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Dogen posted:Yeah Comcast is first card free, we pay like a buck for the M card in our second Tivo HD. Well, in Houston it's like that anyway, I know practices vary. I've actually been getting my second M-card free in (Midtown) Houston. I don't really know why.
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Nov 29, 2009 06:02
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Just got done setting up PyTivo and I must say this is very nice. I think I will have to build a small file server to tuck away someplace so I can pull media off of that instead on my laptop. I am very happy indeed 
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Nov 29, 2009 20:31
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KickStand posted:Just got done setting up PyTivo and I must say this is very nice. I think I will have to build a small file server to tuck away someplace so I can pull media off of that instead on my laptop. I am very happy indeed Glad it works for you. If you also have music in a format other than mp3, check the Tivo Community forums. There's a Tivo Desktop plugin(Tivo Desktop Universal Audio Plug-in, should be a stickied thread) that'll play everything else. Also, don't forget to add the apps.tv server http://www.apps.tv/
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Nov 29, 2009 23:28
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I didn't see any mention of this, but Tivo released their 3rd quarter results on Wednesday. http://tivo.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=420 The long and the short of it is, the loss wasn't as bad as they expected it to be, but they shed subscribers at a higher rate this quarter than last (they lost over 300,000 subscribers when their subscriber loss for previous quarters was between 100k and 200k) Quite a few of those seem to be MSO subscribers though which would probably track with old DirecTivo people moving on. My take is, people are retiring their Series 2 models as they move to high def, but they aren't moving to an HD model. Fortunately for Tivo, they got that new Directv DVR coming and they are inking deals with cable companies to use their software on cable company devices. I just wonder if they are every going to come out with a Series 4 now since hardware sales seem so abysmal. bull3964 fucked around with this message at 17:46 on Nov 30, 2009 |
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Nov 30, 2009 17:43
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bull3964 posted:Fortunately for Tivo, they got that new Directv DVR coming and they are inking deals with cable companies to use their software on cable company devices. I just wonder if they are every going to come out with a Series 4 now since hardware sales seem so abysmal. As far as new hardware goes I think general-purpose chips are so cheap now that they won't have much of a problem making pretty affordable hardware. If they kept the recording abilities of the S3 but made the UI much faster it would be a proper next-generation Tivo. I have no major complaints about my HD and I'd rather the company switch to a new platform and not worry about shoehorning a "next generation" UI onto the S3. I'll use the old UI just fine until it dies and the Swivel Search is just sad on the current slow-rear end hardware.
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Nov 30, 2009 20:09
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qirex posted:They signed that Comcast deal what, 3 years ago? 99% vapor. People who have the Comcast Tivos say the slow-rear end boxes make it not very good. And cable companies REALLY like billing people $3 a month for $30 hardware. 1.2mil out of their 2.7mil subs are though MSOs though. So, clearly someone is using Tivo software sourced from their provider and I really doubt the majority of those are still DirecTivo units. If they are, then they are going to see even more major subscription drop-off as people replace those units. One major problem is Tivo doesn't seem to be converting many of their S2 users to S3/HD users. They have 1.5mil subs and we already know that only 443,000 cablecards have been deployed nationally. Quite a few of those are single stream cards (likely the majority) and not all of them went to Tivos. That gives us a good indicator of S3/HD sales which are probably in the 200k - 350k range unless there are a ton of people that are using an HD with only OTA. Looking at the subs, that means that fewer than 1/4 of Tivo users are S3/HD owners given the upper bound of that range. With increasing penetration of HD into households, I think Tivo will either have to come up with a different strategy for selling its HD boxes or start to wind down the hardware arm to focus solely on licensing and software.
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Nov 30, 2009 20:49
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I can't escape the feeling that the current TiVo hardware just came along at a really bad time. Prior to the HD XL, their "top of the line" gear would only store 20 hours of HD programming, which isn't all that much as compared to the 150+ hours of non-HD. If you have a big HD channel package, and use the Suggestions feature, that could be filled up in a day. At the time of the Series 3's release, hard drives simply weren't big enough for them to do better. The HD XL remedies this a bit, but it's disproportionately overpriced. So it can't record very much HD, and the early adopters of HD TVs and HD cable are exactly the people who want more recording capacity. (Yes, you can pop your TiVo open and put in a larger hard drive, but many consumers won't know that, or would be terrified of accidentally unleashing the demons that power their TiVo.) I'm planning to get a new TiVo soon, as I crave HD programming. So far, though, I'm resisting the urge to cash in the long-term customer discount (which would let me get a TiVo HD for $149) in case they announce something new at CES next month. The recent addition of the long-term upgrade discounts, and the across-the-board hardware discounts, really makes it seem like they're clearing out old inventory for something new, and I'm willing to wait a little bit for something sexy and new.
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Nov 30, 2009 21:13
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Ok, I may catch some flack here but oh well. I just upgraded my Comcast HD box to a Comcast box with TiVo for an extra 8 or 9 bucks a month. I don't have the money to buy a stand alone box & subscription, but I must say, going from a non-DVR to TiVo DVR is great! I love the Season Pass, especially with shows in HD. Although, I doubt I can do all the cool things you can with your stand alone boxes. This thread has made me a believer in TiVo/DVRs.
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Dec 1, 2009 04:31
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It turns out Comcast decided to charge me for 2 additional outlets for the two cable-cards in my Tivo, at a price of $7 per month each. Not looking forward to arguing with them over that.
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Dec 1, 2009 14:54
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Time Warner is paying me to keep my old cable box in the closet while I use the Tivo. If I turn it in to them, it will invalidate some secret bundle discount clause in the service agreement and my cost will end up higher than if I just let it gather dust.
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Dec 1, 2009 15:52
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Finally took the dive and upgraded my S3's hard drive. WinMFS...my goodness, how far we have come from InstantCake. Easiest upgrade I've ever dealt with. Highest recommendation, especially for how much a HDXL/MyBook cost.
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Dec 1, 2009 22:33
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Deathlove posted:Finally took the dive and upgraded my S3's hard drive. WinMFS...my goodness, how far we have come from InstantCake. Easiest upgrade I've ever dealt with. Highest recommendation, especially for how much a HDXL/MyBook cost. Do you have a link to a decent guide for the upgrade? I've found more than a few and they seem to say different things.
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Dec 1, 2009 23:23
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Yes, please. Also, what drive did you use?
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Dec 1, 2009 23:37
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Used: http://www.mfslive.org/winmfs/ - you have to register in the forums to download the files. Drive: http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-AV-GP-Drive-WD10EVDS/dp/B002P3KO74/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1259430771&sr=1-1 - anything over 1.5TB has issues, so this is the one they recommend. I followed http://www.mfslive.org/winmfs/quickstart.htm pretty well to the letter -- hooked up the two drives, ran WinMFS, File->Select Source Drive, chose my source drive (three listed - my original 250GB, my upgrade 1TB, my keydrive). Went to Tools->mfscopy, selected my source from the dropdown (it was already selected, but I had to select it from the dropdown to get it to list), selected the destination drive, hit start, went to work, came home, hit the "Yes, expand drive button", rehooked everything, powered up the TiVo, and took a picture:  Click here for the full 1021x576 image. Crazy, crazy easy. Deathlove fucked around with this message at 01:02 on Dec 2, 2009 |
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Dec 2, 2009 00:58
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Has anybody found a site with the WD 1 TB drive extender in stock? Other than Tivo, who wants $199, which is a bit pricier than Amazon's $129.
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Dec 4, 2009 18:25
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Best Buy appears to have them in stores, but sold out online for $170. Not sure if this is any help to you or not.. But if you're dying for space RIGHT NOW, you might be able to just run to your local store. Unless you're in Antarctica or something.
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Dec 5, 2009 03:52
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No, not that urgent. I really just wish Amazon had them in stock. Does anyone else feel like Tivo has just been coasting for the last few years? The interface bits that everyone loves goes all the way back to the Series 1, and the new bits that they've added over time have been real hackjobs. It seems like they decided to make everything web-based because it was easier or something and the performance is awful. Plus it's random resolutions on the Tivo HD: some is awful-looking SD, but then YouTube is 480p or something. When they started, it felt like they analyzed every scenario and designed the interface to make it as easy as possible. Now it feels like they do the bare minimum and are all about adding new features and ads.
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Dec 7, 2009 16:49
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smackfu posted:No, not that urgent. I really just wish Amazon had them in stock. Definitely. However, the random HD stuff on the Tivo HD makes sense: everything that's HD was patched in. The basic interface is normal, but Youtube, TiVo Search, the fancy new information screen, etc. were all added after release. So they've used a slow HD system for the new stuff but haven't changed the old stuff. Much of the time it's easier to use the web interface for a lot of things now. I understand some of that they can't change without putting a keyboard on the remote, but the speed problems are definitely fixable. Hopefully they're just working on a blockbuster new interface but I somehow doubt it.
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Dec 7, 2009 18:02
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Deathlove posted:Finally took the dive and upgraded my S3's hard drive. WinMFS...my goodness, how far we have come from InstantCake. Easiest upgrade I've ever dealt with. Highest recommendation, especially for how much a HDXL/MyBook cost. I did my THD a few weeks back and have to agree. Point-and-click easy, took about two hours to do all the copying. I used a 1.5TB Seagate, though it's partitioned to 1160GB since that is the limit for unhacked THDs. WinMFS handles that automatically, so as far as I'm aware with a modern version of WinMFS you can use any drive you want without trouble.
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Dec 7, 2009 23:37
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The Comcast technician came and installed the M-Card on my new TiVo HD on the 3rd. Everything went perfectly during the installation, he brought an M-Card instead of the feared S-Card and I was receiving all my channels. Today, my bill became available on comcast.com, and just as I feared, Comcast had found a way to screw it up, but this was by far the most creative Comcast billing screwup I've experienced. CableCard rental: $49.99/month! For some reason, Comcast started charging me double for cable TV service ($99.98 instead of $49.99) as a result of the CableCard installation, as though my house was 2 different houses, both with Comcast cable. They even applied the extra charge to the previous month. My taxes had more than doubled, from $5.85 to $12.07. I called up their billing support and got it fixed in like 5 minutes. They reduced the $99.98 for Digital Preferred back down to my promotional rate of $49.99, deleted last month's second Digital Preferred charge, and gave me a $20 credit since the CableCard tech arrived at 11:45 instead of 8-11. I assume that my $6.00 in extra taxes will be credited back to me next month. They refused to give me a $3.40 monthly credit after I turned in my SD digital converter (which the TiVo HD replaced), which is included in the package and ordinarily costs one $3.40/month, however. This is why I always watch my Comcast bill like a hawk. Good thing I caught it, or Comcast would have gladly let me keep paying almost double forever. This month's screwed up CableCard error Comcast bill ($205.22):  Click here for the full 1163x1133 image. Last month's regular (correct) Comcast bill ($112.98):  Click here for the full 1181x1184 image.
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Dec 10, 2009 04:47
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Sigh. The TiVo's been crashing a lot lately. (Note to anyone getting one: Mine's a refurb, so your performance will likely be much better.) It tends to hate it when we go on vacation but lasted the full 8 days before crashing the night before we got back... and since then, it's been going down maybe once every two days. Usually when accessing a menu. Last night, I went to a menu, and it took a long time to come up... I could hear the TiVo processing from across the room. After 30 seconds, it came up like nothing was wrong. But most times, like just now, it just resets. Any ideas? This has all been since we closed the windows for winter, and our TiVo has always been a bit temperamental to environmental conditions... hrm.
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Dec 12, 2009 15:59
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Golbez posted:Sigh. The TiVo's been crashing a lot lately. (Note to anyone getting one: Mine's a refurb, so your performance will likely be much better.) It tends to hate it when we go on vacation but lasted the full 8 days before crashing the night before we got back... and since then, it's been going down maybe once every two days. Usually when accessing a menu. Last night, I went to a menu, and it took a long time to come up... I could hear the TiVo processing from across the room. After 30 seconds, it came up like nothing was wrong. But most times, like just now, it just resets. Dying hard drive?
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Dec 12, 2009 16:17
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chemosh6969 posted:Dying hard drive? We had a dying expansion drive which would drop when recording or playing back corrupted files... this is different, it's mostly on menus or while actively using the thing. Could still be a dying hard drive, just the corrupted sectors are on system files rather than data. I'll run a smart test the next time it dies.
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Dec 12, 2009 17:07
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Golbez posted:We had a dying expansion drive which would drop when recording or playing back corrupted files... this is different, it's mostly on menus or while actively using the thing. Could still be a dying hard drive, just the corrupted sectors are on system files rather than data. I'll run a smart test the next time it dies. I had one die on me where it would get stuck or go really slow on menus but watching live tv was fine.
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Dec 14, 2009 03:45
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I ran some smart and HDD tests through the TiVo and everything comes up fine. So it appears to not be a hard drive problem, on either drive. Any suggestions? 
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Dec 17, 2009 15:50
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It seems to crash more often when starting or stopping a recording, or doing anything pertaining to the menu. The hard drive tests check out; could this be a weird software issue? Is it possible to initialize the system without losing my recordings? I'll do it if I have to, if anyone thinks that would work. I guess the question is, is it possible to make the TiVo redownload its system?
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Dec 24, 2009 18:11
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Golbez posted:It seems to crash more often when starting or stopping a recording, or doing anything pertaining to the menu. The hard drive tests check out; could this be a weird software issue? Is it possible to initialize the system without losing my recordings? I'll do it if I have to, if anyone thinks that would work. I guess the question is, is it possible to make the TiVo redownload its system? I don't think so; there used to be CDs called InstantCake that did Series 1, but that was way way way back in the day. In awesome news! http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/30/tivo-planning-a-new-premiere-dvr/ oh, please please give me the a new UI 
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Dec 31, 2009 05:28
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That would be the best thing possible. They have a reasonably powerful computer in there, obviously one that can encode HD 720p/1080i in real time. They can spare a few hertz for an updated UI. On my home front, the TiVo has started crashing far less. Couldn't tell you why. It's gone from 2-3 times a day to once 4 days ago, and once 3 days before that.
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Dec 31, 2009 10:03
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Golbez posted:They have a reasonably powerful computer in there, obviously one that can encode HD 720p/1080i in real time. They can spare a few hertz for an updated UI. That's not how Tivo works. It takes the MPEG2 transport stream and writes it directly to the hard drive. It doesn't do any encoding of HD material. The only encoding it does is SD analog stuff. The CPU in the tivo is not powerful. It's a Broadcom BCM7038, which was announced back in 2005. It's a 5 year old solution at this point. It's also the same chipset that's in use by the majority of cable company STBs. I'm betting the UI that the Tivo HD has is more or less the UI it will have to the end of time. The Tivo Premiere (assuming it is a new product), likely uses one of the newer Broadcom chipsets with flash and 3d acceleration which will allow them to offload UI elements onto the GPU. Since the current models lack that hardware, HD UI features probably won't be backported due to performance reasons.
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Dec 31, 2009 17:08
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bull3964 posted:That's not how Tivo works. It takes the MPEG2 transport stream and writes it directly to the hard drive. It doesn't do any encoding of HD material. The only encoding it does is SD analog stuff. Dr. Gaius Baltar posted:Today, my bill became available on comcast.com, and just as I feared, Comcast had found a way to screw it up, but this was by far the most creative Comcast billing screwup I've experienced. 
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Dec 31, 2009 21:52
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Wow, Comcast is ripping off your area slightly more than they're ripping off mine. I think it's like a $3.00 charge for each digital additional outlet over here, even though it says $9.95 or so in the price pamphlet. I wonder why they don't just have standardized national prices? Depending upon how much that extra $6.95/month is irritating you, I'd call up their billing department and tell them that the technician was supposed to install an M-Card, not 2 S-Cards, and that the 2 S-Cards are being used in a single device, so could they please limit it to just one $6.95 digital a/o charge. If that doesn't work, ask them to send the tech out again with an M-Card, assuming it's only an $18-$25 charge. Tell them the tech didn't do the install right the first time, and ask if you could get the next tech visit for free. Or if the $6.95/month is bothering you less than dealing with billing and installation would, and you just don't want to deal with it, that's cool too.
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Jan 1, 2010 10:41
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bull3964 posted:That's not how Tivo works. It takes the MPEG2 transport stream and writes it directly to the hard drive. It doesn't do any encoding of HD material. The only encoding it does is SD analog stuff.
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Jan 1, 2010 18:24
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Golbez posted:I don't know how big uncompressed video is, I guess. True uncompressed HD video consumes hundreds of megabytes per second and can only be handled on serious workstations with huge RAID setups. Even within real editing rooms much of the work is done with media that's been compressed in some way just for logistics (and because the computer can re-apply the edits to the uncompressed version later automatically).
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Jan 1, 2010 18:36
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haveblue posted:True uncompressed HD video consumes hundreds of megabytes per second and can only be handled on serious workstations with huge RAID setups. Even within real editing rooms much of the work is done with media that's been compressed in some way just for logistics (and because the computer can re-apply the edits to the uncompressed version later automatically). And I obviously misunderstood; bull said it takes the MPEG2 transport stream and writes that to disk, I still had it in my mind that cables transport free unencoded bytes, but obviously that's not how things are done. So it simply doesn't re-encode the stream that's coming down the pipe.
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Jan 1, 2010 19:02
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Golbez posted:And I obviously misunderstood; bull said it takes the MPEG2 transport stream and writes that to disk, I still had it in my mind that cables transport free unencoded bytes, but obviously that's not how things are done. So it simply doesn't re-encode the stream that's coming down the pipe. MPEG2 video is already compressed. That's what MPEG2 is, but yeah, you seem to have the right of it now.
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Jan 3, 2010 03:37
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Ok, Tivo, you REALLY need to make a good hardware announcement at CES this year. So far we've had a bunch of announcements for various cheap nettops and we've had two cablecard announcements. The first was for a quad tuner cablecard tuner from Ceton and the second was this morning for a network enabled dual cablecard tuner for $250 from HDHomeRun. Either one would make putting together a Windows Meda 7 based DVR solution a cinch for not much of a price premium over your offerings. This is especially true when you factor in no service cost.
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Jan 7, 2010 14:40
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bull3964 posted:Ok, Tivo, you REALLY need to make a good hardware announcement at CES this year. So far we've had a bunch of announcements for various cheap nettops and we've had two cablecard announcements. The first was for a quad tuner cablecard tuner from Ceton and the second was this morning for a network enabled dual cablecard tuner for $250 from HDHomeRun. Either one would make putting together a Windows Meda 7 based DVR solution a cinch for not much of a price premium over your offerings. This is especially true when you factor in no service cost. Are there any free TV listing services available that PVR software can use? I thought the last one finally gave up the ghost, since it's an expensive thing to maintain.
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Jan 7, 2010 18:18
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Golbez posted:Are there any free TV listing services available that PVR software can use? I thought the last one finally gave up the ghost, since it's an expensive thing to maintain. As far as I know, Windows Media Center 7 downloads the guide data itself, you don't have to mess around with sourcing your own guide data.
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Jan 7, 2010 18:34
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bull3964 posted:As far as I know, Windows Media Center 7 downloads the guide data itself, you don't have to mess around with sourcing your own guide data. How good is the guide data? I have tried a Moxi, and despite the DVR being total poo poo, the guide data was so bad that even if the hardware WAS good, I still wouldn't have used it because the data was bad.
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Jan 8, 2010 01:14
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Philthy posted:How good is the guide data? I have tried a Moxi, and despite the DVR being total poo poo, the guide data was so bad that even if the hardware WAS good, I still wouldn't have used it because the data was bad. Moxi gets guide data from Tribune just like Tivo. It is exactly the same. I'm not sure where Windows gets its data.
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Jan 8, 2010 01:40
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