This time around Amazon Unbox is offering Shooter, Hot Fuzz, The Contract, We Are Marshall, Disturbia, and Lucky You as their $.99 rentals.

And the free downloads are American Dad, Moonlight, Bones, Rules of Engagement, and House.

I got another affiliate email today, this one from Roxio. It includes two coupon codes for use in their store:

Save 10% on any Roxio product: SAVE10ROX (expires 12.31.07)

Save 15% on Creator 10: SAVE15C10. (expires 10.31.07)

I don’t know if they’re supposed to be, but I just tried it and they are stackable. Put Creator 10 in your cart, enter one code and hit re-calculate, then enter the second code and re-calculate. It subtracts 15% off the $99.99 MSRP, making it $84.99. Then it takes 10% off the complete order, another $8.50, bringing it to $76.49. And presumably it’d take 10% off the cart total if you had other items as well.

In what is very welcome news, it seems that TiVo and/or their PR firm has killed the PayPerPost marketing effort that I savaged them for last night. Unfortunately, I’ve been busy today so I haven’t had a chance to try to contact TiVo yet, but Dave Zatz beat me to it. He just dropped me an email to say he’d contacted TiVo and their PR firm, and while they have no comment it is clear the program is dead. And to confirm that, just an hour ago posts started appearing in the PPP forum that posters have been asked to pull down their posts and videos. It looks like the coverage here, Davis Freeberg’s article posted in his blog, Seeking Alpha, and ZatzNotFunny, as well as coverage at Read/Write Web, and Valleywag (and perhaps more) got to someone sane.

TiVo - Thank you.

It seems this may have been a simple misunderstanding - maybe TiVo got some bad advice from a marketing company and didn’t understand the kind of reputation PayPerPost and astroturfing have in the blogosphere. A lot of companies have made missteps trying to market online, I’m just glad that TiVo pulled the plug on this one so quickly. That seems to indicate someone in control over there gets it and realized what a blunder it was. Of course, now every time I see some funny TiVo-related video on YouTube some part of me is going to wonder if it is genuine or some cynical viral marketing campaign, and that’s a little bit depressing. The bell cannot be un-rung.

This just reinforces what I’ve said before - TiVo needs to appoint, or hire, someone to be in charge of online communication. Just as Sling Media hired Dave Zatz to be their blog liaison. TiVo needs someone who is responsible for communicating with bloggers, who knows the online communities and markets, knows what behaviors are acceptable in the social environment online, etc. Stop treating bloggers like second-class citizens - embrace them like Sling has. Clue us in on announcements *before* they hit the wire, just as you do for the mainstream press. Have someone responsible for fielding questions, so we don’t have to bug people who have other jobs to do. Get someone to update your blog with real news - or, failing that, just take it down. The abandoned blog is just sad. In other words - just find someone who ‘gets it’, and get out of their way.

TiVo, you have an amazing resource in the form of your user base, advocates, and fans. Don’t squander that. And don’t callously exploit it either - it is a depletable resource. Work with and nurture the community. You’ll find it can be a very constructive relationship.

Veering away from tech for a moment, into acquiring tech. I like Best Buy well enough to have made them an affiliate for the site, but I know they’re generally not the cheapest place to buy from. Personally I love Froogle.com (yeah, I know it is ‘Google Product Search’ now - that’s a mouthful, I still call it Froogle), PriceGrabber.com, and PriceWatch.com for finding good deals on whatever I’m looking for. But there is a Best Buy five minutes from my office and from my house, and I have to drive past both of them on my commute. So I will sometimes run in there to pick something up when they have a sale (I got a stack of nice APC UPSes on sale real cheap which I use to keep my AV stack happy, among other things), or if I need something quick and can’t wait for online shipping. Or if I just must have something now! So I end up getting Reward Zone certificates - and sometimes they end up rotting in my wallet until they expire, because I don’t go into the stores that often.

Unfortunately, you can’t redeem the Reward Zone points online at BestBuy.com. which would be convenient. At least you couldn’t, until now.

They hit me with an affiliate email last night announcing that “Best Buy Reward Zone Now Redeemable Online” Just enter the certificate number during checkout. Also, if you redeem a Reward Zone certificate online during the month of October, you’ll earn an extra 100 points on the purchase.

I’ve had a $5 certificate rotting in my wallet for a couple of months, expiring on 11/10/07 - guess I should use it now.

I dropped a note on this the other day, but TiVo put out an official release with details today.

ALVISO, Calif., Oct 05, 2007 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ — TiVo, Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), today announced that Tom Rogers, chief executive officer of TiVo, will present at the Natixis Bleichroeder Hidden Gems Conference on October 9th at 2:15 p.m. ET. The webcast of the presentation will be available on the Investor Relations section of the TiVo website at http://investor.tivo.com under the events calendar tab.

Conference Details:
Natixis Bleichroeder Hidden Gems Conference
The Carlton on Madison Avenue
New York, NY
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
2:15 p.m. ET

TiVo, PayPerPost, really? You need to use astroturfing as marketing? WTF? Really? Really?

I read Davis Freeberg’s post at Seeking Alpha Thursday morning and my reaction was a potent mix of disbelief, disgust, and anger. So I held off on posting about this until I had time to get over my initial reaction. Now, most of a day later, my reaction is - a potent mix of disbelief, disgust, and anger. Of all the companies to use a organization like PayPerPost, I never would have guessed ‘TiVo’. TiVo, you have one of the most vociferous, legitimate grass-roots movements of any product or brand! People, like myself, blog about TiVo not because we’re paid to do it, but because we have a genuine passion for the company and the product!

PayPerPost is an astroturf factory. Only companies that can’t get that kind of genuine response use them to fake it. It is a repulsive marketing tactic, sending bloggers out to shill a product - not because they have any genuine feelings for the product, but because they’re being paid to do so. This kind of bullshit cheapens a brand - and it is, frankly, an insult to everyone who legitimately blogs about TiVo or participates in online TiVo forums. Now that this is out there, everything is tainted. Now anyone who blogs about TiVo could be legitimate, or they could be some jerk just doing it for the money.

Bloggers - you want to make some money off your blog - hey, that’s fine. I’d like to make money off my blogging too. My dream would be being able to be a full time tech blogger and pundit and not having to work a ‘day job’ - but I’ll take making some money to make the site and associated activities pay for themselves and not come out of my pocket. But you can do that through honest means, without selling your integrity - and the instant you shill PayPerPost, that’s just what you do. Join affiliate programs for websites you yourself use or support (if you wouldn’t use the site or product, then you shouldn’t be an affiliate, no matter what it pays - integrity again). Try Google Adsense or another ad program. Get someone to sponsor your site. But never, ever, sell your content. The second you do that, nothing you say is believable. Are they your thoughts and words - or are you some advertiser’s puppet with an arm elbow-deep in your arse? Your readers can never know - and once you lose your integrity, it is damn hard to get it back. Reputations are far easier to lose than to build up.

When bloggers like these shill for TiVo because they are paid to do so, it doesn’t matter if they really do use and enjoy TiVo. It is like some talking head on the news reciting crap from some talking points memo - do they really believe it or are they paid to act like it? If you take the coin, you’re tainted. And that taint colors the entire blogging community, because if some people are willing to sell out, who else may have sold out in secret? It doesn’t matter if people include a disclaimer, or a ‘bumper’ in their video. Yeah, PayPerPost has a Code of Ethics for bloggers, but people jump on these ‘opps’ to make money. Just read through their own forums.

TiVo, it seems like this ill-conceived scheme is designed to create video astroturf on YouTube. Why? There are other ways to incentivize people to make fools of themselves on camera and post it to YouTube - and you even use them! See your own ‘Hook Up’ campaign and the video submissions. Or Sling Media’s Stand-Up & Sling contest. There are ways to get people to willingly create viral marketing content without paying them to shill - and the people who willingly produce the videos for the slim chance of winning a unit, etc, are almost always those who have a genuine passion and interest in the product, not someone just looking to make a buck.

In case my opinion isn’t perfectly clear - I am disgusted with TiVo for using PayPerPost, and I’m against the whole concept of ‘paid blogging’. ‘Paid blogging’ is just a polite way of saying ’shill’. There are other ways to make money from blogging. Don’t sell out. And shame on TiVo for astroturfing. Just like laying astroturf over grass will kill the grass, astroturfing over grass-roots will kill the genuine movement.

Here’s an idea - stop pathetically paying people to pretend to be your friends, and put the money towards covering rebate claims from your real customers.

On Tuesday I posted about what seemed to be a great deal - buy an 80-hour S2DT from Big Lots for $70, and redeem the $150 rebate to make $80. This same apparent deal has been posted around the net on a number of blogs and forums.

Well, Wednesday night TiVoPony posted this at TiVoCommunity.com:

To be very clear…these boxes thru Big Lots do NOT qualify for rebates.

Pony

That’s it. No explanation as to why.

There is nothing in the Big Lots sale description to indicate that these are refurbished units. I see nothing in the rebate terms that would disqualify these units. The only thing I can think might be the issue is: (6) Valid only for new, TiVo Series2 Digital Video Recorders purchased from an authorized TiVo retailer or through our website (www.tivo.com). Not valid for pre-owned, second party, demo, or display DVRs. But, again, there is nothing to indicate these units are pre-owned, people who have purchased them report that they appear to be brand-new units with nothing at all to indicate they’re not fresh from the factory. Is Big Lots somehow not an authorized TiVo retailer? And, if so, how is a consumer supposed to know that? TiVo doesn’t seem to publish a list of authorized retailers, and it isn’t like these were purchased off the back of a truck or from someone on eBay. This is a national retailer and the deal is on their website and apparently in some print fliers.

There is nothing in the terms of the rebate that specifies a minimum price that must be paid to get the rebate, which I’ve seen on other rebates in the past. On top of this, people have reported that they have had no problems pre-qualifying for the rebate online.

So, if these units are indeed ineligible for the rebate, and I really have no reason to doubt TiVoPony, it seems like a pretty crappy thing for TiVo to do. Yes, it would be an incredible deal - but such deals are not unheard of. There have been other sale and rebate combos that earn the consumer money on TiVo gear in the past, and on numerous other products. So there was no reason to think this was anything other than a very good deal for the consumer. A one line post buried in a discussion board should not be the only way for the consumer to learn that a product is ineligible for a rebate. Especially when everything else - especially the rebate form and even the pre-qualification web form - would indicate otherwise.

I admit a web forum is a step above the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying Beware of the Leopard, which is itself in a dark basement that is lacking stairs. But just barely.

If you purchased one of these units expecting to get the rebate, and you’re denied - raise hell. Demand a clear explanation as to exactly what disqualifies these units. And if it is something you couldn’t be expected to reasonably know - fight. I love TiVo, really, but this just seems like bullshit. A rational person reading the rebate form and buying the product at retail would naturally expect it to be eligible. I certainly would - so did Troy, Alex, Jen, numerous posters on TiVoCommunity.com, readers of these forums and blogs, and certainly just people who walked in to Big Lots and found the deal unexpectedly. You buy the box, go home and check the TiVo site, and find the rebate and think you just had a run of good luck.

Whether or not it is the case, it seems like someone at TiVo had an “Oh shit” moment after realizing there was this clearance at Big Lots and the rebate was still in effect, and there was nothing to indicate the units weren’t eligible. Even so, TiVo should’ve done more than just have TiVoPony post a one-liner about it - like a real explanation.

I’m sorry TiVo, this just won’t fly. Suck it up and honor the rebates. I doubt it will be that many in any case, only those who read about the combo online or who were fortunate enough to find the rebate after buying the box, or to have just known about it beforehand, will be redeeming it. It isn’t as if there is a mention of the rebate on the box or in the store. Refusing the rebates is bad customer relations, and I would hope people raise hell over any denied rebates on these boxes. Write it off as marketing and maintaining customer good will. Sure, since it may not be that many you might thing “Well, we’ll just piss off a few customers”. But you know as well as I that negative word of mouth spreads a lot faster than positive, and people who are upset will tell a lot more people about how they got screwed by TiVo than happy customers tell people how great TiVo is.

Following China’s recent adoption of the CH-DVD specification, which is based on HD DVD, the Blu-ray camp is also eying the Chinese market. The BDA has begun formal evaluation of a Chinese-developed video coded, AVS (Advanced Video System), and a Chinese audio format, DRA (Digital Rise Audio). Support for AVS is the main difference between CH-DVD and standard HD DVD. The Chinese government has made support of AVS a requirement for any high-def format sold in China. The BDA may add these to the Blu-ray specification, for players made and sold in China, and possibly beyond. Since China is a huge market, it makes sense that the BDA would seek to address the requirements of the market and would not willingly cede it to HD DVD. (Picked up from Blu-ray.com)

In other BD development news, Hitachi has developed a 100GB 4-layer Blu-ray Disc variant that they claim today’s Blu-ray drives would be able to read with just a firmware update. Hitachi is working on stabilizing the signal quality before committing to a commercial roll-out. But since these disc apparently use today’s hardware, a commercial product could be not so far off. They’re also working on a 200GB 8-layer disc, but that’s farther off as they’re having issues reading the data from the ‘deeper’ layers as each layer decreases the signal strength. (Picked up from Blu-ray.com. EngadgetHD also covers.)

Switching tracks, Hollywood In Hi-Def’s Scott Hettrick interviewed Sony Computer Entertainment’s Kazuo Hirai. It is a brief interview, but they touch on the use of Blu-ray in the PS3 to provide more capacity for game developers than DVD’s 8.5GB, the PS3s boost to BD as a movie format, indication downloadable video content is coming to the PS3, and more.

Blu-ray users are running into problems on a couple of new Fox releases - Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer and The Day After Tomorrow. The titles apparently will not play at all in the Samsung BD-P1200 or the LG BH100, and they have frequent skips in the Samsung BD-P1000. They play fine in the PlayStation3, Samsung BD-P1400, and players from Sony, Pioneer, and Panasonic. There are conflicting reports on the source of the problem - if it is BD+ or BD-J - but, in either case, LG says they’ll have a firmware update in 3-4 days, while Samsung reports they’ll have a fix in “a couple of weeks”.

While this is unfortunate, and the HD DVD fanboys are already foaming at the mouth at the chance to get a dig in on Blu-ray, this is not a big deal, nor even unexpected. Nearly every technology that has implementations from multiple vendors suffers from interoperability issues early on. Over time the issues get ironed out and the implementations stabilize, and we won’t see as many of these situations. While there is a standard for Blu-ray, and it isn’t in flux or constantly changing despite what some idiots on message boards and in blog comments like to claim, you have a number of vendors all implementing that standard. Anyone who has worked with standards will tell you there are often ambiguities in language,