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A few people have emailed me asking why their HD TiVo doesn't work with their Time Warner cable system in some parts of the country and Lauren Weinstein has a lengthy explanation about Switched Digital Video and why it is incompatible with current one-way CableCARDs.
There's also a helpful follow-up post on steps the cable industry is taking to ensure customers on their systems can still use CableCARD devices like HD TiVo (with a USB dongle).
Dave Zatz has the scoop on TiVo Desktop 2.5. The big news is that it will transcode DivX and XviD on the fly, making your TiVo basically a nice video player that's connected to your TV. Most video you find online (like TV episodes or movies) is in those formats that previously you had to convert. Now you can simply stream them to your television thanks to the new TiVo desktop.
Weaknees is now offering TiVo HD recorders with high capacity drives pre-installed. This is a great option if you didn't buy a Series 3 TiVo last fall and were waiting for the prices to drop.
The TiVo HD (I wrote about it here in today's NYT) is a great bargain (comparatively) at $299, and is easily upgraded to larger capacities which still comes in hundreds of dollars cheaper than a stock Series 3 TiVo. If you're looking to record HD cable, an upgraded TiVo HD is pretty much the best bang for the buck at this point.
