It’s been a long time in the making. Three and a half years after TiVo’s last major hardware introduction, TiVo finally announced something new today at their New York City unveiling.

For much of the last month, TiVo watchers have been waiting to see what was coming after images of the press event invitation was leaked, claiming that the invention of the DVR was “just a warmup”.

So, did TiVo succeed in making the late 1990′s invention of the DVR look like a warmup?

For a company that hasn't announced a new hardware platform in years, TiVo seems to be all abuzz in recent weeks.

It's been a long time since TiVo released a major new hardware product - about 3 1/2 years since the last major DVR release, the high definition Series3. Sure, they also released the TiVo HD and HD XL, but those were just variations on the Series3 with no significant new features.

Investors need something to cheer about. For pretty much the last three years, TiVo has been losing subscribers every quarter.

Fans like me were waiting for something new. I speculated on (or rather dreamed about) what might be coming prior to the start of CES. But TiVo disappointed us and announced nothing new at the big show.

But now TiVo looks like it's waking up from its hibernation and is ready to do something. Oh, but what? ...