TiVo just launched a new offer for transferring lifetime subscriptions to a new TiVo HD for a $199 fee. And, as with the old Series3 transfer offer, the old box receives 12 months of service free, so you can keep it and use it in another room, etc.

However, as you might expect, there are restrictions. The major issues are:

1. The TiVo HD must be purchased new from the special offer webpage for $299.99. If you already own a TiVo HD, or if you buy one from another vendor, you cannot use this offer.
2. You can only transfer a lifetime subscription that was activated prior to October 1, 2003 and that has not been transferred to a new unit under previous offers (such as the offers to transfer to the S3 or S2DT). Why October 1, 2003? TiVo amortizes lifetime subscriptions over 4 years. Any lifetime subscription activated after then is still active on their books as revenue.
3. You must purchase the TiVo HD between October 11, 2007 and November 8, 2007 and complete the transfer by December 8, 2007.
4. The normal 30 day Money Back Guarantee does not apply to this offer. There are NO returns, refunds, or exchanges allowed in connection with this offer. So you’d better be sure you want to do this.

Read the full terms and conditions before taking this offer and be sure you understand them.

If you have an older unit with lifetime, and considering the date that would be a Series1 or an early Series2, this is a pretty good deal if you were thinking of making the jump to HD. Especially for those with the old S1 boxes.

And if you don’t qualify for this, remember that you can get a TiVo HD from Amazon for $249 and if you have existing boxes with lifetime, or monthly, a new unit is eligible for MSD – $6 off the monthly rate, so as low as $6.95 a month. With the lower price on the HD and not paying the transfer fee, the $249.99 difference about pays for three years of monthly MSD service. Even if you retire the old box and can’t get MSD, 3-years pre-paid is just $299, so an extra $49.01 would allow you to get a TiVo HD and 3-years of service. So consider your options well. But I know if I had an old Series1 with lifetime, I’d probably take this deal. My oldest lifetime is from February 5, 2004 – so I’m not eligible. (I’ve sold the boxes with lifetime I had from earlier.)

I picked this up from ZatzNotFunny.

Nearly two years (10/31/2005) since the last update to the public HME SDK (1.4) was released, on October 2 TiVo slipped out an update. The HME SDK 1.4.1 is considered experimental:

10/2/2007 – Experimental HME SDK 1.4.1 Released

* Multiple resolution support: This release introduces the ability for an HME application to control the rendering resolution of the receiver. The resolutions supported by the receiver are constrained by the hardware capabilities and current output configuration. The primary purpose of this feature is to enable the rendering of true HD resolution HME applications on Series 3 and TiVo HD platforms.
* Thread safe API wrappers (experimental): This release contains extensive use of locking and ‘synchronized’ blocks in the SDK implementation to work around poorly written applications that use multiple threads but are not thread safe. This bulletproofing of the SDK comes at a measurable cost to performance, and so other solutions are being evaluated. There is no significant visible API change associated with this change.
* This SDK is EXPERIMENTAL, meaning that the direction of the SDK implementation in this release should not be taken to be indicative of future releases. The resolution support is part of the protocol, but the way it is exposed in the SDK may change slightly. The thread safe bulletproofing is a test concept, and so applications that want to be forward compatible should do their own locking and not depend on it.

It is nice to see anything happening with HME. After a flurry of updates through 2004 and 2005, TiVo just seemed to abandon Home Media Engine. At least the public SDK – the internal SDK has been actively used for many things, most recently Rhapsody, but also Swivel Search, TiVoCast, and more. Even without TiVo’s support, sites like Apps.tv and PlayTeeVee.com have continued to provide content, as well as third party applications such as Galleon.tv. Until now, support for the higher resolution provided by the Series3 and TiVo HD has been accomplished through developer provided hacks to the SDK.

I hope that this signals some renewed attention from TiVo toward the public HME SDK.

Dave Zatz tipped me off to this in a comment buried on one of his own posts.

TiVo and RealNetworks hosted a shindig in NYC last night to help launch their partnership in bringing Rhapsody to TiVo. I guess my invitation got lost in the mail, but Dave Zatz got his and he attended the party. There were the expected presentations, themed drinks, product demos, etc. And Chris Harrison, TiVo’s new spokesperson, served as the MC. Nice to hear he personifies TiVo as “a whore”, that’s a great spokesperson right there. Dave did manage to pick up some info:

A few interesting nuggets I dug up while quizzing Jim Denney [VP, TiVo] and Robert Williams (VP, Real):

* Reconfirmed TiVoToGo and Multi-Room Viewing for Series3/TiVo HD are still on tap for November. (JD)
* Official eSATA support coming very soon. No one would spill the beans on the possibility of TiVo-branded drives. (JD)
* No bundled Rhapsody/TiVo service discount at this time due to “economics of music.” (RW)
* Periodic updates of Rhapsody on TiVo application/service planned. (RW)

Check out his post for more as well as some pics from the shindig.

Maybe someday I’ll get invited to the ball. *sniff*