Real-world advertisements have begun to appear in virtual environments, like video games. And it looks like Sling Media is one of the companies out in front, running ads within Burnout Paradise. Dave Zatz, of Zatz Not Funny and Sling Media, posted a picture of one of the ads, as well as a video:

Dave Zatz of Zatz Not Funny captured the Comcast DVR With TiVo Service ad currently running in the Boston area and posted it on YouTube:

TiVoShanan has posted another one of her TiVo promo videos to YouTube, this one promoting the Photos & Slideshows:

Gear Live’s The Bleeding Edge has done a video of an installation of the Western Digital My DVR Expander on a TiVo Series3. (The same drive also works on the TiVo HD.) I can’t say it is riveting video - installation involves plugging in the eSATA and power cables into the drive, connecting the eSATA to the TiVo, rebooting, and following the prompts - but if you’re curious, check it out.

Steve Garfield has posted another video, this time he’s filmed a bit of a tour of the Comcast TiVo interface as he explores the various functions. The video is just over five minutes long, and a decent tour for those curious about the new software. He has it installed on his existing Motorola 3412 DVR.

I think some of the delay he’s seeing is a difference in the way the software works. From what I was told back at CES 2007, some of the intelligence in the cable software is on the head end. So it is kind of like Universal Swivel Search on the standalone TiVos (which might even be based on the same search code, now that I think about it), in that you enter a string to search and it queries the head end. So it isn’t all local like the standard search on a TiVo, which introduces some latency. But, conversely, reduces the data storage requirements and power locally.

Alex at TiVo Blog has written up a nice guide on how to watch nearly any video podcast on your TiVo, given a Windows PC, TiVo Desktop Plus, and iTunes.

He’s also posted a video of the process:

Steve Garfield is continuing to report on his new Comcast TiVo software. And, unsurprisingly as he’s a video blogger, he’s also made his first video report on the software, focusing on the Guide:

The “archaic, stupid cable rule” that he refers to in the video would be OCAP. I think he got that from a comment I left on one of his earlier posts.

I’m a bit jealous, as a blogger. I wouldn’t give up my standalone Series3 for the OCAP software, but if I could I would have one in my home just to be able to test it and report on it. Maybe one of my friends will get it and let me come over and molest their DVR for a while. I live in MA, where Comcast is deploying this software currently. However, while much of MA is Comcast, I live in Worcester, an island of Charter monopoly.