Back at the infancy of DVRs, TiVo was among the first companies to offer consumer-friendly, hard drive-based devices that were then called “PVRs,” or personal video recorders. As a pioneer, TiVo continues to hold a large number of patents within that category, even as cable- and satellite-supplied services have captured the market, along with retail-sale over-the-air recorders, such as Tablo, Channel Master, Air TV, HD Home Run, and Amazon’s Recast. TiVo, however, continues to deliver products with a highly regarded interface, unique features, and high-capacity storage.
Toward that end, TiVo previewed a new pair of DVR models at the recent CEDIA Expo that are now available for sale. The new Edge models are the seventh generation of TiVo, complementing the current Bolt models as higher end, more fully featured takes on the DVR concept.
Most notably in comparison to the Bolt models, Edge returns from a white case with a curved bulge in the middle to a somewhat angled, two-tier, all black look that I found very attractive. Although I never recommend stacking components directly on top of each other, the new look makes that possible.
Moving to the all-important circuitry inside the new Edge models, the hard drive capacity has been increased to 2TB, for up to 300 hours of HD program recording. Curiously, storage is handled via a traditional hard drive rather than solid state, for reasons having to do with performance. Despite that, when combined with a new coding system, TiVo stated that the new Edge units will run much quieter than previous models.
For those who need more storage space than 2TB provides, the eSATA connection on earlier models has been deleted, but there are two USB 3.0 jacks on the rear panel. One will likely be used for Switched Video Adapters for the Cable model, but we hope that future upgrades will allow the use of additional external storage.
Storage and appearance aside, the most visible addition, literally, is Dolby Vision along with Dolby Atmos. This power pair makes it possible to take advantage of the increasing amount of streaming content with those formats. That is important, as the seamless integration of either off-air or cable tuners with many major streaming services in one product is a strong point of TiVo, and they are currently the major source of content with the Dolby formats.
The full spectrum of TiVo features, such as SkipMode, OneSearch, and OnePass are, of course, part of the TiVo interface.
For true cord cutters, TiVo Edge for antenna has all the features just listed and four off-air tuners. The retail price is $349.99 with program guide plans at $6.99 monthly, $69.99 annually, or a one-time All-in-Plan for $249.99.
For the first time, TiVo is available in Canada with a two-tuner/500GB TiVo Edge available for $299 CAD, with the service plans priced at $8.99 CAD monthly or $89.99 CAD annually.
The new TiVo Edge for cable ups the game with six tuners and is priced at $399.99 (U.S. only). Service plans are $14.99 monthly, $149.99 annually, or the one-time All-in-Plan at $549.99.
Along with the new hardware, TiVo has also announced TiVo+, an aggregated combination of streaming channels, movies, and TV shows that will be available in the next few weeks. As is the case with the Roku Channel, this is a curated selection of entertainment across a wide range of subject areas, genres, and program types. Among the content partners are TMZ, America’s Funniest Home Videos, Food52, The Pet Collective, Ameba, NatureVision, and more. Additional channels from publishers such as Gannett, Newsy, Tastemade, and Latido Music will be added in the future.
