Plex and TiVo have announced this week that their products will start to work together soon. The products are the TiVo DVR and the Plex media server that give people an easy way to stream photos, music, and video to devices on their home network like the Roku set top box or Chromecast devices. Plex is able to pull content not only from its local HDD, but from the web as well.
We've seen a lot of product announcements over the week, but among TiVo's own CES 2015 revelations is one that does not involve hardware at all: TiVo OnePass. The new feature for certain TiVo DVRs is targeted at the binge-watchers among us -- those who consume shows several episodes at a time, and who hate having to hunt down that one wayward mid-season episode halfway through their binge-watching festivities. OnePass will be arriving to applicable TiVo users some time next month.
Virgin has revealed its own wearable, a wristband called KipstR created with the help of two teenagers: Jonathan Kingsley, age 14, and Ryan Oliver, age 15. Rather than tracking fitness, KipstR keeps tabs on whether the user is awake or asleep. If you fall asleep while wearing the device, it will trigger your TiVo to record whatever show you were watching when you fell asleep. The device and collaboration is said to be part of Virgin's 'Switched on Futures' initiative.
Netflix and Hulu Plus might be the two best known video streaming services at the moment, but many competitors exist, not the least of which is Walmart's VUDU. Like some other services, VUDU allows its customers to rent and buy digital movies and TV shows, including things like flat-rate season bundles for entire series seasons. The service has long been available on many set top box devices, including various Roku models, and now it has finally arrived for those using TiVo.
TiVo fans who prefer their mobile gadgets to be of the Android variety have reason to rejoice this morning: TiVo has announced the launch of its Android streaming app feature. With this app comes exactly what it sounds like: the ability to stream shows from one's DVR to one's Android smartphone or tablet.
Taking advantage of the fact that houses may have more than one room and that people might want to watch TV in some of them, TiVo is announcing a new offer that will accommodate that scenario well. For a monthly service fee of $14.99, TiVo subscribers will be able to string together up to 12 rooms so that they can get access to their recordings anywhere. As long as they're in the house, of course.
TiVo has been one of the mainstays of the TV DVR market but has unfortunately somewhat lagged behind, especially when keeping up with the times and trends. While many of its competitors, especially the myriad set-top boxes available today, have embraced wireless completely, TiVo has come up short. While TiVo seems to have a new Mini model with wireless capability, it might still disappoint those wishing for good old WiFi connections.
Your favorite TV shows -- they often rend your heart and leave you hanging, only to breeze past that one big plot twist and leave you scratching your head after a single missed episode. To help ensure you avoid this unfortunate situation is the new TiVo Mega, a DVR touting the ability to hold 3 years' worth of television content.
TiVo has revealed details on the new Roamio OTA, a set-top box and DVR for those who want time-shifting and recording but don't have cable or satellite service. Based on the existing Roamio, the $50 box hooks up to a regular HD antenna and packs four tuners for recording free over-the-air TV, though TiVo itself will levy a charge.
TiVo has quietly ousted Adobe from its DVRs, with the freshly-released Summer Update switching away from Flash and Air for the UI, and opening the door to one day running TiVo services on Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, and other platforms. The new software, for the TiVo Roamio, Premiere, and Mini models, promises a significant boost in interface navigation speed, having been recreated in Haxe.
Supposing you’ve got a Chromecast and you’ve never heard of Qplay before, you’re in for a treat. This week the folks at Qplay - previously working with their own Chromecast-like hardware - have updated their app to work with Chromecast natively. Coming from the people that created TiVo, this app allows you to collect all of your favorite networks for video, photos, and music, in one place for casting to Chromecast.
![TiVo reportedly decimates hardware team in favor of cloud future [Updated]](https://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/tivo_stream-820x420.jpg)
TiVo has laid off the majority of its hardware team as it exits the DVR business and focuses instead on software licensing, sources say, including pushing TV recordings to the cloud rather than a box under your TV. Only two engineers have been retained, insiders told Wired, to deal with legacy support and future third-party hardware running TiVo software.