Finally – New THR22 DirecTiVo Launches On December 8th!

It has been a long time coming, but the ‘new’ DirecTiVo, more properly known as the TiVo HD DVR from DirecTV, model THR22-100, is finally launching on December 8th. Of course, given the saga to date, there has to be a catch – and there is. It is only launching as an option for new and existing customers in these ten markets:

Chicago IL
Denver CO
Los Angeles CA
New York NY
Philadelphia PA
Phoenix AZ
Sacramento CA
San Francisco CA
Seattle WA
Washington DC

As DirecTV’s forum post states:“The national rollout for all remaining markets is still being evaluated.” This isn’t a surprised though, we were warned to expect this on TiVo’s last quarterly call.

As for pricing:

The TiVo® HD DVR will carry a $5 per month TiVo service fee, which is in addition to the $10 per month HD Access fee and the $7 per month DVR service fee.

The post includes a TiVo Overview v1.2 document PDF which I’ve uploaded.

Unfortunately, I don’t think the new DirecTiVo is going to fare well. DirecTV delayed it long enough to get their new, in-house HD UI out and the new five tuner HR34 is about to release as well. The THR22 is based on the old HR22 HW and the TiVo OS it is running looks like the old TiVo HD platform tweaked for DirecTV, and not the TiVo Premiere base – no HD UI. Now, we won’t know until people get the units and report on the version, so it could be similar to RCN’s initial deployment where it was the newer software but with the HD UI disabled. Still, no HD UI is a drawback when DirecTV’s own DVRs now have it. And, as you can see in the document, the THR22 lacks many features now standard in other DirecTV DVRs, such as multi-room viewing. And, adding insult to injury, even YouTube is not supported – something TiVo had long before DirecTV added it to their own units.

Still, it is a TiVo option for DirecTV users, and it is certainly better than the old DirecTiVo units still limping along after all these years. So for those who’ve been holding out for a new TiVo option for DirecTV, this will likely be a welcome release. But for customers who aren’t already in the TiVo fold, I don’t think this will win over many converts. Especially not with the additional $5/month fee.

Spotted via InvestorVillage.