# bolt vox and "hydra" thoughts



## GaryD9 (Mar 1, 2002)

(Edited to clarify what are suggestions as apparently my implications are missed.)

I'm a long time tivo user (since DirecTivo and S2.) I think it's been many years since I posted here. Up until a few days ago, I was using 2 Premiere XL's (one an XL4.) The plain XL was starting to flake out, so I got my wife a 3TB BOLT VOX for Mother's Day. After two days playing with it, here are some thoughts. I'm not trying to bash tivo here, but offer honest feedback *and suggestions* - both positive and negative. I hope TiVo takes the time to read this and it helps in future designing:

Physical form factor: I like that it's smaller, but that curve seems to serve no useful purpose other than making it more difficult to fit with other components in a system. On the other hand, I wonder if the curve will allow for better cooling. It's not really a big deal, I guess, as I've usually left my tivo boxes on the top of the stacks for better cooling... it just looks odd. *I'd suggest making the box form factor something that would more easily fit with existing A/V components.*

New peanut: I usually throw the peanut in a drawer after initial setup (and instead use a programmable remote), but it seems like the peanut is a bit heavier and.... thicker than I remember. (Not really a negative comment - just an observation.)

New UI (21.8.1.RC6): I'm really trying to like this, but it feels too much like some marketing person is trying to shove their "brain child" down my throat without any consideration as to what I might actually want, what might be good or bad, or anything else. The rest of this post mostly deals with the UI stuff... *(This paragraph isn't a suggestion itself, but leads into suggestions.)*

Would it really have hurt to let the left arrow (left directional) back out of menus when it's not serving any other purpose? One of the wonderful aspects of the TiVo UI used to be its simplicity. I could do anything with the directional buttons and select (and channel up/down for paging.) Now, I also need "back" and "exit." Why? * I'd suggest updating the code to again allow using the left directional button to back out of things.*

Why has functionality been taken out of the new UI? I can't transfer recordings from another TiVo anymore (which is extremely painful when trying to upgrade from an older tivo) (and using tivo online is a non-starter - see below.) As well, I can't play an entire list of programs from a folder anymore. I'm scared that there are other things missing I haven't found yet. *As a suggestion, please put back these missing features so people don't look at this new "experience" as a functional downgrade.*

I used to be able to use the infamous "thumb" buttons from the "now playing" (er.. "my shows") lists... or at least while viewing the details of something in the list. Now, I can't seem to give something a thumb up or down unless I actually start playing it. Is that on purpose? Why? * As with my previous suggestion, I'd suggest putting back this functionality.*

Navigation in the new UI is... confusing. When I go into "My Shows", I'd like to start in a "known" place in the menu navigation. Instead, I start wherever the last person left off - and it's confusing to know if I need to use left/right or up/down at any given moment. *Can something be done to make things less confusing? Perhaps an easy way to "reset" the navigation to a known central spot?*

The Guide... The TiVo guide was one of the other aspects of TiVo that made it so great. This new grid guide feels like TiVo is trying to revert to the old scrolling "guide" channel of 1980's cable TV. Either that, or the person who designed it is having a secret love affair with a spreadsheet fanatic. (That's not true - most modern spreadsheets are much more functional than this simple grid.) I can no longer easily see the next 6 or so programs coming on any given channel, and that was something I used often. I seem to remember that, long ago, tivo used to give an OPTION for using a grid-like guide or the famous tivo guide. Any chance of that choice coming back? *(Just a suggestion...)*

As for tivo online, I don't know if these comments are only relevant to "hydra" tivo's or true for all of them. Until this new BOLT, I never used tivo online for anything serious (but now it seems to be the only way to transfer shows between tivo's): tivo online is very, very broken. Transferring shows might appear to work, but often the copied shows won't play past 8-15 minutes. At that point, the playing show just freezes. No errors reported in the copying, and no errors shown while playing. It just... stops in a perma-pause. *(I'd suggest that TiVo seriously look at this issue being it's the only method for copying shows at this time. This paragraph also explains some previous and later comments.)*

TiVo's "support" (which I tried to call because of the tivo online problems) is a vicious script cycle of "reboot the tivo" and "reboot the entire router"... repeating over and over until either the problem magically goes away or the customer gets sick of their entire network dropping from the router resets. I feel bad for the guy that has a tivo on a university network or something where it'd be impossible to reboot the router once, much less dozens of times. I'd imagine TiVo would refuse to support them. Really, TiVo, someone needs to explain to your support staff that rebooting things is very disruptive. *(That's a suggestion.) *Perhaps if they were told that they wouldn't be paid for the amount of time it took to reboot things, they'd try to find answers instead of just saying "try rebooting it again." *While my previous sentence isn't exactly a serious suggestion, I really would suggest better training for your support folks.*

Everything isn't all bad. I do like the new popup when I press "info" (er.. "i") while watching a show. It gives many more options; even the ability to take the current channel out of my channel list (which is useful when starting from scratch.) * (This isn't a suggestion, exactly, but points out something positive in the UI that can be taken as a suggestion on how things might improve elsewhere.)*

I also like that I can keep the current program playing "behind" the menu's instead of putting it in a box in the upper right. Sadly, the UI is very inconsistent with that. Sometimes it's playing in the background, and sometimes it gets shoved to the upper right regardless of my preference setting. * If it's not obvious, this is a suggestion to make the two aspects more consistent.*

I'm glad that I'm able to "downgrade" the UI to an older one, but it seems silly that I lose all my recordings when doing it. I had no choice in the matter, as downgrading the UI was the ONLY option I had to transfer shows from my other TiVo. Afterwards, I let it "upgrade" again, but now I'm starting to think it was a mistake. I wonder if I can successfully transfer recordings from the BOLT with Hydra to my XL4 and then do the "downgrade" again. * (Not a suggestion at all - just a paragraph to kind of wrap up the post.)*

Can anyone comment on if TiVo will be supporting the "older" (pre-hydra) UI any longer, or if we'll be forced to upgrade in order to get bug fixes, new apps, etc? If TiVo is willing to keep supporting the older UI on the newer box, I'll happily give up the "voice" features forever. * (Again, this wasn't really a suggestion - other than the implied suggestion that TiVo keep maintaining the previous UI with new apps and bug fixes for now.)*

Thanks
Gary


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

GaryD9 said:


> Can anyone comment on if TiVo will be supporting the "older" (pre-hydra) UI any longer, or if we'll be forced to upgrade in order to get bug fixes, new apps, etc? If TiVo is willing to keep supporting the older UI on the newer box, I'll happily give up the "voice" features forever.
> Thanks
> Gary


They have not given up yet -> 20.7.4.rc42


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

Why is this in the suggestions forum?


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

TonyD79 said:


> Why is this in the suggestions forum?


I never ask "why" anymore.


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## Megamind (Feb 18, 2013)

JoeKustra said:


> I never ask "why" anymore.


Why?


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## GaryD9 (Mar 1, 2002)

TonyD79 said:


> Why is this in the suggestions forum?


Because the feedback is an implied suggestion to improve.


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

GaryD9 said:


> Because the feedback is an implied suggestion to improve.


No, it is not. It is a review or a rant. Not a suggestion at all. And the topic has been covered dozens of times in the appropriate forums. Which are reviewed as much (or more accurately, as little) as this one is by TiVo employees.


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## GaryD9 (Mar 1, 2002)

TonyD79 said:


> No, it is not. It is a review or a rant. Not a suggestion at all. And the topic has been covered dozens of times in the appropriate forums. Which are reviewed as much (or more accurately, as little) as this one is by TiVo employees.


Wow... TCF has certainly changed over the past couple of decades. It used to be a friendly place where people were given the benefit of the doubt without all the hostility.

Being you're too hostile to read my post with an open mind and just assume it's a "review" or a "rant", I've gone and edited the post. I've removed nothing from the post, and simply added comments,* in bold*, clarifying what my suggestions are. There are a couple of things in there that aren't suggestions at all, such as my comments about the peanut size, but most everything there is part of a suggestion, leads into a suggestion, or is a comment that explains something that led to a suggestion.

As I said in the post, I really am trying to like the new UI. Part of that is giving feedback on it. Any feedback that includes specific details implies a suggestion to resolve any negative feedback. For example, while the comment "it's terrible" doesn't offer any suggestion, a comment of "pressing the button doesn't perform the expected function" is an implied suggestion to make the button perform the expected function, OR to do something that changes the expectation. You apparently disagree with that, so I've clarified. Just for you.


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

TCF used to be more heavily moderated and yet another hydra rant would be moved to the correct forum. I’m not hostile. I am simply pointing out that you posted in the wrong forum.


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## Furmaniac (Apr 3, 2018)

GaryD9 said:


> (Edited to clarify what are suggestions as apparently my implications are missed.)
> 
> I'm a long time tivo user (since DirecTivo and S2.) I think it's been many years since I posted here. Up until a few days ago, I was using 2 Premiere XL's (one an XL4.) The plain XL was starting to flake out, so I got my wife a 3TB BOLT VOX for Mother's Day. After two days playing with it, here are some thoughts. I'm not trying to bash tivo here, but offer honest feedback *and suggestions* - both positive and negative. I hope TiVo takes the time to read this and it helps in future designing:
> 
> ...


The mini guide has been replaced by a similar function on live TV. Press the up button and you have a horizontal and vertical version of the old mini guide.

Giving up the Vox microphone may be a mistake. At this time the Vox fine old movies and TV shows that are not currently in the guide or streaming and allows you to bookmark them, and/or make a 1pass &/or Wishlist. The typed in at this time will only show you what's in the guide so the Vox is very valuable.


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