As I wrote earlier this week, TiVo was set to give a press conference on their new features.  Well, people are raving about it.  The result was the infamous “how did I ever watch TV without this?”  CEO Tom Rodgers said that the new top-box is not only a new cable box, but is also a movie box, web box, and music box.  TiVo Premiere is ingeniously set up after  months of tweaking, allowing users to access “millions of pieces of content” in an organized and user-friendly fashion.

Just looking at the interface, it has a Windows Media Center feel.  The show and movie icons are big and bright and the left hand column of media choices is straightforward.  You can peruse through internet TV, movies, music, on-demand, and even YouTube videos with the distinctive blip of TiVo.  There is also a button that allows the user to fast-forward 30 seconds of recorded material in one second.  You know what that means…no commercials!!!

Now that you’re all excited about this new set-top box, here’s the only downer.  It will be released next month as the baseline Premiere 320 GB for $299.  It will be able to record 400 hours of SD and 45 hours of HD.  If you’re super hardcore, then you’ll want to go for the $499 model (yes you read that correctly).  It is dubbed as the Premiere XL and has one terabyte of recording space.  That means you can store a ridiculous 1,350 hours of SD and 150 hours of HD.  The only downer about the XL is that it works with cable only and not satellite users.  So start saving up!