What?! The new season of Top Chef debuted tonight? I missed it! Oh no, I didn’t. Tivo’s Season Pass had been set previously to record all new episodes of Top Chef.
So Head Chef Tom and delectable Padma are waiting…
Technorati Tags: television, tivo, Top Chef
I’m going ahead with ordering CableCards from Oceanic Cable for my Tivo. The eventual hope is that Oceanic provides tuning adapters to view the Switched Digital Video (SDV) channels that contain more HD content (at a reduced cost).
I’m hoping this $40K fine by the FCC for not providing SDV solutions will keep Oceanic straight.
Been reading up on CableCards and Tivo with Oceanic Time Warner service here in Hawaii. Sounds dicey. In order to get any type of HD content using a Tivo with Oceanic, you need at least one CableCard (two if you want to use dual tuners). Oceanic does rent CableCards for about $3 per month.
But paying for digital service and HD service is of question. The rep I talked to over the phone said I needed to get the cards along with the extra service but after reading this Tivo Community thread, there are options to get basic HD channels without paying for them.
Now it seems that Oceanic is moving channels to SDV (Switched Digital Video) in order to save bandwidth but also to keep customers using their rented hardware. Worse it the CableCards are worthless for SDV channels. You’d need a forthcoming Tuning Adapter in order to get SDV stations. These new Tuning Adapters are only hitting the market now.
Supposedly, by the end of this year, Oceanic will support Tuning Adapters (and current Tivos already having Tuning Adapter support). I guess I’ll wait until later to attempt getting basic HD channels. In any case, most things I’ve been reading portray Oceanic in a very bad light, not wanting to provide anything outside of their own packaged deals.
Technorati Tags: Hawaii, television, tivo
Soon enough, you’ll be able to build your own Tivo box with a Windows computer. For $199, you’ll get a remote, TV tuner card, and access to the Tivo recording software. But as with most Tivo services, you need to pay a recurring fee for their service and program guide.
Technorati Tags: television, tivo
There’s a new passion and addiction in my life, and its name is TiVo. I’ve finally succumbed and got a TiVo box after much deliberation. To future proof this buy as much as possible, I went with the TiVo HD, running the Series3 operating system. The HD unit has dual tuners and can handle CableCards for digital television and is HD ready.
So far, there are no regrets. Well, maybe the cost, but still our new TiVo has delivered and has made television life much simpler. I sprung for the lifetime subscription since the monthly service fee just bugged the heck out of me.
Now I have season passes set up to record all episodes of Top Chef, Grey’s Anatomy, Battlestar Galactica, Dancing with the Stars, and a bunch of kids shows. Having a cache of Wonder Pets or Little Einsteins is priceless when you need the kids distracted for a few minutes. The HD unit at medium/high resolution can record about 40-70 hours worth of shows. It’s also expandable with the addition of an external eSATA drive.
I’ve also been a user of Roxio’s Toast software for the Mac for some time and with versions 8 and 9, Toast includes TiVo software to transfer shows to your Mac (the Windows TiVo Desktop software is free?!?). With that, you can transfer shows to an iPod for on-the-go watching (Wonder Pets while flying the friendly skies!). You can also edit the videos more easily and post them to YouTube for viewers hungry for “mango.”
TiVo is simply frakkin’ awesome! (Battlestar Galactica starts this week! w00t!)
Do you want to partake of the TiVo passion and addiction? You happen to be in luck! TiVo is celebrating its birthday offering a TiVo HD DVR, a Wi-fi adapter, lifetime service subscription, and a TiVo mascot plush doll for $698.99. This is a limited time offer which is a good overall deal. If you’re interested, contact me and I can forward on the emailed deal.
Looking around the Net for information about Tivo and what to get. Lots of used Tivos available on eBay. Ideally want a unit with a lifetime subscriptions so I don’t have to pay monthly or yearly fees.
The Series2 boxes work with analog and digital cable but not HD. The Tivo HD box seems to do it all, but you need CableCards when going HD. Oceanic/Time Warner in Hawaii offers a monthly rental of CableCards at $2.70 a month, and you’d need two CableCards if you want dual tuner recording. And here’s the biggest drawback – Oceanic’s non support of “premium” HD channels with CableCards. We’re talking no HD versions of CNN, ESPN, Food, TBS, TNT, and more. While available with Oceanic, you need one of their HD DVR boxes in order to see these (of course you’d need to pay for them either way).
But the Tivo HD box currently has an expensive lifetime deal going on for $700 (and includes a wireless adapter).
On eBay, the analog only Series2 DT (dual tuner) can be found for about $460. But once you go HD, these won’t work. Or go for an used, older model?
What to do?