TiVo is running a special one-month promo from September 20 to October 23 on the 80-hour S2DT – $200 off MSRP. To get this deal you need to order through this special affiliate site. If you look at the standard website it is $99.99. If you still use mostly analog cable, or you have no need for one of the HD boxes, this is a good deal. I’d personally recommend giving serious thought to the TiVo HD or Series3, but at best those are at least $200 more than this deal.

See, I told you there would be affiliate specials from time to time. And, of course, there are still other deals out there.

If you plan to connect any TiVo using WiFi, be sure to pick up the TiVo Wireless G USB Network Adapter.

As always, using TiVo Lovers as your TiVo Rewards referrer is always appreciated.

My friend John just tipped me off to today’s Woot deal – a DirecTV/TiVo Remote for $0.99!

This is a second generation remote, what would be a ‘Series2′ remote for standalone boxes. Now, while it is labeled as a DirecTV remote – it has the DirecTV logo on it and a ‘DirecTV’ button instead of a ‘TiVo’ button at the top – it is compatible with all standalone and DirecTV units that use a ‘peanut’ remote. (Everything except the Sony units and the Toshiba SD-H400, which had special remotes.)

So if you’re remote is worn out, you just want a spare around as a backup, or you want a dedicated remote for the kids (make it is ‘KidZone’ remote), this is a pretty good deal.

Note that Woot deals are one-day specials, so act now if you want one (or two, or three…).

John Kohl continues his revival of Galleon with the release of version 2.5.0, which has a number of new features and bug fixes. From the release notes:

Version 2.5.0:
———————-
* Added iPhoto album display capability into Photos application
* Increased album artwork size in music players (HD)
* Fixed built-in Photos application to lay out the grid better for HD.
* Fixed JPG image tag reading for Photos
* Added a new HD Photos plugin that will download, install and run the TiVo Desktop hdphotos
HME application integrated into Galleon similar to what it does for TiVo Desktop.
(you must open TCP port 7111 on your firewall)
* Reimplemented skin resource loading so they don’t use as much memory and cpu
* Added scalable backgrounds that fit the screen in HD mode for pictures and music
* Fixed the HD playbar in the music app so it draws properly
* Fixed layout on music player screen when in HD mode
* Increased font size on music app in HD mode for all screens
* Fixed screen saver on music app to fill the entire screen
* Fixed lyrics downloading to grab from a different source since lyrictracker is down
* Fix MacOS problems (tracker #1760027)
* Upgraded Movie Rentals app to 0.8
* Fixed missing jars in windows installer
* Added service wrapper for unix release and a Makefile to do “make install” or “make uninstall”
* Added a global screen saver framework for all apps that extend BApplication and AppFactory
* Added a bouncing screen saver to display cover art and track title for music player apps

There are a few known issues:

Known problems:
* tracker on music in HD is goofy
* not all galleon skins in HD don’t cover screen–use tivo skins
* still some layout glitches in HD
* still some HD menu highlights are too big for text

Galleon is written in Java and it runs on basically any platform what supports Java – Windows, Mac OS, Linux, UNIX, etc. It is still the premier HME application. You can download 2.5.0 here.

Thanks to Alex of TiVo Blog for the tip.

Michael and Timothy, thank you both for the TiVo Rewards Referrals.