So you got a PVR for Christmas...

A lot of people received a PVR like TiVo, Replay TV or a Windows XP Media Center for Christmas and are thinking "OK, now what?"  We at PVRBlog, aside from wishing you happy holidays, want to provide a sort of introduction to using your new device.  Inside this post we'll be linking to tips and guides for your new PVR to help you get started.

TiVo

TiVo Customer Support

TiVo has done an excellent job answering common questions.  They also have  some good tips and tricks to check out.

Tivo Community Forum

This is the most popular TiVo forum, chances are any question that hasn't been answered on the Customer Support page is answered here.  Don't miss this post of common questions and these tips for new users.  Also, be sure to search their archives before posting a question.

TiVo Central Online

You can schedule your TiVo through the web using this site, which might be a good way to set up your Season Passes

TiVo Rebate Center

Don't forget to send in those rebates!

The 30-Second Skip

Select-Play-Select-3-0-Select.  This button combo on your remote will enable a hidden 30 second skip button.  Personally I prefer using the fast forward, but a lot of people like using this, so try both and decide for yourself.

PVRblog's TiVo posts

Because we've written a thing or two about these TiVos too.

ReplayTV

ReplayTV Owners Home Page

A overview of offiial resources and support options.

MyReplayTV.com

Schedule recordings for your ReplayTV over the internet through their web site.

ReplayFAQs

Lots of news and information for ReplayTV owners, including the titular FAQs.

ReplayTV & Showstopper PVRs - AVS Forum

Community forums for ReplayTV owners to post questions and discuss.  Be sure to read their FAQs and search before you post a question, it's probably already been answered.

PVRblog's ReplayTV posts...

... which we really should flesh out more.

Thanks Ben for your help filling out this section.

Windows XP Media Center Edition

Using Windows XP Media Center Edition

I don't know much about the Windows Media Center community, but this looks like the best place to start.  They have links to a getting started guide, and a comprehensive community portal.

The Green Button

This is the Media Center equivalent to the TiVo Community boards mentioned above.

microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter

Microsoft's Media Center newsgroup, an official forum from Microsoft to talk Media Center and get help from other users.

Addicted to Digital Media, Matt Goyer's blog and Chris Lanier's blog

Two blogs from people on the Media Center team and one from a "Media Center MVP," they regularly write about Windows Media Center Edition.

PVRblog's Windows Media Center posts

Which also feature stuff from Thomas Hawk.

Thanks to Thomas Hawk for his help on the Media Center links (and you should check out his site for more info about Media Center).  I invite PVR fans to add their own picks in the comments to this post.  If you still have a question that hasn't been answered, submit it to Ask PVRblog and our smart readers will do their best to help you out.

Motorola's serious looking DVR rolling out to Comcast

I've been reading reviews and reports of Motorola's dual tuner, HDTV 6412 DVR, and word on the street is that it's finally reaching a lot of major Comcast markets. While almost all reviews of cable company DVRs have been mostly poor, due to bad software, bad hardware, or an overall low quality experience, this one looks like a serious TiVo fighter, since it packs a lot of features you just can't get in a TiVo.

Dual tuners for cable -  DirecTV users with TiVo know the joy of this. Basically season pass conflicts are rare once you've got two tuners going at once, plus you can watch other live programs while things tape, which comes in handy.

Records HDTV - only 15 hours of HD content max, but there are only about ten channels on Comcast systems so it's probably not too much of a problem.

60 hours of regular TV recording - pretty good number, probably using a 80 to 120 Gb drive to fit that much standard TV and HDTV.

HD VOD - video on demand movies, in full glorious resolution (though you can't record them). I'm not the biggest fan of VOD, but it's certainly a cool feature when you can get a pay per view movie right now instead of having to wait for TiVo to grab it later tonight to watch tomorrow, which is how I use DirecTV's PPV.

My friend Lance got one of the first units in San Francisco and he posted a full review on his site, and we did a little back and forth interview about the particulars, which follows:

Patent Database Search

My friend Andy showed me the US Patent Office's public search engine. Here are all pending TiVo patents and here are all of ReplayTV's pending patents.

Media Center Extender for Xbox Review

The Windows SuperSite has a great review of the Media Center Extender for Xbox.

Recently, Microsoft released "media center extenders" for people that wanted to keep their media center PC as an office computer, but watch video/audio in other parts of the house. Those devices seem to struggle from network problems and high prices ($250-300 each). This review covers the xbox version of the extender, which is only about $80 and seems to do everything well.

I recently picked up a hacked xbox that I'm using to stream music/photos/video from a PC in my office downstairs to my TV and it works fantastic. I'll post a review of the unofficial Xbox Media Center software in a few weeks.

Mention in Discover Magazine, January 2005

Just a quick note that the January 2005 issue of Discover magazine has an article about me and PVRblog, in relation to Google ads. Here's a shot of the first page from my cameraphone.

update: here's the article on Discover's site.

Free TiVo-for-Toys this Friday at TiVo HQ

update: Here's the full story, direct from TiVo PR:

Free, while supplies last, TiVo 40 hour Series2 DVR for new TiVo customers that provide a current Comcast cable bill and new gift (toy/clothing) for The Family Giving Tree Charity. Will be activating service on-site.

Time: 11am-1pm

Date: December 17, 2004

Place: TiVo, 2160 Gold Street, Alviso, CA (Yahoo Maps)

Why: Reinforcing our position as a champion for consumers and to deliver on the broken promise from Comcast to deliver DVRs to Bay Area customers.  Best of all, bringing holiday cheer to those in need through our alliance with The Family Giving Tree.

Good on TiVo for doing this (and yes, an obvious dig at Comcast DVR customers). If you're in the Bay Area on Friday, help out a charity and get something cool in return.

PVRs illegal in India?

Did you know PVRs are illegal in India?  Me neither, but according to Nilanjana S Roy on rediff.com they are:

Current regulators are not sure whether TiVo breaches the rights of advertisers to advertise or channels to run ads. That means you shouldn't legally use TiVo-if you're watching TV on a TV screen.

Not to fear, a company called Reliance Infocomm is bringing Microsoft's IPTV to India and with it the control over televised space/time that comes with a PVR.

I should point out that I couldn't find anything about this TiVo ban anywhere else online, so like all single-sourced information it should be treated with a healthy skepticism until it can be confirmed.

Back in America there have been some rumblings about advertisers rights when it comes to PVRs, most recently a nasty Senate bill that would have criminalized fast forwarding (which died in the House).  In 2002 the CEO of Turner Broadcasting called ad skipping "theft," which has would have some pretty big implications if it were true.  The EFF defended the right to skip commercials in Newmark v. Turner but unfortunately ReplayTV went bankrupt before people's right to control media in their own house could be affirmed.

Of course, if advertisers knew what was good for them they would be encouraging people to fast forward through ads.  As Mark Cuban speculated and a study by CBS confirmed, no one pays more attention to an ad than someone making sure they don't miss the start of their show.  Maybe someone should tell that to the regulators in India?

Moxi has, well...

When the Diego Moxi PVR debuted at CES in 2002 they quickly gathered praise from all corners and were by all accounts destined for big things.  Then, nothing.  When the CEO stepped down a little over a month after that same CES, the press were quick to declare the company DOA.  I don't blame them, I hadn't heard of them in the nearly 3 years since that CES and kind of figured they had gone the way of DivX DVDs.  As it turns out, the Moxi is not dead.

According to Daily Wireless the Moxi, which is only available to cable companies, got picked up by BendBroadband of OR.  They are the fifth operator to carry the Moxi, after Adelphia, Comcast, Sunflower Broadband  (they're in Kansas, from what I can tell) and Digeo corporate cousin Charter.

A couple of the features the Moxi has above the normal pause-live-TV and scheduled-recordings are HDTV support, DVI and S/PDIF output and A 'ticker' at the bottom of the screen that you can personalize to show news, stories, sports scores or stock prices that sounds interesting.  Updated: Looking over their product info it looks like the Moxi has a DVD player a standard DOCSIS cable modem built in, as well as support for ripping CDs into MP3s that are stored on the device.

For pricing, BendBroadband charges $7/mo for service, $15/mo for Moxi rental or $450 to buy the Moxi.

I haven't heard anything from anyone who has a Moxi, so if you've used one please let us know what you think in the comments.

JavaHMO hits 2.0

JavaHMO, an open source replacement for the TiVo Desktop, has released version 2.0 of their software.  It cleverly exploits the developer API's ability to publish pictures to display all sorts of useful information such as movie times and weather.  New in 2.0 are email, RSS feeds, stock prices, web page viewer, USENET and more. 

Check out the screenshots to get a better idea of how it works on the TiVo end.  It also has support for the TiVo Beacon API which means that you can run it alongside other HMO servers like TiVo Desktop.

Cool Tools on the cheapest TiVo Free unit available

Kevin Kelly's excellent Cool Tools site carries reviews of gadgets and helpful technology, and last week he featured a review of the Toshiba SD-H400 DVD playing TiVo which carries the distinction of being the cheapest standalone TiVo you can buy that doesn't require a monthly fee. TiVo Free is a bit of a crippled product and I'd personally pay for the full feature set, but $12.95 a month can get expensive and I can see why folks would look for a free monthly DVR. You don't get the basic Season Pass functionality, but if you don't mind constantly having to save the same shows in the 3-day window, it's a good basic box.

Prices on the unit go down to about $210 at the lowest end for this unit.