In the near four months that I used two separate TiVo boxes, I found them buggy, slow and objected to the absence of basic features on a supposedly ‘premium’ service.
I also didn’t rate the 30 second menu loads in the bizarrely search-free Music on Demand section.
There’s room in the world for differing opinions but I’ve always been puzzled by the positive reviews the product gets.
It’s as if reviewers don’t mind the failed recordings caused by poor quality EPG data, the absence of BBC red button services, HDMI handshake failures or having to wade through multiple menu screens to get to options.
But I finally read a TiVo review I can agree with, and it comes courtesy of Sky CEO Jeremy Darroch.
According to Broadband TV News, Darroch described Virgin Media’s bought-in box as “some technical gizmo” and suggested customers care at least as much about “ease of use” as they do the techy aspects of a box.
That’s a view I’ll happily go along with.
Meanwhile Sky has countered Virgin’s TiVo v Sky+ comparison chart with one of its own.
Unsurprisingly they’ve not wasted the opportunity to highlight TiVo’s absence of reminders and red button – two features quite a lot of users really care about.
