Observation Point

My TiVo Series 4 Wishlist

Let me start off by saying that I love my Series 3 TiVo and I wouldn’t trade it for anything else on the market. Given that, I do feel that the current TiVo experience has become fairly long in the tooth. While they’ve added Netflix, Amazon, new search interfaces and other applications, these improvements do not feel well integrated with the overall experience. It doesn’t help that launching Netflix or other applications takes 10-20 seconds or more before they’re accessible.

After hearing a bit of buzz about a possible “Series4” (or OmniBox, eVo or TiVo OnDemand) device in development, I got to thinking about what I’d like to see improved upon on my TiVo:

• Keep all first-run episodes, but remove repeats “As Space is Needed” — Why is there not an option for keeping first-run episodes indefinitely while allowing reruns to come and go as space is needed? I should be able to have different retention rules for new episodes than repeat airings.

• Stay in the overlay mode for new Season Passes — Don’t take me away from watching and listening to the current show when I wish to schedule a Season Pass. I could be okay with this if instead you were taken back to the show at the exact point you entered the menu once you’ve finished so you can easily pick up where you left off.

• Defaults for Season Passes — Most of the time when I have to hit options to customize a new Season Pass it is to set the same options I set for 90% of the shows I record. I would like to be able to set the default values for Season Passes.

• Online Management — Allow me to manage every aspect of my TiVo online. This includes Season Passes (and their priority), manage my channel listing, view upcoming showings, manage WishLists, etc.

• HD Quality Menus — I know I’m not alone on this one, so please… take advantage of HD resolutions for all of the TiVo interface!

• Easy Season Passes for my favorite sports teams — Allow me to record my favorite sports teams by just selecting the team(s) and how many of the most recent, first-run games to record…no matter the channel.

• Be aware of and link HD and SD variants of channels — Determine that HD channels have SD alternatives in my lineup and record intelligently based upon the show’s original resolution (i.e. That 70’s Show should automatically be recorded on the SD variant of FX to save recording space).

• Allow for Season Passes across multiple channels — When creating a new Season Pass, allow me to pick the channels to record on when that show is upcoming on more than one channel. It is annoying to have to create a new pass for each channel.

• Suggest future airings during scheduling conflicts — Look ahead for future airings of that same episode and suggest that I record it instead of making me pick a conflict to cancel.

• Let me choose which conflict to cancel — I shouldn’t have to settle with the lower Season Pass priority if I’m fine with canceling the higher priority instead.

• Browse by category in Now Showing — Instead of showing a plain list of folders per show or order of recording, add some new navigation options like category (movies, science, comedy, etc).

• Display my Netflix Instant Queue in Now Showing — Add the items from my Netflix Instant Queue as launchable items from the Now Playing list, instead of having to go launch and wait for the Netflix app to open.

• iPhone Application for Scheduling — Mobile TiVo is nice, but a native application would be nicer. The mobile site also tends to forget who I am and will not let me login once I’ve found a show.

• Easy option to transfer to iPod or iPhone — Instead of relying on Roxio Toast and other conversion options, provide an easy method for creating an iPod-optimized version of recordings you’ve transferred to your computer.

• Multi-Room Scheduling — If I have multiple TiVos in the house, scheduling should be aware that there are additional tuners in the house that can be used to record in case of a conflict on the TiVo that is scheduling the recording.

• Hulu Integration — I realize that this may be a long shot, but how cool would it be to have the Hulu player in the TiVo interface?

So that’s my list. Is there anything that you would like to see in your TiVo?