Just today Stephen Mack (Director of TiVoCast Operations) announced that TiVo has added Channel Frederator to the TiVoCast lineup. Channel Frederator can be accessed via the following menu on your TiVo: TiVo Central –> Find Programs –> Download TV & Movies –> Channel Frederator. According to Stephen, the program will also be listed on TiVo’s website starting tomorrow.

It’s great to see TiVo add a new show to TiVoCast especially since we haven’t seen any new programs in a while. I look forward to hearing what people have to say about Channel Frederator.  I’ll probably subscribe but I’m not sure that I will stick with it…

Just today, TiVo decided to add The Onion to their TiVoCast lineup. The Onion is the second show to be added to the TiVoCast service in less then a month. While I’m not a big fan of The Onion, I am happy to see that TiVo continues to expand their TiVoCast content.

To sign up for The Onion, navigate to the following menu item on your TiVo: TiVo Central –> Find Programs –> TiVoCast.

Spotted On the Zeigen.com

TiVo has added Break.com to their growing lineup of videos that you can download and watch directly on your TiVo. For those of you who don’t know, Break.com is a video website similar to YouTube however, the content on Break appears to be geared towards men.

c|net is still my most favorite TiVoCast subscritpion however, I am looking forwarded to subscribing to Break.com. What do you think about TiVoCast’s content? Are you happy with the videos that are available via TiVoCast?

Spotted on Zeigen.com (Director of TiVoCast Operations).

We all remember the tragic death of James Kim and all that his family has endured.  Well, Dave Zatz and TiVo’s Director of TiVoCast (Stephen Mack) have come up with a great idea to help support the Kim family.

Here’s how it will work…  For every $10 that you send to Dave’s PayPal account (davezatz AT yahoo DOT com), Dave will include you in a drawing for a limited edition TiVo toaster (donated by TiVo). Along with the money that Dave gathers in his PayPal account, Dave has also said that he will donate his December Google Adsense income to the cause.

This is a great idea and I wish I came up with it. If you haven’t already, send Dave some money. Not only will it be for a good cause but you also get a chance to win a limited edition TiVo toaster.

According to Stephen Mack (Director of TiVoCast Operations), TiVo has added GolfSpan and LX.TV to their growing lineup of online content that you can download and watch directly on your TiVo.

GolfSpan is the world leader in online video golf instruction with 600+ videos from the likes of Jim McLean, Hank Haney & Jimmy Ballard. Update frequency is twice per week (Tuesday and Thursday). The first episode of GolfSpan is “X Factor Power Set Up” (6 minutes).

LX.TV is your exclusive destination for original lifestyle and cultural programming. They will publish the following two programs:

• Drinks W/LX (Tuesday and Thursday)
• LX/101 (Monday, Wednesday, Friday)

For those of you who aren’t familiar with TiVoCast, here’s a description taken directly off of TiVo’s website:

TiVoCast is an exciting new feature from TiVo that lets you easily download TV programming to your TiVo DVR via your broadband Internet connection. The programs will appear in your Now Playing List, just like regular television recordings.

While I’m not particularly excited about either of these shows, I’m happy to see that TiVo is adding more content. By far my most favorite show to watch via TiVoCast is c|net. What’s your favorite show?

Stephen Mack (Director of Service operations at TiVo) has put together an interesting post on his blog in which he talks about the TiVoToGo Mac slipup. It’s worth a read if your interested in TiVoToGo on the Mac.

Scheduling and estimating for any project is an inexact science. Issues come up, things happen, people underestimate, bugs occur. TiVo has seen its share of missed deadlines. (Although we never seem to get any credit for the countless software and hardware and service releases that occur on time.)

Recently, Wired Magazine included us on their “vaporware” list for TiVoToGo for the Mac. There are a lot of TiVo employees who love and use Macs, and all of us want to see this released soon. It’s fair to say this is late, since we announced it for mid-Summer of 2006.

I’m not close to the project, so I don’t know when it’ll be ready. But Jim Denney, a VP I work with, wrote a good explanation of what’s going on. I agree with the philosophy that we should never announce a release date until we’re 100% sure that we can hit that release date. And given the lessons of the esteemed Fred Brooks, usually the only time you’re 100% sure is when it’s ready to be released.

Thanks Steve for taking part in the conversation and for providing us with this information. It’s great to see that TiVo knows there is a problem….

I’m personally interested in the whole TiVoToGo Mac thing since I’m probably going to buy a MacBook sometime in the near future. Please keep us updated if you/when you find out more.

Here’s a heads up…..According to Stephen Mack on TiVoCommunity.com, today (8PM, Pacific) is the last day for to be able to get a lifetime subscription on your TiVo.

Hat Tip: TiVoLovers.

Since I had already posted two entries (1st post, 2nd post) about TiVo’s new pricing plan, I didn’t plan on mentioning it again until next week when the pricing plan went into effect. That was until Dave Zatz (thanks Dave) sent me an email with a pointer to a thread on TiVoCommunity. In this thread, Stephen Mack (TiVoOpsMgr) goes into excruciating detail about the new pricing plan. In his post, Stephen, explains it in such a way that even I can understand it :). Check it out if you still have some questions about the pricing plan. My guess is that Stephen probably answered them in this thread.

Hey Tom (TiVo CEO), you really should consider giving Stephen a raise. If it wasn’t for him, you may have seen a lot of people drop their TiVo simply because they didn’t get their questions answered. I know that I was a little irritated before Stephen calmed me down. Stephen has done a wonderful job joining in on the conversation (example 1, example 2, example 3). Thanks Stephen! BTW, don’t forget your buddy over at TiVoBlog.com when you get that raise. I’ll make sure to send you my paypal account info :). On a side note, has anybody at TiVo ever read Naked Conversations? If not, somebody really should…..

I consider myself to be a smart person however, after spending 10 minutes reading through a very long thread on TiVo Community, I’m still confused about how the new pricing plan is going to work. Maybe somebody can help explain it to me. Here are some questions that I have:

Update 03/09 @ 8:29 AM: Stephen Mack (TiVoOpsMgr) has answered all of these questions in the comments. He has also put up a detailed post on his personal blog. Thanks Steve!

• Is the MSD (multi-service discount) still available? Yes or No? What if I already have two TiVos and I buy another one. Will I be able to add this new TiVo as a MSD TiVo? In other words, how much will I have to pay per month for the new TiVo?
• What happens if I get a TiVo for “free” and the device breaks after two months? Will TiVo send me a new DVR?
• Once the commitment is up do I have the option to go with a monthly based subscription?
• Why so many pricing options? Choice is great but at the same time you don’t want to confuse the consumer and discourage them from buying your product. How am I supposed to recommend a TiVo to my friend/family member when the pricing options are so damn confusing?

I’m sure that most of these questions have been answered in the TiVo Community thread however, after reading through the entire thread I’m still confused. Please help! Maybe an FAQ is in order!