TiVo Update 9.4 Trickles Out, Brings Long Desired Features

Posted on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 by MegaZone

TiVo has long had the practice of trickling new updates out to a small number of users before officially deploying the update. It is a kind of feeler, one last check to make sure there are not major issues that were missed in testing, and to make sure the deployment systems are ready to go. And it looks like they’ve started to do that with the 9.4 update for the Series3 and TiVo HD, as users at TiVoCommunity have started to notice. You can tell it is a pre-release from the version number: 9.4.L6.01-2-648. That ‘L6′ indicates it is revision L, build 6 of the development effort. Final release versions drop that bit.

This looks like a great update, and it brings a number of features to the TiVo – some of which have been requested for years. According to LoREvanescence at TiVoCommunity, the updates notice is as follows:

Subject: You have a new service update!
From: The TiVo Team
Date: Tue 7/15

Congrats! You’ve just received the Summer 2008 TiVo Service Update for TiVo HD and Series 3 DVRs, including these new enhancements to your TiVo Experience:

*Play or Delete a Folder
Play or delete an entire folder of programs with a single button press (including kids shows, music videos ext). Highlight a folder and press PLAY to play all the shows in sequence. Pres CLEAR to delete the entire folder.

*Browse the Guide Any Time
Press the GUIDE button to display the program guide over what you’re watching: live TV, a previously recorded program, or even a video download.

*Jump Forward in the Guide
When the Guide is on-screen, press the ADVANCE to jump 24 hours ahead. Press INSTANT REPLAY to go back 24 hours.

*Find a Station in the Guide
Now you can search for a station “call sign” within the Guide, e.g. KQED, WPIX, MSNBC. When viewing the program guide, press ENTER to bring up Guide Options, then SELECT Find by call sign.

*Toggle Closed Captioning On and Off
The Closed Captioning icon in the Channel Banner now toggles closed captioning on and off.

*Review Thumb Ratings
To display a list of all programs that you have rated, select Find Programs, then TiVo Suggestions. Press ENTER to bring up the Review Thumbs screen

Enjoy!

-The TiVo Team

Playing or deleting an entire folder has been requested since the first day folders were introduced – probably before that during the beta for that matter. Being able to view the guide without jumping to Live TV is something that has probably been requested since the earliest days of TiVo. I know people have been asking for it since I first starting using TiVo in 2002. Being able to jump forward and back in the guide is something we just heard about as coming for the Comcast TiVo software, and in that post I said I hoped TiVo would add that to the standalone boxes too – and here it is.

Being able to find channels by call sign is interesting too, I’d never thought of that, but it sounds neat. Controlling Closed Captions from the channel banner, without having to go down in menus, has been requested since the S3 first shipped. So it is nice to see it added.

Reviewing the Thumb Ratings reminds me of the old hidden feature, Teach TiVo. Most of you probably don’t remember it, since it was a hidden feature and pretty much went away with the release of 3.2. But in the early days of TiVo there used to be backdoor features that could be enabled by entering the right phrase on the right screen. These were generally incomplete features that TiVo was working on developing but were not yet ready for release. So they’d still be in the code, just disabled by default. If you knew the right codes you could enable these features, at your own risk of course, and play with them. After 3.2 you could still access some of them for a while by hacking the software, but eventually most of them seem to have been completely removed, or well hidden. IIRC, Teach TiVo went away completely with 4.0.

So what was Teach TiVo? Well, early on TiVo wasn’t really sure how people would use TiVo. One of the concepts they had, to help with Suggestions, was to provide an interface in which users could edit their thumb ratings for not just programs, but actors, directors, etc. Basically it exposed the underlying thumb rating data system – when you rate a program you’re also influencing the ratings for any associated actors, directories, etc. Teach TiVo gave power users a way to fine tune their ratings. Say you hated a program, but happened to like one actor in it. You could rate the show down, but go in an adjust the actor’s rating up. Or vice-versa. But it did make for a bit of a complex interface and since it didn’t fit with TiVo’s philosophy of keeping the UI simple it was never completed and released.

So, anyway, this new ability to see your program thumb ratings and edit them sounds like a new, simplified approach to at least a subset of what Teach TiVo provided.

But that’s not all, exploring the menus has revealed some additional features. First and foremost, support for the Switched Digital Video (SDV) Tuning Adapter is here! Both Motorola and Cisco/Scientific Atlanta has their TAs scheduled for certification testing by CableLabs at the end of June. So if they passed testing we could see cable MSOs making them available soon, and it looks like TiVo users will be ready with 9.4.

And remember when the network remote control functionality was discovered in May? Since it is always on and has no security at all, at the time I said TiVo should really do something to protect that before someone writes malware designed to probe networks for a TiVo and send random commands to it. Well, it looks like TiVo has taken a step in that direction with 9.4 There is now a menu item for Network Remote Control and it is disabled by default:

“The network remote control feature allows your TiVo Digital Media Recorder to be integrated with home automation and entertainment control devices on your network. These device include touch panel remotes and other devices that are configured to work with TiVo’s network based remote control protocol. This setting will be enabled by your home entertainment or home automation installer.”

That’s certainly safer for the majority of users who will never use this feature, and the power users who will can easily enable it. It sounds like it is just an on/off toggle currently. I’d still like to see TiVo make it on/off/secure, with the secure option forcing some kind of authentication. But just being able to turn it off is a big step in the right direction and I’m glad TiVo did it. I just wish they’d officially publish the network remote protocol.

There is also a report that the Live TV buffer has been extended from 30 minutes to one hour. Looks like this was a false alarm, unfortunately.

Note that 9.4 is only for S3 & HD users, but I suspect there will be a 9.4.1 for S2 units to follow. We saw that with the last updates, with 9.3 for the S3 & HD, and then 9.3.1 for the S2. Since the TiVo HD is the current flagship and the focus for TiVo it isn’t surprising they’re now getting the updates first. Staggering the S3/HD and the S2 helps avoid overloading the engineering and beta teams by trying to do it all at once.

No word if this release includes updates under the covers to support H.264 decoding to handle the forthcoming YouTube support, or if that will be delivered in yet another update. I’d say it is a toss up. TiVo has certainly done that before, slipping features in an update deactivated and only enabling them later when the new feature launches.

The priority page hasn’t been updated yet for 9.4, but it probably will be soon.

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

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WordPress 2.6 Update, And Several Plug-ins Updated

Posted on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 by MegaZone

WordPress 2.6 has been released and I’ve updated the site with it. I’ve also updated a number of the plug-ins I use on the site. If you experience any issues, please let me know.

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Palm Treo 800w Now Available, New AT&T Centro Color Too

Posted on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 by MegaZone

The new Palm Treo 800w has been released for Sprint customers. The 800w runs Windows Mobile Professional 6.1 and it is a substantial upgrade over the last WinMob Treos, the 700w|wx and 750. The 800w has a sleeker form factor, which more closely resembles the Centro than the older Treos. And, due to the improvements in the new version of WinMob, the screen is 320×320, the same as the Palm OS products, instead of the 320×240 the older WinMob devices were restricted to. The 800w does have the ‘smile’ curved keyboard arrangement, as on other Treos, which I find to be easier to use than the straight rows of the Centro’s keyboard. The 800w has support for Sprint’s EVDO Rev A high-speed 3G data network, as well as 802.11g WiFi, and it has built-in GPS as well. It has all of the features of Windows Mobile Professioanl 6.1, plus Palm’s ‘secret sauce’ usability enhancements, and additional features unique to Sprint, such as Sprint Navigation. Palm’s blog has some more informationor you can order it directly from Palm. Prices start at $249 – after rebates and with a qualifying two year service and data plan. They do go up to $599 if you don’t want to commit to a plan.

Palm has also released a new color of Centro for AT&T users. In addition to the existing ‘Obsidian’ (Black) and Glacier (White) AT&T colors, you can now get it in ‘Electric Blue’ (kind of a light, metallic blue). Prices start at $99.99 – after rebate and with qualifying service plan, and they go up to $349 if you don’t want to commit to a plan.

I still think the Centro is a great ‘starter’ smartphone, or a step up for anyone who is considering one of the ‘feature phones’ which tend to cost more but offer less flexibility. The 800w looks nice, and if I didn’t dislike WinMob so much I’d consider it myself. Well, no, because I’d wait for a GSM version, but you get the point. It does give me a little hope that, if Palm ever manages to release Palm OS II, they may once again have some really nice products. And if I haven’t jumped on Android by then I might even try them.

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A Damn Shame – PlayTeeVee Shutting Down

Posted on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 by MegaZone

The most creative active developer for TiVo’s Home Media Engine (HME), PlayTeeVee, looks like they’ll be shutting down their service soon, according to a post in their blog. That’s a damn shame, and somewhat upsetting.

PlayTeeVee has faced an uphill struggle since they launched, like all HME developers, because TiVo has utterly neglected 3rd party HME development for years. They don’t provide any 3rd party developer support, the last official release of the public HME SDK came on October 31, 2005! There has been one release since then, an experimental build released on October 2, 2007. On top of that, TiVo provides no way for HME developers to promote their products to the user base. Unlike TiVoCast, or even TiVo Web Video, TiVo doesn’t even provide a simple directory service for developers to list their wares. So the only way for developers like PlayTeeVee to reach users is via forums, like TiVoCommunity, and blogs like this one. And, to be realistic, the total readership of all such forums and blogs combined is but a drop in the bucket compared to the TiVo installed base.

That’s what has done PlayTeeVee in. They’d hope to build enough of a user base to sustain the site through ad sales. But reaching users has been harder then they expected, even knowing the problems, and they just haven’t been able to so it. Their server contract is coming up for renewal in a couple of weeks, and given the current number of users they can’t justify continuing to pour money into PlayTeeVee without any sustainable business prospects.

I’ve said repeatedly that TiVo could use HME as a major differentiator. No one else has anything like it. And when HME first launched their were many fantastic applications developed for it, and a lot of developer excitement. Applications like Galleon and AudioFaucet added great new capabilities to TiVo. (TiVoBlog has a list of some of the HME apps still available.) But then TiVo stopped supporting the public SDK and never delivered promised feature updates, and after the SDK stagnated, and TiVo failed to offer any way for developers to promote their wares, developer interest waned.

And it isn’t that TiVo abandoned HME, they just abandoned 3rd party developers. HME is still thriving within TiVo, an internal version of the SDK, with many more features than the public version, is used to implement many of the features added to TiVo in recent years. Music, Photos, Products & More applications like Rhapsody, Photos & Slideshows, Home Movies by One True Media, Yahoo! Traffic & Weather, Music Videos from Music Choice, Product Watch, Browse and Buy Movie Tickers, Live365, SameGame, Wordsmith, Skull & Bones, and more – all implemented using the internal HME SDK. Under Find Programs & Downloads the Universal Swivel Search, Download TV, Movies & Web Video, and KidZone Recommendations & Guru Guides are also implemented using HME. And, biggest of all, the OCAP software for Comcast and Cox cable DVRs is written using an SDK derived from the internal HME SDK.

But, for some reason, TiVo seems set on a ‘walled garden’ approach. They pulled back from the public SDK and support for 3rd party developers which featured in their HME effort early on. And instead they’ve focused on internal development for business partners and TiVo’s own features. I really don’t think it would take that much in the way of resources for TiVo to release the new HME features from the internal SDK as updates for the public SDK, and to provide a simple index where HME developers could list their wares to make it easy for TiVo users to find them. They don’t even have to offer developer support, the community has proven quite capable of supporting itself despite TiVo’s neglect for the past few years.

Tom Rogers claims that TiVo is a DVR – no longer a Digital Video Recorder, but a Digital Video Retriever. I think they should go farther. TiVo called the S3 a DMR – a Digital Media Recorder, more than just video. I say call it a Digital Media Retriever and really embrace the community. If TiVo wants to truly be a portal to all forms of content, and really differentiate themselves from the growing competitive market, they need to establish a TiVo ecosystem. make TiVo the center of a thriving developer community which can truly set them apart. A developer community can produce features and options many times greater than any one company could ever produce in house, with a smaller resource investment.

Look at Palm and Palm OS. For the past four or five years you’d almost think Palm was trying to kill themselves. It has reminded me of The Producers, they keep trying to bomb but just can’t seem to completely fail for some reason. Despite all of Palms fumbling with their failed Palm OS 6 Cobalt release, and then the repeatedly delayed Linux-based Palm OS II (aka Nova), and the Foleo fiasco, they still have a strong user base. The Palm Centro, which is running basically the same Palm OS 5.4 Garnet released over four years ago with only a few changes, is selling very well. The key to the continued success, despite the stagnation of the OS development, is the huge number of 3rd party applications available from the Palm OS developer community. The ‘Palm ecosystem’ is still fairly strong, despite the lackluster performance by Palm themselves. TiVo could’ve had the same kind of developer support, and possibly still could, if only they’d made a minimal effort to nurture the developer community. Look at the iPhone TiVo remote, that’s an example of something developers pulled of without any support from TiVo. Imagine if TiVo offered even minimal support for developers with an updated HME SDK, some basic APIs for TiVo functionality, and a basic index for developers to use to reach the user base.

Anyway, I could really go on about this in depth, and I may well put together a post on what steps I think TiVo could take to get the ball rolling. But right now a good first step would be for TiVo to step in and support PlayTeeVee. Either sponsor them to keep the site up, buy them out and bring the games ‘in house’ as a standard offering on TiVo, or find some other business arrangement – maybe just putting the games on every TiVo, as with TiVo’s own ‘SameGame’, etc, would be enough to allow PlayTeeVee to be self-supporting. It would be a damn shame for TiVo to allow the most active and most creative HME offerings to wither and die when they could be a real showcase for users if given the chance, IMHO. I really hope TiVo steps in to keep PlayTeeVee alive and gives them the exposure they deserve for all of their creativity and hard work.

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Some WD My DVR Expander Drives May Not Work With TiVo

Posted on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 by MegaZone

In a post to the USENET group alt.video.ptv.tivo (Google Groups) user Douglas Bullard shared a cautionary tale. Apparently Western Digital changed something in the way they prepare the My DVR Expander eSATA drives and this causes the TiVo HD to not recognize it as an approved drive. (Since the Series3 works with most eSATA drives I’d expect it to still work with the S3.) It seems that Douglas was the first (un)lucky person to discover this change in the wild, so the extent of the issue is currently unknown.

TiVo and Western Digital are now aware of the issue and are investigating, so there will probably be a fix for the issue forthcoming. TiVo is replacing Douglas’s drive with one that will work with the TiVo HD. So if you buy a WD My DVR Expander and have trouble getting it to work with your TiVo HD you might want to contact TiVo and/or WD. If this impacts a batch of drives just returning to a store for another may not solve the issue, as other drives on the shelf are likely to be from the same batch.

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