDUI must really be if almost half the people out there go out of their way to turn it off! (Of course, it is not a scientific poll, there is a confound- the polled people are those who frequent this web forum).

It is not like all of those people don't want to try something new. Countless posts on the forums about how people tried to use it "for days", "for months", "over and over" and yet can't handle the slow speed, unresponsiveness, pauses, annoying ads/banners/discovery bar, etc and keep switching back to the SDUI. I am one of those persons- I very much want a more modern interface. Something that shows me more information and gives me more options. But not at the cost of performance and stability. The fact that the HDUI wastes most of the additional screen space by filling it with banner junk instead of letting me see more about my shows without scrolling or using sub-menus is just insult added to injury.

My theory is that most of the people (certainly not all, but most) that use the HDUI are those that don't know any different and have never owned a recent (Series3/HD) TiVo. Some cable DVR's out there are so horrible that ANYTHING seems like a huge improvement.


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

There have also been two updates since and people may have switched. Unfortunately we don't see to have the option to allow people to change their votes on this forum so we can't keep the poll ongoing.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

innocentfreak said:


> There have also been two updates since and people may have switched. Unfortunately we don't see to have the option to allow people to change their votes on this forum so we can't keep the poll ongoing.


I agree that a new, much more comprehensive and updated poll would be nice. However, we still have the same confound- it is not a random sample of TiVo users; it would just be a group of people who frequent the forums. Also, it is not possible to ask all the questions necessary to separate the information into usable conclusions with the forum poll feature.

(You can tell I took ENTIRELY too many statistics courses in college. Eeek)


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## nolanski (Mar 27, 2006)

I like the HDUI I don't think it's slow at all.
For $100.00 the Premiere is a great unit.


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