At CES 2019, TiVo announced that it will begin offering a new streaming app for the Roku, Fire TV, and Apple TV streaming devices later this year, which will allow users stream live and recorded shows in their home without investing in separate hardware like the TiVo Mini Vox. But according to an interview with Ted Malone, TiVo’s VP of consumer products and services, those apps will be pretty limited, only offering streaming at 720p quality and 30 fps, via TechHive.
Better streaming may be possible, but right now, the apps are stuck with 720p
The apps apparently look similar to TiVo’s existing UI, albeit at lower resolutions than users may have hoped for. “I want 720p 60 [fps],” Malone said in the interview. “I’ve done some internal demos proving that 720p 60 [fps] is actually noticeably better than 720p 30. It’s really a battle for resources and just getting it done.” Additionally, AppleInsider notes that native MPEG-2 broadcasts, 5.1 surround sound, and TiVo’s automatic commercial jumping “SkipMode” won’t work with the app either.
TiVo still offers the TiVo Mini Vox, which supports all of the features, including higher resolution streaming, that the company will happily sell you for $180 each. But it’s probably to be expected that TiVo would put more time and resources into optimizing its own paid hardware over a free app for another platform.
Per an earlier report from Zatz Not Funny, the new TiVo apps are set to arrive sometime in the second or third quarter of 2019 — first to the Fire TV, then Roku, and finally to the Apple TV — although exact dates haven’t been announced yet.