| Compared to my usual TechHive columns, this one’s a little different.
I hesitate to say exactly why, as doing so would spoil the fun, but let’s just say this column is on the experimental side, and is inspired by many of the opinions I’ve read about cord-cutting over the years. Those of you who’ve been with me for a while shouldn’t have too much trouble figuring it out.
For everyone else, if you do decide to read this week’s full column on TechHive, I would just encourage you to stick with it until the end and keep an open mind throughout. |
| New TiVo in town: After weeks of leaks and teases, TiVo has finally announced its new Edge DVR. It’s not a vast improvement over the existing Bolt, but it has a faster processor, more memory, and support for both Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos audio. The over-the-air antenna version has four tuners and 2 TB of storage for $350, plus DVR service fees of $7 per month, $70 per year, or $250 for life. For cable holdouts, there’s also a CableCARD version with six tuners and 2 TB of storage for $400, plus service fees of $15 per month, $150 per year, and $550 for life. As Dave Zatz notes, FCC filings suggest that TiVo will also sell a dual-tuner, 500 GB over-the-air version, but the company hasn’t announced it yet.
Unfortunately, TiVo still hasn’t released the Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, and Android TV apps it showed off back in January. These apps are supposed to receive live TV and DVR streams from a TiVo box over W-Fi, thereby allowing TiVo to serve as a whole-home DVR without expensive TiVo Mini add-on hardware. TiVo has previously said that those apps will stream at a maximum 720p resolution and 30 frames per second, but I’m kind of hoping the Edge will eliminate those video quality limitations. We won’t find out either way until TiVo releases the apps in the first place.
in any event, I hope to review the new TiVo Edge soon—and find out first-hand how annoying those pre-roll DVR ads are.
YouTube TV on Fire TV: Amazon and Google have made good on their promise to bring YouTube TV support to Fire TV streaming devices. The $50 per month live TV streaming service is available now on all Fire TV devices except the first-generation Fire TV box and first-generation Fire TV Stick. (It sounds like those devices won’t be compatible at all.)
YouTube TV is my pick for best overall cable replacement service, as it has broad local station coverage, lots of popular channels, and a simple interface. It also has a generous cloud DVR that can store unlimited programs for up to nine months, with no ad-skipping restrictions (except on CBS-owned channels). Given that Amazon’s Fire TV Stick 4K is my current pick for best overall streaming device, I’m glad they’re no longer incompatible. Support for Alexa voice controls would have been nice, but maybe that’s too much to ask given Google’s and Amazon’s ongoing AI rivalry.
Cable’s runaway fees: Whenever you see a story claiming that the cost of cord-cutting is just as bad as cable, you can almost guarantee that the calculation doesn’t include cable’s hidden costs, such as the broadcast TV fee and equipment rental fees. A new study by Consumer Reports has found that these fees average $450 per year, or a 24% premium atop the typical pay TV bill. A separate study by GlobalData found that in some cases, hidden fees can raise a pay TV bill by as much as 45%.
Cable companies like to claim that they’re being “transparent” by piling on extra fees, because they’re just demonstrating the rising cost of local channels and sports. The argument would hold more water if TV providers bothered to specify those fees in their marketing materials, or if fee hikes weren’t actually a stealthy way to raise prices on customers under contract. While cable and satellite providers are legitimately interested in keeping programming costs down, they have no qualms about obscuring those costs when they inevitably rise.
AT&T TV Now’s DVR upgrade: Here’s a buried lede in this story about AT&T cutting back recording hours for some of its earliest DVR beta testers: The company is apparently migrating to a new cloud DVR platform in November. I’ve heard some complaints from readers about the reliability of DVR service on AT&T TV Now (formerly DirecTV Now), and AT&T’s answer has always been that it’s still in beta testing. Maybe a better back-end will make things more stable. |
Walmart is offering big discounts on various Roku streamers as the retailer makes way for new models:
- The Roku Streaming Stick is down to $30 (reg. $50) at many locations, and is a great option for 1080p streaming.
- The Roku Premiere+ is selling for $30 in many stores, down from its original $50 price. It doesn’t support dual-band Wi-Fi like the Streaming Stick, but does support 4K HDR video.
- Last year’s Roku Ultra is selling for $60, which is $40 off the regular price. Get USB storage support, an Ethernet jack, and private headphone listening through the remote for the same price as a Roku Streaming Stick+.
- Last year’s Roku Express+ is selling for $21 (reg. $40) at many locations. This is the only Roku with composite output for old CRT tube TVs, and it’s being discontinued in favor of a new Express+ that’s HDMI-only.
The links above will take you to a website called BrickSeek, where you can enter a zip code to view the price at nearby Walmart locations. |
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