Advertisement

TiVo Premiere unearths hidden power: USB keyboard functionality

One of our bigger gripes with the TiVo Premiere was the lack of an included QWERTY remote and how cumbersome it was to use search with the directional pad. Fortunately, while we wait for the official peripheral, it seems our old friend Dave Zatz has been snooping around the internet searching for alternatives -- and best of all, he's found 'em. Turns out even a wireless keyboard will do the trick, with the directional pad and alphanumeric keys working as expected and the function keys serving as shortcuts. Some other hidden functionality should pave the way for Android and iPhone apps to do the trick, but in the meantime, our run-of-the-mill USB keyboard worked just fine. Watch Zatz's proof of concept with an off-the-shelf Arc Keyboard after the break.