From the FAQ on TiVo’s website:

Is the TiVo service available in Canada?
The TiVo Service is now available in Canada. There are special instructions for Canadian residents to follow when activating service.

TiVo does not sell boxes in Canada, so Canadian residents must purchase boxes in the US and import them. If the DVR becomes defective, TiVo will not ship a warranty replacement box into Canada, and will only ship to a US address.

So they don’t have retail distribution in Canada (yet), but you can use the boxes there. So no more hacking required to use TiVo for our friends to the north!

I just learned about another TiVo related syndicated feed – tivo_sp_alerts This is a feed of the TiVo Season Pass Alerts forum at TiVoCommunity.com

Thanks starjewel.

If you know of any other feeds, share them!

Exploring the blogosphere’s over-reaction to the TiVo DRM issue from the other day, I found this post.

Just this past Sunday, I was attempting to tape The Simpsons and The Family Guy (Giggiddy-Giggiddy-Goo) and had constant DRM issues exactly as mentioned here. There was a difference though in that I was using my ATI Radeon All-In-Wonder 8500 on my Windows PC, not a Tivo. I was pretty pissed to be prompted that the programs were view only though. Even the portions that did record were repeated frames with V-Sync problems. Very coincidental that I tried only these shows.

Those are the same two programs that had trouble on TiVo, that started the furor. It reinforces the fact that this is not TiVo specific. It also shows that this can happen even on PC based DVRs, so they aren’t a magic safe haven.

Spotted by Dave Zatz, TiVo has added a new setting to Manage My Account – “Enable Video Downloads”

Enable Video Downloads

Use this setting to enable a DVR to download TV shows, movies, and other video content from the TiVo service over your broadband Internet connection. Specific program offerings will vary from time to time and may not be available to all subscribers. You can turn this setting on or off at any time without charge. Changes to this setting take up to 24 hours to take effect. Your TiVo DVR must be connected to the Internet via broadband in order to download video.

Looks like broadband video is getting closer, perhaps the NetFlix deal?