Dave Zatz is great at finding new information.  This time he discovered a couple of new pages on TiVo.com which allows you to join a Series 3 mailing list and read the Series 3 CableCARD FAQ.

I know I keep saying this but does this mean that TiVo is going to release the Series 3 TiVo soon?  Most companies don’t update their website with new product information until they are about to release the product.  Take Apple for example, they update their website right before or shortly after they release a new product.

The individual who originally sent me a news tip about TWC not supporting CableCARDs in the Series 3 TiVo forwarded to me the following followup email which essentially states what we know (TWC will install CableCARDs in the Series 3 TiVo).  I just thought I would post this so that we could put the whole TWC Series 3 TiVo issue to bed. 

——
Forwarded Message From: “Cust.Ops”
Reply-To: “Cust.Ops”
Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2006 09:55:46 -0700
To: XXXXXXXX
Subject: Re: Re: FEEDBACK_Customer_Service
Hello XXXXX,

Thank you for your inquiry. We do supply CableCARD’s with our cable system. However, they are not two way interactive. The CableCARD will only be able to transmit channels and not allow Interactive programming such as the On Screen Guide, On Demand, Sports Packages and Pay Per View.

If the On Screen guide is downloaded directly from TiVo, then Yes, the CableCARD will work with it. However, if anything goes wrong with your TiVo system, we will not be able to support it (troubleshoot).

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at the number listed below. Our telephone representatives are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Have a nice day! Time Warner Cable (888)TW-CABLE

HDBeat has several pictures of a Series 3 TiVo in the wild!  Apparently these pictures were provided by somebody who is taking part in the Series 3 beta program.   The device looks pretty much the same as what we saw at CES.  Two cable card slots and a nifty display on the front.  According to the individual who sent in the pictures, the device does not yet have TiVoToGo and the cable company had to go through four CableCARDs in order to get it to work (I wonder if they have TWC). 

It does have HME functionality including Yahoo Web Stuff, Live 365, TiVo games as well as others. They haven’t started testing the eSATA drive yet and the biggest issue was the complexity of the CableCARD setup; big surprise. It took three visits from the local cable company and four cable cards before they were able to get all the premium channels working.

Does this mean that the Series 3 TiVo is coming soon? 

Have you ever wanted to play unprotected AAC, WMA, Ogg Vorbis or FLAC files on your TiVo? According to TiVoLovers.com, you can use this plugin (TiVo Desktop Universal Audio Plug-in) which will convert these file types on the fly so that you can play them on your TiVo. I’m just about to try the software out myself so don’t blame me if it breaks your TiVoDesktop install. 

Remember back in November ‘05 how TiVoPony said that we would have TiVoToGo for the Mac in mid ‘06?

Regarding the Macintosh…

Yes, we intend to support it, but not in the February release. Macintosh support for the new features announced today is planned for mid-2006.

Pony

Well, it’s mid ‘06 and there still isn’t TiVoToGo support on the Mac. Based on some pictures from CES we know that TiVo is developing this capability and that it’s not just vaporware.

What’s going on TiVo? Are you spending all your time working on the Series 3 TiVo? I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who would like to know what the status is…

Tomorrow my Wife, Mother, Father, Son and I are driving eight hours to reach our vacation destination. Being the big geek that I am, I decided to transfer and burn several episodes of Sesame Street and Clifford the Big Red Dog so that my 18 month old son can enjoy some of his shows while he is stuck in the car. TiVoToGo really is great for travel isn’t it?

I’ve been away from TiVo news for only one day and in that day, a lot has happened.  Fortunately, several other sites haven’t taken a break and they’ve done a good job covering the news.

Just yesterday, TiVo won an injunction against EchoStar which stated that EchoStar is required to disable their DVR functionality and give TiVo $90,000,000!

Since then, news has come out that a federal appeals court has blocked the injunction which essentially means that EchoStar can continue doing what it is doing (for the time being).

More to come as more happens….

Is it just me or does it seem like TiVo HME development has come to a grinding halt?. Remember back in June ‘05 how TiVo sponsered a developer challenge? Well, ever since then it seems like HME development has slowed down considerably. Even the developer of Galleon? has said that he is discouraged with the lack of support and updates TiVo is providing. What’s going on with HME? TiVo hasn’t released an update to the API since 10/31/2005!

I personally would like to see new HME apps. In my opinion, it’s one of the best features that TiVo has to offer.

Is anybody willing to offer up some prizes for a competition? How about a new car or a 50 inch plasma :)? No seriously, is anybody interested in sponsoring a developer challenge to get TiVo HME application development started back up?

TiVo has updated TiVo desktop to version 2.3a. The update is supposed to fix a bug which was causing the application to intermittently crash or fail. If you are having this problem, you might want to upgrade to the latest version.

Spotted on ZatzNotFunny.

I hope somebody can explain this to me…..

My TiVo seems to “know” that I am using a HDTV. Ever since I hooked my TiVo to my HDTV, I have noticed that my TiVo is displaying its content using a 16:9 aspect ratio.

For the life of me I can’t figure out how it knows to use 16:9 and not 4:3. Can somebody explain why it is doing this? At first I thought I had found the answer to my question via the following setting: “Read New Messages & Settings” –> “Settings” –> “Video” –> “TV Aspect Ratio”. That was until I read that the “TV Aspect Ratio” setting is only good for internet content which may be downloaded to your TiVo.

Am I missing something or does this have other people confused?