If money were no object, I would be subscribed to the highest tier gazillion channel package from my local cable TV provider to supplement the content I already watch through my Amazon Fire TV. To bridge the gap between the two content streams, I would use the new Tivo Bolt DVR. Tivo’s latest set top box brings the company’s hardware lineup up to speed with the competition from Amazon, Apple, and Roku. The Tivo Bolt features 4K streaming support, HTML5 based apps, and a true one-click commercial skipping feature. A new upcoming Amazon Fire TV app will let you view all of your recorded content through the Fire TV.
The new Tivo Bolt is a compelling device for those still subscribed to traditional cable TV. It comes in a 4-tunner 500GB ($299) or 1TB ($399) model to record all of your live television needs. It’s the first set top box from Tivo to support 4K content and takes advantage of their expanding library of HTML5 based apps. One of the best new features of the Bolt is a the new “SkipMode” function which lets you skip commercials with a single button press. Tivo achieves this not by sophisticated algorithms to analyze what you’re watching, but rather by employing people to manually mark when commercials start and end for the top networks. Shows which support commercial skipping are indicated by a green skip icon in the program guide. A message will also appear on screen when skippable commercials begin, to prompt you to skip past the annoyance.
According to DigitalTrend’s review of the Tivo Bolt, a new Amazon Fire TV app is in the works from Tivo. While sideloading Tivo’s Anrdoid app onto the Fire TV is possible, this will be Tivo’s first official app for the Fire TV platform. The new app will allow Fire TV owners to view all of their recorded content stored on the Tivo Bolt. It’s not clear if the app will support 4K playback on the new Fire TV. I’ve reached out to Tivo for additional information about the app and will update this post if I learn more.
The Tivo Bolt is available for pre-order now and will be released on October 4th.
@AFTVnews
Hopefully we will get this updated box in the UK on the Virgin Media cable service, there has been talk for sometime about streaming recordings from box. Looks like tivo are moving away from their planned cloud service recordings with this box being a pvr.
The story says the firetv app will allow watching recorded shows. Anyone know about live TV being available on the app too?
To watch live TV you would start an new recording of the show you want to watch on the Tivo from the app and then start streaming.
First impressive announcement of 2015. Not for me, but a lot of people are going to love this. FTV app really extends ‘whole house’ use. 4K is probably premature, but a necessary marketing tool. I don’t get the hardship of ad supported television, but I know some lose their minds and the curated commercial skip will certainly justify the monthly fee to some.
It still seems like it’s lagging behind in apps. No Sling, WWE network, or crackle for instance.
WWE is nearly here…
http://zatznotfunny.com/2015-09/wwe-muscles-its-way-onto-tivo/
And I have no reason the believe the TiVo Fire TV app will be limited to the new Bolt.
I can’t find any other mention of WWE on Tivo. Does the owner of that site regularly get inside information?
Well, Dave is the owner of that website
Oops, didn’t realize that. Dave, do you have a source for that information? All I see is a screenshot with wwe on it.
Not saying I don’t trust you specifically I just like to check sources when I get information online.
You don’t have to trust me. It’ll show up this fall or it won’t. Then you’ll know what to do next time. :)
Looked at your site more and does look like you get the same kind of info about tivo as we get about fire tv here.
Just a little annoyed because I got my girlfriend a fire tv stick about 2 months ago specifically because her tivo didn’t have the wwe network. Oh well.
What I’d like to know is, will the Fire TV app work with older Tivo models, like the Roamio or the Premiere? If it only works with the new Bolt, I’m not interested.
Any chance the new TIVO will allow the sideloading of Kodi?
No way in hell. But it does have a slow, 720p Plex app…
Thanks for chiming in Dave! For those who don’t know, Dave runs ZatzNotFunny.com and is the king of Tivo info.
I lost interest in TiVo when I bought a Tivo HD second-hand and found out I couldn’t even do manual timed recordings(glorified VCR) without a service contract.
Tivo’s business model is to sell the hardware near cost and profit from the service contract.
You could get $99 lifetime service on a Tivo HD by activating month to month and then call to cancel the service after a few weeks.
You could buy a second generation Tivo and use it to manually record what you had hooked up to it like a VCR. Their model was selling their always updated showtimes and program for suggesting new things to watch. That’s completely different from locking out hardware. It would be like Tivo selling a device that played Blu ray discs, then lock out the player unless you paid their service fee.
What a dumb idea to warp the box like that, won’t stack easily with other equipment .
It’s supposedly designed that way to improve cooling lessening overheating…