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As a side note, I would like to thank SAL for putting me down as his TiVo rewards referrer. If you’d like to put me down as your referrer, all you need to do is enter my email address (raianoat AT gmail DOT com) when you activate your TiVo. Thanks SAL. It really is appreciated!
Kind of boring but it’s news none the less….
ALVISO, Calif. and LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Oct. 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO - News), the creator of and a leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), and Windstream Corporation (NYSE: WIN - News), today announced an agreement to offer bundled internet and TiVo DVR services.
Windstream customers will enjoy a differentiated video service that combines innovative broadband video content and traditional linear television through TiVo’s Emmy® award-winning user interface. The new bundled offering provides subscribers with easy access to a broad array of downloadable content via TiVoCast and TiVo’s popular Amazon Unbox(TM) service in addition to streaming access to over 4 million songs via Rhapsody. Subscribers will also receive well known TiVo features including Season Pass(TM) recordings, WishList® searches, remote scheduling capabilities, TiVoToGo(TM) transfers, and access to interactive services like weather and traffic from Yahoo! and Fandango® movie ticketing.
“Teaming up with Windstream to combine high-speed Internet and DVR into one convenient bundle unlocks a truly unique entertainment and communications experience for consumers,” said Naveen Chopra, Vice President of Corporate Development at TiVo. “We are pleased to join forces with Windstream, a provider of voice, broadband, and video services who wields a proven ability to market bundled services in conjunction with its core wireline service to over three million subscribers.”
“Combining TiVo’s best-in-class DVR experience and Windstream’s high-speed Internet service brings to our customers a comprehensive TV entertainment offering,” said Ric Crane, Chief Marketing Officer at Windstream. “Windstream now will be able to offer customers a simple-to-use integrated television experience with the ability to download on-demand movies, music and photos.”
Windstream plans to begin marketing TiVo in the first half of 2008. Specific pricing and financial terms of this agreement have not yet been disclosed.
As expected, TiVo has added several Podshow programs to their TiVoCast lineup. Currently, you can download the following Podshow content directly to your TiVo: Fit Life, GeekBrief.TV, The Masthead with Marie Claire & The Weakest Beat.
Here’s a brief summary of each of the shows:
- Fit Life: Learn about the food, gadgets and trends that will help you achieve fitness and health with Certified Personal Trainer Amy McIntyre.
- GeekBrief.TV: GeekBrief.TV, with new media superstar Cali Lewis, is the premiere Videocast on the Net. It’s “shiny happy tech news” from PodShow TV.
- The Masthead: Go behind the scenes at your favorite fashion, style and beauty magazine, Marie Claire, with Editor-in-Chief Joanna Coles. Fabulous!
- The Weakest Beat: One Picture - Two Hours: Who will have the Weakest Beat? Watch as producers in the Bay Area compete for fame, glory and an MPC4000.
Where’s Stephen Mack when you need him? You would think he was busy or something :).
Tip provided by Rob Usdin.
Comcast has published a new webpage where you can get more information about the Comcast TiVo DVR. The webpage doesn’t provide a lot of information right now but, I suspect that more will be added to the page sometime in the near future.
Spotted on ZatzNotFunny.com.
Update (11/3 @ 6:04AM): Roxio has posted a public beta which is supposed to fix the issue mentioned below. Go here to download it…
Update (10/31 @ 8:24AM): Roxio has done a great job communicating with the community about the issues they’re having with TiVo’s 9.2 software update. Recently, I was given the opportunity to beta test the next version of Popcorn and to my surprise it includes a fix for the double playback issue I was experiencing. Roxio has said that this update should be released shortly so stay tuned if you are having issues with either Toast or Popcorn.
As I alluded to in a previous post, initially I was having a difficult time getting Roxio’s TiVo Transfer app to detect my Series 3 TiVo. After doing some research, I came to the conclusion that TiVo Transfer uses Apple’s Bonjour protocol to discover and list any TiVos on the network. Sure enough, when I fired up iStumbler my Series 3 wasn’t listed as a Bonjour device (DVR-893D is my S2 TiVo).
Like most computer problems (at least on Windows), I decided to reboot my Series 3 to see if that would fix the issue. As soon as the reboot was complete, my Series 3 showed up in both TiVo Transfer and iStumbler’s Bonjour listing (DVR-02A0).
Now I’m able to connect and successfully transfer a show off of my Series 3 TiVo to my Mac (that doesn’t mean everything is working…continue reading).
Unfortunately, I’m still having a problem with any show that I transfer from my Series 3 TiVo. From some reason, any transferred show that I try and watch plays back at twice the normal speed. I took a look at the settings for Roxio’s Toast Video Player however, I wasn’t able to find a setting that could be causing this problem. I’ve seen that other people are having this issue so I guess I’ll wait and see if Roxio comes out with a fix (who knows how long that will take). Until then, I could use TiVoDecodeManager to get content off of my Series 3 however, I just don’t like how TDM works and I would rather get the “official“ Mac TiVoToGo client to work especially since I’ve already paid for it. I’ll be sure to let you know if/when Roxio comes out with a fix….
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As a side note, I would like to thank Peter for putting me down as his TiVo rewards referrer. If you’d like to put me down as your referrer, all you need to do is enter my email address (raianoat AT gmail DOT com) when you activate your TiVo. Thanks Peter. It really is appreciated!
Like a kid on Christmas, I was extremely excited yesterday when I was able to successfully transfer a high definition show from my Series 3 TiVo using the 9.2 service update. To my surprise, TiVoDesktop only took ~48 minutes to transfer a 55 minute 6GB HD program! How is possible? Why is the Series 3 better at transferring programs than my Series 2 TiVo? My Series 2 normally takes around 60 minutes to transfer a 60 minute standard definition program so how is my Series 3 able to transfer a HD program in the same amount if not less time? Does the S3 have some hardware built in which allows it to perform better when it comes to TiVoToGo or is there less conversion necessary with the HD content? Can somebody educate me?
Whatever the reason is, I’m extremely happy with being able to transfer shows off of my Series 3. I am however, having some issues with getting Roxio Popcorn to work on my Mac. Has anybody successfully transferred a show from their TiVo HD or Series 3 using Roxio’s Popcorn or Roxio Toast for that matter?
According to this rep, the TiVo Comcast DVR costs an additional $2.95/month. Can anybody verify this?
We all knew this was coming but, today TiVo sent out the following press release which indicates that we should see an upgrade for the S3 and TiVo HD sometime in the near future. As expected, the upgrade will bring TiVoToGo and multi-room viewing (MRV) support to the Series 3 & TiVo HD. Also as expected, TiVo has partnered with Western Digital to release an eSATA drive ($200) which will allow you to easily add additional storage to a S3 & TiVo HD.
TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO), the creator of and leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), today announced the new availability of several exciting feature upgrades and product support for TiVo Series 3 and TiVo HD customers. The news includes the availability of external storage (E-SATA) from Western Digital, the introduction of Multi-Room Viewing and TiVoToGo availability and the new feature of progressive downloads - all for Series 3 and TIVo HD subscribers. Please see below for more information on the news.
E-SATA
· The My DVR Expander external hard drive is capable of storing up to 600 hours of standard-definition (SD) or up to 65 hours of high-definition (HD) television programming based on 500 GB of hard drive storage.
· This is current the only TiVo Verified external storage device.
· The My DVR Expander is compatible with both TiVo HD and TiVo Series3 DVRs.
· WD’s My DVR Expander external hard drive is available now in the United States from Best Buy retail stores and by ordering online from TiVo.com/store.
· MSRP for the My DVR Expander drive with 500 GB is $199.99 USD.Multi Room Viewing (MRV)
· MRV allows you to transfer programming between TiVo DVRs.
· It now includes support for Series3 and TiVo HD DVRs, meaning you can share shows between Series2, Series3, and TiVo HD boxes.
· Only SD recordings may be sent from a Series3/TiVo HD to a Series2.TiVoToGo
· TiVo HD and Series 3 users can now enjoy TiVoToGo functionality.
· TiVoToGo™ transfers are available to all networked TiVo DVRs. This service enhancement allows users to transfer programs from a TiVo box to a desktop or laptop PC.
· Using TiVo Desktop software for Windows or Roxio Toast 8 or Popcorn 3 for Mac OS, TiVo subscribers can now transfer recordings from their Series 3 and TiVo HD boxes for playback, DVD burning, or converting to portable device formats on personal computers.Progressive Downloads
· The progressive download feature gives TiVo subscribers the ability to watch TiVoCast content while it is still downloading, including Amazon UnBox on TiVo.
· When a download begins, the TiVo box checks the speed of the download, and calculates whether you can begin playback. If the download speed is going faster than playback speed, it will let users start playback immediately.
· If the download is slower, it will wait until users have enough of the program “buffered” on disk to be able to play it from start to finish without hitting the end of the buffer, and then let you start playback.
· This service is available for TiVo HD and Series3 subscribers.
Last night I was pleasantly surprised when my TiVo indicated that it needed to be restarted for the 9.2 service update. For those of you who don’t know, the 9.2 service update is supposed to enable the eSATA port on the S3 & TiVo HD so that you will be able to easily add additional storage. Now all we’re waiting for is for TiVo to update their website so that we can find out which eSATA drives are officially supported.
In addition to enabling the eSATA port, 9.2 will also enable Amazon Unbox progressive downloads. Progressive downloads will allow you to watch an Amazon Unbox program while it is being downloaded as opposed to having to wait for the entire download to complete. Having the ability to play an Unbox video while is is being downloaded will be a great feature. Just the other day I had to wait for the entire episode of The Office to transfer before I could play it.
