Category: TiVo News

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TiVo: We Need a Keyboard!

At WeaKnees, we’ve always wanted better access to the  letter-entry screens on our TiVos. Originally, we wanted this for finding shows, and creating Season Passes and WishLists.

But now, with the amount of Video on Demand available on these units, it’s becoming untenable to either use a remote with just directional keys, or to shuttle back and forth between a computer or smartphone and a TiVo.

Seems we’re not alone. This NYTimes article talks about a study comparing Amazon VOD to Netflix Streaming (both happily available on many TiVo DVRs) and the while the main conclusion of the small study is that each offering works for a different group of people, each group was united in their need for a better way to manage the possibilities of the video to be streamed.

Enter, the TiVo keyboard. Except, it doesn’t exist. And there are no IR codes for it. Yes, you can do more and more from a computer or a smartphone, but we love our TiVos! We want to do this right in the TiVo interface! Give the people what they want!

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Blockbuster on TiVo is Live

We haven’t tried it yet, but according to Engadget, you can now pay to stream movies from Blockbuster on your TiVo.

Really, this isn’t a whole lot different from the Amazon Video On Demand (formerly Unbox) streaming that has been available for a few years, but it is different from Netflix streaming in three key ways: it costs money, there is a wider selection of movies, and it’s available on Series 2 units.

The latest info about this that we could find on TiVo’s site is still a signup page for info. That’s here. So maybe this is still in the early rollout phase.

We’ll post more info as we learn more about the service, but it’s great to know that TiVo is now the gateway to even more video for your living room!

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TiVo News

TiVo Files More Lawsuits

TiVo has definitely done well defending their intellectual property against DISH/EchoStar – to the tune of over $100M so far – and potentially more is coming.

Now TiVo has included AT&T and Verizon in the list of companies infringing on their patents. See the press release here.

Sounds like there’s more info coming in their conference call, live now.

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Another Customer Wish NOT Granted: DirecTV and DVD

While we’re on the theme of what customers want but they can’t get, we should put to rest another request: the DirecTV TiVo with DVD.

Yesterday’s installment concerned the request for an HD TiVo with DVD. That one can’t work at this point and probably in the future for technical reasons.

But the idea of a DirecTV DVR with an integrated DVD burner really, really could work for technical reasons. The issue here is more about copyright, and, in general, DirecTV’s unwillingness to push the envelope with content providers.

Why is this different from a standard TiVo with DVD which does, in fact, exist? The big reason is that on the Humax models that we sell (and on the older Pioneer and Toshiba TiVo models with DVD) the recordings are made from analog inputs. That means that the quality, while very good, isn’t quite as good as the all-digital quality of recordings to DirecTV TiVos and other DVRs and the HD TiVos with CableCARDs. If you take that all-digital signal and pump it to a DVD, then you’ve basically got a digital copy that’s pretty amazing. DirecTV doesn’t want to be the gatekeeper on that.

Of course, if that’s what you really want – all digital copy to a DVD – then there is a way to do it, just not with DirecTV. You can get a standalone TiVo or HD TiVo and copy your shows over a network to your PC or Mac, then burn them there. But DirecTV won’t help you there – at least, so far. There’s a chance that the upcoming DirecTV HD TiVo will have networking features . . .

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TiVo in Canada – and we have the Perfect Unit!

OK – so Canadians have been using TiVo since long before TiVo really supported Canadian TV guides. And then, a few years ago, TiVo really started to expand into Canada with support for cable companies and six-digit postal codes. Here at WeaKnees, we’ve been shipping units to Canada for years – anything except DirecTV equipment.

Earlier this year in the US, we stopped broadcasting analog antenna signals. So for years in advance of this, US DVRs and TVs started to drop support for analog antenna broadcasts. And Canadians lost out – they’ve been unable to find TiVo DVRs that could record these signals, short of the HD models.

drt400

But we have good stock of the Humax DVD TiVo units – the DRT400 and DRT800. These units are standard definition, they have built-in DVD burners (that’s a whole other world of goodness) and, best of all for Canadians, they have analog antenna inputs! So if you’re just watching good old-fashioned FREE antenna broadcasts and you want a TiVo, this unit is perfect!

For more good info on what works and what doesn’t in Canada see TiVo’s Canada information here. It’s a little dated about the lifetime service offer – that option is still available and is currently $399 for the first TiVo on your account, and $299 for each additional unit. Also, note that the unit on their page (which we sell also) does NOT have the antenna input necessary for reception of free analog broadcasts.

If you’re looking for an HD TiVo for Canada, our TiVo HD units will also record analog antenna as well as HD digital antenna signals. (Important note – HD TiVos cannot use CableCARDs in Canada because CableCARDs aren’t available.)

If you’d like an idea of what it will cost to have a unit shipped to Canada, please use our cart. It fully supports all Canadian postal codes and it will give you live, firm shipping prices.