You have to hand it to Tivo. It makes no bones about the Bolt’s most alluring feature, which is that it intentionally sniffs out commercials in recorded shows and allows viewers to bypass them with a comically low amount of effort. That’s bound to upset a powerful sect, but whatever — if you aren’t ruffling someone’s feathers, what’s the point? The company’s latest DVR looks a bit quirky, but the bend is there to provide ventilation from the energy exerted in hopping over FanDuel ads. Beyond that, there’s inbuilt support for 4K streaming through YouTube and Netflix (with more apps to come).
QuickMode lets you watch your recorded shows 30 percent faster, and pitch-corrected audio “lets you speed through slow-moving shows like news, sports events or awards shows without compromising the viewing experience,” the company says. OneSearch canvasses TV, on-demand, Netflix, Amazon, Vudu and more to find a specific actor or title, and the entire user interface is markedly faster than any other DVR platform the world has ever seen.