January 15, 2019

TiVo replacement on its way?

Virgin Media's parent company Liberty Global unveiled its next-generation TV entertainment platform, Horizon 4, late last year.
The new Horizon 4 suite of products includes a superfast set-top box with 4K Ultra HD picture quality, a remote-control with voice capabilities and an upgraded version of the operator’s 'GO' mobile app, which works together with the set-top box to deliver a seamless viewing experience. The platform will be introduced over the coming months to selected customers in The Netherlands, Switzerland and Belgium, with a wider rollout in these and other Liberty Global markets expected to follow. No mention of Virgin Media adopting the Horizon platform yet though
The Horizon 4 set-top box has already been introduced as the ‘V6 box’ in the UK, where nearly 2 million customers are already using it of course with TiVo software. The new platform to be rolled out in non-Virgin Media companies in the coming months combines this set-top box with the new Horizon 4 user interface instead, which includes enhanced features. Could the days of TiVo be numbered? You can read more about the new Horizon 4 suite here.
(My thanks to IrishManc for the alerting me to this news. Cheers, fella!)


7 comments:

Scott McCarthy said...

Interesting. So are you saying that the V6 box is just running TiVo software, and it could be made to run Horizon software instead?
I always thought the V6 was a "TiVo Box" which could only ever run TiVo software. But that could be a false assumption.

Chris said...

Interesting. Virgin definitely haven’t been innovating recently so I’d appreciate something new and exciting. But I do like TiVo a lot. It’s very solid and dependable, so if they do make a change, it really needs to be great.

Nialli said...

I agree, Chris - I find TiVo easy to use and reliable. I've never understand why so many reviews dismiss it as dated: if "modern" is a pretty-but-limited Netflix/Now interface then I'll stick with TiVo

Matty Smith said...

My view changed when i upgraded to the V6 box. With the faster box, the current UI "flows" much better than the old tivo boxes. When we heard rumours a while back about the possibility of virgin adopting the horizon platform i was quite looking forward to it but now i'd much prefer to stick with the tivo platform. I still believe Virgin need to add small UI changes to refresh the look. Say a different colour scheme or choices of different colours but keep tivo.

KillerCroc1 said...

this cant come sooner the tivo ui is very dated and lacking any innovation nothing new has been added in years to the ui horizon would be a welcomed changed and it will have tivo functions much like the sky q interface :-)

James said...

Have been using TiVo for must be around 17 years now and it is great. I was happy to see it come to Virgin Media many years ago and really love it with the V6 TiVo box. It would be a great loss if they replace it with their 'Horizon' platform.

drtoxo said...

Ive bounced between SkyQ and V6 for 3 or 4 years now and I much prefer the SkyQ platform, especially with the 2tb box and multiroom. VM really need to up their game to get me back now!