Steve Garfield has published yet another video of his new DVR. Check it out if you’re interested in a Comcast TiVo DVR.

Detailed instructions can be found here.

TiVoCast is one of my most favorite capabilities that TiVo has to offer. That being said, one of the biggest limitations of TiVoCast is that you can only download and watch the shows that TiVo currently has to offer. As of today, there are forty-one shows that are available via the TiVoCast service. Forty-one shows may seem like a large number of video podcasts however, if you’re a geek like me, you probably subscribe to a number of shows which TiVoCast doesn’t provide access to. To get around this limitation of TiVoCast, I’ve come up with a simple solution which utilizes TiVo Desktop Plus and iTunes.

Here’s what you are going to need to mirror my setup:

• A networked Windows box running TiVo Desktop with the TiVo Desktop Plus upgrade ($24.95). If you want to save a couple of bucks, you probably could use TiVo.Net or pyTiVo instead of TiVo Destkop plus. I’ve decided to use TiVo Desktop Plus because I already own a license for this software.
• iTunes, so that you can subscribe to video podcasts.
• A Series 2, Series 3 or TiVo HD connected to your home network.

If you haven’t already, the first thing need to do is subscribe to at least one video podcast within iTunes.

Once your subscription(s) are established, the next thing you need to do is identify where on your machine iTunes stores your video podcasts. By default, iTunes will download video podcasts into the Podcasts folder under your iTunes music folder. For my setup, iTunes is configured to download video podcasts into the following directory: C:\Shared\MP3s\Podcasts\.

Next, you need to create a shortcut for each of the folders which contain the video podcasts that you want to watch on your TiVo. Once you’ve created these shortcuts, you need to copy or move them to the directory where TiVo Desktop is configured to store your TiVo Recordings. If you’re not sure of this location, you can find out by accessing TiVo Desktop’s preferences (File –> Preferences –> File Locations). In my case, I have TiVo Desktop configured to store my TiVo recordings on one of my external USB drives: F:\My TiVo Recordings\.

Here’s a screenshot of the shortcuts that I’ve placed inside my TiVo Recordings folder.

Now that I’ve placed these shortcuts in my TiVo Recordings folder, TiVo Desktop Plus will allow me to watch my video podcasts on my TiVo DVR. Essentially, TiVo Desktop plus will transcode my video podcasts into a format that my TiVo can then playback. According to TiVo’s website, TiVo desktop plus has the ability to transcode the following video formats:

Supported video formats include:
Note: Files with digital rights management (DRM) or other copy protection are not supported.
- Windows Media Video (.wmv)
- QuickTime Movie (.mov)
- MPEG-4/H.264 (.mp4,.m4v,.mp4v)
- MPEG-2 (.mpg,.mpeg,.mpe,.mp2,.mp2v,.mpv2)
- DivX and Xvid (.avi, .divx)

Now that the shortcuts are in place, your DVR should be able to transfer and display your video podcasts. As you can see from this screenshot, my TiVo now has access to LabRats (Episode 103: Whatware?).

Here’s a couple of screenshots of what a video podcast looks like using the solution I’ve outlined in this post. Kind of cool hunh?

What should I do with the two Series 2 TiVos (140 hr & 40 hr) that are siting in my basement collecting dust? I really don’t want to hookup either of the DVRs since they both only have a single tuner. Anybody have any ideas as to what I could do with these DVRs?  I’m looking for some suggestions…

G4 has put together the following review of the Series 3 TiVo. Before you watch it, you probably should hear about what I found wrong with the review. First of all, in the review they kept on saying that the device costs $600 however, they’ve neglected to mention that TiVo is offering a $200 rebate so you can get the Series 3 for $392.91. Also, at the end of the review they mention that it would be nice if the TiVoHD were expandable. I don’t know where G4 gets their information from however, the TiVo HD is in fact expandable via the same external drive that the Series 3 can use. Other than those two things, it’s a decent review :).

If I were in the market to buy a HD TiVo, I probably would go with the TiVo HD instead of the Series 3 mainly because the TiVoHD costs only $259.98.

Steve Garfield keeps on providing excellent coverage of his Comcast TiVo DVR. Here’s a video that he recently posted.

I hope your Holidays are filled with joy and prosperity that lasts the whole year through.  Thanks for visiting TiVoBlog.com!

MeeVee.com has teamed up with TiVo to offer online scheduling via the MeeVee website. With this announcement, MeeVee has joined Yahoo!TV, TVGuide.com, Zap2It and TiVo.com all of which provide a similar capability on their website.

Which remote scheduling website do you use? I’m a big fan of TiVo.com and I honestly haven’t found a reason why I should switch to one of the other third party options. In any case, it’s great to see TiVo continue to form partnerships. I guess if you’re a MeeVee.com user it’s nice to have this option available to you.

Spotted on TVSquad.com.

Steve Garfield has posted several new pictures of his Comcast TiVo DVR that he received yesterday.

Based on what I’ve seen from Steve, the Comcast TiVo DVR appears to be a big hit. I especially like how it allows you to access VOD (video on demand) content directly from within the TiVo interface. That’s something I wish my Series 3 could do….

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As a side note, I would like to thank Jason 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 Jason. It really is appreciated!