TiVo Extends Rebates, Again

Posted on Wednesday, July 2, 2008 by MegaZone

It would’ve been more surprising if TiVo hadn’t extended their rebates, given the track record for the last several cycles. They last extended them in April, but that rebate expired on 6/28. So starting on 6/29, and running through 8/30, a new rebate takes over. Slightly different terms than the last one – $200 off a TiVo Series3 (TCD648) or $150 off a Series2DT (TCD649), there is no longer any rebate on the old single-tuner Series2. You can get the rebate form in HTML or PDF and pre-qualify via TiVo’s website.

The rebate brings the Series3 down to $392.45 through Amazon (and as low as $381.97 through their 3rd party sellers), and the Series2DT down to $65.99 through Amazon.

Personally I wouldn’t go with either of those, but rather the TiVo HD at $249.40, especially if you’re considering the Series3. Get the TiVo HD and pick up the Glo remote separately and save some money. If you plan to use any of these units with WiFi, remember to pick up a TiVo USB WiFi Adapter.

You can also pick up a factory-renewed TiVo HD for $199.99.

Via TiVo Blog.

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TiVoRemote For Jail-Broken iPhones

Posted on Tuesday, July 1, 2008 by MegaZone

iPhone TiVoRemote

Remember a couple of months ago when the telnet interface to control HD TiVos was uncovered? As expected, the user development community has been hard at work producing tools to take advantage of this capability. And one of the most polished developments has tivoremote, for jail-broken iPhones. It is still very much a development project, but it has a decent UI – as seen here. And it can auto-detect compatible TiVos on your network. And it uses the TiVoToGo XML interface to download a list of the recordings from your TiVo to display on the iPhone for selection.

I love developments like this, they really show what the user community is capable of doing. At the same time, however, it is extremely frustrating and disappointing. Why? Because it is just a hint of what we could have if TiVo would only open up some APIs and publish them. If we can have interesting tools like this based on reverse engineering efforts of undocumented interfaces just imagine what could be done if TiVo would officially publish more of the APIs and enhance them. For example, the largest problem with the telnet control interface is that there is limited positive feedback of the status of the commands. If the commands returned the screen the unit was on, etc, you could truly remotely navigate the system. Currently developers have to rely on certain patterns being deterministic, which could break any time TiVo updates the software and changes the menus in any way.

TiVo could really engage the development community just by making some simple interfaces on the units more open. While ReplayTV did a number of things wrong, and ended up folding, one of the things they did right was having an extensive network API. This allowed the ReplayTV users to develop DVArchive, a very nice freeware tool. Their API extended to searching the EPG and scheduling new recordings, viewing lists of upcoming recordings, and more. I’d love to see community tools like this for TiVo.

Maybe someday TiVo will embrace the user development community and publish more APIs. In the meantime we still get to enjoy tools like these due to the efforts of the community.

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Straight Talk On CableCARD And tru2way

Posted on Tuesday, July 1, 2008 by MegaZone

The CableTechTalk blog has a very nice post up today about CableCARD and tru2way. While the blog is run by the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA), and the post in question was written by Paul Rodriguez, Director of Online Content for the NCTA, so you might expect some editorial slant, I thought it was a nice, factual article. It provides a concise history of the development of CableCARD and tru2way, as well as correcting some of the common misconceptions. I think it is worth a read.

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TiVo-Sponsored Smart Television Alliance Launches ‘OutSmart The Summer Spike!’ Campaign

Posted on Tuesday, July 1, 2008 by MegaZone

The TiVo-sponsored group Smart Television Alliance has launched a campaign to educate parents about the increase in children’s television viewing during the summer months. They claim that it increases 150%. They describe the campaign as“a call to action for busy parents and caregivers to use technology to control what television children watch, to make smart viewing choices, and to promote a balanced media diet.” The press release below has more information.

Continue reading →

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MediaPost’s TV Board On Why A Cable DVR Is Not A TiVo

Posted on Tuesday, July 1, 2008 by MegaZone

I got a kick out of this post in MediaPost’s TV Board blog. A friend of the post’s author called Comcast about their digital phone service and got a pitch for a DVR. I loved the summary of the conversation:

“I don’t need your DVR, I already have a TiVo,” she said.

“Our DVR is the same as TiVo but it comes free with our service,” the sales rep adamantly replied.

“Oh, really, well I have a lifetime membership with TiVo. Can you log on from any computer and schedule something to record?” she retorted.

“No.”

“Can the DVR you offer be networked to my computer?”

“No.”

“Can I transfer shows between TVs?”

“No.”

“Can you store whatever you record on the DVR to your computer?”

“No.”

“Can you convert anything that you have recorded to play on your iPod video?”

“No.”

“Can you burn anything you have recorded on your DVR onto a DVD?”

“No.”

“Then I would have to say your DVR is nothing like a TiVo. All yours does is record.”

”I guess you’re right, it’s not the same.”

And that’s not even the half of it when it comes to TiVo’s features. Right on! All TiVos are DVRs, but not all DVRs are TiVos!

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