We know that the world of networking your DirecTV equipment can be a little confusing, but the new DECA products make it much, much easier. In most cases, you won’t need to run any additional wiring to get your compatible units networked together, and even to connect your system to your broadband internet access.

Most of our customers just want their Multi Room Viewing. And we’re here to help.

DirecTV’s DECA components are the key to making this work seamlessly. But, as a new product, we’ve been getting tons of questions about what parts to get for each room/receiver in the house.

So we’ve build a configuration utility on our site to make finding the products as easy as using them. Give it a try!

Weaknees DirecTV DECA Configuration Utility.

TiVo has been touting the Wireless N adapter for their DVRs, and it’s now available. We’ll be shipping ours starting 4/30/10. You can preorder one here:

TiVo Networking Parts

TiVo Wireless N Adapter

This adapter is fundamentally different from the TiVo Wireless G adapter (which will continue to be sold). Besides the extra speed (and extra $30 in cost), this unit acts more as an ethernet-wireless bridge. So it plugs into the ethernet port, rather than a USB port.

Using the ethernet port is different for a few reasons, but presumably TiVo designed the adapter this way to be able to get more throughput than they could over USB. But it also means the unit needs its own power outlet. Additionally, this change limits the compatible units for this device to any unit that has an ethernet port on-board – so the dual tuner TiVo (units with service numbers starting in 649) or any HD TiVo for cable (original Series3, TiVo HD and HD XL, and TiVo Premiere, and Premiere XL).

If you don’t currently have WiFi, or if you want N WiFi for your TiVo and you currently have a slower variety (B or G), you can get two of these units and configure them in bridge mode. This allows you to put one adapter on your TiVo and one directly on an unused ethernet port on your router and create an N wireless link.

Final note: this adapter will step down to B or G speeds if that’s the fastest protocol supported in your router.

Here’s an email we get a lot – and something I always forget to post on the blog: auto-record of TiVo Suggestions.

When customers get a new hard drive from us (we’ve got them for every model TiVo) and they install it and set it up, they find that it’s recording a lot of shows that they haven’t requested. And, shows they don’t want.

This is happening because TiVo Suggestions is on by default – and the new drive is using the default settings. And why are they shows you don’t want? Your thumbs-up and thumbs-down history was on your old drive. So the new drive has very little info to offer to the Suggestion engine.

OK – here’s how to turn it off. Go to:

Settings -> Recording -> TiVo Suggestions

and choose No!

That should do the trick. Now you can just delete the accumulated shows. If you have folders on, you should see them all in a folder marked “TiVo Suggestions”.

At WeaKnees, we have been reviving TiVo DVRs for years through our extensive inventory of replacement parts. Now, with our ability to repair motherboards, we’re offering flat-fee repairs on most non-DirecTV TiVos. This means that for one price, starting at $149, customers can be assured that their TiVo will be repaired, no matter what (or how many!) problems it has.

While $149 may initially seem like a high price when new Dual Tuner TiVos can be purchased for $149, the key is that our repairs retain the customer’s lifetime service, or prepaid service. So if a customer has a lifetime plan on a TiVo DVR covered under this program, they can keep that in place. New lifetime plans from TiVo for new DVRs cost up to $399, so repairing an existing unit often makes much more sense than replacing the unit.

Under this program, we can essentially fix any problem with these units, as long as the unit has not been physically damaged or tampered with (beyond normal hard drive upgrades and installation of replacement parts). So unless it’s been run over by a truck, we’re able to fix it. To date, units we’ve brought in under this program have been revived – 100%.

Another great advantage to choosing our flat-fee option is that customers don’t have to try to diagnose the issues at all. If customers are not sure what’s going on with the unit – of if they just aren’t interested in trying to figure it out – they can just let us do everything.

In addition, for customers looking to upgrade the capacity of their unit while it’s here at WeaKnees, that’s an option with these repairs. We can add capacity, and we can do so at a discount while the unit is here.

Please see the options for models and capacity upgrades on our flat fee TiVo repair page.

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!