TiVo Launches The Badoop Badoop Show On YouTube

Posted on Thursday, September 11, 2008 by MegaZone

Way back in the day, in 2000, TiVo dipped a toe into generating content for their users, and the broader market, through TiVo Takes. It was aired using a time slot on the PAX channel, so anyone could watch it, though it was really aimed at TiVo users.

By the time I purchased my first TiVo in February of 2002, TiVo Takes was already defunct, just something users would talk about wistfully. But for its time it was an interesting foray into interactive television. I think the user base, which considering they’d only launched in 1999 was quite small, wasn’t large enough to sustain such efforts. Though TiVoShanan has done a few in-house long-form videos for TiVo promotions. I remember some from couple of years ago where she went behind the scenes on some shows, I don’t remember if that was given a unique title though.

Well, a lot has changed in the past eight years, not the least of which is the rise of online video. And now TiVo is taking another stab at generating content, launching The Badoop Badoop Show on YouTube. The channel blurb:

Since its inception, the Emmy® award-winning TiVo service has changed the way millions of people watch TV. And coming soon: the “The Badoop Badoop Show,” a quirky show to keep you in the entertainment know with TiVo recommendations every week on what to watch, hear, download and more. This is not your average entertainment news show. And yes! The show is named after one of TiVo’s unmistakable soundmarks: Badoop-Badoop! Subscribe now for the PREMIERE of Badoop coming next week!

Right now there is one video posted, which is the promo video for the launch of YouTube on the TiVo Series3/HD. Having this on YouTube is great, and clearly a way to stealth market. But while watching it via YouTube on TiVo would be very meta indeed, I hope they offer the content up as a TiVoCast channel as well. I’m busy and lazy, I love it when content comes to me – be it TiVoCast, RSS, or what have you. Speaking of RSS, here’s the feed for the YouTube channel.

Thanks to Dave Zatz of Zatz Not Funny for the heads-up.

Posted in TiVo | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

The TiVoBerries Taste Like TiVoBerries!

Posted on Thursday, September 11, 2008 by MegaZone

TiVo and RIM are teaming up to bring TiVo-related software to the Blackberry platform, the two companies announced today at CTIA. At first it sounds like this will resemble the TiVo scheduling solution from Verizon, simply providing a pretty, TiVo-like UI on the Blackberry that allows users to remotely schedule recordings.

Personally I’d love to see TiVo exploit the XMPP support they’ve added to the units since the Verizon application launched and support real real-time scheduling on the unit and not the store-and-forward system used by TiVo Central Online web-based scheduling, which is what the Verizon system goes through.

Past the initial scheduling capability, the future sounds interesting:

The new relationship brings TiVo and RIM together to develop a variety of mobile entertainment services that marry RIM’s leading BlackBerry® smartphones with the content delivered to consumers through the Emmy-winning TiVo® service. Initially, BlackBerry smartphone users will gain the convenience of being able to discover what shows are on and schedule television recordings while away from the living room and on the go. Future collaboration between the companies will focus on software applications that further simplify mobile access to video content.

The first interpretation people are likely to make is place-shifting of content from the TiVo to the Blackberry. However, the current TiVo hardware doesn’t have the transcoding capabilities to support this, to the best of my knowledge. And improved TiVoToGo support doesn’t sound like it would fit with ‘mobile access’ – not to me anyway. Pre-synced content is not ‘mobile access’. TiVo is developing content partnerships for TiVoCast, maybe it is access to that kind of content through a TiVo-ish client? I don’t know, but I’m certainly curious.

It sounds like it’ll be a while before we find out. The first software to arise out of this partnership will be available later this year. See the press release for more details.

Posted in Blackberry, Press Release, TiVo | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Get Three Months Free Service With A New TiVo

Posted on Thursday, September 11, 2008 by MegaZone

Through January 29, 2009, TiVo is offering a promotion wherein you receive three months free service with the purchase of a new TiVo Series2DT or TiVo HD from TiVo.com. Under the terms of this offer the Series2DT is $149.99 plus service and the TiVo HD is $299.99 plus service.

Three Months Free TiVo Service

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HAVA Mobile Player For Nokia Internet Tablets Now Officially Available

Posted on Thursday, September 11, 2008 by MegaZone

It has actually been openly available for a while as a public beta, but now Monsoon Multimedia is officially launching the HAVA Mobile Player for Nokia Internet Tablets. They issued a press release and everything. The free client runs on the Nokia N800 and N810 and allows you to stream content from your HAVA place-shifting device.

The press release:
Continue reading →

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TiVoCast Picks Up Hak5

Posted on Wednesday, September 10, 2008 by MegaZone

Revision3 has just picked up another vodcast, Hak5, and thanks to they relationship with TiVo it is already available via TiVoCast. They describe themselves as:

Hak5 isn’t your typical tech show. It’s hacking in the old-school sense, covering everything from network security, open source and forensics, to DIY modding and the homebrew scene. Damn the warranties, it’s time to Trust your Technolust.

Subscribe online or on your TiVo via Find Programs & Downloads -> Download TV, Movies, & Web Video -> Browse Other Videos -> All -> Hak5

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