I’m not a Mac user however; I found this article to be rather interesting. The author of the article has tried to burn their TiVo files to a DVD. The only problem is that they are running a Mac. The experience they had with their Mac is quite interesting and in fact kind of funny. After running into a number of problems, they’ve decided to go back to their Windows box in order to get the job done.

Has anybody else gone through the same experience with their Mac? I hate to say this but sometimes Windows makes things a lot easier…

As we all know, TiVo collects annonymous usage information about their customer’s viewing habits. According to this article, the top 3 TiVo’d moments of the 2004 summer Olympics were:

1. USA Olympian Paul Hamm’s gold medal performance on the high bar on
August 18
2. Review of Japan’s Kosuke Kitajima “questionable” dolphin kick in the
100m breaststroke event on August 15
3. Chinese Olympian Fan Ye’s accident while dismounting the uneven bars
on August 17

One of the other interesting parts of article had to do with the fact that TiVo usage increased dramatically during the games.

Additionally, live viewership of television broadcasts among TiVo users increased 20 percent during the Olympic games as compared to the week prior to the start of the games and usage of TiVo pause, rewind, fast forward, instant replay, and slo mo functionality was up almost 17 percent in the same time period.

Based on some discussion on this site, I knew that the Olympics were a big hit for TiVo however; I didn’t expect the numbers to be as high as indicated by this article. What’s the next big event for TiVo users?

I’m rather excited about the next release of JavaHMO. To my knowledge no release date has been set yet however, there appears to be some significant changes for the next version. According to the release notes, version 2.0 will utilize a new plugin architecture with the following plugins:

• Email
• Gallery
• Image organizer
• iTunes
• Jukebox
• NNTP
• RSS
• Web pages
• Expanded weather

Being the big geek that I am, I recently decided to try and build JavaHMO from the latest source distribution. I’ve successfully built everything however; I am having some problems with actually running the server. I’ll probably try and work on this a little more.

Out of all the new features that are expected to be released, I’m extremely excited about being able to view RSS feeds from my TiVo. Just imaging viewing the TiVoBlog.com RSS feed on your TiVo! How much more pathetic can I get? No seriously, JavaHMO 2.0 looks as though it is going to have some great new features. When these new features are released, TiVo HMO will truly become a home entertainment system. Stay tuned for more information on the status of JavaHMO or check out the official JavaHMO news page.

Several sources (Yahoo, CNET, ABCNews) have just reported that TiVo has announced a net loss of $10.8 Million or 13 cents per share. The 13 cents per share loss is much lower then what many analysts had predicated. On average most analysts predicted a loss of 25 cents per share.

On a positive note, TiVo has stated that they now have 1.9 million subscribers. This is almost double the amount of subscribers from a year ago! As a little side note, I would like to say that 2 of the 1.9 million subscribers are people that I got to get a TiVo :).

What does all this mean for TiVo? How is the market going to react? Stay tuned for more news and information.

According to this article, (subscription required, unless you go through Google) Australia copyright law has prevented PVR makers such as TiVo from using guide data. In other words, no PVR maker has emerged in Australia because under current law, it is illegal to use raw programming data!

The TV networks control who gets program guides in Australia because the courts here apply a different copyright law to that in America. A seminal case called Telstra v Desktop Marketing, in which Telstra prevented that company reusing the White Pages, has resulted in copyright in Australia applying to raw data.

Can you imagine this? Here in the USA, people were complaining that the FCC basically determined whether or not TiVo could release new technology (TiVoToGo)! It looks as though the Australians have a long way to go before they start seeing any TiVo like technology.

Note: The Denver Post has removed this comic from their site. You can still get it if you want to pay for it…
The DenverPost has posted a Boondocks comic which describes the feeling most people have when they first get a TiVo. Check it out it’s pretty funny :).

As of late, there has been a lot of talk about TiVo’s acquisition of Strangeberry and how this acquisition is some how going to save TiVo (Business 2.0). From what I’ve read, Strangeberry appears to have some very powerful software. If TiVo is able to leverage this software and bring internet content into the Home Entertainment experience, I think it will be a big hit.

I’m sure that this story is going to evolve as time goes on. With so many people writing TiVo’s obituary, it will be interesting to see how quickly TiVo integrates Strangeberry technology. On a daily basis, more and more cable companies are rolling out their own DVR solutions. TiVo doesn’t have much time, they better act soon!

This article about TiVo suggestions got me thinking about something. One section of the article mentions the TiVo Web Project and how TiVo has yet to implement several of the features available in this open source project. This very fact made me wonder; why doesn’t TiVo consider what’s being developed in open source community and either openly support the projects or roll some of the functionality into their own software? Another example of a great open source TiVo project is the JavaHMO server. Like the TiVo Web Project, JavaHMO has implemented several features that are not available in the “official” TiVo Desktop software. Why doesn’t TiVo embrace this project and mention it as an excellent alternative to their software? Wouldn’t it be smart for TiVo to support these different projects?

If you are at all like me, you thoroughly enjoy watching the Olympics. The only problem with watching them is that they are on throughout the day and night. What do you do if your favorite event is on at 2:30 in the morning? Prior to TiVo I would not have been able to watch that event. Yeah I could have programmed my VCR to record it however; who wants to have to deal with that? TiVo makes it especially easy to record the events you want to watch when you want to watch them.

To make your life extremely easy, TiVo has put together a special Showcase for the Olympics. On my ?TiVo Central? screen, I see a selection titled “Chevy and NBC bring you the 2004 Games” from there I am able to select “ATHENS 2004 Olympic Games” —> “Games of the XXVIII Olympiad” —> “View upcoming episodes”. After making all of the above selections, you will see a screen which shows you all of the upcoming events.

Up until now, it was never easier to watch the Olympic events you want when you want to…..TiVo truly brings you “TV Your Way.”

Engadget has an excellent article which talks about 10 different things that both TiVo and Microsoft must do to win the DVR market. The article was originally posted by Thomas Hawk.

I thought that one of the points was particularly good….

Provide the ability to connect external hard drives. The robust 250GB drive on my Hughes HR10-250 will be a dinosaur in a few years, and you shouldn’t have to hack into your TiVo box to upgrade storage.

Why should the consumer have to open the case and install a new drive when they want more space. In some ways, I understand why TiVo doesn’t allow for this. Why would you buy another TiVo if you could constantly upgrade it to support even more data? The average consumer doesn’t’ want to have to open the case. More then likely, they will buy a new TiVo before opening the case….