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TiVo Premiere Elite: Four tuners, 300 hours of HD recordings, but what will it cost?

Summary: Having been largely bumped to the margins as every pay TV provider has offered a DVR set-top box to subscribers, TiVo is thinking big with its forthcoming Premiere Elite set-top box. The question is: How big is it thinking in terms of price?

Sean Portnoy

By for Home Theater |

Having been largely bumped to the margins as every pay TV provider has offered a DVR set-top box to subscribers, TiVo is thinking big with its forthcoming Premiere Elite set-top box. The question is: How big is it thinking in terms of price?

According to documents submitted with the device's FCC filing, the Premier Elite features four tuners that can simultaneously record a quartet of programs, with 2TB of storage to store 300 hours of HD recordings or 2,200 hours of standard-definition recordings. It's also THX certified for top-notch audio and video quality, but it's a digital-only affair, with no support for analog TV sources.

You will need a CableCard or Verizon FiOS service in order to use the Premiere Elite (no satellite TV or AT&T U-verse), and, of course, you'll need to be a TiVo subscriber. The box also can connect with TiVo devices around the home so you can beam recordings to other rooms.

So how much will this set you back? Zatz Not Funny! speculates that the Premiere Elite could run $600 or higher, though Engadget thinks $500 is a better bet. Either way, it may be a bit of a tough sell to consumers used to paying a few bucks a month for their current DVR.

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12 comments
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  • Digital Only

    Does that mean no ATSC over-the-air, or just no analog OTA? If it has ATSC support, it's the perfect box!
    tribbleva
    Reply Vote

    • Analog OTA is no longer available

      @tribbleva What I got is that the box does not support any analog recording at all. Meaning analog inputs (I'm guessing RCA and S-Video) are not included.
      wackoae
      Reply Vote

    • RE: TiVo Premiere Elite: Four tuners, 300 hours of HD recordings, but what will it cost?

      @tribbleva No OTA at all, digital cable only. There is no more analog OTA anyway. The TiVo Premiere Elite has digital cable QAM tuners and no OTA ATSC tuners.
      megazone
      Reply Vote

      • RE: TiVo Premiere Elite: Four tuners, 300 hours of HD recordings, but what will it cost?

        @megazone Maybe there's no analog OTA where you live but out here in rural Arizona, that's pretty much all we have. I get ABC, CBS, FOX, and PBS via analog translators off a nearby mountain. Only NBC comes via a digital signal and that's just an SD rebroadcast from another station. I'm mighty glad my TiVo Premiere supports analog OTA!
        PaulHiggins
        Reply Vote

  • RE: TiVo Premiere Elite: Four tuners, 300 hours of HD recordings, but what will it cost?

    This sounds like the box that Virgin are offering to subscribers in their UK TV adverts - unfortunately this box is not going to work with freeview digital (digitial through arials with no subscription) so it seems limited to those who live in cabled areas and who are prepared to shell out for subscription TV
    cymru999
    Reply Vote

    • RE: TiVo Premiere Elite: Four tuners, 300 hours of HD recordings, but what will it cost?

      @cymru999 , TiVo was good invention 15 years ago, but
      it vas in wrong hands and never make it in the market because stupid people run it!
      trile
      Reply Vote

  • RE: TiVo Premiere Elite: Four tuners, 300 hours of HD recordings, but what will it cost?

    I was a die hard Tivo fan and owned 8 Tivo boxes. Then they screwed me over to try to get a few more dollars per month so now I own 0 Tivo boxes and I spread the word every chance I get. This new box is exactly what I would have bought had they not driven me away. I hope it fails just like their service has failed.
    marc@...
    Reply Vote

    • RE: TiVo Premiere Elite: Four tuners, 300 hours of HD recordings, but what will it cost?

      @marc@... You seem bitter---I like it!
      sportovision
      Reply Vote

  • TiVo considers hardware a "necessary evil"

    People should know that TiVo considers hardware to be a secondary business. On the July 30 edition of C-SPAN's "The Communicators", Matthew Zinn, Sr. VP and General Counsel at TiVo said "Well, TiVo's a software company. We make hardware mainly as a necessary evil. We don't make money on hardware. We don't really like making hardware." See <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfQiKrJPRtQ&list=PL488946669A5E518E" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfQiKrJPRtQ&list=PL488946669A5E518E" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfQiKrJPRtQ&list=PL488946669A5E518E" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfQiKrJPRtQ&list=PL488946669A5E518E</a></a></a> at about 1:50 in.<br><br>Given how bad the TiVo Premiere has been, anybody who would buy hardware from a company with this attitude is making a serious mistake. This certainly explains why support for the Premiere has been poor and why the new DirecTV box has never materialized.

    I can't imagine what it's like being a hardware engineer at TiVo. It can't be fun to come into work at a company that values you so little. I'd be spending my time looking for another job rather than doing the best I could at designing new hardware.
    wilback
    Reply Vote

  • RE: TiVo Premiere Elite: Four tuners, 300 hours of HD recordings, but what will it cost?

    I have a TiVo box (series 2) and I love it. I would gladly get the new Premier box, but I just don't want to deal with the cable card drama and I'm not getting that FIOS crap. So I will keep my series 2 and be happy. If TiVo should decide to go back to connecting to cable boxes, then I'm all over it.
    Gadget Girl
    Reply Vote

  • RE: TiVo Premiere Elite: Four tuners, 300 hours of HD recordings, but what will it cost?

    I?m still on my Series II. It was lightning fast when I purchased but it has been beaten to the ground by Tivo ?updates?.

    I hate Tivo updates. We should be given a choice! I understand the ramifications? I would give up support for a box as reliable and fast as it was when I purchased it!

    Listen up Tivo! On screen control must be FAST. I mean INSTANT!! When I press a button I don?t want to be able to count to ONE before something happens on screen.

    I bought Tivo once, and I?d gladly buy on again IF they had a product as good as my series II USE TO BE.

    Tivo wants my money? I want a good product. And from what I?ve read, Premiere wasn't it. Premiere Elite? Seems doubtful, but I'll wait and see.
    konowal@...
    Reply Vote

  • RE: TiVo Premiere Elite: Four tuners, 300 hours of HD recordings, but what will it cost?

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