Long-time TiVo expansion and service vendor DVRupgrade is today launching new TiVo life-extension services. While DVRupgrade has long offered pre-upgraded TiVo units, as well as drop-in replacement drives and the tools needed it to do-it-yourself, they’re now offering full TiVo repair services as well.

While DVRupgrade is best known for their TiVo related offerings, they’ve also branched out into other areas. They sell VideoReDo, a popular video editing and DVR burning package often used with TiVoToGo recordings, and a number of accessories. They also offer VUDU, HDHomeRun, Neuros MPEG-4 Recorder II, and a number of other products such as Slingboxes, Logitech remotes, and more.

I’ve used DVRupgrade’s products myself. A few years ago I used InstantCake to image a drive to recover and expand an old Series2 before I sold it to a friend. A just a few months ago I picked up a 750GB replacement drive to replace the factory 80GB drive in my Pioneer DVR-810H when it finally gave up the ghost after four and half years of constant use. I’ve always been very happy with both their products and their service, and I recommend them highly.

Press release:

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Backchannelmedia recently announced their TV-to-Internet technology was being trialed by LIN TV Corp. in New England, and now The Advertising Council will adopt the technology for use with their public service campaigns. The Ad Council’s use will coincide with the New England trials with LIN TV and will involve campaigns for Obesity Prevention, Inspiring Invention, Adoption, and Autism Awareness.

Backchannelmedia’s system allows viewers to respond to ‘bugs’ on the screen during viewing. The remote click sends a signal through the cable system to the back end to ‘bookmark’ content online for the user to review later. So if you see a PSA for adoption and you’re interested in more information you can click your remote, then later when you go online you’re reminded and given the chance to review more information.

I think this is a neat idea - one I’ve suggested TiVo do in the past. TiVo’s interactive ads and on-box content are great, but the reality is some interactions are better via the computer interface. I wouldn’t want to read in depth information about autism on my TV, but I’m curious enough that I might on my PC. TiVo has XMPP in place to handle real time messaging. They could send clicks to a user page on TiVo.com, or, better, to widgets on social sites like Facebook and MySpace, or right to TiVo Desktop - where they could pop open the users browser when desired.

Anyway, in general I like the idea of linking the TV and the computer, each does what it does very well and leveraging the capabilities of the other platform makes a lot of sense.

Press release:

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In the dry language of SEC filings, TiVo has announced plans to layoff workers - or ‘reduce headcount’ as the bloodless HR-speak would put it.

ITEM 2.05. Costs Associated with Exit or Disposal Activities.

On November 18, 2008, we commenced a plan to reduce our operational expenses, primarily through a reduction in headcount, as we manage through the challenges presented by a difficult economic climate and a rapidly evolving retail consumer market.

We expect to incur pre-tax charges of approximately $1 million, primarily for employee-related severance benefits and out-placement costs. We expect to record these charges in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2009 ending January 31, 2009. Substantially all of these charges will result in cash expenditures.

It isn’t too surprising, given the current economic climate, layoffs are hitting throughout the tech industry. But it is still a rough experience, and having been through layoffs a couple of times myself I hope my friends at TiVo will be safe in their jobs. Best of luck to everyone at TiVo.

TiVo CEO Tom Rogers will deliver the Newsmaker Address at the National Association of Television Program Executive (NATPE) on January 28, 2009, as reported by TVWeek. Rogers’s address is entitled entitled “Avoiding the Demise of Advertising”, and will address the impact on TV advertising from DVR users skipping ads, and how the industry can respond. (My speculation, it will involve TiVo’s interactive ad capabilities.)

TiVoCast just added two new channels to the lineup. The first addition is ON Networks’s Smart Girls At The Party. This is a new program sponsored by Mattel’s Barbie described simply as:

Amy Poehler and Friends celebrate girls who are changing the world by being themselves.

Yes, that’s Saturday Night Live’s Amy Poehler. It seems aimed at younger girls, the ones they interview seem to be around 10 years of age. It looks like a positive program, a long way from Barbie’s “Math class is tough!” days. Subscribe online or on your TiVo via Find Programs & Downloads -> Download TV, Movies, & Web Video -> Browse Free Videos -> All -> Smart Girls At The Party

The second addition is a new show from TheWB.com, Rich Girl Poor Girl. It sounds like a modern reality show take on The Prince and The Pauper:

A wealthy Pacific Palisades girl and a low-income teen from Los Angeles switch lives for a week to learn what makes us different… and what we all have in common.

Since most reality TV gives me hives, I don’t think this one is for me. Subscribe online or on your TiVo via Find Programs & Downloads -> Download TV, Movies, & Web Video -> Browse Free Videos -> TheWB.com -> Rich Girl Poor Girl

I’m glad to see more ON Networks content hitting TiVoCast, there are still some of their shows not available that I’d like to check out so this gives me some hope the rest will show up at some point. And it is good to see TiVo continuing to add broadband content in general.

When I was young I used to pour over the big old Sears catalog to create my Christmas List. (Well, Xmas & birthday, I was born on 12/26.) But Sears stopped publishing their big catalog back in 1993, though I think they still publish a Christmas Wish Book. Still, in these days of Internet shopping most of the old catalogs have long since faded away. So where will today’s tech savvy kids turn?

Well, maybe Amazon’s Holiday Toy List. It is a flashy (no pun intended… oh, who am I kidding, I meant that one…) interface for browsing a number of toy options. It is arranged in columns broken down by price and age. Nice, but it just isn’t the same as laying on the floor with a catalog and a pad. (Now get off my lawn! Damn kids!)

Amazon has also rolled out the first nineteen products under their Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging initiative.

Dave Zatz of Zatz Not Funny took the hit and ordered a pizza from Domino’s via the new TiVo HME application. And he kindly captured the experience on video and posted it to YouTube:

I’d still like to see this expanded to cover local places. I checked it out as well, but the two Domino’s locations it offered me were pick-up only, I’m outside their delivery area. There used to be one a block and a half from my house, but I noticed just a week ago as I drove by that it was gone. So I guess I won’t be trying it out myself.

That aside, the application was fairly simple to use, and I can see this being useful. If it supported places I actually ordered from I think I’d use TiVo-based ordering. I host a regular movie night with friends at my place, and we always order dinner. Right now we do it by passing around take-out menus and I write down what people want, then I call in the order, or sometimes order online from my laptop - if the place supports it. But if people could just put in what they want on the TV screen, we could all see the order, and then place it - that’d really be convenient.

TiVo is quintupling the sample size for their Stop||Watch service from 20,000 to 100,000 users. The new sample size of anonymous, second-by-second audience research data is 25 times the sample size of other, panel-base research sources. The larger sample size allows TiVo to provide accurate measurements for cable networks with lower viewership.

As they state in their press release:

The TiVo set-top-box data platform offers significant advantages over traditional panel-based services, including:

* Second-by-second granularity. Enables ratings for each specific commercial.
* National footprint covering all signal sources, including digital cable, analog cable, satellite, and over-the-air.
* Monitoring Live and Timeshifted viewing. Provides visibility into DVR viewing behavior and commercial fast-forwarding.
* Unprecedented 100,000 sample size. Dramatically decreases the margin of error, allowing us to provide stable ratings (both Live and Timeshifted) for networks with viewership too low to be measured by panel-based services.
* Passive Observation. No paid panelists. No obtrusive metering equipment. Everybody just watches TV as usual.

See the full press release for more details on Stop||Watch as well as some of the ratings data it provides.

It seems Australian TiVo boxes aren’t the only ones to get pizza ordering. After I posted about that I’d had a few tips that it was also coming to US TiVo units as well, so I asked TiVo about it and they confirmed it, but under embargo until now. Actually, ‘now’ is 08:30 Eastern when the embargo lifts and this scheduled post should be visible, but as I type this at 01:00 the application is already live on my TiVo. It is under TiVo Central -> Music, Photos, Products, & More -> Order Domino’s® Pizza Now.

Customers can login to their existing Dominos.com account, or register right from the application to place an order. You build your pizza(s), place the order, and pay cash when it is delivered. It would be nice to be able to pay via credit card while ordering - maybe in the future. Unfortunately, my local Domino’s is closed at this hour on a Sunday night, so I can’t put the app through it’s paces to see what the process is like. It is apparently aware of your local franchise’s status and doesn’t allow you to build an order if they’re closed. I’ll have to try it out soon, I’m interested to se