TiVo’s forthcoming Apple TV app will be limited to 720p at 30 fps

“From 2017 to 2018, TiVo has lost about five percent of its cable-DVR subscriber base, roughly in line with the overall decline of cable TV subscriptions. During the same period, however, TiVo’s over-the-air DVR subscriber base has grown by 10%,” Jared Newman reports for TechHive. “That’s been boosted by products like the TiVo Bolt OTA, which can record broadcast channels from an antenna.”
“Although TiVo has largely become a licensor of software and patents since being acquired by Rovi in 2016, TiVo’s vice president of consumer products and services Ted Malone said that the company remains committed to the consumer business,” Newman reports. “To that end, the company is working on several new features, including apps for Roku, Apple TV, Fire TV, and Android TV that can access a TiVo box remotely. He also hinted at a potential live TV streaming service and Android-based consumer hardware.”
“TiVo will release apps for Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices in the second quarter of this year. Apps for Apple TV and Android TV will follow in the third quarter,” Newman reports. “If you have a TiVo that supports transcoding (including the Roamio Pro, Roamio Plus, Bolt, Bolt Vox, and Bolt OTA), these apps will let you stream live and recorded video to another TV, either at home or on the road… In a demo, the streaming apps looked similar to the menu system on TiVo’s own hardware, but they do have one notable limitation: Video streams will be limited to 720p resolution at 30 frames per second. ”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We prefer Sony’s PlayStation Vue app for Apple TV which features a cloud DVR. The majority of available programming on PlayStation Vue can be saved for up to 28 days, sorted by their original air dates, and be watched both in home and while traveling. Of course, not all of the Big Four networks are available everywhere and that’s a case where using a product like TiVo’s Bolt OTA to record broadcast channels from an antenna and stream them anywhere could come in very handy, despite the 720p at 30 fps limitation.