TiVo Streaming Apple TV App Will Be Limited to 720p at 30 FPS

TiVo's upcoming Apple TV app will limit streaming to 720p at 30 frames per second and won't support native MPEG-2 broadcasts or 5.1 surround sound, it has been revealed.

During CES, TiVo announced it would release an app for ‌Apple TV‌ in the third quarter of this year that would allow TiVo users to stream live and recorded content to other televisions without incurring additional cost.

However, users hoping to enjoy TiVo content on their ‌Apple TV‌ at the same level of audio and visual quality are in for disappointment. The admission was made in a TechHive interview with Ted Malone, TiVo's vice president of consumer products and services.

Malone explained that the limitations, which will also apply across the company's forthcoming Amazon Fire TV and Roku apps, is a necessary compromise that has do with the TiVo's hardware resource allocation:

"I want 720p 60 [fps]," Malone told the publication. "I've done some internal demos proving that 720p 60 [fps] is actually noticeably better than 720p 30 [fps]. It's really a battle for resources and just getting it done."

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Malone said the TiVo hardware can technically support higher-quality streams, but not without dialing back some other capabilities, such as streaming to TiVo Mini Vox boxes.

As it stands, TiVo users who want to view live programming and DVR content on additional televisions have to resort to a TiVo Mini. The first-party Mini costs $180 but includes support for high-quality streaming, which means it will remain the best solution for expanding the availability of TiVo content to multiple rooms.