New software appearing on TiVos – v9.1.L5

Users at TiVoCommunity.com have begun reporting receiving new software, apparently the ‘Fall 2007 update’, which is v9.1.L5. And TiVoJerry confirms it in this post:

You’ll have to wait for the software upgrade. We are doing the measured portion of the roll out right now to select units. We do this for every release.

After two weeks, we determine the impact to the call center and roll out the software to the rest of the units at the appropriate speed (usually several weeks). It’s at this point that a priority list would become available.

The first thing people noticed is that the previously announced ‘Advanced Wishlists’ is part of the update. Also, the Setup & Support ‘Using Wishlist Searches‘ page has been updated to reflect the new capabilities. And there is more – the Getting Started with Multi-Room Viewing page has something quite interesting:

~ Both DVRs must be Series2 and/or Series2 DT DVRs.
(Series3 and TiVo HD DVRs will support Multi-Room Viewing from November 2007.)

~ The DVRs must have software version 4.0 or later. If one of the DVRs has software version 9.1 or later, the other DVRs must also be running software version 9.1 or later. To learn more, see Software Version Troubleshooting.

It sounds like MRV changes have been incorporated into 9.1 which makes it incompatible with the older software – which is probably laying the groundwork for enabling MRV on the S3 and HD in November. There are also changes to how the Series3 and TiVo HD handle Emergency Alert Message interruptions to recordings or live TV. These are welcome changes. However, here’s a little insider tip – if you put your TiVo into ‘Standby’ when you’re not using it, it will not be forced to tune an EAM and so you’ll never have a disrupted recording while you’re not using the unit. (Since the video output is disabled the CableCARD rules don’t require the unit to jump to the message when in Standby. A little expert user trick – and TiVo has confirmed that is how it works. )

This software also has the Crestron integration that was recently announced, and, unfortunately, it does seem to be limited to just the Series3 at this time. (No S2/S2DT or TiVo HD support.) I do hope that they extend this to more models. Even more, I hope they release the protocol – or someone can reverse engineer it.

Since it is just trickling out as a test release now, don’t hold your breath waiting for it. But in a couple of weeks we should see the floodgates open and the priority sign up page will go up for 9.1, if TiVo follows their normal release pattern.

If you’re one of the lucky ones and you find something else new or changed, please post a comment.