Simultaneity

May 15, 2007

Almost enough to make me listen...

I used to listen to country music, not the tangy stuff, but things like Alabama and other groups. I've never been much of a music listener and country music isn't on my list of things I listen to, but I enjoyed Jeff Foxworthy's speech at the end of the CMT Awards.

I wouldn't have found this, but I heard Jeff speak at a recent ministry conference and the speech was asked about.

"Country Music doesn't have to be politically correct. We sing about God because we believe in Him. We're not trying to offend anybody but the evidence that we have seen of Him in our small little lives trumps your opinion about whither or not He exists."
- Jeff Foxworthy

Posted by Jesse at 2:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 5, 2007

More Referrals

You may or may not have noticed that the book links on my pages are Amazon referral links, which means if you click to Amazon though my site, then buy something they throw me a bone...well, with the current rates, I'll get a bone sometime around 2020.

Anyhow, for you TiVo lovers out there, you may want to check into the referral program if you're going to be using AmazonUnbox. If you are an associate and buy a DVD, you get a TV show free...and, you earn 10% (upto $1.50) on all Unbox referrals.

Of course, if you aren't going to become an associate, feel free to get your Unbox stuff here.

Posted by Jesse at 8:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 30, 2007

TiVo: Share your home videos

In case you missed it, TiVo and One True Media teamed up to allow you to share home movies through your TiVo.
Basically, you set up a One True Media account, upload your video, get a code, share it with others. They plug the code into their TiVo and your movie streams (downloads?) to their TiVo.
If you sign up now you can try it for a month during beta. After that it'll be $4 a month or $40 a year.

If it was free, it'd be neat...at $4 a month, I can live without it.

Posted by Jesse at 9:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 24, 2006

Amazing (sic) Race 10

I don't know what it is, but 2 episodes into the Race, and I'm just not into the show. I should be, it's looks like it's better than last season...Fun loving teams, friendly teams, people getting dragged by horses, animals running amuck and flaming arrows (!) and some new twists.

Last week someone was eliminated without a checkpoint, great new twists to add some tension, but still, I could care. We're watching it almost live, I wonder if that has anything to do with it.

Posted by Jesse at 9:23 PM | Comments (0)

September 23, 2006

SNL Backstage

Watched Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and thought it was okay. I don't think that it lives up to the hype that they had planned. I enjoyed the show and will give it a few more viewings, but there are some things that need fixing.

The biggest problem is sound. I understand they are trying to do a "backstage" type of show, but the background noise was too much. There was a lot of the show where the background sound was so loud that I couldn't hear the dialog. Hopefully that's something that will be taken care of in later shows.

Posted by Jesse at 10:05 AM | Comments (0)

September 18, 2006

'Til Death

'Til Death is, in my opinion, the first hit of the new season and the only sitcom hit in a long time. Of the two episodes so far, I've laughed out load during both of them...comic genius.

However, I doubt they will get much of the 18-24 year old views. It's a show about an older married couple and the newly-weds that moved in next door. Sadly, I identify a great deal with the older husband...Brad Garrett and the writers have defiantly captured the essence of a long standing and working marriage.

Posted by Jesse at 8:49 PM | Comments (0)

September 2, 2006

Crime Dramas

Fox has debuted two new crime dramas so far this year and they're one for one.

Vanashed (Monday nights at 9) debuted on August 21 and was pretty unremarkable. The story is about a Senator's wife who disappears and through the story we are most likely going to find that she is also someone else. The problem with the show is that the wife disappeared so fast that there was not chance to build any kind of feeling for he or the other characters. Since the disappearance the only character that I've felt for is the guy that keeps calling the FBI to tell them that she's someone else - and the only reason he's remarkable is that they keep ignoring him. It's hard to enjoy a show about a kidnapping when you don't care about any of the victims.
On the upside, the agent in charge is starting to become interesting, as is the twists in the case. I don't think that'll be enough to save the show though.
If you want to see Vanished I'd suggest seeing the show soon, I doubt it will make it to mid-season.

On the other side of the coin is Justice (Wednesday nights at 9). It just debuted on the 30th so the pilot is likely on Fox's website if you need to catch up. I think this one will be a keeper.
There was tension from the first scene, and despite it being a "court room show," it was able to keep a good bit of tension along the way. It's also an interesting twist on crime dramas in that, at the end of the show, we see how the crime occurred.
As long as the writers can keep away from too much character development for the first 5-6 shows, I think this one will have legs. The only draw back is that it will be up against Lost and Criminal Minds. With only 2 TiVos, I'll have to make a tough choice....Maybe by the premiere of Lost, Justice will take Vanished place in the lineup.

Posted by Jesse at 1:29 PM | Comments (0)

July 6, 2006

RIP VCR

In 2001, VHS accounted for 90% of all national video rentals. By 2003, VHS had fallen below 50%. Many consumer electronic manufacturers are halting production and sales of the VCR and...
This year will see the end of VHS releases.

Posted by Jesse at 2:06 PM | Comments (1)

June 22, 2006

Roasted Shatner

Comedy Central will be roasting William Shatener to be aired Sunday, August 20 at 10 pm.

Posted by Jesse at 9:44 PM | Comments (0)

Free 80 TiVo...

...after $150 rebate

If you haven't had a chance, for whatever reason, to get a TiVo, now may be that time...It WILL change the way you watch TV and possible the way you schedule your day.

Get it while you can at Buy.com.

When signing up, feel free to list me as a referral.

Posted by Jesse at 3:28 PM | Comments (0)

May 29, 2006

TiVo expanded

The final leg of fixing the TiVo, expanding the drive. Everything I read said that expanding the drive would wipe the shows, but keep the season passes and other preferences. Yesterday I transferred everything that we wanted to keep so this morning it was ready to use expansion program.

I hooked it up to the computer and in a matter of seconds the screen read complete - old size about 79 hours, new size about 279 hours.

Putting the TiVo back together I waited nervously for the boot up process. I check out the preferences and season passes first, everything there. Then checked the recording size - 281 hours, and finally checked for recorded shows - everything was there, nice.

Posted by Jesse at 6:00 PM | Comments (0)

May 25, 2006

The end of Commander in Chief

ABC has decided to show the final shows of "C-in-C" beginning May 31 at 10 pm.

Posted by Jesse at 2:12 PM | Comments (0)

TiVo Trouble

If your TiVo is out of warranty, you may want to consider backing it up. Most TiVo's have a one year warranty, and from what I've been reading the hard drive's life is 18-24 months. Making a back up is relatively simple if you're a tinkerer and have ever taken apart a computer.

My story follows, but it would have been a much faster process if I had a backup of the OS. All of the instructions that I found on the internet assume that you are upgrading from a good drive - or at least one that isn't unstable. There's lost of sites like Steve's TiVo upgrade diary where people share their upgrade stories to help others upgrade. This is not one of them.

Upgrading seems rather simple, recovery is not. If you lose your OS, there is a place you can buy the OS and some people have them available for free, but TiVo has sent out cease and desist orders so this seems like a route to avoid. Making a back up isn't about saving your shows, nor is it about saving your settings (thumb ratings, season passes, etc.), which it will do, but about saving the OS and making recovery simple.

It's sad to say, but hard drives are not made to spin 24/7 for years - your TiVo (or any DVR) will fail at some point. It's better to be prepared. If you're interested in what I had to go through - without a back up - read on.

A few weeks ago our 80 hour TiVo died…well, sort of. After a service update it rebooted and never left the "Welcome. Powering up…" screen. I tried a few reboots and still nothing. TiVo community has a number of posts about people having this problem all saying the hard drive is dying.

Some say that the service update is the cause, since it happened quite a bit. Others say that the way TiVo does service updates is the problem. Basically it has three partitions - one for the operating system, one for the shows, and second one for the operating system. With each update, it flips to the other operating system. So, if bad sectors develop on the unused partition and TiVo sends an update…if there are enough bad sectors, poof…

The fault doesn't matter; the fact is the same the hard disk was dying. WeeKnees.com has update (to a larger drive) and backup instructions and sell drives with the OS already on it. So, I followed the instructions at http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com, hoping it would work. The instructions are pretty straight forward.

Taking apart the case is the hardest part of the whole deal. Not because it's physically difficult, it's the crossing the line from TiVo lover to TiVo hacker that's the challenge.

After following the WeaKnees instructions, I plugged the new 250 GB drive into the TiVo and after the warm up screen, the "Almost There" screen appeared, Joy! But the joy was short lived, within 15 seconds it green screened, then rebooted. It did this a few times and I realized that I had left the jumper on the drive - marking it as slave. After I removed the jumper, I got nothing other than the powering up screen.

After some more surfing, I found a lot of posts talking about DD_Rescue and spinrite. Spinrite is a drive recovery system that attempts to copy bad sectors to a better place on the drive…at least, that's what I could figure out. DD_Rescue seems to be a common unix program to copy a damaged drive to a good drive. DD_Rescue is part of several flavors of unix and spinrite is $90. Hopefully, DD_Rescue would work.

I followed the TiVoCommunity post about DD_Rescue and downloaded a CD boot version of Knoppix. It booted into XWindows. I attempted to run DD_Rescue from the equivalent of the run command/dos prompt, but to no avail. I also couldn't figure out how to leave xWindows or boot to the command line. Sigh.

On a whim I tried booting using the WeaKnees CD and see if DD_Rescue was there. It was, but it was a slimmed down version. A TiVo community post suggest using a bunch of extra commands that this version didn't have, but I figured I would use what I could and see what happens.

It took a few hours to transfer the data, then I plugged the new drive in.
"Powering up…"
"Almost there…"
Green Screen of Death. But this time it didn't reboot immediately. But alas it did reboot.

It was getting late so I was going to unplug and come back to it later, but since it was already powering up again, I decided to wait for the reboot to unplug.

This time, the almost there screen was again followed by the GSOD, but this time, the GSOD lasted several minutes…perhaps we're getting somewhere. One last reboot before bed and it came back to life!

It still reads as an 80 hour drive, which is normal for DD_Rescue. There's instructions for reclaiming the extra space at hinsdale but I'll lose the shows that are there, so we're going to watch those first before I try that.

Huzzah, I didn't have to spend $150 plus shipping to get the TiVo replaced and all of our shows were saved. But I did miss taping Lost the night is was down and it cost $130 for a new (but larger) drive.

Anyhow, if you're still reading this, go backup your drive!

Posted by Jesse at 9:05 AM | Comments (0)

April 20, 2006

Dumb Idea of the Week

Thankfully they say that they don't plan on putting this technology into any of their products...but still...

Philips' technology could force TV ad viewing
A patent application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office says researchers of the Netherland-based consumer electronics company has created a technology that could let broadcasters freeze up a channel during a commercial, so viewers wouldn't be able to avoid it.

Philips acknowledged, however, that the anti-channel changing technology might not sit well with consumers and suggested in its patent filing that consumers be allowed to avoid the feature if they paid broadcasters a fee.

Posted by Jesse at 5:12 PM | Comments (0)

April 12, 2006

A Good Day

Things seem to be looking up a little for TiVo. The law suit is still underway, but Smith Barney has predicted a 70% - 90% chance of victory for TiVo and DirectTV has extended the partnership for an additional 3 years.

I think the later has to do with the former as well as the many people complaining about the NDS boxes that DirectTV is shipping. But I wonder if they are still selling TiVo boxes or just honoring the subs.

EDIT 4-13-06: Looks like the future was just brightened a little more. TiVo won the suit vs. Echostar and was awarded close to $74 million in damages. Stock prices have jumped more than $1.60 in after market trading.

Posted by Jesse at 11:02 PM | Comments (0)

April 11, 2006

Exploring the Market

ABC.com is offering 4 shows on it's website in an effort to explore other business models. I think that these are the same 4 they offer on iTunes, where there are $1.99. The difference is the iTune ones are commercial free, the free ones have commercials.

The player will have VCR-lick functions allowing fast-forward and rewind, but you won't be able to fast forward commercials.

ABC.com ready for primetime
Episodes of "Lost," "Desperate Housewives" and "Commander in Chief" will be streamed online the morning after they air beginning next month. Additionally, the entire current season of "Alias" will be available for download.

Posted by Jesse at 2:20 PM | Comments (0)

April 8, 2006

Monkey Business and Upcoming Pilots

Vh1 decided to pick up Love Monkey from CBS and will be showing all the filmed episodes beginning this month. I'm guessing that they will film some others as well, it doesn't make to much sense to have a series that only has 8 shows.

ABC and NBC will be announcing pilots this month. I didn't see much interesting, but here's a few I may check out:

ABC Comedies

Jump - won't last - Danny has become a sell out but decides to leave his high powered job to pursue something more rewarding.

Mr. Nice Guy - A guy that tries to do nice things for people, but it always turns out bad. For example, he caries packages for a pregnant lady, who isn't.

ABC Drama

60 Minute Man - It's on ABC, so I don't expect much - a guy figures out that he's missing 1 hour each day from his memories. After one of these lapses he's standing over a body.

NBC Dramas

Heroes - People with super powers

Kidnapped - just like the name, don't really know much about it.

Posted by Jesse at 11:51 AM | Comments (0)

March 6, 2006

KidZone

Tivo is rolling out a new feature called KidZone that allows parents to set up space on their TiVo for their children, basically adding a filter for what they can and can't see...including not being able to see some of the things that you record.

My first reaction is that you shouldn't be recording stuff that you don't want your kids to see...but some things are okay, just not age appropriate, so I can see the use. However, the TV isn't a babysitter and you should be monitoring what your kids are watching anyway, so there's alot of potential to aid lazy parents here.

Anyhow, all in all, I don't think this is a bad feature but I'd like to see the reverse, a ParentZone...where all the stuff that we record for our kids ISN'T on the Now Playing list that we see. When I'm ready to watch TV, Dora, Sesame Street, Blues Clues and the like aren't on my list (although there is bleed over like Justice League).

We have a 300 hour TiVo downstairs and at least 25% of the season passes are for preschool age and of the 60 or so suggestions that are listed close to 90% are also for preschoolers, it'd be nice to have a feature to not wade through them to see if anything interesting is on.

Posted by Jesse at 11:37 AM | Comments (0)

February 7, 2006

Some Interesting TiVo stats

TiVo Announces Top 10 Viewed Super Bowl Ads
Joining the most wanted ads was the controversial touchdown by Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger in the second quarter, as well as the “Gadget Play” touchdown by the Steelers later on in the game. Both plays were on average watched more than four times by TiVo households.

One other interesting statistic of note was that, on average, TiVo households hit replay, pause or rewind around 100 times during the Super Bowl broadcast. The replay feature alone was accessed on average of 30 times.

Lotsa buttons being pushed.

Posted by Jesse at 10:33 PM | Comments (0)

February 6, 2006

From the Big Game

For more than a few years the Super Bowl commercials have been more interesting for me than the game itself. This year was no different except that I missed the first half (when all the good commercials debut).
But thanks to Google Videos I was able to see them all.

Some, like Blockbuster's, were uninspired while others were pretty funny.

Here's my thoughts:

• The Bus's asthma control commercial had a nice Mean Joe Green flashback.
• The FedEx stick was kinda neat and as always the Clydesdales brought a tear and a giggle.
• Kermit found out it is easy to be green.
• Apparently it took GoDaddy 14 tries to get something acceptable for TV and it was still a waste of effort.
• On the other hand, I liked Hummer's little monster commercial but maybe just because I can relate.
• Ameriquest Mortgage:That killed him was entertaining but not on google, try iFilm
• Also not found on google:
  • Aleve includes some Trekkies
  • The I'm going to Disney World commercials were nice
  • I didn't quite get the McDonald's hamster
  • The Diet Pepsi commercials were dumb

The Worst: Emerald Nuts

Unfortunately, google doesn't have the best ones of the evening:
Kevin's favorite:Sprint:Song for every occasion

Best of the night:Sprint:Locker Room

Posted by Jesse at 4:26 PM | Comments (0)

An Ugly Win

You don't win if you don't play well so I won't say that the Steelers didn't deserve the game, but they certainly had some help.

I'm not a fan of either team, and frankly the match up seemed lack-luster, so it didn't bother me at all to miss the first half while at church. In fact, I didn't even TiVo the game, I only watched the second half.

Referees are human so I expect that there will be mistakes, even a number of them. But tonight, all the mistakes seemed to benefit the Steelers. I know there was a Seattle touchdown in the first half that was taken away for offensive pass interference, and I agree with the call (even if the half time crew doesn't). The rule is that you can't push off, and he did.

However, the Steeler touchdown in the first half, wasn't. The ball never broke the plain. Then later on there was a personal foul called after an interception that shouldn't have been (it was an illegal block, but the guy had the ball so it's not a block, it's a tackle and is allowed). And there was an illegal tackle (the new Horseshoe rule) shortly before the interception near the end of the game that wasn't called.

Still, the Steelers won, so good for them. I just wish there had been more even officiating.

Posted by Jesse at 12:03 AM | Comments (1)

January 26, 2006

Daniel didn't survive the Lion's Den

In case you've been living under a rock, NBC's The Book of Daniel received alot of negative press from people and some Christians even decided to lead a boycott of the show that they had never seen. I passed on blogging about it here even though I didn't like the premise of the idea but I figured no need to give attention to something that even Entertainment Weekly was making fun of.

As is usual, ratings proved the value of the show - 4 episodes. I think some people got all worked up for nothing. No one even knew what it was about, the best description you could find was something that sounded like a joke: "It's about Jesus, a priest, and a gay man."

I'm not surprised that it was canceled and hopefully the NBC execs will learn that it helps to have someone that can relate to the characters in order to pull off a good show. If your characters are African-American, some (or all) of your writers should be as well, if you're doing a show about gay men, some of the writers should be able to relate. Otherwise, all you get is stereotypical drivel. The same goes for shows like this - if you're going to do a show about Jesus and Christians, perhaps you need someone that is a Christian writing the stories.

Posted by Jesse at 8:38 PM | Comments (0)

January 22, 2006

Farewell Mr. President

NBC has decided to end The West Wing this May. We've been watching for a few seasons now, and while I think it's gotten better, this season hasn't been that big of a pull. That's also showed in the ratings which was a big part of the decision.

In a way, it's too bad, I was looking forward to seeing what a new Wing staff would look like. I thought Smits was a sure thing, but now with the end in sight, I think either candidate could win.

Posted by Jesse at 11:30 PM | Comments (0)

January 20, 2006

Ummm...Hello?

We canceled season three because no one watched it, and it was dumb....but how about season 4 of Last Comic Standing?

Why doesn't NBC and the like do that for good shows?

Posted by Jesse at 2:25 AM | Comments (0)

December 17, 2005

(Almost) Free TiVo for Christmas

If you've been thinking about getting TiVo now just might be the time to get one. Amazon is selling the Series 2 40-Hour TiVo for $169.00 with a $150 mail in rebate.

However, if you order by December 20, and use the code CUSTAPPRSAVE you get an additional 5% off - that's $160.50...

That means a 40 hour TiVo for $10.50.

Posted by Jesse at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)

December 12, 2005

Growing up during the TiVolution

Wall Street Journal Online has an article that sums up my thoughts on Kevin's TV habits. He's growing up in a different world, one where TV will not dictate his schedule, and one where mass customization is the rule rather than the exception and I'm very interested to see the differences in his childhood and mine.

Watching a Child Who's Grown Up With TiVo (WSJo)
It's not so much that Joshua's puzzled by the technology, though he does have an endearing habit of calling it "TVV." His confusion is that our house contains a smart TV and a stupid TV.

The stupid TV is downstairs in his parents' bedroom, and he watches it between the rather early hour at which he wakes up and the somewhat later one at which his decrepit father drags himself out of bed. The downstairs TV looks like the upstairs TV, except the shows on it are only on at set times, you can't see old shows whenever you want, and if you have to go to the potty you miss things.

We don't have the problem of having a stupid TV, but there is different programming available in the bedroom vs. the living room. And there has been some confusion when we've been at a hotel and the TV's can't provide what we want to see.

Posted by Jesse at 11:18 AM | Comments (2)

November 29, 2005

Another one bites the dust

I was starting to wonder about this year. Typically a number of the new shows that I decide to watch get pulled, this year it took far longer than usual and started with Threshold. Now, as predicted, we'll never get to see who was behind Sam's murder in Reunion - Fox has pulled the plug.

I was actually more interested in seeing what they did next year since the plan was to have a new cast each year.

Also on the death watch list: The Bernie Mac show, Malcolm in the Middle

Posted by Jesse at 7:01 PM | Comments (1)

November 25, 2005

Immitators

Recently I posted about the major networks all taking a shot to capture the same type of ratings/reviews that Lost has attained.

I talked about Surface(NBC) but never mentioned the other two, Threshold(CBS) and Invasion(ABC). Basicly, they are all clones of Lost - short intro, all mystery, and some character development. My first reaction was to be turned off, but it turns out that while other shows pile up on the TiVo, I tend to burn through these.

Of the three, I think Surface does the best. It gives you a few more tidbits each week and develops the characters more each episode. Invasion is so-so, but getting better as the characters develop and the mystery is interesting.

The worst of the three is Threshold, but it's still entertaining. It's about a secret group that is trying to prevent an alien infection from spreading and eventually mutating all of mankind. The problem is - 7 crewmen from the first show escaped, now only 2 are at large. Sure, they could have another probe come, but then, why wouldn't the aliens just send a ton of probes and be done with it. In other words, I think they're going to write themselves into a corner. And the shows are becoming more and more redundant. While I'd like to eventually find out the outcome of the Threshold project, we'll likly never get the chance - CBS will likely announce the cancellation after the holiday weekend, they've already stopped production.

Posted by Jesse at 5:22 PM | Comments (0)

November 15, 2005

Orange and Green

The WB have ordered a put pilot for an as of yet unnamed Auquaman series.It's to be in the same spirit as "Smallville", no costumes, no mention of Aquaman, telling the back story.

While I've grown as a super hero fan, Arthur Curry just doesn't seem like someone that will capture an audience like Clark Kent. There's alot of tie-ins during Smallville that people appreciate -Justice League, Lex Luthor, Louis Lane. But I don't think enough people are Aquaman fans or will know enough to enjoy any tie-ins.

I'll guess this will be a short series.

Posted by Jesse at 5:54 PM | Comments (0)

November 7, 2005

Yahoo and TiVo

Yahoo, TiVo Join to Blend TV, Web Services
Users of Yahoo's TV page will be able to click on a record-to-TiVo button directly from a television program listing to remotely schedule recordings.

And in the coming months, possibly before the end of the year, Yahoo's traffic and weather content, as well as its users' photos will be viewable on televisions via TiVo's broadband service and easy-to-use screen menu.

Outstanding...and it's about time. Granted, this isn't really any different than what you get from TiVo Central On-Line, but it will get the TiVo name out there a little bit more and perhaps help some Yahoo TV users make the jump. If you're already a TiVo user and use Yahoo TV go here to start using Yahoo to set up your recordings.

Between this and some other improvements on the way, TiVo will continue to be the best DVR available.

Posted by Jesse at 1:33 PM | Comments (0)

November 4, 2005

Reality TV goes ape

Reuters - New reality show with gorillas
Inspired by the television reality show [Big Brother], Czech public radio and television broadcasters have announced that on November 7, they will begin airing a new show that will follow the lives of four gorillas living together at the Prague Zoo.

The show, to be called Odhaleni (Discovery), will see the primates -- one male, two females and one baby -- battle it out for a grand prize of 12 melons, a delicacy for gorillas.

Umm...Okay.

Posted by Jesse at 11:19 AM | Comments (0)

October 29, 2005

World's Colliding

If you haven't noticed yet, TiVo now has a blog complete with RSS feed. I can't say for sure, but it looks like they're using MovableType for their back end blogware.

Posted by Jesse at 8:36 PM | Comments (0)

October 19, 2005

Networks can be annoying

The whole point of having a TiVo is so that you don't have to keep track of what is on when...but lately the networks have been playing with the schedule so much that if you don't keep track, you're likely to miss an episode or maybe even a season.

Latest changes:
Commander in Chief is now 61 minutes long, ending at 10:01
E-Ring is changing places with Three Wishes...but just for next week

I understand the need to change things around to get better ratings, but the one week change is annoying since it causes conflicts...if you're gonna make a change, make it, and I'll decide what's more important to me.

Posted by Jesse at 10:11 AM | Comments (0)

October 16, 2005

Loch Ness?

One of the annoying things about this season is that all of the major networks have decided to try to grab hold of the success of Lost. They've gone to the format of a very short intro (about 5 seconds) and everything is about holding the mystery. Guess they don't understand that Lost is successful because it was a unique thought.

Anyhow, NBC's foray into this genre (is it even a genre yet) is Surface. It's about a new creature that has decided to live or already lived at the center of the Earth. As you can imagine, drilling to the middle of the Earth causes some problems for us on the surface.

The creature (and seeing one grow up) has been interesting before, but I'm not sure that it has staying power. Of course, the best thing is the creative episode titles. We learned about the characters in "Episode 1", then wrapped up some questions and raised new ones in "Episode 2". I've watched the 2 more since then and wonder if they'll make it to "Episode 22".

Posted by Jesse at 4:24 PM | Comments (0)

Dumb mistakes

I don't usually comment on the Sunday football games, but man was the Washington game frustrating. The Kansas City defense couldn't stop them - they moved down the field with ease. The KC offense struggled against the defense, yet Washington still lost.

I believe there was 3 Washington turnovers, all of which led to points, at crucial times in the game. And while the Redskin's offense dominated on most of the field, they struggled in the red zone.

At least the Giants lost as well.

Posted by Jesse at 4:17 PM | Comments (1)

Overlap Protection

Zatz Not Funny. . . » TiVo 7.3 is 7.2.1 And Other News
I looked closer at the "Overlap Protection" feature and while it may be overdue, it’s a very welcome enhancement. Basically if the network schedules a show to end at 9:01, your 9:00 show isn’t recorded. With "Overlap Protection," on by default, both shows will be recorded with the higher priority show gaining the extra time. As seen in the picture below, you can manually change which show gets priority.

No need to add to this except to say it's about time!

Posted by Jesse at 3:32 PM | Comments (0)

October 14, 2005

Farewell old friend

8 tracks, Beta, cassette tapes, and records have all but gone away and soon, it seems, VHS will be joining them. When you shop, you may have notices that there are fewer and fewer VCRs available and most are now combined with DVD players. That's because many manufacturers have halted production. It's also because the end of VHS movie releases are right around the corner.

Some time next year, movies will no longer be released on VHS. Guess DVDs have finally dominated the market place.

Posted by Jesse at 10:27 AM | Comments (0)

Commander In Chief

I've caught the pilot and am currently watching the second episode. So far I like the show, but I have a few problems with Genna Davis as the lead character. The bright red lipstick make her lips look too big and it's distracting...and she has a tendency to slur her words.
Other than that, I've enjoyed the show and look forward to seeing some more. It'll give them a chance to show the White House and first family from a different perspective then before.

Not sure how long it'll last though, I believe the guy that came up with the series has left, as the producer, to work on new projects.

Either way I'll leave it as a season pass.

Posted by Jesse at 12:01 AM | Comments (0)

October 3, 2005

Lost

Just finished watching the second episode. I enjoyed the season opener - more mystery and more questions, but got an answer about the hatch.

The second episode though was a disappointment. Decent show, but not up to Lost standards. There was no progression of anything really and it was a little irksome how they flash-backed the hatch story. Basicly an hour of nothing until the end.

Posted by Jesse at 1:56 PM | Comments (1)

September 30, 2005

Criminal Minds

Within the first 10 minutes of Criminal Minds I was hooked. I'm not sure what did it...maybe that they were actually telling a story, or maybe that the characters were interesting, or maybe even decent camera work and sound. In any case, I enjoyed the pilot episode and would recommend the show to anyone that likes shows about crime cases that are actually about the crime and solving them, rather than what character is going out with which other character.

On the down side, I don't know that I'll watch another episode. Criminal Minds is up against E-Ring, Lost, and Nanny 911. While the later is not on my watch list I know it is pretty high on other peoples, and my TiVos are busy with Lost and E-Ring...so, if there's time and I remember, I can always grab a torent, but watching it tends to be a pain that way.

Posted by Jesse at 9:35 PM | Comments (1)

September 26, 2005

Sorry about that Chief

Get Smart was one of those shows that I watched occasionally, but it never failed to entertain. Today, Don Adam, who played Maxwell Smart, Agent 86, passed away at the age of 82. He participated in all the incarnations of Get Smart, but unfortunately won't be a part of the 2006 movie.

I love spoofs like Airplane and Police Squad, and Get Smart fell into that category.

The NY Times has more on Adam's passing.

Posted by Jesse at 10:57 PM | Comments (0)

September 22, 2005

Lost

Second season, same as the first - interesting. I would think it would be hard to write a show that has you pondering what's happened, what's going to happen, and what is happening, every episode. And since this is the only show that is pulling that off, I suppose it is.

Lost is one of the best shows on TV, but I'd like to know what is going on. There's tons of ideas, but I'm going to go with some sort of purgatory...or, hopefully not, a weird dream of Walt's.

Posted by Jesse at 9:05 PM | Comments (0)

Bones

I'm watching the first episode of Bones and I don't think it'll last. The first problem is that it's in Washington D.C. I like that, but it's usually the death sentence for a show, they just don't make it very long.

It's a poor version of CSI:DC. The characters aren't that interesting, and the story isn't that involved with the science, so it's kind of bland. Another thing working against them is that the scientist works for the "Jeffersonian" museum. Obviously the Smithsonian wouldn't let their name be used, but they should have just gone with an entirely different museum name, Jeffersonian Institute just sounds dumb.

The only up thing so far is that John Jackson (JAG) has a role, unfortunately, it's a minor role.

Posted by Jesse at 8:43 PM | Comments (1)

Prison Break

Dane Cook say that there are two things that men want more than anything else - a monkey and to be a part of a heist. Prison Break is half way there. I'm not sure how long the show can last, especially once they get out, but it is holding my interest more than I thought it would.

Of course, like any show, there are some things that are hard to believe. Still, quite watchable.

Posted by Jesse at 8:33 PM | Comments (0)

September 8, 2005

Even more from TiVo

As if $49.00 boxes weren't enough, the added a free car and $25,000 for 5 TiVo ambassadors, still not enough so now....

Between now and the end of the year for each referral that you make, you'll be entered in a weekly drawing for $1,000.

TiVo, the gift that keeps on giving....and by the way, feel free to us me as your referral.

Oh, and if you receive "TiVo News" e-Newsletter...take special note of the last story...

Posted by Jesse at 10:04 AM | Comments (0)

September 6, 2005

How to get a TiVo Mini

TiVo understands that their best salesman are going to be their best customers and they're ready to reward 5 lucky users the title of TiVo Ambassador.

Actually, you get much more than just the title, you also get a convertible mini cooper, $25k, ability to write to TiVo company blog, and represent TiVo at various events. Qualify by being part of the rewards program, earn 25,000 points prior to November 27 (you can spend or have already spent your points).

To apply, complete the application on their site, create a <3 minute video, have a TiVo user write a reference letter explaining why you should be a TiVo representative, then send it all in.

Good Luck!

Posted by Jesse at 6:27 PM | Comments (0)

September 5, 2005

Get a TiVo and get paid

Prices have dropped again for getting a TiVo box...and it's may be possible to get paid to have get one. TiVo is now offering a $150 rebate making it only $49 if you buy a 40 hour unit directly from them (you can also get a 40 hour with a 1 year subscription and get the rebate instantly).

However, Amazon.com and a few other web based retailers are selling them for $99 before the rebate. I'm not sure about some of the sellers being eligible for the rebate, but Amazon is an approved TiVo seller and is eligible for the rebate (of course, they may just give you $99 instead of $150). So, it may be possible to get a TiVo and come out ahead by $51 (about 4 months of service).

So, if you haven't tried out TiVo yet, this is a great time...and if you take them up on their offer, feel free to use jesse@sillypuppies.com as your referrer.

Posted by Jesse at 11:49 AM | Comments (0)

September 4, 2005

You can not marry a girl without....

I forgot to mention that I am anticipating seeing another superhero on Smallville. Seeing the young Flash is what hooked me so I hope that the next one can live up to the same standards. I know that there are some people that read my blog and watch Smallville, and would prefer that I not spoil who it is going to be...so I will just say that I hope the hero will not be as lame as on Smallville as on Justice League.

Posted by Jesse at 7:36 PM | Comments (0)

September 3, 2005

Coming this Fall

While we're more or less settled on our fall schedule of what shows we'll be watching, I haven't read about all the new show. But here's some notes for anyone that cares.

• We've crossed Joey off our list and it looks like that show will have a hard time surviving, even the UPN show may beat it.
• Final season of King of the Hill, they've decided to go out on a high note.
• Final season of ABC Monday Night Football, that surprised me a little, especially that they are moving to ESPN - guess most of the states has cable.
• I'll miss some of our old shows, Dreams, Joan and third watch but I'm looking forward to the new ones...even though I think E-Ring won't make it because of the time slot.
• I'd like to see "Everyone Hates Chris" but we only have 2 TiVos...maybe I'll check it out with BT.
• Lost...looking forward to the new season and seeing some new faces...I think the whole hatch thing is going to be a let down though.
• NCIS...Sad to see Kate go and even sadder to see that they are bringing in 2 people to try to replace her...I smell sharks.
• West Wing and Commander in Chief...2 might be too many.

Anyhow, happy viewing.

Posted by Jesse at 6:22 PM | Comments (0)

May 9, 2005

A minor blip

Teri tried to delete 2 episodes of CSI today and they didn't disappear. I told her to stop the suggestion that was recording and see if they would delete then. She stopped the recording and the red light when out in the front, but the screen still said it was being recorded. I think she even changed channels as well.

We rebooted and everything is back to normal, we deleted the shows without a problem.

Posted by Jesse at 1:46 PM | Comments (0)

April 27, 2005

You are not alone...

It's not often that I pick up a paper and read an entire section. Partly because I get news online and partly because I usually don't agree with many of the articles. Today, however, was different. I happened to pick up the life section of USA Today and the majority of the section was on the upcoming sweeps. In a change of pace, I tend to agree with much of what was said in the cover story as well as other articles.

Lost was mentioned among the shows that are encourage networks to revive scripted TV and applause was given to the fact that there were so many reality TV failures this year. They hope that reality TV is in retreat...but we shall see.

On their list of things that need improved:
Sitcoms - there's nothing decent being shown in this genre, the best of the season is Joey and that was only good for the pilot. Agreed.
Shows that won't die. Networks are afraid to try new things and so they keep on plugging with shows that have run their course. I don't watch it, but they gave Will and Grace as an example. I'll say that JAG will likely fit that category by the time I catch up on the TiVoed episodes.

"The sad truth is that most shows outlive their welcome - tying up time, talent, and money that would be better spent elsewhere. Most stories can't be stretched over a decade, and most series can't survive time-induced cast changes..."

Franchisation - We found out 4 Law and Orders is to many and three CSIs are as well.

"And while we're complaining about franchise creep, it would be nice if CBS would stop trying to make The Amazing Race into Survivor on the Go...and the people who play on Survivor, or any other reality show, should stay off TV afterward. You people aren't franchises. You get one outlet, and then get out."

Lastly, they mention the time games that the networks have been playing (starting ER at 9:59, or Alias at 9:01 for example) and tell them that these games are going to hurt someone - namely themselves. As a TiVo user, I find the games real annoying.

Posted by Jesse at 9:45 PM | Comments (0)

April 22, 2005

Special TiVo Offer...

Just wondering how special the offer is, did anyone else get this?

A day or so ago I received and e-mail from TiVo for select rewards members that offers a 140 hour box and 12 month gift subscription for the cost of 12 month subscription - $150 or so.

Posted by Jesse at 8:29 PM | Comments (4)

April 17, 2005

24

If you haven't watched this week's 24 (11pm-Midnight) stop reading now - this complaint contains spoilers.

First off, I find it hard to believe that Air Force One would have gone down so easily, even against a stealth fighter. I don't know much about it, but I would think that there would be a much better system in place to combat air-to-air missile and that an indirect hit would be survivable.

That said, I think the whole football story line - basically the whole show - was ridiculous. I admit that there is some dumb things that the government does, but there's no way I can believe that a list (in a book) of all the missile locations and activation codes travels around the country. I would hope that should the football be lost, it would be simple to immediately (not "about an hour") render its contents useless.

This was a wasted episode that could have been much better....and what the heck is Mike doing back in the White House?!?

Posted by Jesse at 2:37 PM | Comments (2)

March 26, 2005

Disgust

Okay, I realize that 3rd Watch was running out of story lines, but I still think it's a good show and I'm sorry to see that NBC has decided that it will not return next season...I suppose I can live with that.

What I find disgusting is that they cancel a decent show like that in order to add more reality TV - why are so many people watching this dreck..."The Apprentice: Martha Stewart" and "I want to be a Hilton"? Are they for real? And do I really need to see Tommy Lee in college? Who cares? I think NBC is going to let their competition take a crack at replacing them as number 2. (since number 2 seems to be what they are interested in showing).

I'm beginning to wonder if our 140 hour TiVo will even have anything to see....

Posted by Jesse at 8:08 PM | Comments (0)

March 21, 2005

Get the White House for half price

NBC has picked up "The West Wing" for a seventh season (22 more episodes). The renewal comes with a license fee of $3 million per episode, half the cost of season 6. No word on who will be in the cast for the coming season.

Posted by Jesse at 3:02 PM | Comments (0)

March 15, 2005

Against the Grain

Okay, I'm going to go against the grain...we'll of at least against most AR watchers I know.

I'm still not sure it's right of CBS to put Rob & Amber in AR since she already won a game show. However, I support Rob's play. He's one of the best players of the race in several season. As a team they are getting along with each other, which is pretty rare. They're battling the other teams, not the other teams personality - in other words, they aren't fighting the other teams, they're just using cunning to get ahead.

Last week he bribed a guard not to share information - kind of a dumb thing to do, but then he paid the bus driver not to open the back door. Those are the kinds of moves that give you just a bit of an edge. This week, stealing the cab was a good move and cost the other team some time - but talking other teams into quitting the roadblock was classic and kept them in the game. That's a move I would have used.

While I still don't want to see them win, they are the better competitors - it is a contest after all. I'm not sure I would play the same way since there are so many "catch up" points in the game where you have to deal with other teams and those moves can come back to bit you, but it's neat to see someone giving it a shot and I think it makes AR a bit more competitive.

Now, if we could focus the other teams on winning the race rather than winning the "Let's eliminate Rob" game...

Posted by Jesse at 11:55 PM | Comments (1)

February 28, 2005

Television Thoughts

Sweeps are over and the announcement of the new fall shows is just a few months off and already it's clearing time. Information about new and old shows is leaking out, and here's what I'm thinking will happen with out line up:

American Dreams - This is one of the better dramas on TV, but sadly, I think they've allowed it to play out. Allowing the lead character to have a one night stand was a mistake and the "family-value" of the show certainly took a hit from it. The show's order has been reduced and I think it's likely that it will not return next fall. Hopefully the planned cliff-hanger will not be a cliff hanger but rather a clean wrap-up.

Judging Amy - Jumped the shark and is being removed from our season pass list.

J.A.G. - While this is one of my favorite shows, it won't survive by replacing Elliot with another Elliot-like character. I think it could survive without him, but it would have to go in a different direction there where it's headed. As to Elliot, he's made a deal for a new series - doubt it'll work, he shoulda stayed at JAG.

CSI - Quentin Tarantino will write and direct the season finale this year - should prove interesting.

E-Ring - A new NBC show that I'll be certain to pick up this fall. It's another Bruckheimer production which is a mark on a lot of the shows that we watch. The name comes from the outer most ring of the Pentagon and is proposed as a "West Wing" at the pentagon type of show.

Chris Kattan - Not the shows name, but I think it might be worth a look. It's yet another SNLer trying to get a sitcom so it's likely that it'll tank. The premise: consumer reporter at a fledgling cable news channel.

Quantico - Another FBI show on CBS, but I like to check these out...right now it's just a pilot order so no telling if we'll even see it.

Love Monkey - I have a passing interest in this because it stars Tom Cavanagh. Teri and I were big Ed fans.

The Unit - continuing the look for a replacement show for "The Agency" this show based on the book "Inside Delta Force" my fit the bill.

Posted by Jesse at 6:36 PM | Comments (1)

February 26, 2005

Better late than never

It's been just over a week since I finished catching the Super Bowl commercials...I thought the Nationwide and Ameriquest ones were the best. I'm not sure who MC Hammer paid to be in 2 Super Bowl commercials, but the 15 minutes of fame was good.

I also liked Ameriquest's "Don't judge to quickly" with the cat, but thought the "robbery" was the best of all of the commercials.

And yeah, I know - a month later, who cares?

Posted by Jesse at 6:46 PM | Comments (2)

February 16, 2005

The Glow...

The TiVo we earned with our rewards points arrived on Monday and was set up soon after that. Currently, we have 3 units, the new 140 hour, an 80 hour and a 40 hour. Our plan is to finish watching what is on the 40 hour unit and pass that on to Teri's mom - should be some time this week.

The new units come with a glowing front, which is kinda weird at first, but also makes the "TiVo man" a little more visible. The unit has a setting so you can change the backlight, or turn it off. It also came with version 5 of the TiVo software, which I hadn't heard of - no matter, it'll be upgraded to 7 soon enough.

On the downside, the 80 hour unit has been moved to the bedroom and we discovered it's not nearly as quiet as the 40 hour. Just more white noise for the room I suppose. Also, the ID number for the new unit ends with D1ED, which I hope is not a bad omen.

And, yes, feel free to list me as your referrer if you get a new unit!

Posted by Jesse at 9:32 AM | Comments (1)

February 14, 2005

American Dad

I know Family Guy, and you sir, are no Family Guy.

It has until May 1st to become a good show, but I'm not holding out any hope. At least when it begins, Family guy will be back with all new shows. Hope they don't wear that out as well.

Posted by Jesse at 1:57 PM | Comments (0)

February 10, 2005

On the next Amazing Race

Amazing Race is pretty much the best reality show out there, or at least in the beginning it was. This season I lost interest and had to ask a few times what was going on. Season 7 seems to be more of the same, people looking to get an "in road" to TV and movies.

That said, it looks like AR8 may return to the Amazing Race we know and love, hopefully they won't lose too many viewers in the mean time. AR8 will be done using families - 4 per team. Hopefully this will get them back on track and make it more about the people in the race and the race itself, not about the conflict. (AR9 will return to its normal format.)

Posted by Jesse at 1:33 PM | Comments (0)

February 7, 2005

TiVo HME

TiVo is about to evolve - far from what it is.

They've recently release HME an open source developer kit to help developers build applications for TiVo. First to come will be weather updates and I expect on-screen caller ID, but it could go much deeper pretty quick.

They've also issueed a challenge to developers, with the winners being announced at JavaOne. Interestingly, one of the judges is CEO of Netflix.

And, looking over the pages, I see: "At this time, HME applications cannot control any of the TiVo DVR’s scheduling, recording, or video playback capabilities." The key words are "At this time." I'd love to see more TiVo control from the computer especially when it comes to scheduling.

Posted by Jesse at 7:22 PM | Comments (1)

February 6, 2005

West Wing

Teri and I started watching the West Wing recently and I've found that it's more about the system than I thought. I originally thought that it was about Democrats and their pushing of the issues they want - it is, but not as much as it is about the system of government. Oddly, politics doesn't tend to interfere with the story about politics.

Anyhow there's been much speculation on what NBC should do after the Bartlet administration. Some say go republican, see it from that angle - I don't think it'll make a big difference to the show itself, but I think that would cost them some of their die-hard Democratic fans and since it's already a running show, there's not going to be a huge grab of new Republican fans. TVGuide says shut it down - I don't think that'll be the case either, it's still a money maker. Others are talking about which of the Democratic candidates will get the nod, with the lead going to Santos, played by Jimmy Smits.

May take - I think they may go independent. With either Vinnivk, the Republican Candidate or Santos taking the lead and inviting the other to be the Vice President. Other than party affiliation, they share a lot of the same views.

We'll see where they go, just wanted to be "on record."

Posted by Jesse at 2:23 PM | Comments (1)

February 5, 2005

Numb3rs

In the first episode, an FBI agent's brother develops a formula that helps predict where a serial criminal lives based on presumed random spots of attacks. Meanwhile, the mathematician is encouraged by his colleague to focus on university studies. Inspired by actual events, Numb3rs depicts how the confluence of police work and mathematics provides unexpected revelations and answers to the most perplexing criminal questions

I like the idea behind the show and I'll finish this review once I finish watching the Pilot, however, from the first 10 minutes, my here's my initial impression - it won't last. The writing needs to be better, the sets look cheap, the lighting is bad and the acting is forced. I do like seeing Judd Hirsch on TV again though.

...Okay, I've reached the end and my initial assesment stands. I like the idea, but it's going to have to be done much better in order to have any staying power.

Posted by Jesse at 1:12 PM | Comments (1)

January 28, 2005

Technology Update

TiVoToGo came out a while back and I didn't comment on it. Instead, I wanted to use it before commenting and ours, like most hadn't received the upgrade. I put one of them on the priority list and it was upgraded. So, now would be the time to comment on it, but I still haven't used it - and don't think that I will any time soon. Transferring shows to my laptop just isn't something that I need to do a lot of unless I'm going to be going somewhere - which isn't planned anytime soon. So, we've got it, whip-ti-do.

One another front, we're going to take the plunge and try VoIP, I'll let you know how that goes once we start using it on a regular basis.

Finally, on the computer front, my power problems seem to have been solved by a new battery. Some times the computer would decide it was discharging, even when it was plugged in, and reach 0% and shut off - annoying when you're not plugged in, very annoying on AC power. The battery was also only lasting a short time - fully charged, it would discharge to 79% in about 15 minutes, then if it dropped below that, it would fully discharge and shut off.

Posted by Jesse at 10:02 PM | Comments (0)

January 12, 2005

Rewarded

By now, you probably know that TiVo has a rewards program. Today, I placed an order for a FREE 140 hour TiVo. We should have it in about 8 weeks and never run out of space again!

If you're not familiar with the rewards program, you get 5,000 points for each referral and you can also earn points through credit card purchases. We haven't done so well on the referrals so I'd like to encourage any new TiVoers to feel free to use my e-mail when you sign up. I wonder if you can refer yourself when you sign up a new box.

Posted by Jesse at 10:20 AM | Comments (1)

December 30, 2004

Not so amazing

I'll admit that I watched Survivor, but it was The Amazing Race that sparked my interest in reality TV. Actually, I don't watch much "reality" shows because they aren't really real, they're all over the top. However, AR put real people in real situations - at least they used to.

This season, it seems like the producers tried to get all actors or models and it's ruining the show. AR is turning into something that I would expect to see on FOX and, according to MSNBC, it seems I'm not the only one that thinks so:

MSNBC - Race contestant has somebody to shove
This "stunt casting" dilutes the show's quality. It misses the point that the fun of the show was always watching ordinary people in these situations. And when producers refuse to take action when their cast goes too far, the show suffers.

Jonathan is just one of the problems of the show this time around. The show seems to have made the tasks less interesting and has far more "bunching points" so that no team is really ever in the lead. Add on top of that the xenophobic comments and attitudes that give Americans a bad name, and I'm almost ready to delete my season pass.

At least there's someone in the world that won't put up with it:

The cab driver finally had enough, and said, "Finito." He opened his door, climbed out, opened Victoria's door, and waved them out of his cab.

For once in the race, Jonathan's behavior had a consequence besides wounding Victoria. Somewhere in Budapest, there's a cab driver who "Amazing Race" fans and producers need to thank.

To the driver, whoever you are, Thank you.

Posted by Jesse at 2:48 PM | Comments (1)

December 13, 2004

TiVo - Noun or Verb?

TiVo has been on it's way to becoming a description for all DVRs; like Q-Tip describes cotton swabs. While this sounds like a good thing, and as an investor I want the name out there as much as possible, the fact is, as trademarks go, they have to work against this.

The New York Times says they're doing just that. They've stepped up efforts to make sure that news organizations avoid saying things like, "Be sure to TiVo 'The Apprentice' tonight."

So the answer to the asked question, Noun or Verb -

"Trademarks are always proper adjectives," the legal pedagogy at TiVo.com instructs. They are also "always singular."

Posted by Jesse at 9:54 PM

Beyond TV

There's no way to say it without sounding like a total geek so I'll come right out and admit; We have a computer hooked up to our TV. We watch most of our TV through TiVo but occasionally there's something that we didn't schedule and want to watch. Usually, a quick trip to the net and a few hours later, it's on the hard drive waiting to be watched. And, thanks to an All-in-Wonder card that I put in several years ago, the computer even has a remote.

I mention that because I've come across a new program that I'm thinking about giving a try. Slip Stream Media's Beyond TV. It claims it works just like TiVo, only it uses your computer and mpg format, which means you can take the shows with you or even edit them if you have video editing tools. Our computer meets all the system requirements as will most computers since they are relatively low. The only thing keeping me from trying it is that I really don't need a third PVR, especially when I can use the computer especially when I can just as easily set up the computer for automatic Torrent downloads.

Posted by Jesse at 10:04 AM

December 11, 2004

TiVoToGo

There's been some changes to the Manage My Account portion of the TiVo website. In preparation for TiVoToGo, they've added a link to the left that contains a media access key for your TiVo and the list that has your service number and account status now also contains a "Settings" that shows if transfers are allowed or not.

TiVoToGo is a package that will enable you to download content from TiVo to your computer or laptop so that you can take it with you - way easier than burning to DVD. The website for TTG doesn't have any information on it (other than "Thank you for your patience") but the fact that it's live is a good sign that it'll be here soon.

On a speculative note, I think that TTG will allow you to share programs with other TiVo users as well. It appears that the Media Access Key is good for any TiVo content, not just content from your TiVo.

http://www.tivo.com/togo/

Posted by Jesse at 1:51 PM

December 5, 2004

On the tube

It seems fox is making sure I stay up to see the end of the Super Bowl. Two shows that I want to TiVo will premier after the Super Bowl is over - 24 and American Dad (from the makers of Family Guy).

In other TV, I'm also thinking about taking a peek at Battlestar Galactica (SCI-FI) which debuts on Jan. 14 at 9, then moves to it's time on Fridays at 10. I watched the old one with Lorne Greene and it'll be interesting seeing Edward James Olmos as Commander Adama. Has anyone heard anything about this show, is it gonna be any good?

The other show that I am thinking about watching made me think of JC. "My Name is Earl" (NBC) revolves around a low-rent crook who, after winning the lottery, decides to use his limited yet oddly effective intelligence to right the wrongs he has made in his life. "Limited yet oddly effective" just sounds like a phrase JC would use.

Lastly PAX has ordered 13 more episodes of Faith Under Fire. This show, which airs Saturday nights 10:00/9:00c and is hosted by Lee Strobel, is Hardball meets Christianity. They usually have two guest, one on each side of the topic. Topics have included creation vs. evolution, is God Pro-Choice, should doctors pray with patients, and other hot-bottom topics.

Posted by Jesse at 2:22 PM | Comments (4)

December 1, 2004

I'm sorry to say, you've both been eliminated

Just in case you haven't seen the announcement, LAX was canceled by NBC. While it was a show I liked and would have keep watching, I'm not surprised that it got canned. It had zero character development - but it had plenty of chance and plenty of good characters. Actually, I was surprised at the number of possible stories that they had. I didn't think that there could have been that many things happening at an airport.

In other news, CSI:NY didn't make the cut at the Smith home. I canceled the season pass today and set the already recorded ones to space as needed - may watch them, may not. The shows not all that bad but it doesn't have anything that made it special or anything that made it even slightly above average, other than the initials CSI. And I think that's why I don't really care for it. It's an average cop show that they want people to watch so they put the initials CSI in th title. They haven't done anything with the characters and they hardly ever show the lab much less develop anything about what goes on there. Nothing special here - time needed to watch better shows.

The title hinted at the Amazing Race so I'll mention my thoughts on that as well - the sharks are circling. The show is focusing too much on how much the racers antagonize their teammates, not on the race and not on the fight against other teams. Further the tasks have gotten mundane. Gone are the days of the giant swing, now we're counting pots and pans. Gone are the days of rope bridges, now we're riding bikes and unrolling hay. It's time for the producers and editors to go back to the first two seasons and re-learn what it is that sold people on the race before it becomes a thing of the past.

Posted by Jesse at 9:53 PM | Comments (1)

November 28, 2004

Final Jeopardy

I can't imagine that it's not all over the blog-o-sphere by now but - SPOILERS ABOUND (highlight to read darkend text). If you get this via RSS and it's not blacked out - stop reading now unless you want to know.

Ken Jennings added a boost to Jeopardy! ratings, but it was also very irritating to some fans.  In fact, for many it ruined their viewing pleasure. Teri has taken to jumping to the end of the episode to see how much he's won, then deciding if she'll watch the show. Of course, rumors have abound that he lost at a taping not to long ago - around win 75. This week he passed win 70 so the time is getting close - in fact, it's close enough that you should set up your TiVo for the episode on Tuesday, November 30, his 75th episode after winning $2.5 million.

Final Jeopardy category: Business and Industry

Answer: Most of this firm's 70,000 seasonal white-collar employees work only 4
months a year.

Nancy Surg provided the correct question, "What is H&R Block?" which gave her $14,401, one dollar more than Ken had at the end of Double Jeopardy. Ken then answered "What is FedEx?" dropping him to $8,799.

Posted by Jesse at 9:58 PM | Comments (1)

November 24, 2004

Homemade TiVo

In the not to distant past, there was a good deal of talk about using RSS feeds and BitTorrent to ensure that you never missed an episode of your favorite show. About 2 weeks ago someone posted how to make this happen and their site has been off-line since then due to excessive bandwidth usage (to many hits).

However, googling will give you plenty of ideas on how to make this happen or you can check out this article that has step by step directions. The upside of this is this method is that you don't need to search for a particular show and wait for it to download; it'll download automatically and be on your hard drive the morning after it airs.

For the record though, just get a TiVo. Then, you can watch the show while it's recording and you can use your TV, without needing to hook up the computer to it. The plus of BitTorrent is that you can take a show with you on your laptop, but TiVoToGo will negate that advantage by the end of the year.

Posted by Jesse at 3:41 PM

24, West Wing, and the 10 Commandments

A year or so ago a friend got me interested in 24 and this year, a friend finally got me interested in the West Wing, so, for those that watch those shows, here's some tidbits:

West Wing - Teri Polo, from Meet the Parents is slated to play the wife of Jimmy Smits' character for four episodes this season. The interesting news is that she has an option to return for 12 episodes next season and that Smits' plays a "congressman from Texas with strong presidential aspirations."

24 - Alberta Watson will be playing Erin Driscoll, CTU's new director.

In other TV News, George Clooney (and others) is developing a 10-hour mini-series for FX that will explore the spiritual and moral issues faced by modern America. Each "episode" will be directed by a different director, be self-contained using ethnicities, classes and religious persuasions, and will focus on one of the Ten Commandments.

Posted by Jesse at 10:56 AM

November 23, 2004

Family Guy Returns

During Family Guy's initial run, "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein" wasn't shown because the network thought it might be seen as anti-Semitic. However, in typical Fox fashion, they've decided to show it - it'll make its broadcast debut Dec. 10 at 9:30 pm/ET, with a minor alteration.

Posted by Jesse at 10:33 PM | Comments (1)

November 8, 2004

Reality Hoax

Other than Amazing Race, I'm not really into the reality TV shows, though I have enjoyed the ones with a twist. Joe Schmo is a prime example of one that I enjoyed. In this Spike TV series, they put a guy on a reality TV show, only the whole thing was staged, ala The Trueman show. The Schmo series had a pretty big following and it looks like both NBC and FOX are trying to capitalize on that with their own hoax shows.

Usually, FOX is far over the top in their reality shows, but so far, My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss has been rather funny and has poked fun at shows like "The Apprentice" where the contestants are just out to make it big. So far, they've shown what lengths people will go to in order to make a good impression, and if it looks rich, it will be assumed that it is...like the cheap Champaign they told them was vintage grade a Champaign.

On the other hand, NBC's $25 Million Dollar Hoax seems like it will be just as cruel as I thought it would be. In this, they tell someone's family that she's won $5 million. Then, in order to win the prize, she must spend it all on herself and get them to turn out for her grand-prize drawing. I'm not sure if it's more cruel to the family or the girl pulling the hoax.

Posted by Jesse at 11:23 PM | Comments (1)

November 6, 2004

iSpy

We just finished watching I-Spy -based on the previews I really didn't think that it would be that good. I'm happy to say that I was wrong, I found the movie quite entertaining and well done, even laughed during a few parts.

The whole plot was far-fetched but it was a comedy, so it really didn't matter. Kind of Austin Powers, only American and actually funny.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

Posted by Jesse at 9:45 PM | Comments (1)

November 5, 2004

TiVo Permalinks

The iTunes music store has been encouraging websites to post links to music at their store. This has been so successful that they have actually paid some sites to post links. So what does this have to do with TiVo?

Well, George wrote them a letter saying how useful it would be if TiVo created permalinks so that when someone posts about a show, you could click on the link and have it show up in your ToDo list using remote scheduling.

In other words, if TiVo could create a way that Network TV sites and review sites could enable users to click on a link and have it dropped on the TiVo, it could be a real boon for TiVo, just like it has been for iTMS.

Not being ones to sit on their laurels, TiVo did just that. You can now create links to TiVo Central Searches, individual episodes, or shows and TiVo Central Online will adjust to the users time and channel listing automatically to match up the show.

Now, when I talk about shows like Third Watch you can click the link and add it to your TiVo ToDo list. Now all they need to do is make shorter URLs and make them easier to generate and we'll really have something. Is TiVo RSS next?

Lastly, if you are thinking about TiVo, don't hesitate, go get one....not a DVR, go get TiVo. When you sign up, I'd love the referral, but you should get one even if you don't give me the referral.

And for those keeping track, I need one more referral for the 140 hour unit - feel free to pass a referral on so Teri can have a real nice Christmas gift.

Posted by Jesse at 10:41 PM

November 1, 2004

Center of the Universe

Just finished watching the pilot of "Center of the Universe" and found it was nothing special. I like John Goodman, and he'll make a decent dad in this sitcom, but there was nothing special about the show that would keep brining me back.

I've canceled my season pass, not so much because it was a bad show, but because it was average and I just don't want to devote more time to TV.

I was planning on adding West Wing to the mix, but thanks to ABC messing with start and end times, Lost now causes an overlap, so I'll continue watching it via bitTorrent.

Posted by Jesse at 11:34 AM

October 29, 2004

JAG

RAdm. Chegwidden retired last year and, so far, has not been replaced. I suppose that's not uncommon, it can take a while to fill top billets, particularly ones where politics play a major role. However, what I have a problem with is that the acting JAG has been filled from within the main office - Commander Turner.

I can understand the desire to fill from within, however, I would imagine that the JAG Corp would have a number of Captains or even a Rear Admiral Lower Half, just seems there would be someone above O-5. I believe it's common to fill a billet one or even two ranks ahead of where you are, but three is a bit of a stretch.

Other than that, they've returned to the court room and it's about time. The last season or two have been jetting around various locations under the pretext of working with the CIA. The show works much better when it returns to its roots.

Posted by Jesse at 9:01 PM

October 28, 2004

Keep Until I Delete no longer an option

Tivo is set to release a patch that will put restrictions on how long pay-per-view and video-on-demand programs can be saved. Turns out the change in motto wasn't just kicks, since you'll no longer be able to "Watch What You Want, When You Want."

However, it's not completely TiVo's doing. Macrovision changed it's licensing and since TiVo wanted you to be able to use the HMO and TiVoToGo to transfer these types of shows, they had to comply.

Some will make a big issue of this, but I don't see the big deal. There's no reason to keep movies on your DVR when you can buy the DVD. Let see, an 80 hour TiVO will hold about 25 medium quality movies - assuming PPVs are around $5, that's $125 pluss $200, then you need to add in the monthly subscription for TiVo - so you'll spend a minimum of $325. 25 DVDs will cost around $375. So, for less than $50 (remember - monthly subscription costs) you can have a higher quality video, better sound, and any extras on the DVD.

I can't see storing anything on a DVR for that long. Most of our recordings are "Keep Until I Delete" but only because we may not finish watching some of the shows until into the summer. We don't have anything that 'lives' on our TiVo.

(Has TiVo Forsaken Us? - Wired)

Posted by Jesse at 12:10 AM

October 23, 2004

???

Maybe I'm out of the loop on this one or something since I don't usually see commercials.
I just saw a commercial for "Seed of Chucky" and my first thought was aren't they done with this yet?!? Then, when they flashed up the rating/credits and announced when the movie would be released in big letters it said:
Britney Spears does not appear in this film.

Posted by Jesse at 11:43 PM

October 19, 2004

A nail in the coffin

Just a short time ago I noted that Hawaii was placed on hiatis and that few shows make it back from that status. Looks like Hawaii won't be on of them.

Posted by Jesse at 9:34 PM | Comments (1)

October 16, 2004

LAX to ITO

The lowest rated show on NBC this season was Last Comic Standing. They canned that so now Hawaii is the lowest rated. There's also been some trouble with LAX...In all, NBC has some poor showings this year. They're going to try to get LAXs ratings up by moving it to Wednesday where Hawaii used to be - which I think will kill it, it's not an 8 o'clock show. Hawaii has been put on indefinite hiatus, but they still want the remaining 13 to be filmed.

NBC doesn't have anything to replace Hawaii with so it may be back, but most shows don't recover from hiatus.

Posted by Jesse at 6:39 PM | Comments (1)

October 12, 2004

Grumpy - the couch potato

There hasn't been to many new shows that I have been interested in this year and some of the old ones are losing a bit of their flavor - but there are still some good shows out there - somewhere. Here's what I think of what we're watching.

• LAX - I'm still on the fence with this one, it's Okay and something to watch. So far the stories really haven't been anything special nor do I expect them to become that way. I think that if NBC had some other shows waiting in the wings this would be on the chopping block. It's only a matter of time before I cancel the season pass or NBC cans the show.
• Last Comic Standing - NBC pulled the plug. It was funny the first time and entertaining the second - the third trip to the well was too much.
• NCIS - This show has staying power on CBS and I have enjoyed the previous seasons. It may be my TV watching mood, but I haven't been into the last few episodes. I'm not sure if last season's running terrorist hunt was a jumping of the shark or not.
• Father of the Pride - I'm still recording this, but I'm not sure why. I think the only reason that it's still on our list is that there aren't any other 30 minute shows currently on.
• Judging Amy - I've only seen one episode so far so the jury is still out. It's always had ups and downs in past seasons so I'll save judgment until the next few shows.
• Lost - Only saw the premiere and as I mentioned, I don't know if we'll watch this or not.
• Hawaii - Entertaining, but there's only so many shows that you can do on an island before it gets old.
• Bernie Mac Show - Somehow a show about a grumpy man and his "kids" still appeals to me. And Bernie Mac is funny.
• CSI:NY - only one show so far, but it's not looking good. We had the reference to 9/11 and Citicorp building and next week will get the rat problem and shooting in central park. Alot of New York, all rather dark and edgy, but not much crime scene investigating. How many stereotypes until we get to the CSI part of the show.
• Joey - It's no Seinfield and won't have a long run, but it's starting to grow on me just a bit. It's not that funny, but at least it's getting closer than most other shows - and it's only 30 minutes.
• CSI - Still going strong. hopefully it won't get pulled down by the spin-offs and try to become about something other than solving crimes.
• ER - It might be time to end on a high note. It's starting to recycle some of the stories and conflicts with different faces.
• Without a Trace - Still has my interest. I wasn't sure how much the back stories on the characters would drag down the missing persons routine, but they're doing well with entering just enough so that the show doesn't lean to far and go over the top with missing persons. Plus I'm interested in seeing the lead actor try to get his job back after his wife completely hosed him.
• Joan of Arcadia - They need to get back to the original premise of the show. The whole Joan is crazy story just isn't working.
• JAG - I like military dramas. I haven't watched too much of this yet but it would be nice to see them get back in the court room and start being JAG rather than Spies R Us. Of course, they went way off path with the spying and the "flashback" shows last year and I'm still watching.
• Third Watch - Awesome premiere and very well done shows since. Will 'Bosco' be back - and they got rid of like 2 main characters and I didn't even notice - well done. This is the one show on TV worth watching live (no, I still TiVo it).
• Medical Investigation - Dude, lighten up. There's some over the top acting and it's turning me off, but I'll give it some time. At least then I can stay out of the Teri & Allyson dog house.
• American Dreams - Keeping my interest, especially JJ's story-line.
• Cold Case - haven't watched any of the new season yet.

Everything else hasn't premiered yet, but there's what I think of this year's shows, I hope there's something better next year. Maybe someone will bring back The Agency.

Posted by Jesse at 9:40 PM | Comments (2)

October 9, 2004

Run TiVo Desktop as a Service

TiVo has a program, TiVo Desktop, that you can install on your computer to allow you to view photos and hear music through the Home Media Option. The problem is, you have to be logged on to your computer for it to "publish" music for your TiVo. However, setting it up as a service on NT, 2000, or XP will allow you to access your music and photos even if you are not logged on.

I've been asked how to do this a few times so, to save myself some typing, I'm publishing here. This procedure requires you to make changes in your system registry, so use this at your own risk - remember, editing the registry can cause serious problems that require reinstallation of the operating system.

The Tivo Desktop has two main executables, TiVo publisher and TiVo server. TiVoPublisher is used to select what music and photos you want to be available to your TiVo. TiVo server is the program that connects with your TiVo to send the music and photos. This is the one that we'll want to set up as a Window's service.

• Download and install TiVo Desktop
• Make sure you have Instrsrv.exe and Srvany.exe (available on the NT resource kit, or as a zip here)
• Drop Instrsrv.exe and Srvany.exe into C:\
• Open a Command Prompt and type: c:\instsrv.exe TivoSVR c:\srvany.exe. You should get a notice that the services was successfully added.
  You can verify that the service was created correctly. Check the registry to verify that HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\TivoSVR exists. (ImagePath should be set to c:/srvany.exe)
• Run Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe)and locate the following subkey:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\TivoSVR
• From the Edit menu, click Add Key. Type the following and click OK:
  
  Key Name: Parameters
  Class : <leave blank>
• Select the Parameters key. From the Edit menu, click Add Value. Type the following and click OK:
  
  Value Name: Application
  Data Type : REG_SZ
  String : <path to TiVoServer.exe>\TiVoServer.exe
  (default install path is C:\Program Files\TiVo\Desktop - be sure to include the full path, including drive)
• Close Registry Editor
• Open TiVoDesktop
• From the menubar, select Server/Tivo Server Properties
  
  Uncheck Start TiVo Server when I log on to Windows
• Open Window's Services Control Panel
• Select TiVoSVR
• Set the logon account to the same account name and password that you use to publish content with the TiVo Desktop

The registry editor is slightly different for XP, but if you are familiar with using the Regedit or Regedt32 you won't have any problems. If you have questions, feel free to post them or even better, ask in the TiVoCommunity.

Posted by Jesse at 4:44 PM

October 8, 2004

Getting the Ax

We have our first casualty of the new season. Listen Up! has been axed from our season pass list. It wasn't a bad show, but it wasn't anything special either. I posted about its impending fate earlier and gave it one more shot. Just don't have the time or desire to watch the same show over and over again.

On other season pass fronts, I am beginning to tire of Medical Investigation, but it's just starting to grow on Teri so we'll see where that goes.

And lastly, if you don't have one, buy a TiVo!

Posted by Jesse at 10:58 PM | Comments (1)

October 4, 2004

Lost

Teri and I watched the pilot of Lost this afternoon. The title is pretty accurate, I was lost during a good portion of the show. I'm interested in seeing where the show is headed, but I don't know that I am interested enough to watch it. I'm not sure the show will last so I don't know if we'll set up a season pass or not.

The main problem that I had was that during the middle of the 2 hour pilot, commercial breaks were coming about every four minutes (I started timing them).

Posted by Jesse at 2:54 PM

Invasion Iowa

Riverside Iowa is known as the future birthplace of Captain/Admiral James T. Kirk. Since 1985, fans have been gathering in this town each year to celebrate the trek franchise.
So where else would be a better place to film Shatner's new independent film "Invasion Iowa"? Except it's not really independent. Actually, it's not even a film. Shatner, along with the producers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick of Joe Schmo fame set the town up for a very elaborate hoax that will be replayed on Spike TV in early 2005.

The cast and crew spent 10 days shooting at various places in town, held auditions for roles, hired film crew and unwittingly involved locals in viewing the dailies and becoming confidants of Shatner and company. Shater, who is already lampooned for his acting, is even more over the top during this production and brings along his entourage of a neurotic assistant, a spiritual advisor, and a flightily leading actress.

I enjoyed Joe Schmo and thought is was extremely well done (but sometimes cruel). Joe Schmo lampooned reality shows, this show will poke fun at the craziness of Hollywood. It's been in the planning stages for more than a year so I hope it's of the same calaber as Schmo.

Posted by Jesse at 12:00 PM | Comments (1)

Listen Up!

We're close to having our first casualty of the season. I've watched 2 episodes of Listen Up, and they were okay, but really nothing special. The plot was the same in both of them, father is learning the ropes of being a dad of a teen, and the daughter is being snotty and learning to be a teen. They argue, the mother is a voice of reason, and at the end they make up.

Not sure how many times you can run with this story line - I'll give it one, maybe two more shows before the season pass is deleted.

Posted by Jesse at 11:56 AM

September 30, 2004

It's Official - TiVo Rules

It's been talked about and written about for a while now, but today, TiVo and Netflix made it official.

TiVo, Netflix sign movies-on-demand deal
Netflix and TiVo on Thursday announced a partnership to develop a movies-on-demand service as well as efforts to secure content from Hollywood studios.

Netflix spokeswoman Shernaz Daver did not divulge many details of the partnership, but said that it's a first step in a multiyear process toward delivering movies digitally over the Internet. A Net video-on-demand service will give Netflix subscribers an alternate way to rent DVDs, she said.

Now we'll see how Hollywood is involved and how much they hold them up from their goal of delievering movies by the end of 2005.

Posted by Jesse at 11:1