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Cable Technology Feature Article

October 25, 2013

TiVo Roams into Out-of-Home Video Streaming

By Tara Seals, TMCnet Contributor


For video providers, offering multiscreen access beyond the home zone continues to be a differentiator. TiVo (News - Alert) is the latest to announce out-of-home streaming, via the TiVo Roamio Pro and TiVo Roamio Plus DVRs, allowing consumers to access live TV and recorded content from smartphones and tablets.

TiVo is offering a sort of Slingbox/Roku/TV Everywhere mash-up functionality, so Roamio customers can gain authenticated access to their cable subscription content for live streaming on-the-go, as well as access over-the-top (OTT) streaming services like Netflix, Hulu and YouTube (News - Alert). They also have the option to download content to watch later offline.

Asecond screen dashboard provides instantaneous personalized recommendations via the TiVo app, along with mobile search and discovery, including the TiVo editorial Collections information and show, cast and actor metadata. And, remote scheduling for the DVR allows customers to view the programming guide, manage recordings or set a “Season Pass.”

For now, on-the-go access is available only via Wi-Fi, and only for Apple (News - Alert) iPhone, iPad or iPod touch devices running iOS 5.1 or higher. It’s available only to one mobile device at a time. Support for streaming over 4G/LTE (News - Alert) and to Android devices is scheduled for 2014.

"The TiVo Roamio has reset the bar for what a DVR can do," said Colin Dixon, chief analyst and founder of nScreenMedia. "Making all that functionality and content available anywhere will allow users to get more value from the content they already pay for, cementing TiVo as the market-leading personal TV solution."

The TiVo Roamio DVR Series includes three models: TiVo Roamio ($199.99), TiVo Roamio Plus ($399.99) and TiVo Roamio Pro ($599.99). Roamio features four or six tuners and storage ranging from 75 hours to 450 hours of HD content.

All subscribers with a TiVo Roamio Pro and TiVo Roamio Plus will automatically receive the out-of-home streaming feature via an automatic software and mobile app update. Base-model TiVo Roamio customers require a separate TiVo Stream to enable out-of-home streaming—support for out-of-home streaming for existing users with a TiVo Stream is scheduled for next month.




Edited by Alisen Downey


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