Digital Media Bytes: Capitol Hill Edition

Mark Cuban, YouTube, TiVo, and Sling Media hit the Hill yesterday, chatting up the House Telecommunications and Internet Subcommittee. Congress gets earful on net neutrality, CableCARD, YouTube: Ars Technica Congressman-Cam Debuts on YouTube: NewTeeVee Hill-icon Valley: Washington Post

Top 5 TiVo Hacks (for non-hackers)

1. 30 Second Skip

tivo-skip.jpgReplayTV offered the consumer friendly Commercial Advance feature, which probably contributed to their court woes and ultimate demise. Fortunately, TiVo provides a “secret” (shh, don’t tell) code for enabling a 30 second skip. Press the ->| button 4-5 times to quickly bypass most commercial interludes. It’s not quite as cool as Replay’s feature, but hey TiVo is still selling hardware.

TiVo Platforms:

  • Series1, Series2, Series3/HD, DirecTV

Directions:

  • Play a TiVo recording
  • On your remote hit Select, Play, Select, 3, 0, Select
  • Live life commercial free

2. Expand Storage

drive.jpgOne of the easiest ways to increase the value of your TiVo is to enlarge your recording capacity by upgrading your internal hard drive with something a bit more roomy. You could do it yourself, but most folks will be most comfortable buying a prepped drive. You won’t find any bargains, but you’ll save yourself some time and energy.

TiVo Platforms:

  • Series1, Series2, Series3/HD, DirecTV

Directions:

  • Visit DVRUpgrade
  • Find your TiVo model, select your capacity, enter your credit card info
  • Record every episode of Stargate and Stargate Atlantis

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Digital Media Bytes

A periodic roundup of relevant news… from our other blogs: BBC iPlayer Given the Go-Ahead: WebTVWire Simple Convergence– Caller ID on the TV: Connected Home 2 Go If You’re Gonna Dig the Trenches: Connected Home 2 Go Waivers on the Eve of The Cable Show: Connected Home 2 Go

Beginning TiVo Programming

A few months ago when no one was looking Kyle and John (of AudioFaucet fame) put out a TiVo HME book. Beginning TiVo Programming retails for $39.99, though Amazon has it under $27 and shipped free. Having toyed with the idea of a book and dismissing it due to the massive investment of time (versus … Read more

Slingin’ Apple TV

I’ve gotten a lot of questions on how the Slingbox compliments Apple TV. Being a Sling Media employee, I helped put together a short video from one of our labs. We demonstrate using a Slingbox PRO and HD Connect to placeshift Apple TV iTunes content to a Sprint Motorola Q and Windows laptop. Our new … Read more

Google Reader for Wii

While a custom Wii Google Reader wouldn’t have been at the top of my list of interface tweaks (how about a new color scheme?), that’s exactly what Google has done. Since I rarely wear my glasses and most feeds I read for ZNF “work” this doesn’t really appeal to me, not to mention there may … Read more

Digeo’s Big Q4?

On Monday, Digeo announced that in Q4 they’ll offer MSOs a new Moxi HD set-top box with CableCARD support allowing them to comply with the FCC’s separable security mandate. They hope to sell these to cable-cos (i.e. Charter) at 1/3 the price of their current boxes. Some features: Moxi 4.1 software improvements including faster rendering … Read more