TiVo Rollout of a New TiVo Experience Hydra
The TiVo rollout of a New TiVo Experience Hydra has started. But, for those of you who like the current TiVo interface, the upgrade to the New TiVo Experience Hydra appears to still be optional. If you want to upgrade, you will have to manually start the upgrade process. “Get Ready for a New TiVo Experience.”
New TiVo Experience Hydra
The New TiVo Experience user interface is called “Hydra”. TiVos eligible for the New TiVo Experience upgrade include the TiVo Bolt, TiVo Bolt+, TiVo Roamio, and TiVo Mini models.
The new user interface looks fascinating, feature rich, and modern with a focus on images. However, if you prefer the well-received traditional TiVo interface that seems to stand the test of time, the rumors are that you will still be able to use that traditional TiVo user interface.
The New TiVo Experience user interface has new voice control features. While a new remote isn’t necessary, a VOX Remote is necessary to access all of TiVo’s voice-control features with the New TiVo Experience. Don’t have one? Get one now.
- TiVo VOX Remote to Upgrade TiVo Roamio or TiVo Mini with Voice Search, Black (C00301)
- TiVo VOX Remote for TiVo BOLT Black (C00302)
- TiVo VOX Remote for TiVo BOLT White (C00303)
Need help deciding if you want to upgrade to the New TiVo Experience? Watch TiVo’s video walk-through of the New TiVo Experience Hydra user interface.
This video by TiVo demonstrates the new interface and features.
https://tivo.wistia.com/medias/x4rdn1dqlw?wvideo=x4rdn1dqlw
TiVo Rollout of a New TiVo Experience Hydra
The TiVo rollout of a New TiVo Experience user interface Hydra is underway. And the upgrade still appears to be optional.
Eligible devices for the New TiVo Experience include:
- BOLT DVR
- BOLT+ DVR
- Roamio DVRs
- Any TiVo Minis connected to an upgraded Hydra DVR
Do you know about The New TiVo Bolt Vox?
FAQs
- ANY TiVo Mini connected to an upgraded TiVo DVR will also be upgraded automatically. Each TiVo Mini connected to the upgraded TiVo DVR will automatically prompt you to upgrade when it connects to the upgraded DVR running the New TiVo Experience Hydra. If the TiVo Mini is not upgraded, the TiVo Mini will not connect to the host TiVo DVR with the New User Interface Hydra.
- All of your DVR recordings and OnePass selections are kept during the upgrade process.
- Do you have FIRST GENERATION MINI? The New TiVo Experience interface requires the “back” button on the remote control. If your TiVo Mini does not have a “back” button, you may need to buy a new TiVo remote control.
IMPORTANT WARNING: There is no official rollback!
Once you upgrade the New TiVo Experience (Hydra), you will not be able to downgrade to the prior experience without losing all of your settings and recordings. The upgrade is designed as a one-way trip!
While there actually is a way you can rollback, for any rollback you WILL LOSE all your settings, TiVo One Pass selections, and recordings! The rollback is complicated – a complete factory reset.
How to Upgrade Tivo to the New TiVo Experience
There are two ways to upgrade to the New TiVo Experience Hydra.
Upgrade to the New TiVo Experience through the TiVo Interface: Option 1
If your TiVo has been updated with the new link to “Get New Experience – TiVo”, the upgrade is very easy.
Upgrade to the New TiVo Experience through the TiVo interface by clicking through the following:
- Click the TiVo Home button until TiVo Central appears
- Scroll down the TiVo Central menu to Apps
- Click on Apps
- Scroll down on the right sub-menu to Get New Experience – TiVo
- Click on the Get New Experience – TiVo
- Next you will see the Get Ready for a New TiVo Experience screen
- IMPORTANT WARNING: There is no supported rollback!
- Click on Upgrade Now
- The upgrade will likely take about 5 minutes, but may take up to 1 hour
Upgrade to the New TiVo Experience through TiVo’s Early Access: Option 2
Don’t have the new “Get New Experience – TiVo” link on your TiVo?
You can still upgrade to the New TiVo Experience.
You can request a TiVo upgrade through the TiVo’s Early Access to the New TiVo Experience Hydra.
Allow 24-48 hours for your TiVo to be upgraded after completing TiVo’s Early Access request for the New TiVo Experience user interface.
Did You Upgrade to the New TiVo Experience?
Hey TiVo Community… Share your experiences and thoughts about the New TiVo Experience in the comments below! Do you recommend upgrading?
To help offset our costs, we may earn affiliate commissions from ads or links. Affiliate ads and links cost you nothing. Anything you buy through affiliate ads or links will not raise the price of any products or services you purchase.
Amazon Affiliate: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Thank you for your interest in The Cord Cutter Life and your support of our affiliates.
I’m a TiVo lifer with 6 devices on my account at present. My appreciation for TiVo began in 2001 when we added a DirecTivo to our satellite subscription. Just wanted to share my constructive feedback regarding my Hydra experience on my Roamio XL over the past few weeks. Unfortunately it wasn’t a good experience, but hopefully my feedback is helpful. Below is a list of things I missed or don’t work anymore.
1. No way to quick clear anything anymore. It used to be instant (highlight & click “clear”). Now it takes up to 5 seconds or more to clear each program. The lag is noticeable everywhere, but especially in the suggestions folder (see #12 below for more on this).
2. PC–>TiVo transfers (pyTivo/TiVo Desktop) not possible.
3. Left button for going back no longer works – have to use “Back” button. The odd placement of this “back” button next to “input” often results in frequent mis-keying.
4. Skip button (channel up/down) to jump to end/start of lists no longer works everywhere. This became noticeable in areas I frequent such as ToDo lists and Season Pass setup.
5. Every program in My Shows is treated as a folder. So if you select a single recording (to play), it opens into the list menu rather than going directly to the play screen. Additionally when you try to delete, it asks you if you want to delete the folder. Lastly, clicking “play” on remote doesn’t work anymore. 2 steps now required (select then play).
6. No longer possible to sync & transfer programs between multiple TiVo units in my house. Reason = Hydra.
7. In my opinion, the font and type size used in Hydra was noticeably smaller and thus more difficult to read quickly and zip through.
8. Info button no longer gives you detailed show info (including size, etc) about a selected show in My Shows.
9. Using a few 30 sec forward-skips in quick succession sometimes causes loss of audio. Need to skip-back to get audio to return.
10. The native Vudu app crashes the TiVo when you try to fast forward/rewind for about 5-10 seconds. TiVo freezes for about 30 seconds… then reboots itself. Unless you watch a movie without any plan to rewind/fast-forward, the Vudu app is essentially not usable.
11. There is sometimes no indicator (red dot) that a program you are watching is recording or not.
12. Suggestions folder records WAY too much content daily. I went away for a 3 day business trip right after upgrading to Hydra. When I returned, there were over 200 recorded programs in the suggestions folder. I went back into suggestions a few days later, there were 800+ recorded programs. This never happened with previous UI. As mentioned in post 1, deleting programs one at a time with a 5 second lag in between each delete is just plain awful…. and more so when you want to delete 800+ shows you don’t like. While in the suggestion folder (trying in vain to empty it), I noticed it kept recording programs on 4 tuners at once. I would stop & delete all 4 recordings… then resume deleting the others. A few minutes later, it would begin recording 4 more. Something is very wrong with this feature in Hydra on the Roamio.
Anyway, sorry for the long list of feedback items but I really was disappointed in my experience with Hydra. Despite losing all my recorded content and Season Passes, I can’t believe how happy I was to go back to the previous UI. My wife suggested we upgrade the bedroom TiVo HD to a newer unit. If the latest TiVo Bolt ships with Hydra, I don’t think I would even consider upgrading. I’ve read lots of similar reviews and feedback online in the last few days. Hopefully TiVo is working toward addressing these areas of opportunity. This is the first time I think I’ve ever found myself agreeing with TiVo critics on anything.
Thanks for the feedback! Your comments stopped me from going forward with the upgrade.
Sucks so far. Where are my option to customize the channel guide?
hmmm, no replys to the comments ?
I’ll just wait until it gets out of beta,
thanks.
good grief this new ui is aweful. what i loved about tivo is the easy left-right navigation. the new up/down/select/back interface SUCKS.
I believe I upgraded to,Hydra, but the Home Screen doesn’t have a large video in the right corner. And it doesn’t look the same . What software version is Hydra?