Have you ever wondered what a CableCARD is? ars technica has published a wonderful guide which demystifies the CableCARD. While this isn’t TiVo news per say, it definitely affects TiVo. Read on for a wonderful guide….

Spotted on eHomeUpgrade.

Like the good husband that I am, I recently handed the remote over to my wife so that she could finish watching season one of 24. When I did this, my intention was to watch the Super Bowl on my laptop using TiVoToGo. Unfortunately, I found out the hard way that you can’t transfer a show to your PC while it is still being recorded. I guess I should have expected this however, I had hoped that I would be able to stream the game to my laptop while it was simultaneously being recorded to the TiVo. Now I need to either stay up late tonight and watch the game or seclude myself to the small TV in the bedroom.  I knew I shouldn’t have been so easy :).

Leon has released version 2.2.0 of his award winning HME app server.  Galleon 2.2.0 contains a number of new features as well as some bug fixes.  Here are the release notes:

Version 2.2.0:
———————-
Galleon menu sorting
Internet app support for larger images
TiVo space available in configuration GUI
ToGo recordings show TiVo name in configuration GUI
Added TiVo criteria to ToGo rules
Improved database error handling
ToGo sorting
Jabber app
Fixed iTunes date support
Shoutcast configurable download limits

Head on over to Galleon’s website to download a copy.

Hat Tip: TiVoLovers

There are a number of ways to listen to a podcast on your TiVo. Each technique has its’ drawbacks. If you want, you could use TiVo’s new HME app that was released in November ‘05. One of the problems with this app is that if you want to listen to a podcast that isn’t in the list of available podcasts, you will be required to “type” the podcast’s feed url using your remote. If you’ve ever tried this before, you know what a pain this can be.

Instead of using TiVo’s app, you could also use Galleon to gather your podcasts. This is a good option however, if you have an older machine Galleon won’t run all that well. Galleon is written in java so you need to have a decent machine in order to take full advantage of the software. If you have a good machine, I would recommend giving Galleon a try.

For those people who don’t have a decent machine with a lot of processing power and memory, I would recommended that you try the setup that I am about to describe. This setup will allow you to subscribe to a podcast and then listen to it on your TiVo.

To start, you need to make sure that your TiVo is connected to your network and that you are running the latest version of TiVo Desktop. Along with TiVo Desktop, you are also going to have to install iTunes or a similar podcatcher. For the sake of this how to, I am going to assume that you are using iTunes.

Once all of the required software is installed (TiVo Desktop & iTunes), you need to subscribe to whatever podcasts you want to listen to. To do this, bring up iTunes and navigate to the podcast directory (screenshot below). iTunes’s podcast directory makes it easy for you to subscribe to a bunch of different feeds.

Once you’ve subscribed to a couple of feeds, the next thing you need to do is figure out where iTunes is saving your podcasts to on your computer. To do this, navigate to the Preferences screen via the Edit –> Preferences menu item. Once the Preferences window appears, click on the Advanced tab and note the “iTunes Music folder location”. This is the location where iTunes will store you podcasts. By default, iTunes stores your podcasts in My Music –> iTunes –> Podcasts.

Now that you know where iTunes is saving your podcasts, the next thing to do is configure TiVo Desktop so that you podcasts are accessible to your TiVo. To do this, open up TiVo Desktop and click on the “Music & Photos” button along the left hand side. From there you need to add the folder that contains your podcasts (determined above). You can either add the entire iTunes folder or just add the Podcasts folder. I prefer to add the Podcasts folder because it makes it easier to navigate when you’re using your TiVo.

Now that you have the podcast folder shared out, you should be all set to listen to podcasts on your TiVo. To do this, you must navigate to the TiVo Central screen and then Music & Photos. From there you should be able to browse whatever podcasts you’ve subscribed to.

In my opinion, this is the best setup for somebody who doesn’t have a machine that is capable of running Galleon. If you have a good machine, I would recommend going with Galleon. If not, I would recommend that you use a setup similar to the one I just described.

Good luck and let me know if you listen to podcasts on your TiVo using a different technique.