It looks like the early reviews for Liquid TV TiVo PC aren’t all that great. While this can be somewhat expected for new software, I figured TiVo would ensure this product would please their fans. Edward C. Baig, self-proclaimed TiVo enthusiast, wrote a mini review for the USA Today.
Among the pros he listed were the friendly TiVo guide and interface along with the ability to control it with the remote and/or a keyboard and mouse. The cons list was quite a bit longer. The one that stuck out the most to me was that the software was buggy and crashed frequently. He didn’t really elaborate on this but he did mention that his review was based on the last beta release of the software, not the final released version. He also stated that it buries saved recordings that you want to transfer to a portable device in PC menus and that it requires a set top box to receive digital cable channels.
As I mentioned in my earlier blog entry “Is Nero LiquidTV a Legitimate Competitor for Media Center?”, I don’t feel LiquidTV is ready to compete with Media Center. In fact, I’m starting to think LiquidTV might be somewhat of a gateway for someone to give Media Center a try. There are a lot of people who currently have Media Center on their Vista PCs and do not use Media Center. Maybe some of those TiVo fans who purchase this software with a TV tuner will finally give Media Center a test drive to see what all it can do.
2 Comments until now.
Hi James, I am with Public Relations for Nero. Please note that Nero Liquid TV / TiVo PC does not require a set top box for receiving digital cable channels, and that Ed Baig said:
“The supplied Hauppauge TV tuner can handle over-the-air digital programming as well as cable. It cannot pick up pay-per-view or premium channels such as HBO or Showtime, a limitation Nero says has been imposed by cable and satellite companies on most of the TV tuners in the market. You’ll have to use your existing cable or satellite box as your TV source for those channels.”
I think you are mistaken. While the Hauppage TV tuner can receive over-the-air digital programming, that is not the same as digital cable channels. Note that the quote you provided says “over-the-air digital programming as well as cable.” OTA digital programming is only local networks. You cannot get channels such as HBO with Nero…that can only be done on a PC with CableCARD tuners and Windows Media Center at the moment.
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