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Monday
12/13/2004 5:01:27 PM
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Michael Wells
After some contemplation (and a family decision to ditch the tv), I sold the TiVo to a friend who got it working again quickly by replacing the hard drive.
He has been quite happy with it, while I've been quite happy with avoiding tv altogether (amazing how much more time you suddenly have...).
The moral of the story is, if you want to watch tv, you'd be nuts not to invest in a digital video recorder [DVR]. But if you have the discipline, try to do something more valuable with your time...
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Thursday
12/18/2003 9:16:56 AM
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Michael Wells
Unfortunately, it may well be time for this blog category to come to a close. My TiVo series 1 is dying a slow death of regular lockups, stutters, and ghosted recording [when it can record at all].
A friend of mine who also owns the series 1 has experienced the same problem, and says that a chip replacement was needed in order to get his TiVo back to functioning properly.
I may or may not decide to go this route. That money may be better spent on exploring a new product in this vein, such as the Microsoft Media Center PC's, which provide lots of additional capabilities and are an interesting category in their own right.
I would be interested to hear from others regarding the TiVo reliability question; if you have suffered breakdowns, etc. etc, or have experience with the TiVo repair process, I welcome your comments.
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Monday
6/9/2003 5:20:51 PM
(CST)
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Michael Wells
TiVo has just announced a limited-time offer for $50 off, plus free shipping for the DVR. If you're interested, contact me and I'll send you the offer.
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Monday
5/26/2003 10:14:36 AM
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Michael Wells
Although TiVo's efforts to satisfy are to be applauded, I'd really like a setting such as "please don't EVER record the same movie more than once every six months".
I'm facing an exhausting struggle where, because I listed "Mel Gibson" (Mel rocks!) among my favorite actor names under the TiVo wishlists, TiVo has enthusiastically recorded "The River" about FIFTY times,.and "Bird on a Wire" another SEVENTY-FIVE.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!
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Saturday
5/24/2003 10:53:15 AM
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Michael Wells
Label me Gen-X... but I like my sitcoms. The only problem is--with rare exceptions--I can't stand watching the same sitcom episode more than once. For all of the information TiVo has about the listings lineup, you'd think it could dedicate a little bit of hard drive space to episode management.
- Track which episodes of a season pass you've seen, and avoid recording them for a period of time (per user settings)
- Track which episodes of a season pass you haven't seen, and target them for higher-priority recording.
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Saturday
5/24/2003 10:45:41 AM
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Michael Wells
I'm convinced that all of the engineers at TiVo are single, lonely workaholics, slaving away into the wee hours of the morning to build a more consumer-centric future for us all. And while I appreciate their efforts more than I can verbalize (sniff), I think it's high time that the TiVo user community combine our social talents and send them all on a date.
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Saturday
5/24/2003 10:26:42 AM
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Michael Wells
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Saturday
5/24/2003 10:17:57 AM
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Michael Wells
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Saturday
5/24/2003 10:06:15 AM
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Michael Wells
A componentized hardware architecture would be nice, especially with support for multiple tuners that can be purchased and added on later. The TiVo website states...
Standalone TiVo DVRs (work with cable, satellite, antenna) cannot record more than one show at a time due to hardware limitations.
However, with the exception of areas that require cable boxes, cable seems well-designed for supporting multiple signal feeds (does anyone know differently?).
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Saturday
5/24/2003 9:52:44 AM
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Michael Wells
When viewing a selection that TiVo has recorded without request, it should be possible to create a Season Pass directly from the Now Playing screen for the show.
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Saturday
5/24/2003 9:51:42 AM
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Michael Wells
A commercial blocker, PLEASE! I've worn out the fast-foward button already...
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Saturday
5/24/2003 9:51:00 AM
(CST)
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Michael Wells
The operational processes of the TiVo are very good, but they could be more goal-directed.
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