Posts Tagged ‘TiVo’

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Amazon VoD & TiVo Working Again

Saturday, February 7th, 2009

Back around November or December, an update to TiVo killed the Amazon.com Video on Demand (VoD) service. That really sucked, as I loved being able to download movies and TV shows from Amazon.com to my TiVo boxes. It had been a while, so I figured surely to God they have this thing fixed now. And yesterday evening, I logged into Amazon.com and told it to send me a copy of Supernatural Season 4 Episode 1 to my living room TiVo. I’m happy to report that the service is working once again, though it is a bit slower than I remember… but then, that could very well be my network or something wrong with Comcast.

While I am thrilled that the service is working once again, I must say that I am rather disappointed that I wasn’t notified by Amazon.com or TiVo and informed that the service is working again. A simple email from Amazon, or a notice sent to my TiVo messages should have been extremely easy for them to pull off. Had they notified me, I’d have probably been downloading a lot more moves rather than using the crappy Comcast OnDemand service.

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Update On Amazon on TiVo

Thursday, December 11th, 2008

Just received a follow up email from the Amazon team. For those that don’t want to read the entire message, the gist of it is… it’s broke, we know it, they know it, no clue when it’ll be fixed, TiVo is working on it, and here is a refund.

Additional information is available after the jump. (more…)

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TiVo Update Killed Amazon VoD

Monday, December 1st, 2008

I’ve been using TiVo for about 5 years now, and I absolutely love it. It’s a fantastic service that has forever change the way I watch TV. It’s kind of like broadband internet, I cannot imagine going back to the way things were before.

One of the cool things I’ve enjoyed about my TiVo for the last year or so is the ability to rent movies from Amazon Video on Demand (formerly Amazon Unbox) and have the movies downloaded directly to my TiVo. Not only is it a easy to use service, but the cost of most rentals is around $3.99 a whole buck cheaper than what Comcast charges for their extremely slow OnDemand service. And just to throw it in there, renting movies from Apple via iTunes is about the same cost as TiVo-Amazon. ;)

That Amazon-TiVo service worked great until a few days ago when TiVo issues the Fall 2008 Update. The new update changes some of the menus, adds the ability to order pizza from Domino’s, download video on demand from other providers, and unintentionally bricks the Amazon VoD service.

It took me three days of contacting Amazon (email and phone) before I finally got someone on Sunday that actually identified the problem as the TiVo update. Right now when you rent a video, it’ll start to download, and then just vanish. If you check for an error, you get the extremely vague “an error occurred while downloading the video.”

Yesterday morning when I spoke to a rep, they were estimating it’d be ~20 hours before the service was restored. This afternoon when I spoke to someone, there was “no new information.” So Right now, all I can do is wait.

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What if Apple Created a Gaming Console?

Saturday, October 25th, 2008

Everyone refers to the Xbox 360, PS3, and to a lesser extent the Nintendo Wii as a “next gen” gaming console. Does that mean the next round of consoles (Xbox 3602, PS4, Wii2) will be third gen, or will they just be the new “next gen”? I know, who cares, right?

A while back Apple announced to investors that there would be a “product transition”. No one is really sure what this is, or when it would be. Some think it was the new iPod Nano, the change to the iPod Touch, or even the new MacBooks. Others think it may be some kind of NetBook or Apple Tablet. Still others think it could be a new networked type TV. And some people think we have yet to se it.

Well, what if Apple were to venture into the realm of console gaming systems… better yet, what if they already had, and you didn’t know it. Perhaps you already have an Apple console in your living room, office, or bedroom. It may not be as big of a stretch as you think. (more…)

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What I Want From iTunes 8

Monday, September 1st, 2008

Today is the first of September, and if the Kevin Rose rumor is true, a major update to iTunes could be just over a week away. What could be in store for us with the next version of iTunes? That is a very good question, here are some of the things I would like to see. (more…)

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Jericho Season 3?

Wednesday, March 19th, 2008

I just finished watching Jericho (S2E6). Thanks to the awful time slot, I have to watch Jericho on TiVo the next day. I’d love to watch during the airing, but you try staying up late and then getting up for work by 4 am. Anyway, I may be reading too much into this, but at the end of the episode it stated next week was the “season finale”. Season, not series. With one episode left, they should have already made up their mind if they were going to keep the show around or not.

I’m hoping they keep it around for another season or two. Yes, that’s optimistic, but I like the characters and I think they could do enough for two more full seasons.

Perhaps the lack of any official word is so they can surprise us during the episode and say “You love the show, you fought for the show, and Jericho will return in the fall for a full season.” Or maybe they’ll pull a season one stunt again, and just end it without telling anyone. Ok… I’ll try not to get my hope up too much between now and Tuesday. :p

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Picasa & Photobucket Come To TiVo

Wednesday, December 5th, 2007

Not sure how I missed this one considering it’s about two of my favorite services, TiVo and Picasa. Anyway, here it is…

TiVo Series2 and Series3 users can now view their Picasa Web Albums and/or Photobucket images right from their TV. That’s right, no need to buy one of those fancy digital picture frames, just view all of your pictures from the comfort of your couch (or bed). For more information, check out the TiVo website or the Picasa Blog.

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Add Another Once To The Canceled List

Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007

Well, it looks like the string of good shows being canceled isn’t over with yet. FOX has canceled The War At Home. Come on FOX, This show was great!

You’re going to leave American Dad on the air, but get rid of this? Come on now, TWAH is as close as you can get to Family Guy without actually being Family Guy. How about you move TWAH back to its original time slot? You know… the place it was at when it actually did good? Sheesh. Are all of the media companies run by idiots these days (rhetorical question, don’t answer).

I’m about ready to give up on TV. So much for TiVo… everything good is getting the axe, nothing left that’s worth recording.

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Grrrr….. Comcast.

Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007

Well, so far Comcast isn’t off to a great start. I had an install scheduled yesterday between 1:00 PM and 5:00 PM to set up my Digital Cable, High Speed Internet, and Digital Voice (VoIP). So, silly me, I get there before 1:00 PM and wait… and wait… and wait.

Around 3:00 PM I get a call from someone at Comcast that tells me that the installer is on his way. Could have been good news, but she follows up by telling me that the installer had used his last Digital Box, and we’d have to schedule someone else to bring one back to me…. or I could go pick one up at the main office. No biggie I though. If he was out by 4:00 PM, I’d be able to get my other errands done and still swing by the Comcast office.

So the guy arrives, looks at a few jacks, and mumbles something about the wiring. Apparently the new house (20 year old hose that is) has what he called “old 45 wiring” which isn’t going to work to well. He tells me that they need to schedule someone to come back out and run all new wiring. Thankfully, they will be able to get someone out there this Saturday… again, between 1:00 PM and 5:00 PM. There goes that day.

Thankfully, I was able to talk the guy into at least turning on the TV. With a little reluctance, he does so, but not before saying “I don’t know how well the reception will be”. So, after he leaves, I hook up TiVo and the TV. Crystal clear. Don’t know what the guy was smoking, but it works, and works just fine. I’d bet that the internet would have worked as well had the guy at least tried to turn it on.

Oh well… at least I was able to watch Heroes last night, and schedule TiVo to records the episodes of Battlestar Galactica and The Dresden Files that I missed.

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SciFi Friday

Friday, September 9th, 2005

I think tonight’s episode of Battlestar Galactica, 208 Final Cut, was probably the best episode of this season so far. Personally, I loved hearing the origional BSG theme song during the show. I wish it was played more often. Time to grab Ron Moore’s Podcasticon and see what he has to say about it.

Stargate: Atlantis was also pretty good, though I wish it hadn’t been one of those episodes where right at the last minute everything turns out to be ok. Personally, I think the writers/directors from SG:A could learn some stuff from BSG. But what do I know, eh? :p

I couldn’t really complain about Stargate: SG1. I enjoyed the hand-to-hand combat scenes. It actually reminded me a lot of Gladiator, only on a much smaller scale. ;) It was nice to see something other than the Ori (??) and the friars being the focal point. I’m already sick of them. They either need to do something, or go back to being hermits in a distant galaxy.

Can’t comment on Firefly, as I haven’t seen it yet. It’s TiVo’ed so I’ll watch it tomorrow. ;) Gotta love that little toy.

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