It looks like the recent Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 1, which installs J2SE 6 v1.6.0_05, may break TiVoToGo functionality in Roxio products. MacFixIt has the details, which is based on user reports in the Roxio support forums and MacFixIt readers. The update is not supposed to change the system Java Preference setting, but it appears that it does, at least for some users. The solution, aside from not installing the Java update, appears to be setting the system Java Preference to the old version. At least until an update that corrects the problem is available. See MacFixIt for more info.

Roxio is offering a few coupon codes for May and June to save you a little summer cash. The discounts include TiVo compatible software such as Roxio Toast, Roxio Popcorn, and Roxio Easy Media Creator.

Shop Roxio’s website, and use these codes:
* Save 10% on any product – site wide – coupon code: SAVE10ROX
* Buy Easy Media Creator 10 and SAVE $15 USD instantly! – coupon code: 15EMC10
* Buy MyDVD 10 Premier and SAVE $10 USD instantly – coupon code: 10MYDVD
* Buy Roxio Crunch and Save $5 for a price of $34.99 – coupon code: savecrunch5
* Popcorn 3 and Get a FREE Popcorn Tee – while supplies last! Link id: 10550913

The Mac Observer reports that Roxio has released updates for both Toast 8 Titanium and Toast 9 Titanium, the new versions being 8.0.4 and 9.0.2, respectively. The updates include fixes for several TiVo audio and video sync issues. 9.0.2 also includes updates for improved Blu-ray support, and high-definition DVD support for PS3 playback. 8.0.4 includes a fix for EyeTV recordings not being visible in the Media Browser.

The update comes less than two weeks since Roxio first released Toast 9 Titanium, and just over a week since they asked for TiVo users to assist in debugging the issues.

One of the open questions with Roxio Toast 9 is if it solved the outstanding issues with TiVoToGo experienced by users of Toast 8. Well, Roxio responded to Dave Zatz at Zatz Not Funny via a comment:

Roxio PR

We did indeed believe that we had addressed all the sync issues in Toast 9 and were planning to issue an update for Toast 8 customers. Post launch, we have become aware that some problems persist. As a result, we are going through the process of acquiring the problematic files and working to resolve any remaining issues. We fully intend to continue to work through all the issues and update Toast 9 and Toast 8 customers as required. We are asking for Toast 9 customers’ assistance. If a Toast 9 customer has experienced sync issues, we ask that they email TivoFiles@roxio.com, as we would like to acquire and test the problematic file.

Thank you.

So it sounds like Toast 9 has improved things, but not completely resolved them. If you have Toast 9 and are experiencing trouble, you have a chance to help get things fixed.

And it is nice to hear that Roxio intends to issue a fix for Toast 8 users as well, so they won’t be forced to upgrade to Toast 9 just to get the fix.

Roxio has rolled out their latest update to their flagship Mac product, Toast 9 Titanium. This new version will set you back $99.99 for new users, or $79.99 as an upgrade for existing users. Toast 9 offers full support for high-definition video, and the ability to burn Blu-ray Discs, via a $19.99 HD/BD plug-in. But if you purchase Toast 9 through April 13, you get the plug-in for free.

Toast 9 also introduces Roxio Streamer, which allows you to stream your video to any Internet connected PC or Mac, as well as connected devices such as the iPhone or iPod Touch. Kind of like having a Slingbox for your Mac videos. It also offers the ability to capture streaming audio, such as recording Internet radio, with automatic tagging of the recordings.

What remains to be seen is if Toast 9 Titanium resolves the TiVoToGo issues users of Toast 8 have been experiencing. I don’t have a Mac, so I can’t comment on that. But if anyone out there has been having issues with Toast 8 and you decide to upgrade to Toast 9, leave a comment either way. For that matter, anyone who upgrades to Toast 9, let us know what you think. Is it worth it?

Roxio’s press release:
Read the rest of this entry »

It seems the TiVoToGo problems reported with Roxio software on the Mac last November still linger. While a patch was issued in November, it seems that it didn’t resolve the issues for all users. Today both Zatz Not Funny and CNET News.com wrote about the troubles. ZNF cited this post at TiVoCommunity made by Roxio rep patatrox yesterday:

We’ve been running a limited beta with a small number of users from the forums to test an update to both Toast 8 Titanium and Popcorn 3 and we’ve had positive results. We’re going to expand the testing for more users who are still having audio/video sync issues, please send me an e-mail to toastfeedback@roxio.com.

We’re going to extend this to about 50 users from TiVoCommunity.com and after a short time if feedback is positive move towards releasing this as an official update. Please keep in mind I will only be contacting users who are accepted for testing.

Please include the following information:
- Name
- Product you own (Toast 8 or Popcorn 3)
- TiVo Service Number (TSN)

If you’re having trouble with Roxio Toast or Popcorn and TiVoToGo on your Mac, you might want to jump on that.

TiVo made a statement to News.com for their article:

“It is important to us that all TiVo subscribers using TiVoToGo receive the same great TiVo experience whether they are utilizing a PC or Mac,” the company said in a statement to News.com. “It has been brought to our attention that a small subset of customers using Toast 8 have experienced a problem when trying to transfer their shows. We have been working with our partner Roxio and currently have a fix in beta.”

Roxio product manager Patrick Nugent said that they’ve been working with TiVo to fix the issues an that it affects “a small number of users.” He also said that it has been difficult to fix because it has been hard to reproduce and it doesn’t happen with ever recording.

Hopefully the code now in testing will be the final fix. Of course, there are other alternatives for Mac users. Such as the TiVo NowPlaying Widget, SeasonPassGetter, TiVoDecode Manager, and others.

Just last night I posted about Blu-ray.com reporting that, based on ‘inside sources’, Sonic would be dropping HD DVD from their Scenarist professional authoring tools to focus on Blu-ray. Well, this morning Sonic dropped a press release which makes it official. They will “conclude sales of its Scenarist® HD DVD authoring product line” to focus on Blu-ray authoring, including BD-Live content, as well as authoring content for digital distribution (read: downloads). Sonic will offer Scenarist HD DVD customers a special promotion to exchange them for the Scenarist BD version of the tools. For now there is no impact on their consumer authoring tools, such as Roxio.

A market leading company like Sonic walking away from the format certainly isn’t good news for HD DVD, especially on top of all the other hits they’ve been taking. This basically means Sonic doesn’t feel they’d be able to achieve a high enough return on investment to continue developing their HD DVD tools and they see more return from Blu-ray, so they’re shifting their resources appropriately.

The full press release is below:
Read the rest of this entry »

Another distributor has dumped HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray exclusivity, and this time it is Finnish distributor FS Film. They handle Finnish distribution for several studios, but seem to focus mainly on titles from Fox. Via Blu-ray.com.

Additionally, Blu-ray.com is reporting that ‘inside sources’ inform them that Sonic Solutions will be dropping HD DVD authoring support from their Scenarist line of professional disc authoring tools. They will continue to support existing HD DVD customers, but will focus on Blu-ray authoring going forward. There is no indication of changes in their consumer products, such as Roxio, at this time.

Following up on my last post, I got a chance to see the demo of TiVo Desktop 2.6 in TiVo’s suite today and I got a few photos of the desktop UI changes. I picked up some of the details on how this will work, which I found very interesting, and I think some of the geeks reading this will too, especially for the implications. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to ask all the questions I had since I hit that station shortly before they closed the suite down for the day, so I’ll be going back with some more questions.

I want to point out that I updated the last post to remove the details relating to the Mac software. Specifics of the Mac solution had been reported which were not authorized to be published. But there is a Mac solution coming, the details are just not releasable at the moment. No, I’m not telling, don’t bug me about it. Just remain calm.

With the new TiVo Desktop, you link it with your TiVo account online. That’s not something you do today:

Why? I’ll get into that below.

You can subscribe to a list of videocasts from an HME interface on the TiVo, and it is quite an extensive list. I didn’t get good shots of that interface, I’ll try tomorrow, but ZatzNotFunny, Engadget, and EngadgetHD all have coverage with some photos if you can’t wait.

If the videocast you want isn’t in the list, then you can go to TiVo Desktop and add it there.

The settings are fairly simple. You point the desktop at the folder where the videocast is saved on your PC. Note that the TiVo Desktop software doesn’t include the RSS feed reader to download itself, which could be a nice feature for 2.7. Instead, you use your favorite podcast software, such as iTunes, and simply point the desktop to the folder your software downloads to. You then select if you want the video automatically transferred to a TiVo or not. If so, then you set how many episodes you want transferred to the TiVo at a time and which TiVo(s) to transfer to. Finally, you can select whether or not to include subfolders.

All video is transcoded to MPEG-2 before transfer to the TiVo. The Series2/2DT units only support MPEG-2, and while the Series3 and TiVo HD have the hardware for advanced codecs, the software support isn’t there yet. In the future, once those codecs are enabled, such as H.264, it is likely that the desktop will transfer video already in those codecs ‘as is’. If the source video is high definition, and it is being transferred to a Series3 or TiVo HD, then it is kept HD through the transcode. If it is transferred to a Series2 then it is encoded as SD to enable playback. And yes, this does mean that your PC needs to be one for this to work. You don’t necessarily need to leave it on all the time, but you’ll need to have it on long enough for the PC to grab your downloads, transcode them, and transfer them to the TiVo(s).

OK, so why is the desktop linked to your account online? Because the TiVo back-end plays a role in the new system. Today each TiVo polls TiVo’s severs roughly every 15 minutes to check for new scheduled recordings, TiVoCast downloads, Unbox downloads, etc. That’s highly inefficient – nearly all of those polling calls are for nothing. There is nothing waiting to be done. And it introduces a lag when you want to start a download – up to 15 minutes. And it doesn’t scale well as TiVo’s user base keeps growing.

So what’s changed? The polling system is gone. TiVo is using XMPP now instead. What is XMPP? The Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol – better known as the instant messaging protocol that powers Jabber, Google Talk, and other IM systems. Yep, TiVo is basically using instant messaging for real-time communication. Now when the TiVo server has a new recording to schedule, it will IM the TiVo to tell it. Or if there is a download to pull, it will IM the TiVo to tell it to do so. This is a much more efficient system and it eliminates latency. It is really a clever idea.

Now, the way this works with web video is that when the desktop finds a new video and has it ready to transfer to the TiVo, it sends an IM to TiVo’s servers. TiVo’s servers then send an IM to the TiVo to tell it to grab the video. Which brings up another new twist.

This does not use the TiVoToGo/TiVoToComeBack protocol, it uses TiVoCast. Yep. your PC becomes a TiVoCast server, and the TiVo grabs the video from the PC just like it does today from the TiVoCast servers online.

While I think the 2.6 web video features are great, I think the work done to implement the infrastructure could be the bigger story. Replacing polling with XMPP opens the door to all kinds of improvements. Instant starts to downloads of TiVoCast or Unbox video, or any other video source, such as Music Choice music videos. If there is a schedule change that impacts your TiVo, TiVo could tell your box to grab it right now instead of waiting a day. It even opens the door to possibly handling last minute changes such as sporting events running long, Presidential addresses, and other events that bump the schedule at the last minute. TiVo’s servers could instantly IM units to warn them of the changes. Though there would have to be a lot of additional work to provide a full service.

And being able to trigger a TiVoCast download from basically any server on the net would really open the door to 3rd party content providers to setup their own content servers – if TiVo opens this up. Right now it doesn’t sound like this functionality will be open to 3rd parties, but the foundation is there. I’d love to see TiVo update the HME SDK with the ability to trigger TiVoCast, that would be a major jump.

I have some more, but I want to get some clarifications, and make sure that it is OK to share everything before I do. But I’m excited by some of the things I heard today about the work being done. I hope to have more to share tomorrow. But right now I need some sleep.

PC Magazine seems to have received early access to TiVo press release due to hit Monday, as they’re reporting on new features coming in TiVo Desktop Plus 2.6. Desktop Plus 2.6 will bring support for web video to the TiVo in a more seamless fashion. Users will be able to subscribe to their favorite video blogs’ RSS feeds and the software will automatically download the videos and prepare them for playback on the TiVo. Even better, high-definition web video will remain HD when played back on the Series3 or TiVo HD. And one that that should make a lot of users happy – 2.6 will reportedly bring support for folders to help keep videos organized. The lack of folder support in TiVo Desktop has long been a complaint from users.

The downside is that the software won’t be available until March, and it will keep the same $24.95 price as today’s Plus upgrade. Note that Plus upgrades are transferable, so if you already have it you’ll be able to use it in 2.6 when it is released. Mac users aren’t being left out either – Roxio Toast 9 will offer similar features for them, also in March. No word on if the next version of Roxio Popcorn will see similar updates.

EDIT: It seems PCMag was talking out of school. There is a Mac solution in the works, but at this time there is no official word on what form it will take or when it will be available.

The press release will probably hit the wire in the morning, and I’ll see what they have on display at the show when it opens.

EDIT: Here’s the official press release.