New TiVo devices add online video features, DIAL support

TiVo (Nasdaq: TIVO) announced a new line of DVRs Tuesday it described as an Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) TV, Roku, Slingbox, Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) TV and cable DVR "rolled into one."

Source: TiVo

The new Roamio DVRs, so named for their ability to let owners watch recorded programming outside of the home, will be much pricier than the streaming devices TiVo referenced in its press release. The baseline device, which includes four tuners and a hard drive that can store up to 75 hours of HD programming, costs $200. The next model, with six tuners and twice the storage, is $400, while the top-of-the-line device, at six tuners and 450 hours of storage capacity, costs $600.

The devices also support DIAL, the Netflix- (Nasdaq: NFLX) and Google-backed technology that lets users send some online video to their TV set from their smartphone or tablet.

The Roamio line will soon support the HTML 5-based Opera TV app store, Jim Denney, TiVo's vice president of product marketing, told GigaOM. "We want to make it as open as possible, but we don't want to create a sea of applications," he said.

Two of the three new devices let users remotely connect to them over the Internet, according to TiVo's website. The baseline Roamio, which is the only one of the three devices to include an ATSC tuner for watching free HD over-the-air signals, requires a separate TiVo Stream device to offer remote viewing. The Roamio Plus and Roamio Pro will support remote streaming after a software update later this year. And for now, the streaming feature is only available to tablets and smartphones connected to the Internet via WiFi, according to Time.

All the devices have built-in WiFi, a feature that has seemingly become standard for the online video devices TiVo mentioned in its press release. All the devices require TiVo's monthly service fee to operate.

The box will also access Comcast's (Nasdaq: CMCSA) video-on-demand library in about two dozen markets.

For more:
- read the press release here 
Time had this review 
GigaOM had this report

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