Hacks Archives - Zatz Not Funny!

Save Your Slingbox (if you act fast!)

As discussed earlier this week, DISH is officially shuttering Slingbox in a few days when they bring the servers down. However, given the number of inquiries received, I began investigating alternatives and have identified the most viable solution to keep your video streams a’flowing… Over the last several months, Gerry Dubois of Nova Scotia has … Read more

Trick Out Your HOME Audio With Spotify CAR Thing

While Spotify no longer manufactures hardware, they continue to unload Car Thing inventory at steep discounts. Given generally stronger European consumer protections, I suspect they’ll continue to support it for quite some time. As such, a number of my Twitter buddies have been picking up this automotive accessory … for their home offices. You see, … Read more

TiVo Bolt Hard Drive Upgrades Are A Go

As Best Buy is wont to do, new inventory sometimes ends up on shelves and available for purchase before a manufacturer may have intended. As such, several have been tinkering with TiVo Bolt for a few days now. And, the good news is, internal hard drive replacements are a go.

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While Bolt may only be offered with only a 2.5″ 500GB or 1TB WD drive, we can go larger and there’s enough clearance in the enclosure for models taller than 9.5mm. Having said that, I still worry about power consumption and heat dissipation given the new form factor … and would probably recommend this 2TB Samsung ($94) — it’s a proven product at a reasonable price point that will provide sufficient DVR storage for many.

The TiVo Roamio Heart Transplant – Easy, Breezy

tivo-roamio-drive

Given periodic tuner conflicts with my Premiere XL4/Elite, due to recording duties and Mini streaming, and a desire to periodically offload DVR-ed shows, something the devalued Slingbox cannot offer, I’ve been quite pleased since taking TiVo up on their 10 year customer deal last month for a 6-tuner Roamio. Indeed, while TiVo’s “Stream” functionality isn’t currently as robust or reliable as Sling’s, I downloaded several episodes of Arrow onto an iPad for two recent flights. Even with the more frequent drops or need to restart a stream as the 5PM news flips to 6PM, given TiVo’s need to initiate a recording prior to streaming, it’s still far more efficient and pleasant than Sling for “watching TV” at the dinner table. My only real issue since upgrading TiVo has been storage capacity…

My Lifetimed Premiere XL4 provided 3TB for recordings. And while we’re probably watching less “cable” television these days, we’re hoarding much more content as we accumulate seasons and half-seasons for binge viewing, sans commercial interruption. TiVo had offered me the Roamio Plus (1TB) for $500 or the Roamio Pro (3TB) for $700, both with Lifetime service. I figured I’d give the smaller drive a shot to potentially save a few bucks… and knowing I could upgrade on my own down the road, for less than TiVo charges for the drive delta, should 1TB prove insufficient.

Fast forward a few weeks…

Stream TiVo Recordings to Amazon Fire TV (Today!)

tivo-firetv

While we’ve seen the TiVo experience running on Amazon Fire TV, there’s no telling when or if the company will ever make this feature available to retail customers. However, with Android streaming in the bag, Roamio Pro/Plus and TiVo Stream owners can take matters in their own hands by sideloading the TiVo APK onto Fire TV or Fire TV Stick… as recorded here.

Getting your TiVo-ed shows onto Fire TV does require a small amount of elbow grease. First off, you’ll need a method to navigate the touch-centric TiVo app interface on a television. Fire TV ($80) owners can get by just fine with a mouse. However, the portless Stick ($40) requires other means of control such as this wireless Android gaming controller or the Wukong app should you happen to have an Android smartphone or tablet available. Then, you’ll need to track down the TiVo Android app APK file. If it doesn’t end up hosted somewhere, the APK can be retrieved via something like Raccoon from a computer. Lastly,

WeaKnees Takes TiVo Roamio to 6TB of Recording Capacity

While the TiVo Roamio line may officially max out at 3TB of recording capacity, licensed reseller WeaKnees has offered 4TB drives nearly since launch. And, should that 637 hours of HD content not be enough, WeaKnees has just unveiled 6TB drives – a TiVo upgrade good for a whopping 960 hours of high def content. The WeaKnees 6TB DIY kits clock in at $450 while … Read more

Bypass Roku Credit Card Requirement

While Roku remains our go-to streaming player, gifting still leaves something to be desired. And, as the company eclipses 10 million units and pressures streaming partners, Roku continues to solicit credit card information for the small number of apps that require it and to take a cut of every M-Go video rental or purchase. Of course, this isn’t unusual … Read more

Accessing Roku’s Secret Menu

While I’d been vaguely familiar with a prior version of Roku’s service menu, I hadn’t yet stumbled upon the one associated with their newer user interface… Until a co-worker mentioned he’d had some issues resulting in Roku support directing him here. While there’s not a whole lot of interest for most of us on any sort … Read more