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TiVo Premiere 4

The Premiere 4 has all the features of the XL4, but with a quarter of its storage space.

Joshua Goldman Managing Editor / Advice
Managing Editor Josh Goldman is a laptop expert and has been writing about and reviewing them since built-in Wi-Fi was an optional feature. He also covers almost anything connected to a PC, including keyboards, mice, USB-C docks and PC gaming accessories. In addition, he writes about cameras, including action cams and drones. And while he doesn't consider himself a gamer, he spends entirely too much time playing them.
Expertise Laptops, desktops and computer and PC gaming accessories including keyboards, mice and controllers, cameras, action cameras and drones Credentials
  • More than two decades experience writing about PCs and accessories, and 15 years writing about cameras of all kinds.
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Joshua Goldman
2 min read

TiVo

If you like the sound of a four-tuner TiVo, but $400 plus a $14.99 monthly service fee is just too steep, you're in luck.

The new Premiere 4 has almost all the same features as the Premiere XL4, including the capability to record four programs at once even while you watch something previously recorded. But to get the XL4's $400 cost down to $250, TiVo slashed the storage from 2TB to 500GB for the Premiere 4, or from up to 300 hours of HD programming down to 75 hours.

The Premiere 4 comes with a standard TiVo peanut remote and isn't THX-certified; the XL4 includes a TiVo Glo Premium backlit remote and is THX-certified for audio and video.

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The other features appear to be the same, though, including access to on-demand streaming services from Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and Amazon Instant Video; eventual Comcast Xfinity On Demand support; and MoCA (Multimedia over Coax Alliance) networking in addition to Ethernet (wireless still requires an add-on adapter). MoCA will let you network this TiVo over your home's coaxial wiring, perfect for places where you don't have easy Ethernet access.

The addition of the Premiere 4 brings TiVo's DVR lineup, for the time being at least, to four models. The $150 TiVo Premiere and $250 Premiere XL are two-tuner models with storage for up to 75 or 150 hours of HD shows and support for digital cable, HD and standard-definition over-the-air broadcasts (ATSC), and Verizon FiOS.

However, the XL is no longer in production, so what's available now at retail and through the clearance section at TiVo.com are all that remains. If you want the larger capacity and the over-the-air tuner, better jump on the XL before it's gone.

The Premiere 4 and XL4 are all-digital DVRs; support is for digital cable (QAM only) and Verizon FiOS only. None of these Premiere models support AT&T U-verse or satellite.