The letter is a good read. He writes about the future of the DVR industry, the future of broadcast TV, and the future of home entertainment. Naturally, he sees TiVo as central to all three, with its “one box, one remote, one user interface.”

Two quick points here about this letter:

-He notes that TiVo is the only brand in this space. I’d say that AppleTV is certainly in this space (while it doesn’t deal with broadcast material, it hits the other bases with movies, TV shows, music, interactivity, etc.) and even Vudu, Hulu, and the new Netflix box are here, potentially.

-While I do see the convergence of living room media all funneling through a box like this, I also think that those of us in the DVR industry do face a bigger transition eventually, which is that the living room will cease being where all of this media is consumed. So much is viewed on desktops and laptops and, increasingly, cell phones, that the centrality of video to the living room is really soon to pass.

Anyway, the letter to shareholders is a good read.

The Expander distributes the incoming signal to each SWM, and also provides a solid way to mount each unit. Here are some pictures of one of our first units:

The front side of the SWM Expander holds two of the modules as shown.

The back has two more sets of ports, and here the SWMs go upside-down to minimize the internal wiring confusion.

The top shows the attachment scheme for the individual SWM power supplies (one per SWM module) and the satellite inputs.

For installations of two or more SWMs, these make life much easier and less error-prone than splitting cables!

Does my DirecTV TiVo get guide data from the phone line or the satellite?

DirecTV TiVo combo units get their guide data from the satellite, sent down as data instead of video. The phone calls for these units don’t supply the units with data, which is why most don’t call in more than once per week.

So why does it use a phone line?

The phone line is used to check continuing activity, upload preferences and viewing history, authorize OS updates, and interact for PayPerView purposes.

Does it NEED a phone line?

The early DirecTV TiVos do need a phone line: Sony SAT T-60, Philips DSR6000, and Hughes GXCEBOT. The later models (any unit with a USB port on the back, even though they aren’t active) don’t need a phone line once the unit is up and running. But they will produce a “nag” screen asking the customer to have the unit dial-in properly, after 30 days of inactivity, then every day after that.

How do I get rid of the nag screen?

Just choose “skip for now” or a similar option, depending on your OS version. You can’t permanently get rid of it.

Can I just network it?

No - no DirecTV TiVos can be networked. (Technically, there are some hacks that attempt to accomplish this, but we don’t recommend them as they cause several other problem while attempting to solve this minor one.) Non-TiVo DVRs from DirecTV can use a network instead of a phone line.

If I change my drive, will I need a phone line then?

Yes. Replacement hard drives for DirecTV TiVo units must dial in (generally twice) during initial setup. If you don’t have a phone line for this purpose, we recommend that you bring the unit to a friend’s house for these dial-ins. You do NOT need satellite access at the same time, so your friend doesn’t need to have DirecTV to accomplish this.

Can I use my VoIP phone line?

In most cases, the modems in DirecTV TiVos aren’t compatible with VoIP, but sometimes it works. For other situations, we have a TiVo external modem kit that works with most VoIP providers.

Can I use my cell phone line?

No. We haven’t found any way to connect one of these units using a cell phone.

We’ve always wanted a QWERTY keyboard! Please!

Good read.

But we do still have some of the 250s around, so we’re making this special offer to our blog readers only: get a 250 for the price of a 160 through Sunday, June 22, 2008. We’ll try to make it as easy as possible to take advantage of this deal, so just read the details:

-Order the 160 GB Replace kit for your model so you are charged the right price. Then, use the code below.

-This ONLY applies to replace kits and not add kits. Next, since this special deal is only on PATA drives, this does NOT apply to the TiVo HD or TiVo Series3 upgrades.

-This isn’t a coupon code, but a code you enter in the “Customer Notes” area below the “Credit Card” information on the final checkout screen. The code is “WKBLOG250″ and here’s how it should look:

-Finally - here’s a way to save even more: Use Google Checkout to get a further $10 off - so $109 for a 250 GB replace kit! If you use Google Checkout, you never see the field above. In this case, just send an email after you place your order to info@weaknees.com with your Google order number as the subject and the code “WKBLOG250″ in the body.

If you think your power supply may have failed, you should see our post for help diagnosing TiVo power supply issues. The short recap: no video at all, not even the gray screen, means TiVo power supply failure almost always. Even if the fan and/or hard drive still spins. 

But if you do get video out, like a gray “powering up” screen, then you likely have hard drive failure, and you need a new TiVo drive “replace” kit.

First up, we have the standard Peanut style remote for all DirecTV TiVo users, except the SAT T-60. See our DirecTV TiVo Peanut Remote page. We’ve got the type that came with the original DirecTV TiVos, then the variety that came starting with the HDVR2 with more buttons, and, finally, the HR10-250 remotes.

For the non-TiVo HD DVRs, we have three options that work with any and all DirecTV equipment (even the TiVos, and even the SAT T-60):

RC23/RC32 - these two are essentially the same remote. They’re the standard one that comes with most plain-vanilla DirecTV receivers.

RC64 - These come with most HD DirecTV equipment, and have the Format button. They are also RF capable, so if your DirecTV receiver supports RF reception, this can be used with that. More info on another blog post.

RC64RB - The newest, latest, greatest, this has all of the functionality of the RC64, plus it’s backlit! Even for us TiVo peanut-partisans, this is a pretty nice remote.

See these last three on our DirecTV remotes page.

For years, we’ve been selling an easy-to-use and inexpensive RF remote converter that takes an IR remote and basically makes it work through walls. It’s amazing.

But many newer DirecTV products, including the HR20, the HR21, and the HR21 Pro, come with remotes that can do RF, with just a configuration change. Here’s what you need to do:

Press Menu on the remote to bring up this screen:

Choose Parental, Fav’s & Setup.

Then, choose System Setup.

Navigate down to Remote, then over to IR/RF Setup.

Flip from IR to RF. Continue.

Now, you’ve set the DVR to receive via RF. Then you need to tell the remote to send in RF, and you’re all set.

Here are those directions:

1. Press and hold MUTE and SELECT keys until a light above the mode switch on the remote flashes twice.
2. Enter 961 using the number keys, then press CHAN UP.
3. Enter 290314 using number keys, then press SELECT.
4. Press SELECT on Done.

DirecTV does say you may need to do this more than once. It definitely works, but who thought of that command sequence?

These kits are available for any TiVo that uses IDE (not SATA) drives, so that’s any TiVo except the TiVo HD and the TiVo Series3. One final note, these are only available as “replace” kits - not “add” kits. For more information on the differences, see our add-replace TiVo upgrade options page.

Get one while supplies last! And, yes, this deal can be combined with the current $10 off with Google Checkout.

But DirecTV is testing a product that takes this one step further: a 5LNB dish with an integrated Single Wire Multiswitch. This basically puts the two products into one, and for new DirecTV installations, it should greatly simplify matters. The one caveat is that this unit won’t support any legacy products, like DirecTV TiVos.

More on this as we learn about it!