January 09, 2014

TiVo news from CES 2014

Virgin Media is one of the cable operators overseas that’s kicking the tires on a network DVR that TiVo has under development.
“It’s a fairly small trial at this point in time,” Jeff Klugman, TiVo’s executive vice president of product and revenue, said at CES in reference to the trial with Virgin. He said TiVo plans to roll out the nDVR product commercially later this year.
Klugman said TiVo is providing the front end software and interface for the service and is working with a broad set of vendors to provide the backend storage, processing and encoding components. 
At CES 2014 TiVo is showing off a prototype of its network DVR. Klugman said TiVo is crafting it in a way that will allow partners to set the rules that govern the nDVR, including if it can stream from a shared copy of a programme, or require that the system create unique copies of each programme selected for recording by the customer.
TiVo’s system is also capable of storing a several days-worth of programming, by network or individual show, or, if the rules allow, provide perpetual, infinite storage. It can also disable trick-play functions during commercials or leave them be. 
He also confirmed that TiVo has 4K/Ultra HD support on product roadmap, and that the company expects to support native 4K later this year but, because 4K is in the early stages of deployment, he views 4K support as a “future-proofing” measure. “We’re still trying to judge the timing on it,” he said.

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