I forgot to mention another gift, a Tivo Slide remote. Now, I'm one of those people who thinks the Tivo remote is possibly the greatest remote ever designed, so perhaps I'm biased, but this new one is even better than my beloved Glo Remote that I got with my Series 3.

First of all, it's FAR more compact, despite having an extra row of buttons (the multi-colored ones at the middle, which I have no use for on my non-Premium device). This makes it possible to hit far more buttons without moving/contorting your hand than before.

Second: going forward, if any company releases an entertainment device that has any sort of text input and doesn't provide a way for you to easily enter that text, they're messing up. I wish Tivo would supply the Slide with the Tivo Premiere, but just having this remote available is at least better than what the Roku and Apple TV are doing. Even Western Digital has added support for wireless keyboards. No one should ever again be forced to deal with a grid of letters/numbers and be forced to use five buttons to type things out. It's a nightmare. Having the keyboard on the Slide is wonderful, even when I'm not doing text entry. It seems they've gone a bit further with it. For example, I needed to program the new remote to control my receiver's volume. Tivo gives you a list of manufacturers to go through on-screen so they can tell you the codes to use. This list is extensive and usually you have to scroll through or channel-down for a while to find the one you want. Well, I just opened up the keyboard to see if I could use it to skip to the letter of the manufacturer I wanted, and it worked! Nice touch by Tivo.

Lastly, I have to say, it's more responsive. I think it's because everything is digital. It's using bluetooth to communicate to a receiver plugged into the USB port of the Tivo. Most of the times, the button presses are instantaneous, and there's a noticeable difference from my Glo Remote. The downside is that every so often, the Tivo seems to need to think about the command for a second before it reacts. I don't know if the delay is in the remote-to-receiver or afterwards, but it happens about every 20 times I use the remote, and it's not always just after using it after a rest. Not sure what's up with that, but I'm willing to live with it.

Anyway, if there are any other hi-def Tivo owners out there considering the Slide, I recommend it.