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James Kim Memorial Fund Charity Raffle
Dave Zatz over at Zatz Not Funny is holding a charity raffle to help out the James Kim Memorial Fund . For every $10 you send in to Dave you will receive an entry in a raffle for a TiVo Toaster . To learn more on how to contribute, check out this entry on Zatz Not Funny. More »
Take a Survey, Win a $50 Amazon Gift Certificate!
It's the start of a new year, and that means it's time to get better handle on who's coming to DVRPlayground.com. Help us make DVR Playground better by taking our short survey, and enter your DVR Playground Community display name into the box at the end to get entered for a chance to win a free $50 shopping spree at Amazon.com! Take our Survey Now! What could you use your $50 at Amazon.com gift certificate on? Here's some suggestions: Save $50 on a Slingbox PRO , and watch multiple sources on the go! SlingStream technology delivers up to a 400 percent video quality improvement over the original Slingbox Connects to digital cable box, DVR, satellite receiver, DVD players, video/security camera, or any NTSC component HD, S-video, or composite video source Watch and control your home TV, DVR, basic cable, digital cable box, or satellite receiver anywhere around your home or... More »
Akimbo Announcements and Visit
I swung by the Akimbo Systems suite in the Hilton to check on the latest from the Video on Demand (VOD) content aggregator. Their two major announcements at CES included providing their VOD content to AT&T Homezone subscribers and being part of the USBTV initiative. Akimbo Systems announced at CES that its VOD aggregated content will be available later this month to subscribers of AT&T Homezone. AT&T Homezone is a videoservice that integrates AT&T„ Yahoo! High Speed Internet Service, AT&T„ DISH Network satellite television and AT&T Home Networking services via a single device. The integration of Akimbo content into the Internet connected set-top box will bring a new level of choice for consumers, who can now easily watch thousands of programs and movies on TV, downloaded with just a touch of the Homezone remote control. “By combining such a wide range of video-on-demand, broadcast and Internet services, Homezone has created... More »
Dueling Press Conferences - EchoStar vs DirecTV
You've probably already seen our article about DirecTV's announcement of the Sat-Go .I attended back to back conferences by EchoStar and DirecTV and itseemed that DirecTV one-upped DISH on everything that Dish announced with the exception of the DVR. For example, EchoStar announced a partnership with Nascar whileDirecTV announced the Nascar HotPass where five various drivers havetheir own channel each week starting at Daytona in a month. Eachchannel will include 2 announcers and 25-30 cameras so fans can followtheir favorite drivers. EchoStar mentioned that they are the HD leaderwith the current largest HD lineup of 30 national channels whileDirecTV's HD capacity will reach 150 national channels and 1500 localchannels by the end of 2007. Next, EchoStar announced MobileDISH, which through a partnershipwith RaySat, provides more than 100 channels through a car roof-mountedDISH antenna. DirecTV of course announced their Sat-Go for a trulyportable solution. Theone area where EchoStar clearly has an... More »
Total HD to sway the DVD Wars
Warner Brothers, a division of Time Warner, will introduce a new disc called Total HD at CES in a couple of days. Total HD will be a single videodisc that can play films and television programs in both Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats. Blu-ray, a consortium lead by Sony, and HD-DVD, backed by Toshiba and Microsoft, have been fighting a similar war that Betamax and VHS fought decades ago causing adoption of high definition home video to be slow. The Executives at Time Warner hope to kickstart sales of new DVD players and movies by convincing studios to release their videos in both formats. Fox and Disney for example are supporting Blu-ray instead of HD-DVD. Source: NY Times More »
DirecTV TiVo Problems?
Apparently there are quite a few people having issues with DirecTV's new HD DVR and DirecTV's TiVo DVRs (such as the HR10-250) where people say the DVRs fail to record shows and mysteriously delete programs previously recorded. " Tonight my HR10-250 states it deleted Cold Case on TNT HD early to make space for another program. The kicker is, it did not record the program it supposedly deleted and the only program scheduled to record was Cold Case ," says a poster named lmk911. I guess the folks over on TCF plug their DirecTV TiVos into the phone line. Silly people trusting DirecTV to deliver software! Has anyone noticed these issues? Perhaps DirecTV is sabotaging the TiVo boxes to get rid of them and replace with their own HD DVR. Yet another reason to hack your TiVo. More »
Last Post: January 17, 2007 9:32 AM by divascuba
Top Six Ways to Customize Your New Christmas Tivo
All PVR posted a great little article about the top six ways you can customize that new TiVo DVR you got for Christmas. 1. If you own a Tivo Series 2, you can enable 30-second skip to zip by commercials using the following commands on your Tivo remote while watching a stored show: Select Play Select 3 0 Select . 2. If you’re having set up problems, check out some diagrams of typical Tivo connections. Or go right to Tivo.com and see examples of typical setups for your box(series 1, 2 or 3). Of course you could always come to DVR Playground and ask a question in the First Timers forum ! 3. You might want to turn off those Tivo sound effects or at least turn down the volume. Go to the Tivo main menu, then select Messages & Setup ; then My Preferences ; then Audio Options ;... More »
I-O Data announces two new TV Tuners for Homebrew DVRs
I-O data are set to launch two new TV Tuners that claim to be Windows Vista compatible. The two models include a PCI card (GV-MC/RX3) which will run around $105 and a USB model (GV-MC/TZ) which will run around $123. Both models include S-Video and composite inputs and noise reduction. As Brad at PVR Wire brings up though... are any existing TV tuners not compatible with Vista? In any case, here are two more options for homebrew DVRs. More »
Dish Network Drops Local Channels in Some Locations
Earlier this month Dish Network had to drop local channels from their service lineup including Fox, ABC, NBC and CBS in several areas. While Dish Network tried to inform their subscribers by showing videos of Dish Network executives on Dish Network channel 101 explaining the situation and offering as much information as they could, many subscribers were surprised to losing their local channels suddenly earlier this month. Kathie Gonzalez, a spokesperson for Dish Network, said the issue of distant network programming has been in arbitration for the last nine years. “We are not personally directing anyone there because of the statute and injunction,” Gonzalez said. “We can in no way be involved with network channels.” “We did everything we could to make customers aware they would lose distant network channels,” Gonzalez said. Despite efforts by Dish Network, the injunction took hold before any legislative action could be taken. “We can... More »
Customer Support Contact List
Matt over on Techlore has created an excellent CE (Consumer Electronics) Customer Support Contact List which should come in handy for new users of various gadgets received as presents this Christmas. Also, PVR Wire put out a customer support contact list for the DVR community: Service Providers TiVo: customer service web page , phone number: -877-367-8486. If you have a DirecTV TiVo unit, you should call 1-800-347-3288 instead, or you can send an email instead. DirecTV 's Customer service page should help if you have a non-TiVo PVR from the satellite provider. Or you can call at 1-800-494-4388. Dish Network: Customer service page and contact number: 1-888-284-7116. Comcast: Frequently Asked Questions , customer chat , and contact number: 1-800-COMCAST Charter Communications: Support page , email , and contact number: 1-888 GET CHARTER Time Warner Cable: Customer service page , or you can find the number for Time Warner in your... More »
Comcast testing TiVo DVR Software
After two years, Comcast has started testing TiVo software but probably will not have market tests until the spring. Currently Comcast says the release will be sometime in "2007" (well, that narrows it down!) as there are numerous issues Comcast and TiVo need to work out including making TiVo work on Comcast's Motorola hardware and network as well as integrating Comcast services like VOD and "TV Navigator". Comcast plans to distribute the TiVo DVR software to the Motorola DVRs via a download so a cable guy never needs to come out between 8a-5p three weeks from now! More »
MythDora-3.1 Released
The latest version of MythDora was released last week and I've been playing with this linux distro which includes MythTV. MythDora is a Fedora Core and MythTV in a "All-In-One" DVD. The DVD will load a preconfigured Fedora Core 5 installation on your computer as well as install and configure MythTV-0.20. There are extras included with MythDora such as MythArchive, MediaMVP and MythStreamTV for some extra fun. I plan on writing up my impressions of MythDora later this week, but you can get the latest ISO image from G-Ding.TV . More »
Sony to offer video downloads for the PSP
We've been running several how-to articles on how to grab video content for your PSP, well according to the Financial Times Sony is preparing a video download service for the PSP. Of course you have to download to a PC first then transfer for the expensive Sony memory cards. We completely agree with PVRWire's assessment that Sony will charge too much and DRM-cripple the video, so check out our series on copying video content to your PSP! More »
AVS4YOU.com Opens a New Era on Shareware Market
I received an interesting press release this morning from AVS4YOU.com. They create software for supporting your iPod, Sony PSP, Archos DVR, Zen Creative, mobiles, PDAs and portable media players available through a subscription service ($29/yr or $49/lifetime). Online Media Technologies Ltd., a vendor of multimedia solutions, today launches AVS4YOU.com, a new online project featuring up-to-date titles for most various needs about home video and audio management. Being unparalleled on today's international IT market AVS4YOU.com offers a breakthrough way of getting software. Once registered any AVS4YOU utility, you automatically possess all introduced software and even future titles developed by Online Media Technologies Ltd absolutely free of charge. AVS4YOU.com provides a wide range of video and audio software targeted both at computer beginners and advanced users. The extended list of applications for video/audio converting and editing, DVD copying and authoring, mobile content management lets you find ultimate solution to the task of... More »
Cheap TV Spots Quelches TiVo Buyout Rumor for Press Attention...?
You know how they say " any press is good press "? Cheap TV Spots has decided to test that theory with a press release "answering speculation about acquiring TiVo" which has angered bloggers and excited investors. Cheap TV Spots actually put out a press release which: responded to blogspeculation regarding a possible buy of TiVo. "Cheap TV Spots has no immediate plans to acquire TiVo," said company president, Ann Clark. "TiVois actually a better M&A target for Yahoo, Google or ASK.com. We are not ruling out partnering with TiVo or another DVR provider." While on April Fools Day this may have been considered humorous, two Wall Street news companies unfortunately picked up the story (Briefing.com and FlyOnTheWall) causing TiVo's shares to climb 15 cents to $5.49 with double the normal trading volume on Monday. Considering two months ago "Cheap TV Spots" sent out a press release stating that they... More »
Dutch First to Drop Analog TV
The Netherlands is the first nation to completely switch from analog television to digital. Unlike the U.S., the Dutch only had a small number of people still using the old-fashioned TV antennas, thus the change occurred to little public notice. The United States is still scheduled to make the change to kill analog stations on January 1st, 2009. Few Dutch consumers noticed, because the overwhelming majority get TV via cable. Only around 74,000 households relied primarily on the old-fashioned TV antennas in this country of 16 million, although 220,000 people had an “occasional use” set somewhere such as in a vacation house, camper or boat, according to government figures. Source: ABC News Source: RealTechNews More »
Microsoft Patents DVR-based Targeted Advertising
One of the problems advertisers have with DVRs is also one of the main reasons we love DVRs so much... the ability to skip over commercials. DVRs allow you to time shift and watch your favorite Tuesday night show on the following Saturday for example. Advertisements that are time sensitive are then irrelevant ( much like DVDs !). Microsoft thinks they have the solution and have filed a patent application that would maintain a database of advertisements on a DVR. If during playback the DVR realizes that the commercial is no longer relevant a different commercial will be inserted. Each time you watch the show you could see a different commercial. Perhaps it is time to check out MythTV or some other home-brew DVR? Source: PVR Wire More »
How did we ever get along before the PVR?
The Toronto Star asks "How did we ever get along before the PVR?" in a recent article . The article talks about how DVRs not only record and playback like VCRs, but pause and rewind live TV, can record multiple programs at once, can record and playback at the same time and the media takes up less space! The article goes on to suggest a use for the VCR... hook it up to the DVR and copy programs from hard drive to tape. While that's possible, I'm not quite sure why you'd do it! This article continues to give credence to the VCR, Dead at 30 article . So, what did you do before you had a DVR? More »
FiOS TV Launched in Philadelphia Area
Verizon opened FiOS TV to 80,000 households in southern Pennsylvania and plans to expand to 100,000 households by year end. FiOS is a fiber to the premises (FTTP) telecommunications service offered by Verizon allowing traffic up to 50Mbps downstream and 5Mbps upstream. Only Verizon's FiOS network has earned the certification of the independent Fiber to the Home Council for providing fiber all the way to customers' homes. Verizon has been building a fiber-optic television service over the nation's largest digital, all-fiber network. More »
TiVoToGo Hacked
Jeremy Drake hacked the DRM on TiVoToGo allowing TiVoToGo users to export recorded programs from a TiVo for viewing on any device. Available as a command line Windows utility or a C source file through the tivodecode project page on sourceforge , the tivodecode utility strips DRM. There is a Wiki with a history of the project so far and updates on the development. Zatz Not Funny has posted a guide for Mac (and Linux) users to finally view TiVoToGo. More »
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