Does anyone have anything good to say about TiVO? [ Edited ]

[martinrh]

The unaddressed bugs often make me wonder if a lot of the early feedback and reviews were affected by people feeling 'grateful' for the early access. They should have hired proper testers who understood their jobs weren't to be fanbois but critical testers..

Mind.they should hire competent coders and EPG contractors so there's no guarantee paying testers would have done better.

[tigga]

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Albez wrote:
Not true, there are both positive and negative messages on here about the TiVo.. just more negative at the moment. The TiVo is still a beta box and not up to the standard most had subscribed to.

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The Tivo is not a beta box and its all the negative people who keep spreading that rumour.

The product works well for most people and a lot of those people on this forum, are asking for help because of problems they are experiencing, whether it is technical, perception or user problems.  I do think there is a mix of all three, but that doesn't make the box a beta.

eg -

• people complaining about features which are on the US model but not the UK model - VM never said they would have these features - its a perception problem.
• the people who comment on not doing the same as a V+ - doh its a Tivo not a V+ so it works differently - user problem.
• The epg being incorrect - technical problem.

as for me, i've not rebooted since i got the product in march;  i've had every program record and i have over 30 season passes/wishlists; it works on my hdmi port and optical port with surround sound.

as for f/w upgrades adding feature... well hey the IOS, android, even windows all do upgrades as the product goes through a maturity cycle.

the comment 'is a beta' is reminiscent of all those people who say microsoft v1 product are beta products.

[bazz2004]

I'm enjoying the adverts and reading all about TIVO on the forum. Maybe the next TIVO box, when it comes, will be more successful and we'll all be fighting to get one.

[martinrh]

>> the people who comment on not doing the same as a V+ - doh its a Tivo not a V+ so it works differently - user problem. <<

No, not user problem, misleading advertising frommVM who told people it did the same as the V+

If you diont mind being lied to that' your lookout, others of us have enough self respect not to let companies deceive us and get away with it.

[tigga]

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martinrh wrote:

iPlayer - dreadful implementation 

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blame the bbc not VM.  The changes in the license meant VM couldn't do it the way they planned.

Originally it was meant to be linked directly from the epg not via an app.

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martinrh wrote:

Suggestions - OK, bit **bleep** due to poor EPG so records repeats of Casualty on Watch as suggestions becasue I series link the new series on BBC One but useful

EPG - lazily populated with duff info

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This is not VM fault and they are working with their content provider to fix this (NickO has posted this point several times)  They are taking it seriously.

However, the meta data required is far more complex than it is for V+ (which just needs name, time, channel to work)

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martinrh wrote:

the pisspoor project management and the general incomptence shown by VM.

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Yeh I guess it looks that way, but I feel for them.  There are obviously several different parts of the business involved here.  Be it the tivo team, the infrastructure team or the content delivery team.

I work for a global IT company and we rolled out some software updgrade and they introduced a 'feature' of slow performance, it is taking them 5 days to fix this problem.  They need to identify the cause, write a fix, test the fix and then schedule the rollout of the fix.  Sometimes it just takes time and it looks from the outside like poor project management.

Let me ask a different question... do you think they like loosing money?  well customers are important as they pay for the development and the wages.  Where they make mistakes, they have acknoledged them and done something to fix them... they even gave rebates to people because they lowered the price of the box.

[tigga]

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sizzla wrote:

 A quieter roll out to a few people who were made to feel they were being gifted the TiVo would have gone a lot smoother.

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they did try to do that, but there was a big ground swell of annoyance from S1 owners, VIP 50 and 100 owners and other people who wanted to be early adopters.  They then had to 'go large'.

Its our fault they couldn't be smaller and quieter.  I hold my hand up because as a S1 owner I wanted the VM product asap especially as S1 was to be shut down because of the VM product.

[tigga]

think you and i have to agree to differ...

maybe its because i had tivo s1 for 10 years before the VM product. 

I always thought V+ was rubbish in comparision and prefered the second box with the tivo attached.

I just knew the menus are different, knew the features that were not carried accross (eg red button - because they stated it clearly) and generally knew what i was buying into.

I haven't felt they lied.

[martinrh]

 tigga wrote:

"blame the bbc not VM.  The changes in the license meant VM couldn't do it the way they planned.

Originally it was meant to be linked directly from the epg not via an app."

I pay Virgin for the TiVo, not the BBC. If VM were too lazy or imcomptent to sort their commerical agreements out that's their tough **bleep**, not mine.

"This is not VM fault and they are working with their content provider to fix this (NickO has posted this point several times)  They are taking it seriously.

However, the meta data required is far more complex than it is for V+ (which just needs name, time, channel to work)"

NickO makes a lot excuses but delivers nothing to VM's users. If Tribune aren't up to the job they should be removed from teh contract. I'm not interested in VM's bleatings, I expect them to act.

A properly managed contractor would know to come to heel and inmprove their services, a poorly managed one knows there's no need to.

"Yeh I guess it looks that way, but I feel for them."

I don't feel for the incompetnet, I feel for the users affected by their failings.

"There are obviously several different parts of the business involved here.  Be it the tivo team, the infrastructure team or the content delivery team."

And? They knew they'd have to learn how to co-work before launching the product, Or they should have been.

"I work for a global IT company and we rolled out some software updgrade and they introduced a 'feature' of slow performance, it is taking them 5 days to fix this problem.  They need to identify the cause, write a fix, test the fix and then schedule the rollout of the fix.  Sometimes it just takes time and it looks from the outside like poor project management."

Virgin media had the chance to sort all this before the launch, they preferred to rush to market while misadvertisingi it. That's why I and others had to contect the ASA and ask them to have VM change the ads.

The bad fall out is entiely of their own making.

It's been said many times they could remove most of the hurt by posting a list of features they're going to fix. That they refuse cements the utter comtempt they have for the users.

It's not them who deserves your sympathy. 

[martinrh]

"I haven't felt they lied."

Their website claimed the box delivered "all" the features of the V+ plus more. How was that not a lie? Why did the ASA ask them to remove the claim if it wasn't misleading? 

[karnka]

I now remember why I avoided this forum for the last week or so

I see that since then nothing new has been added to either side of the argument!