TiVo Update 20.2 finally makes the Premiere worth it

Sample TiVo Guide 202 screenshot

Sample TiVo v20.2 Guide screenshot

Regular readers will know that I’ve had a love/hate relationship with the TiVo Premiere since we got it December 2010 (for my Christmas present, actually.) My wife and I weren’t particularly happy with the Verizon-supplied Motorola 6400-series STB/DVR we were renting. It had enough quirks, that it became frustrating over time. There was a much-promised IMG v1.9 update coming with a new Motorola DVR (with additional capacity), but many months passed while the new 7200 series DVR was in “testing” phase.

So my wife took the bull by the horns, and upgraded us to the TiVo Premiere. It was basically a Series 4, and had owned both a Series 2 and a Series 2 DT (dual-tuner) back in the day. I had been tracking the TiVO Premiere, including the many complaints about the product — sluggish, unstable, etc. Hmmm, not sounding good. However, the Premiere showed up under the Christmas tree. Sometimes you just gotta close your eyes, and jump in the pool. Was it perfect? No, not at all. My nemesis was the sluggish interface and the green spinning wheel of death. I also wasn’t a fan of the half-updated HDUI and disabled 2nd processor core. Why would you release an incomplete product? While many customers complained about the lack of updates and bug fixes over the course of 2011, TiVo was silent. Absolutely silent. No news, no schedule of bug fixes and patches. Nothing. Argh.

Slowly though through 2011, TiVo released v14.x type patches, and v14.9 enabled the 2nd processor core. Not a dramatic increase, but even a small performance enhancement was welcome. In addition, Margret Schmidt [VP User Experience] began interfacing and responding to customers. You could contact her at her @TiVoDesign Twitter feed, and she would answer back! She informed customers what updates would come and when. Go on the Tivo Community forums, and people love Margret Schmidt. And you know what? I don’t blame them. I love Margret too. Somebody at TiVo woke up, was interacting with the customers, answering questions, and giving us information on upcoming updates.

This month, TiVo released v20.2 for the TiVo operating system. With the past few updates, TiVo has upgraded more screens, improved the performance, and made the Premiere much better than it was a year ago. It took a year, but I’m much happier now. Frankly, it’s about time

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