Series1 (1999) The
Series1 (
retronym) was the original TiVo digital video recorder. Series1 TiVo systems are based on
PowerPC processors connected to
MPEG-2 encoder/decoder chips and
IDE/ATA hard drives. Series1 TiVo units used one or two drives of 12.7–60 GB. Although not supported by TiVo or equipment manufacturers, larger drives can be added.
Series1 standalone All standalone TiVo systems have coax/RF-in and an internal cable-ready tuner, analog video input—composite/RCA, and S-Video—for use with an external cable box or satellite receiver. The TiVo unit can use a serial cable or IR blasters to control the external receiver. They have coax/RF, composite/RCA, and S-Video output, and the DVD systems also have component out. Audio is RCA stereo, and the DVD systems also have digital optical out. • CPU:
IBM PowerPC 403GCX at 54 MHz • RAM: 16 MB
Series1 DirecTV Some TiVo systems are integrated with
DirecTV receivers. These "DirecTiVo" recorders record the incoming
satellite MPEG-2 digital stream directly to the hard disk without conversion. Because of this, and the fact that they have two tuners, DirecTiVos are able to record two programs at once. In addition, the lack of digital conversion allows recorded video to be of the same quality as live video. DirecTiVos have no MPEG encoder chip, and can only record DirecTV streams. • CPU:
IBM PowerPC 403GCX at 70-80 MHz • RAM: 32 MB
Series2 (2002) The
Series2 was a complete redesign of the TiVo hardware. It includes
USB ports (for
Ethernet and
Wi-Fi adapters), a new CPU, and more RAM. The availability of network connectivity has spread to the software side, where new features like
TiVoToGo and
Home Media Engine applications are now supported. Series2 TiVo systems are based on
MIPS processors connected to
MPEG-2 encoder/decoder chips and high-capacity
IDE/ATA hard drives. Series2 units had drives of 40–250 GB in size. Although not supported by TiVo or equipment manufacturers, larger drives can be added.
Series2 standalone All standalone TiVo systems have coax/RF-in and an internal cable-ready tuner, analog video input—composite/RCA, and S-Video—for use with an external cable box or satellite receiver. The TiVo unit can use a serial cable or IR blasters to control the external receiver. They have coax/RF, composite/RCA, and S-Video output, and the DVD systems also have component out. Audio is RCA stereo, and the DVD systems also have digital optical out. The Series2 systems also have USB ports, currently used only to support network (wired
Ethernet and
WiFi) adapters. The early Series2 units, models starting with 110/130/140, have USB 1.1 hardware, while all other systems have USB 2.0. Some models manufactured by Toshiba, Pioneer, and Humax, under license from TiVo, contain
DVD-R/
RW drives. The models can transfer recordings from the built-in hard drive to DVD Video-compliant discs, playable in most modern DVD systems. The video encoding on these models was modified to match the DVD standard so transferring to DVD does not require transcoding. The Series2 standalones can only tune analog signals, so to comply with
FCC rules on
analog TV phaseout, models that record from
over-the-air channels are no longer sold. The dual tuner (DT) models and the TCD542 (a revision of the TCD540) will only record from cable and satellite sources. • CPU: • 1xx/2xx-series:
NEC 5432 (
MIPS), 166 MHz • 5xx-series:
Broadcom BCM7317, 242 MHz • 6xx-series:
Broadcom BCM7318, 266 MHz • RAM: • 1xx/2xx/5xx-series: 32 MB of 133 MHz 16-bit DDR • 6xx-series: 64 MB of 133 MHz 16-bit DDR • MPEG Encoder • 1xx/2xx/5xx-series:
Broadcom BCM7040 • 6xx-series: Two
Broadcom BCM7042 Series2 DirecTV Some TiVo systems are integrated with
DirecTV receivers. These "DirecTiVo" recorders record the incoming
satellite MPEG-2 digital stream directly to hard disk without conversion. Because of this and the fact that they have two tuners, DirecTiVos are able to record two programs at once. In addition, the lack of digital conversion allows recorded video to be of the same quality as live video. DirecTiVos have no MPEG encoder chip, and can only record DirecTV streams. However, DirecTV has disabled the networking capabilities on their systems, meaning DirecTiVo does not offer such features as multi-room viewing or TiVoToGo. Only the standalone systems can be networked without additional unsupported
hacking. The HR10-250 DirecTiVo units can also record HDTV to a 250 GB hard drive, both from the DirecTV stream and over-the-air via a standard
UHF- or
VHF-capable antenna. They have four tuners (two DirecTV and two
ATSC over-the-air) and, like the original DirecTiVo, can record two programs at once; further, the program guide is integrated between over-the-air and DirecTV so that all programs can be recorded and viewed in the same manner. Recording capacity is variable, up to 30 HD or 200 SD hours. • CPU: • HR10: 200 MHz On July 8, 2006, DirecTV announced an upgrade to version 6.3 of the TiVo software for the HR10-250, the first major upgrade since this unit was released. This upgrade includes features such as program grouping (folders), a much faster on-screen guide, and new sorting features. In October 2007, DirecTV sent a message to all DirecTV TiVo R10 and HR10 users saying that they will be applying numerous features to the DirecTiVo. It include two features: • Episode Recovery is a feature that will let you recover a previously deleted episode of a show. There will be a time frame of the time you could recover the episode, but the information has not been released. • Online Scheduling (
broadcast programming) is a feature that will allow you to go to the DirecTV guide on the internet, and choose a
television program to be recorded. This feature is popular with the
TiVo Brand DVR's, but DirecTV's contract with
TiVo did not allow them to implement the online features of the DirecTiVo.
Series3 HD (2006) The Series3 TiVo was officially unveiled at the 2006
Consumer Electronics Show, and was released to the public on September 12, 2006. In April 2010, it was superseded by the Series 4 "TiVo Premiere" and is supported but no longer manufactured by TiVo for North American markets. The Series3 DVR features support for
high-definition broadcasts and has two tuners. In North America, they each can receive analog and HDTV over-the-air (
NTSC and
ATSC) in addition to both analog and digital cable (
QAM). Encrypted digital cable is decoded through
CableCARDs available from the cable providers. satellite TV connections are not supported. In Australia and New Zealand, the dual tuners support the recording of two digital (
DVB-T) over-the-air signals at the same time, whilst playing back a third. With the dual tuners, it can record or view any two sources simultaneously. For example, two over-the-air broadcasts, two cable programs, or any combination can be recorded at the same time. The initial hardware release (TCD648250B) was unable to take advantage of
Multi-Stream CableCARDs and required the use of a pair of CableCARDs to enable its dual tuners with encrypted digital cable. The follow-up Series3 models had an option of using either one Multi-Stream card or two single stream cards.
Switched Digital Video (SDV), a technology which allows cable providers to only send the channel streams being watched instead of the entire channel lineup in order to better manage bandwidth, requires a USB attachment to a separate tuning adapter available from the cable providers. One
HDMI port and two sets of
component,
S-video, and
composite outputs are included. The Series 3 is also the first DVR to feature
THX-certified audio and video. The unit is also equipped with two
USB 2.0 ports, a
Fast Ethernet port, and a telephone
modem, which are all used to connect to the TiVo service. The built-in wired Ethernet or an optional USB
802.11 wireless adapter could download
video on demand from various providers. Multi-room viewing and transferring programs to and from a PC is allowed. HD content may only be transferred between Series 3 units, or Series 3 and later models. A Series 3 can be connected to several types of televisions and if necessary convert to the appropriate resolution. This allows displaying HD channels on older TVs using composite or s-video connections. Storage can be increased to 2 TB by replacement of the hard drive—something that can be done professionally, but is usually done by users familiar with how to perform PC drive replacement. An external SATA port allows up to 1 TB in additional storage when using TiVo-certified external hard drives. • CPU:
Broadcom BCM7038 • RAM: 128 MB for general CPU use- more for the encoders
Series4 Premiere (2010) The Series4 TiVo Premiere was officially unveiled on March 2, 2010, and was released to the public on March 28, 2010. The higher-end Premiere model features a more sophisticated remote and larger hard drive. The TiVo Premiere has the features of the Series 3 TiVos with the addition of support for
1080p high definition video, and a new high definition user interface using Haxe. It is also
Energy Star compliant after cutting power consumption by 35% to 45%. The slimmer unit relies on a single Multi-stream CableCARD ("M-Card") slot and uses a
dual core processor delivering greater performance. Communication speeds are claimed to be 3 to 5 times faster than a TiVo HD, and supports an optional QWERTY keyboard remote that communicates via
Bluetooth (recently discontinued) . Like the Series 3, it does not support analog video input from devices such as
satellite television or
AT&T U-verse set top boxes as do the Series 2 TiVos. The new user interface is meant to seamlessly integrate features such as
Rhapsody,
Netflix,
Amazon,
Blockbuster,
Hulu, and
YouTube video, and make development of such applications easier through use of
Adobe Stagecraft (Flash Lite 3.1 +
Actionscript 2.0). The operating system enhancement allows third party Flash applications similar to those possible with HME, and other Flash Lite consumer devices such as
Chumby. Such applications will be available from TiVo's application store. Hardware: • CPU:
Broadcom BCM7413 400MHZ dual core 1100
Dhrystone MIPS vs. TiVo HD's 400 DMIPS
Series5 Roamio (2013) The TiVo Roamio was made available on August 20, 2013. Hardware: • CPU:
Broadcom BCM7241 3000
Dhrystone MIPS • Transcoder: NXP (Freescale / Zenverge) ZN200 (Roamio Plus and Pro only)
Series6 Bolt (2015) The Bolt was made available for sale on September 30, 2015. Hardware: • CPU:
Broadcom BCM7449
Series7 Edge (2019) This was the only TiVo to be manufactured by
Arris. It is also the first TiVo (excluding the BOLT OTA) that can only use TE4 (TiVo Experience 4) and not TE3. ==Other hardware==