At the moment the press release only seems to talk about the Series2 TiVo, so there is no word on whether they will be carrying Series3 when it comes out. On the bright side, they plan to start selling the PVR / DVR units in more than their 3000 US based stores. TiVo can also be found on Radio Shack’s web site here.

Although this announcement isn’t anything earth shattering, it is one more major outlet that will carry TiVo. Pretty soon you will start seeing TiVo in every store that you shop at.

Technorati Tags: PVR, DVR, TiVo

At the start she realized that her DVR stopped recording her shows that were set to record for the season (she already had Time Warner replace her first DVR). This incident then got the ball rolling on the idea that more of the complex operations (scheduling, storage, rebooting, etc) would be better for consumers if the cable companies could do it all on their end (sort of like what Cablevision was trying to do with their network DVR).

In an ideal world, PVR/DVR use would be as easy as pie. Sure, some systems are close (TiVo comes to mind), but all too often features take priority over usability. In a case like this, more does not necessarily mean better, especially if more means more things that can go wrong.

Technorati Tags: PVR, DVR, TiVo

It probably won’t surprise most of you that TiVo came out on top (twice actually). What I did find surprising is the low rating that Dell’s XPS Gen 5 Windows Media Center Edition system received. It seemed that the reviewer had a tough time getting the system to play nicely with his TV setup which contributed to the bad score.

Although it isn’t anything in depth, it’s a great overview of some of the options available for those who are looking for a new PVR / DVR.

Technorati Tags: PVR, DVR, TiVo, Slingbox, Orb, MCE. Media+Center+Edition

According to the post, TiVo users found that their units were no longer recording the show since the name change. TiVo didn’t catch the change and it appeared as if the show just stopped being broadcast. So a reminder to all of you out there: if you have a show set to record based on its name, make sure you check its status after a name change.

Technorati Tags: PVR, DVR, TiVo, ABC

I personally have never had to deal with TiVo and I have only heard of a few complaints[1], but is that because they have so many loyal subscribers? Do the good stories just out number the bad stories so much that we don’t hear about the troubles?

The Better Business Bureau report can be found here.

[1] The most interesting complaint that I have heard was a case where a subscribers TiVo was making long distance calls from a summer cottage during the off season. A bit of a unique situation.

Technorati Tags: PVR, DVR, TiVo, BBB, Better+Business+Bureau, customer+service

So what are the new features with this Series3 tuner? Well to recap what has been said so far on the Internet:

• The unit will have dual tuners
• The unit will be CableCard & HDTV ready
• The ability to play MPEG-4 video
• It will support external storage via a SATA hard drive
• A display on the front to show various pieces of information

If you would like to flash back to what was shown at CES, you can check out TiVoLovers.com.

Technorati Tags: PVR, DVR, TiVo, Series3

Over the past few months I have started seeing more and more reports on PVR / DVR devices (whether on TV, the internet or in print) and almost all of them have the reporter sold on the product by the end of the column/segment. I’ve decided to start archiving these when I can find them if for no other purpose, at least so I can watch how the number of stories increases over time.

Back on Thursday Jim Rossman from the Dallas News wrote a piece titled ‘Here’s the magic behind pausing live TV’. In it he went on to explain in layman’s terms how DVRs perform their ‘magic’, mainly by buffering content. In the article he mentions TiVo by name and talks about the old favourite of pausing the first 20 minutes of an hour long show that you can watch it and skip all of the commercials. He also gives out the great advice to his readers that they should visit www.tivocommunity.com to learn more about the potential of their devices. If you are going to buy a PVR / DVR, please learn all of the uses – you’ll appreciate it.

Technorati Tags: PVR, DVR, TiVo

Now this isn’t directed at TiVo in particular (although I would imagine that they are a big one) but it seems like a pretty ludicrous remark to make. It appears as if ABC wants control not only over what you watch (e.g. you have to watch commercials) but also how you watch it. Needless to say the fallout from this remark has been fairly heavy. In the very off chance that this ever does happen, I am sure that the open source alternatives like GB-PVR, MythTV & Media Portal will soar in popularity.

Here are a few more links if you are interested in the community’s thoughts:

• ABC Trying to Kill PVR Ad Skipping – Gizmodo
• ABC Tries to Kill DVR Ad Skipping – Marketing Shift
• ABC wants to kill DVR ad-skipping – Ad Jab
• ABC Tries to Kill DVR Ad Skipping – TV Predictions
• ABC hopes to halt fast forwarding – ArsTechnica
• ABC Wants DVR Fast Forwarding Killed – Broadband Reports
• ABC Exec. Lobbies to Disable DVR Fast-Forward During Commericals – News Busters

Technorati Tags: PVR, DVR, MythTV, GB-PVR, Media+Portal, ABC

• Watch TV on PSP with TiVo ToGo – Daily Game
• TiVo Adds iPod Support — For a Price – Beta News
• Apps Turn Your Computer Into a Powerful DVR – PC World
• DirecTV Titanium – Luxist
• NVIDIA DualTV MCE – A review at Digital Trends
• Feature: Build a living-room PC – Computer Act!ve
• PVR gets new features as sales rocket – Biz Community

I thought all of the above had some interest, hence me posting their links. Currently I need to shuffle my days around a bit so I can find a steady time to work on this site. But for now, hopefully this will do.

Technorati Tags: PVR, DVR, TiVo, iPod, MCE, DirecTV, SageTV, SnapStream, Beyond+TV

As I have mentioned a few times in the past, I live in Canada. So, things like this make me quite jealous. I don’t know if I would subscribe to a monthly service, but if I could the hardware free I would definitely look at it long and hard.

More info, including locations where the units can be picked up, can be found at Zatz Not Funny…

Technorati Tags: TiVo, DVR, PVR