While that may sound like a limitation, I think it’s actually an advantage. Sometimes, simple is good. For most people, when they want to watch a movie all they want to do is choose their movie and then have it play. They don’t need to see the DVD cover on the screen, know the bio of every actor in the movie, or even how long it is. They just want to watch the movie. This is where the Netflix Player will excel. Choose your movie and watch it — No PC Needed!
Of course, the Netflix Player doesn’t appear to be perfect. You don’t have access to the entire Netflix library, but hopefully this will improve over time. The other weakness is that you can only stream movies from the Netflix library. It would be nice to eventually be able to stream video from other sources (like YouTube) but for now it’s Netflix or nothing.

Shortcomings aside, is a simple to use device that does what it says it does and does it well — something that’s pretty rare these days in technology products.

Technorati Tags: Netflix, Roku, TiVo, Apple

And if you have a ReplayTV, it gets even better. Gizmodo has posted instructions for transferring your ReplayTV Shows to your iPod that were emailed to them by one of their readers. The process seems pretty simple — basically, after getting your shows onto your computer using DVArchive, you just convert them to an iPod video format, which is where a shareware program called PSPVideo9 comes in.

This program converts any mpeg2 video file to a PSP compatible video but it will also work with an iPod. PSPVideo9 is simple to use and apparently quick — the author of the instructions said converting a 30 minute video only took about 16 minutes!

After the video is converted, all you have to do is drag and drop it onto your video iPod.

I’m not psychic, but I think I see a video iPod in my immediate future …

Technorati Tags: iPod, Apple, ReplayTV

The download and installation of VeohTV was simple and error free. Basically, all you have to do is download the setup file, run it and choose where to install the program. One nice touch that I really liked was that the setup program asked where to store downloaded videos. You have the choice of installing the program on one drive and storing any downloaded videos on another drive. Too many programs I’ve installed lately automatically store their data in “My Documents” — not necessarily where I want to store tons of video. Since I have a nice big Seagate external hard drive, I chose to store my downloaded videos there.

The first time you run VeohTV it asks you to sign in to your Veoh.com account. If you don’t already have one, you can create an account very easily from within VeohTV by just entering your email address, username and password. After logging in, you are presented with the VeohTV home screen:

As you can see from the screenshot, the interface was definitely designed for use on a TV with a remote, but it’s also very usable on a computer with the mouse. Clean and attractive, it presents you with your main activities within VeohTV.

The first place I went was channels. Channels are supposed to be similar to TV Channels but for Internet Video.

As you can see from the screenshot, VeohTV channels are organized basically by the provider of the video content — ABC, NBC, YouTube, etc. Usually this is the website where the video came from originally. By clicking on one of these “Channels”, you can access the videos available from that channel. If I click on NBC, I see the following listing of videos.

This is the exciting part of VeohTV — being able to watch and record (download) network TV shows in full screen on your computer. Well, so far this is partially true. As you can see, some of the major networks are there (CBS, NBC, and Fox) but not all of their shows are there. And for the shows that are there, it’s usually only the last two or three episodes. This would all be ok except for two big problems. The video quality and the missing download option.

The video quality is hit or miss. For most of the channels, watching the video in full screen is somewhat blocky but acceptable. The one notable exception is Fox. The quality on the Fox videos is exceptional. Watching American Dad through VeohTV was like watching it on my TV — clear, not blocky, and always in sync.

But the real problem is not being able to download the network TV shows. When you go in to view a network TV show, the option to download it to your computer is not available. There are other channels (IFCTV for one) that allow you to download the videos, but not the major networks. For a software program that bills itself as a “DVR for the Internet” this seems like it would be a must have feature. Without this feature, VeohTV is basically just another video player for the videos you can watch on the major networks websites.

But this is still beta software and hopefully this is something that will get worked out before the full release of VeohTV. Overall, I’m very interested in the potential of VeohTV. I actually enjoyed watching some of the Fox shows with VeohTV. It’s definitely worth installing and trying out, even in beta. And if you haven’t gotten an invitation yet, I have three VeohTV beta activation codes for anyone who’d like to try it out. If you’re interested, post a comment here with you’re email address and I’ll send the activation code and link to the first three people who post.

Technorati Tags: VeohTV, DVR, Video, NBC, Fox

• This is only for TiVo units that were activated with a lifetime subscription before June 15, 2003.
• The lifetime service can only be transferred to a Series 2 TiVo Dual Tuner 80 Hour Unit — No Series 3
• The offer is only good until July 23, 2007 and you must activate the new unit with the lifetime service subscription by August 31, 2007.

This is good and bad. Obviously, the lifetime service subscription was a good purchase even before this (especially considering how many old lifetime units are still out there chugging away) but now it’s even better — you get to start all over with a brand spanking new TiVo. With the track record of the early TiVo’s, these Series 2 TiVo’s will most likely last until the next lifetime service transfer offer. The bad part of this is you can’t transfer the lifetime service to a Series 3 HD TiVo — yet. I fully expect that sometime in the relatively near future, TiVo will offer a transfer of the lifetime service to the Series 3. The question is, will it be from an original TiVo or only a Series 2 that had the lifetime service transferred to it?

Let’s hope that TiVo offers the transfer to the Series 3 sometime in the very near future. If I were a gambling man, I would probably wait and hold out for the transfer directly to the Series 3. Of course, since I don’t have a lifetime service subscription to transfer, that’s easy for me to say.

For those of you looking to play it safe, Transfer Now!

Technorati Tags: TiVo, DVR, PVR

It’s not clear exactly what services will be available for TiVo devices in China. I’m sure they will get some kind of a channel guide with updates, but will they have access to download videos similar to Amazon Unbox? Or will they have access to the TiVo To Go Software?

Plans may not be clear at this point, but this expansion is a step in the right direction. With the competition that TiVo faces from sub par Cable Company DVR devices here in the US, going into other countries where there is not much competition is a huge growth area for TiVo. Plus, they have the opportunity to establish themselves as the defacto standard for DVRs before the competition can really take hold.

Technorati Tags: TiVo, DVR, China, Amazon Unbox

As it appears now (it’s still in beta testing), VeohTV will arrange videos from the Internet into something similar to a Channel Guide that you would see on a TV Cable box or DVR. For example, most of the major networks now offer streaming video of the full episodes of their prime time shows on the Internet. So if I wanted to watch the latest episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, I could go to the NBC website and watch it there. With VeohTV, I will have an NBC.com channel, and (somehow) they will have all the available videos listed and I can record them and watch them at anytime through VeohTV.

Of course, this is all speculation. Currently, VeohTV is in closed beta testing and is only available by invitation. But these features (as described on the VeohTV site) are what they are expecting to be in the final version, which is scheduled to be released sometime later this summer.

We’ll have to wait and see what the final product looks like, but VeohTV sounds good. Maybe too good to be true, but I’m hoping …

Technorati Tags: Veoh, VeohTV, DVR, TiVo, ReplayTV

TiVo was originally available in the UK, but had to pull out to cut costs. Hopefully this return to the UK is a good sign for TiVo. I doubt they would even be considering this expansion if there cash flow and current business situation were not improving.

Technorati Tags: TiVo, DVR, PVR, Comcast, Freeview

According to the article, the new TiVo software should be available from Comcast sometime this spring (still no firm availability date). Even better, to get the new TiVo software, existing Comcast DVR customers will only have to call Comcast and request the new TiVo DVR. Apparently (and I’ll believe it when I see it), Comcast will just “flip a switch” and the new TiVo software will download and install on your existing Comcast DVR box. After a reboot, you will have a beautiful TiVo DVR! As always, I’m sure it won’t be this simple in the real world.

There are still a number of questions that remain unanswered:

1. Will this work with ALL Comcast DVR Hardware? – So far, only the Motorola Boxes have been mentioned as being upgradeable with the TiVo software. Even though the new TiVo software is written entirely in Java for portability, it remains to be seen if it will ever be available for Scientific Atlanta boxes.
2. How much will it cost? – Comcast has stated that there will be a modest fee charged for the TiVo above and beyond their standard DVR offering but there has been no indication of what Comcast considers “modest”. While I would be willing to pay a little bit more, I’m not sure that I could stomach $25 – $30 a month for my DVR on top of my regular cable bill!
3. When will we actually be able to get it? – This is the big daddy of all the questions. It’s been over two years since Comcast and TiVo originally announced this partnership and we still can’t get a TiVo from Comcast. Even the TiVo Series 3 is out and we still don’t have a TiVo from Comcast. If they don’t ever release it, all of these great features mean nothing.

Making TiVo (and DVR’s in general) available to more people through different channels (Cable Companies) is a great thing — but I don’t think I can (or will) wait another year for a Comcast TiVo. It could be time to seriously think about a nice shiny Series 3 TiVo.

Technorati Tags: TiVo, Comcast, DVR, PVR, Cable TV, Motorola, Scientific Atlanta

The TiVolution will now be televised in HD.

They’ve left no doubt — This TiVo is all about HD. It’s also got some very pretty packaging. Apparently, TiVo has been listening to Andre Agassi – Image is Everything.

Technorati Tags: TiVo, Series 3, HD, Apple, Andre Agassi, HDTV

• South Park – Why is it that I never get tired of this show? No matter how many times I’ve seen an episode, it seems like I can watch it again and still laugh. Maybe it’s the old TV show references or that Cartman is one of the funniest TV characters ever created but it just never gets old. I think they will be able to make South Park forever.
• The Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner – William Shatner is a genius. So the idea of roasting him was a no brainer for Comedy Central. Add in my current favorite comic (Artie Lange from the Howard Stern Show) and this is a keeper.
• Bonanza – This is another show that I just can’t seem to get enough of — even if some of the shows are a little too “sweet” for my taste. While I’m not a big fan of Westerns, this is one TV Show that is good enough to transcend it’s genre and I would recommend it to anyone.
• The Beast of Bray Road – This is a horror movie that I haven’t actually watched yet but it sounds interesting. Something about actual werewolf sightings and DNA — count me in!

Technorati Tags: ReplayTV, Comedy Central, South Park, The Beast of Bray Road, Bonanza, Artie Lange, Howard Stern, William Shatner