I can’t believe the surgeon general isn’t all over this (or maybe it should be the technology czar?) but check out what secondhand smoke has done to the fan in this poor TiVo:
And that’s just the fan! I can’t even describe the hazmat situation of the rest of the unit.
Notice that your faithful hero is bare-handed on this one. That was a mistake.
So next time you’re enjoying a cigarette and relaxing, come on – think of the TiVo!
There’s always something new coming through here. Check out this one:
Amazingly, given the age of the unit and the drives, it seems to have worked like this for several years. That’s pretty shocking to us, considering how that foam below the Maxtor would just hold the heat right against the drive. And the duct tape (haven’t seen it in that color before) keeps the whole thing vibrating nicely.
People, PLEASE! Spend the $14 for a TiVo Series1 upgrade bracket in the future!
Well, it finally happened. DirecTV enabled dual live buffers on the DirecTV HD DVR. So that’s the HR20, HR21, HR22, HR23, and HR21 Pro. If you’ve got the latest software update, you can now have a buffer of two shows at once, without any fancy remote gymnastics.
If you’ve gotten the latest OS update, you’ll be seeing this screen soon:
Then, when you’re watching your first show, you just press the Down arrow, and you’ll see this screen:
Of course, I chose a bad program in the background there, because these results DON’T last. For whatever reason, DirecTV implemented this in a way that it dies on its own after two hours. So the next time you sit down at your TV, you’ve got to re-enable the feature. That’s as simple as just pressing the Down arrow and then OK again, but it seems silly, and it means that if you’re recording two shows at once, you don’t really get live buffers.
Here’s the screen with those details:
Anyway, even with a bit of a hitch, it’s still a great feature.
We previously posted about switched digital video adapters coming to Time Warner systems, and it looks like Cox may finally be rolling Motorola adapters out in a big TiVo market close to the weaKnees home–Orange County.
From this article, it appears that Cox is starting to Beta test adapters, so if you are in The OC and have a TiVo, it might be worth a call.
Quite some time ago, DIRECTV stopped including serial ports on the back of its standard definition receivers. The last receiver to include one, the D10, hasn’t been manufactured in years. No subsequent receiver (D11, D12, D13, etc.) has included the port.
Why does this matter? The serial port allows a hard-wired connection between a TiVo and a receiver. It minimizes communication problems that can sometimes occur when using IR blaster cables. Serial control also reduces the time it takes for the TiVo to change channels.
Unfortunately, DIRECTV still does not include serial ports on the back of it’s receivers. However, we have obtained a small quantity of older-model RCA receivers that have low-speed data ports that work perfectly with standard definition, standalone TiVo units. You can find those TiVo-Compatible DIRECTV receivers here. The receivers come bundled with the specialized home-control cable that you will need to connect the TiVo to the receiver.
As we indicate on the website, these units are refurbished, and they currently get all of the standard definition stations coming down from DIRECTV. However, they do not include a remote that can control the “Mix” stations that DIRECTV has launched. For TiVo owners, however, this shouldn’t matter, as TiVo units cannot control these stations even on receivers that are compatible with them.