# UI Notes and Comments



## nrc (Nov 17, 1999)

Looking through the gallery at Engadget I see a few things worth commenting on. Some of these have been mentioned here and there but I thought it worthwhile to create thread for interesting UI changes or features.

First I hate the switch from "Now Playing" to "My Shows". It's nothing less than counter-tivolutionary. Leave the "My Crap" to Windows.

There are several different views of "TiVo Central" and they all seem to have slight variations in the menu. Most interestingly, some of them have an entry for "Apps" and "Friends & family". "Showcases" show up on some menus but not others as does "Music" and "Music and photos." Possibly it depends on what you have configured?

This version shows an interesting option where you can select different individuals presumably to modify the "My Shows" listing. Are these just people in the household or are these "Friends & Family" and if so, how do "friends" relate to your "My Shows" list?

This screen shows a "Now In Theatres" item in the "My Shows" listing which appears to be displaying a movie poster. What does this feature provide and where does it come from? A Framechannel subscription? The Gold Star on the folder is worrisome. A non-removable folder for movie ads?

That same screen also shows some nice catagories that you can select to filter your Now P... My Shows list. Nice.

This screen has several interesting features. Of course, Comcast OnDemand is the most interesting. On the Engadget video you can hear them asking about it, but you can't make out the answer thanks to the loud music. My guess is this is a SeaChange arrangement with Comcast in conjunction with the "real TiVo" provisioning they talked about for some areas.

Also on that screen we see "Friends Recommend" which again hints at some kind of collaborations with friends beyond your household. Also, "New Releases" will be great if it's really "New Releases" and not what Amazon or Netflix are calling new releases.

A clock in the upper right and corner on some views will be nice. Possibly optionally disabled? I can't tell you how happy I am that PIP can be turned off. Thank you TiVo.

I notice that we see only two types of dots in these screens. Green (currently keep until I delete) and blue (currently a download, although the blue is different). Does this mean they just loaded up on downloads for these screenshots or are we missing the normal yellow and yellow with bang status icons?


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## refried (Dec 22, 2005)

nrc said:


> A clock in the upper right and corner on some views will be nice. Possibly optionally disabled? I can't tell you how happy I am that PIP can be turned off. Thank you TiVo.


I would much rather have a clock on the front of the box. Every VCR had a clock on the front. TiVo replaced the VCR. TiVo always has the right time. Why not keep the clock? It'll never have to flash 12:00 like VCRs did.

I noticed something new in this shot, the a b c buttons to set options, sorting and groups. Did they add more buttons to the remote? Are there any pictures of the new Premier remote?


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## refried (Dec 22, 2005)

Ah, found it.


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## SugarBowl (Jan 5, 2007)

I haven't seen any shots of the on-screen guide. Are there any ?


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

No selector switch for Tivo 1 or 2 so I wonder if they scrapped that.


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## KevinG (Sep 3, 2003)

innocentfreak said:


> No selector switch for Tivo 1 or 2 so I wonder if they scrapped that.


It's bluetooth...so it will have to be "paired" with the Tivo that it is controlling.

Edit: I take it back...only the version with the slide out keyboard will be bluetooth..so the question is still unanswered.


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## StuffOfInterest (Jul 18, 2007)

refried said:


> Ah, found it.


Hmm, I wonder if that "Zoom" button can be mapped to the "wide" function on my TV allowing switching between zoom modes when a HD program is being letterboxed on a SD channel?


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## bschuler2007 (Feb 25, 2007)

NRC,
First of all, awesome post and very helpful. 
If you look in your last link,http://www.engadget.com/photos/tivo-premiere-ui-gallery/#2760477you will see a ad in the top ribbon as well. The "Lindsey is epic" is an ad. This confirms your suspected non-removable ad in My Shows as well, because you will notice it also has a star icon on it. Along with the bashing, I will give Tivo credit here, atleast Tivo is telling you it is an ad.

So series 4.. still crappy 80ies look when playing mp3s.. but 40 mil spent on R&D improving ad placements. Tivo gets me.


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## nrc (Nov 17, 1999)

bschuler2007 said:


> NRC,
> First of all, awesome post and very helpful.
> If you look in your last link,http://www.engadget.com/photos/tivo-premiere-ui-gallery/#2760477you will see a ad in the top ribbon as well. The "Lindsey is epic" is an ad. This confirms your suspected non-removable ad in My Shows as well, because you will notice it also has a star icon on it. Along with the bashing, I will give Tivo credit here, atleast Tivo is telling you it is an ad.


Yes, I didn't note that. I guess I've become accustomed to it in TiVo Search already. :/



> So series 4.. still crappy 80ies look when playing mp3s.. but 40 mil spent on R&D improving ad placements. Tivo gets me.


Is there a shot of the music player somewhere that I haven't seen?


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## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

nrc said:


> ...
> 
> This screen shows a "Now In Theatres" item in the "My Shows" listing which appears to be displaying a movie poster. What does this feature provide and where does it come from? A Framechannel subscription? The Gold Star on the folder is worrisome. A non-removable folder for movie ads?...


maybe they (tivo OR bestbuy) have a content deal for watching movies in theaters "now"?

there's been bits and pieces on the net about looking for different business models. I think amazon had a couple movies for vod before they were released.

Probably would be some crazy amount like $20- 50 bucks a viewing but would be another option if they could pull it off.


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## bschuler2007 (Feb 25, 2007)

Yeah, on Tivo's site itself.
http://www.tivo.com/mytivo/product-features/photos-music-on-tv/stream-music/index.html
After all these years, its as if the music player was considered a historic item and Tivo is actively trying to preserve it's old timey look.


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## GimmeMP3 (Nov 9, 2002)

bschuler2007 said:


> Yeah, on Tivo's site itself.
> http://www.tivo.com/mytivo/product-features/photos-music-on-tv/stream-music/index.html
> After all these years, its as if the music player was considered a historic item and Tivo is actively trying to preserve it's old timey look.


This is a shame, as it's the primary reason I own an AppleTV and a Media Center PC before that. I want to browse my music in an attractive visual interface that shows cover art, playlists and various ways of browsing. TiVo is selling this as a music box as one of the top features and currently has this old, archaic, inconsistent UI as the method of browsing. It makes no sense give that the rest of the UI is HD. Presumably they're going to fix it, and I'm not interested until they do.


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

KevinG said:


> It's bluetooth...so it will have to be "paired" with the Tivo that it is controlling.
> 
> Edit: I take it back...only the version with the slide out keyboard will be bluetooth..so the question is still unanswered.


This could definitely be a problem for those with multiple Tivos in the same room.


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## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

innocentfreak said:


> This could definitely be a problem for those with multiple Tivos in the same room.


probably you can program the remote to be 0-9 like the old days. But you would need to keep the remotes labeled and handy.

If they would just update things so you could control one tivo from another it would be a whole lot more fun....


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## nrc (Nov 17, 1999)

bschuler2007 said:


> Yeah, on Tivo's site itself.
> http://www.tivo.com/mytivo/product-features/photos-music-on-tv/stream-music/index.html
> After all these years, its as if the music player was considered a historic item and Tivo is actively trying to preserve it's old timey look.


I agree, I'd expect to see something much more capable for playing music on this new hardware. Hopefully they've just come out of the box with the "classic" HME app but something more up to date will follow.


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## Ruth (Jul 31, 2001)

Wait, so there are garish ads across the top of every single menu screen? Can those be turned off? Will they also appear if you choose the classic TiVo interface?


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## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

Ruth said:


> Wait, so there are garish ads across the top of every single menu screen? Can those be turned off? Will they also appear if you choose the classic TiVo interface?


ONE ad on that top bar- the rest of it is suggestions for you based on your usage patterns and choices you tell it to focus on.


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## Ruth (Jul 31, 2001)

MichaelK said:


> ONE ad on that top bar- the rest of it is suggestions for you based on your usage patterns and choices you tell it to focus on.


Regardless of how you characterize it, do you know the answer to my questions about whether it can be turned off, and whether it will appear in the Classic TiVo UI?


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## refried (Dec 22, 2005)

MichaelK said:


> ONE ad on that top bar- the rest of it is suggestions for you based on your usage patterns and choices you tell it to focus on.


Those suggestions might as well be ads for shows I don't watch.

I think I prefer the clean old interface to the busy new HD interface.

Nate


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## Ruth (Jul 31, 2001)

refried said:


> Those suggestions might as well be ads for shows I don't watch.
> 
> I think I prefer the clean old interface to the busy new HD interface.
> 
> Nate


I agree. "uggestions for you based on your usage patterns and choices" sounds suspiciously like "commercials" to me. I prefer my suggestions confined to the suggestions menu, where I can look or not look at them, as I decide. Not have them constantly bombrding me in every single menu.


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## TWinbrook46636 (Feb 9, 2008)

I find it odd there are absolutely no pictures of the listings grid in action.


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## MickeS (Dec 26, 2002)

TWinbrook46636 said:


> I find it odd there are absolutely no pictures of the listings grid in action.


There is no guide anymore, only search...


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## Gai-jin (Feb 28, 2000)

MichaelK said:


> probably you can program the remote to be 0-9 like the old days. But you would need to keep the remotes labeled and handy.
> 
> If they would just update things so you could control one tivo from another it would be a whole lot more fun....


Or just use an old remote. I don't see the ABCD buttons getting used much anyway.


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## wierdo (Apr 7, 2002)

refried said:


> Those suggestions might as well be ads for shows I don't watch.
> 
> I think I prefer the clean old interface to the busy new HD interface.
> 
> Nate


Funny, I've always enjoyed the recommendations in TiVo Search. It is a bit sad that some of them will be replaced with actual ads, though.


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## Gai-jin (Feb 28, 2000)

TWinbrook46636 said:


> I find it odd there are absolutely no pictures of the listings grid in action.


I remember one of the tivo guys commenting that Live TV & Guide was added as an afterthought on the original tivo. They didn't think anyone would ever want such a thing, but (IIRC) focus groups showed otherwise.


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## MickeS (Dec 26, 2002)

Gai-jin said:


> I remember one of the tivo guys commenting that Live TV & Guide was added as an afterthought on the original tivo. They didn't think anyone would ever want such a thing, but (IIRC) focus groups showed otherwise.


I wonder what the focus groups said about the FSI.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

MickeS said:


> There is no guide anymore, only search...


Are you joking or serious?

You mean I can't "view by time" or "view by channel"?

(I very very very rarely look at the grid from live TV.. with more capability, like showing To do list items there, I would use that more often..)

Though I now have enough tuners that I check the to do list/guide less frequently, I still am comparatively OCD/micromanaging my Tivos.. so I want the ability to do both.


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## gweempose (Mar 23, 2003)

nrc said:


> I'd expect to see something much more capable for playing music on this new hardware ...


There is absolutely no excuse for a state of the art media hub such as this not to support cover art. Are the developers completely clueless?


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## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

Ruth said:


> Regardless of how you characterize it, do you know the answer to my questions about whether it can be turned off, and whether it will appear in the Classic TiVo UI?


I'd bet you my entire weeks paycheck that there's no way in hell to turn it off.

And We already have ads all over the classic UI.


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## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

refried said:


> Those suggestions might as well be ads for shows I don't watch.
> 
> I think I prefer the clean old interface to the busy new HD interface.
> 
> Nate


plenty of people HATE the tivo suggestins. Plenty love them.

I obviously dont even have one to play- but i have seen screens about how it's customizable. You can possiblyl tell it to have only movies, only tv, only tips and tricks, etc.

there's so much more info on each screen as compared to the old UI that PERSONALLY I dont mind and may even enjoy the suggestions on each screen. But I can see how others might not.


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## TWinbrook46636 (Feb 9, 2008)

MickeS said:


> There is no guide anymore, only search...


I assumed you were joking until I saw the walkthrough video...

http://www.betanews.com/article/Exclusive-Video-Indepth-with-TiVos-new-Premiere-interface/1267653389

No listings grid to be found anywhere and he went all through the browse menu. Maybe it can only be accessed by pressing guide on the remote or perhaps by using the classic interface. It definitely seems to be even more of an afterthought with these new models.

EDIT: On second viewing I see he actually purposefully skipped the TV portion of the menu so I guess it could still be there. Why are they not showing it though? If these things aren't really now how can they ship these a month from now? I guess this is just one big public beta.


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## CallMeBob (Jun 15, 2005)

TWinbrook46636 said:


> I assumed you were joking until I saw the walkthrough video...
> 
> http://www.betanews.com/article/Exclusive-Video-Indepth-with-TiVos-new-Premiere-interface/1267653389
> 
> ...


I just watched that video and when he finally went to live TV he said that the channel banner "_will be_ in HD" and he used the phrase "we'll get to that later" several times about converting different aspects of the UI to an HD interface. Looks like they have a lot of work to do in the next 30 days.


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## nrc (Nov 17, 1999)

Good to see that the interface looks much faster in that demo than the Engadget video.


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## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

nrc said:


> Good to see that the interface looks much faster in that demo than the Engadget video.


Parts are faster, other parts are slow. When he clicks on a movie or TV series an actor is for example there is a good solid 10 second pause while TiVo gets the information.

This is somewhat understandable since it's probably having to pull the data from an online source but it's still slow.


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## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

it's tough for me to get an idea of the speed just from watching- I guess I'll need to go play with one at the best buy.

But I know that one of the places someone said that tivo stated they wree still figuring out what to cache on the machine to avoid network lags. So hopefully some of the gets fixed up (if the lags are in fact on related to getting internet info)


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## MickeS (Dec 26, 2002)

jmpage2 said:


> Parts are faster, other parts are slow. When he clicks on a movie or TV series an actor is for example there is a good solid 10 second pause while TiVo gets the information.
> 
> This is somewhat understandable since it's probably having to pull the data from an online source but it's still slow.





MichaelK said:


> it's tough for me to get an idea of the speed just from watching- I guess I'll need to go play with one at the best buy.
> 
> But I know that one of the places someone said that tivo stated they wree still figuring out what to cache on the machine to avoid network lags. So hopefully some of the gets fixed up (if the lags are in fact on related to getting internet info)


Yeah, this video made me a little more hopeful of the speed. Frankly though, it seems to be almost slower than TiVo Search is on my Series 3 (I'm not bothered by that at all). I don't really understand that.

But I have to say, that after watching that presentation by TiVoPony, I am definitely more clear on what TiVo tried to achieve, and I believe they have done what they set out to do, largely.

I LOVE the TiVo Search interface - I have spent a lot of time browsing there, jumping from one data point to another, kind of like Pony does in the video. It's enjoyable, and exposes people to a variety of sources. This is clearly what TiVo is aiming for, and what they SHOULD be aiming for - making the TiVo not just a DVR, but an "Internet appliance". In that sense "Inventing the DVR was just a warmup" makes sense (though it promises too much).

By integrating that aspect of the UI in this way (the search and multi-source content delivery) with the DVR-functionality, TiVo HAS actually created something unique.

There are a lot of questions about how well they have managed to integrate other functions - live TV guide, how add-ons like Rhapsody (which was a disaster in the previous models, IMO) will work with it, and mostly to me how and if they have executed the LAN media playback - in its current form (Series 2,3,HD) it is crude but functional. However, "crude but functional" doesn't sell a lot of units.

So all in all, I think I have a more positive opinion about what they have done after watching the video, however many questions remain about how they've done (or will do) the thing I consider key to their survival (at least in the consumer market): the network media player functionality.


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## nrc (Nov 17, 1999)

I'm very pleased to hear that they plan to allow customization of the bar across the top. That will be great. I'm guessing there will still be a reserved spot for ads but those seem pretty unobtrusive in TiVo Search.


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## gweempose (Mar 23, 2003)

MickeS said:


> By integrating that aspect of the UI in this way (the search and multi-source content delivery) with the DVR-functionality, TiVo HAS actually created something unique.


I have to admit, when I first heard about the feature set of the new TiVos, I was somewhat underwhelmed. I think this is because, like most TiVo users, I was looking at in terms of how the new Premiere series would improve the DVR experience. After watching the demo and thinking about it for a while, I have now come to realize that TiVo was actually very forward thinking with these new boxes. The ability to time-shift programming is no longer the device's primary function, and this change in philosophy has brought about a truly unique product. I honestly think this may very well end up being the kind of product that raises the bar for what an internet connected set top box should be.


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## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

nrc said:


> I'm very pleased to hear that they plan to allow customization of the bar across the top. That will be great. I'm guessing there will still be a reserved spot for ads but those seem pretty unobtrusive in TiVo Search.


yep-

someplace else theres a post of a blog entry that they reserve ONE slot for ads.

so basically same difference as we have now with one add on a screen at various places. Considering I dont even notice the ads on my tivo's anymore and the fact that the new UI has soo much more info per screen I am not bent about it at all.


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## wierdo (Apr 7, 2002)

MichaelK said:


> Considering I dont even notice the ads on my tivo's anymore and the fact that the new UI has soo much more info per screen I am not bent about it at all.


As long as they don't start doing animated ads, the new UI is a net positive from my perspective.


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## Chip Chanko (Nov 7, 2005)

Anyone know how the UI will look when output 480i to a 4:3 tv? It looks like the remote doesn't have an aspect ratio button anymore so maybe it's 16:9 only? If that's the case, would 480i output as anamorphic or automatically letterbox itself? 

My current setup has a TiVoHD going HDMI to a HD projector and the composite output hooked up to a 4:3 CRT.


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## bkdtv (Jan 9, 2003)

Chip Chanko said:


> Anyone know how the UI will look when output 480i to a 4:3 tv? It looks like the remote doesn't have an aspect ratio button anymore so maybe it's 16:9 only? If that's the case, would 480i output as anamorphic or automatically letterbox itself?


ASPECT was relabeled ZOOM.

The new HD UI is designed for 16:9 HD screens. Those with 4:3 screens will need to select the classic UI under Messages & Settings -> Restart or Reset TiVo.


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## FairfaxCA (Mar 28, 2010)

_"This version shows an interesting option where you can select different individuals presumably to modify the "My Shows" listing. Are these just people in the household or are these "Friends & Family" and if so, how do "friends" relate to your "My Shows" list?"_

Does anyone know if above feature made into the final release? I can't find how to do make separate folders to store each member of the family's recordings. Also is there a way to make separate lists of favorite channels?


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## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

FairfaxCA said:


> _"This version shows an interesting option where you can select different individuals presumably to modify the "My Shows" listing. Are these just people in the household or are these "Friends & Family" and if so, how do "friends" relate to your "My Shows" list?"_
> 
> Does anyone know if above feature made into the final release? I can't find how to do make separate folders to store each member of the family's recordings. Also is there a way to make separate lists of favorite channels?


This is a mock up screen that is not in the shipping version of software. There's no way to know if it will ever make it into the actual released software at a later time.


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