Haven’t seen a picture of this anywhere on the net. It’s the TiVo made for use in Taiwan. If you know what you’re looking for in the menus, you can find it, because they’re almost identical to the US models. It’s based on the 5400X0 architecture.

One important CES tidbit left out of the last entry concerns the HR10-250 - DirecTV’s HD TiVo.

According to several conversations from several companies, 6.2 is indeed coming to HR10-250s. So this will mean, apparently, some extra speed, bug fixes, and, best of all, folders, on the unit. So sometime soon, your WeaKnees 130 hour HD TiVo won’t have one long, long list of programs recorded - you’ll get some organization. Considering the SD capacity on this unit, and even just the HD capacity, that’ll mean a lot.

Some of the WeaKnees staff came to CES to get the latest info. Much has been reported elsewhere about the TiVo Series 3 HD box with multiple tuners, etc., so we won’t go into the details again here except to reiterate that at this point, it looks like Multi-Room Viewing and TiVoToGo won’t be on this box initially. TiVo does seem to want to add those features pending both technical issues and DRM points.

Next, we wanted to get the word out about the new version of TiVo Central Online that’s in beta. It’s pretty nice - the search functionality is much improved, the guide is beautiful and uses color-coding (runs on an Ajax engine for fast updates on the client side), the TiVo Suggestions engine is in use here in effect. And one of the best features - the top recording lists. There is a list of the top ten prospective recordings of the new week - pretty nice, you get a tip off of what’s coming that people care about. This list is of recordings that people choose manually - not Season Passes. And there are more lists . . .

We’ll get more details posted here and we’ve got some pictures to upload also. But the news from TiVo is good - very good. In fact, there are some developments and new products that we can’t get into here, but we’re pretty sure the TiVo world will be very happy to see them.

More to come . . .

What’s the best thing you can do to keep your TiVo up and running? Get it on a UPS.

Here’s the basic idea: Your TiVo is a computer, and you probably have a UPS on your computer. For the same reasons, you should have one on your TiVo. It’s a computer also, and, frankly, the power supply in it likely isn’t as robust as the one in your computer.

If you’re wondering what a UPS is, it’s basically a battery that goes between your TiVo and your wall outlet. If the power drops - even a bit - then the UPS takes over and adds the power back into the equation from its battery. So the TiVo won’t see a power drop at all - and the drive inside the unit is much less likely to be damaged.

Many people have their units plugged into surge suppressors. That’s half the battle - those keep too much power from getting to the unit. But a UPS does both: it keeps too much or too little power from hitting the unit, and both can seriously damage a TiVo.

Consider this pretty inexpensive unit from Amazon, or find one at your local Staples or Office Depot. It’s a good investement.

We have more info on our site about using a UPS with your TiVo.

Just a note about our schedule for New Years. We are open today only by email and website. We aren’t in the office today answering phones (although you can always leave a message). UPS and Fedex and USPS aren’t shipping today, so we’re considering today a holiday also.

All orders completed today will ship tomorrow.