TiVo is really pushing this holiday season with press releases, price cuts, and advertising from both themselves and partners like RadioShack and Target. It looks like they’re making a real effort to build their subscriber base over this holiday season.
Today PTVupgrade officially rebranded and relaunched as DVRupgrade. The fifth generation website provides a more efficient and easier to navigate user interface as well as integrated tools such as a knowledgebase and help desk as well as integrating the download site for software product downloads. From DVR Playground
PTVupgrade/DVRupgrade is one of the two major TiVo upgrade vendors, the other being WeaKnees. I’ve personally used DVRupgrade’s InstantCake CD to resurrect a TiVo I’d previously upgraded after the drive got corrupted. I’ve recommended InstantCake many times over the past few years to anyone looking for the easiest way to ‘Do It Yourself’ when upgrading a TiVo.
They’ve redesigned the site with a new look and feel, giving it a much cleaner, more modern look than the old site. Same people and products, and they’ve been a vendor to the TiVo community for 6 years.
Dave Zatz posted the video in ZatzNotFunny. As he mentioned, I’m a little surprised that they didn’t say anything about the ‘Free TiVo’ requiring service activation - except in the fine print across the bottom of the screen: Offer good 11/1/06 through 12/31/06 after $220 TiVo mail-in rebate. Minimum 1 year subscription service required.
TiVo’s latest newsletter…
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More blue-laser diodes are a good thing. Supply shortages contributed to the PS3’s smaller than planned roll-out, as well as delays on other players. And more supply tends to mean lower costs, which will be helpful in bringing down the costs of the systems. This stood out for me: Samples are available for about $85 apiece. Now, I’m sure pricing is lower in quantity, but that just shows how expensive the components are for both BD and HD DVD and why decks are so expensive at this time.
With the PS3 finally out, and more BD players on the market, I wonder if we’ll see a pick-up in disc sales through the holidays.
ZatzNotFunny posted this last week, but I never got around to sharing it here. Dave managed to record the new TiVo radio spot, which seems to be designed to serve the dual purpose of promoting TiVo as a product and as a brand with the new slogan “It’s not a TiVo, unless it’s a TiVo.” Which is kind of dorky, but they’re fighting the trend of people using ‘TiVo’ to refer to any DVR. (Which bugs me a lot too.)
CrunchGear was at TiVo’s demo on Tuesday, and they shot some video of the demos. I think the unified search feature looks pretty nifty. It looks like they’re making some other UI changes - note the double menu on the Find Programs screen about 1:15 into the video. I also like the ability to download past episodes for TiVoCast content.
As she’s bopping through the menus I noticed an entry called ‘Recommendations’, and as it is highlighted, notice the secondary menu on the right - Guru Guides, KidZone Guides, What Celebrities Watch, Top 100 Shows, and Most Popular this week. Looks like they’ll be moving a number of TiVo Central Online features right onto the box. Also, under Season Pass Manager, they have Season Pass List and To Do List, but also Download Manager and Recording History - which looks like it has moved out of the To Do List. I always thought that was an awkward place to put it. To Do is future, people don’t think to look there for past history.
The Home Movies / One True Media feature looks dirt simple to use. Definitely Luddite proof for sharing your video with friends and family who may not be PC savvy.
I hope these UI changes make it to production, I like what I see.