Well, the other night my wife was watching a movie through Netflix on the TiVo and about four times it just quit out to the main TiVo menu. What the frick?

I told my wife to give the XBox 360 a try and see how it handles. Well turns out that the 360 had a hiccup too, but you know what it was? A buffer underrun! That’s right! My internet connection for whatever reason couldn’t keep up with the Netflix stream and it ran out of data. Of course the XBox client was smart enough to realize this, displayed a message and buffered some before streaming again.

My TiVo client? Crashed out. Talk about two code bases not up to par with one another.

So if you’re having the same issues, odds are your network connection (for whatever reason) is not keeping up with the Netflix stream and it’s just crashing out to the main menu of TiVo.

My suggested work around for the time being is try watching it on your XBox 360 if you have the option. Otherwise, you might want to contact your cable provider or stop torrenting all that norwegian snow porn

Cheers!

This week Microsoft rolled out Netflix instant streaming support with the new XBox 360 Dashboard (which they’re calling the “New Xbox Experience”) while TiVo is also rolling out Netflix support this week in their latest beta firmware update.

Netflix streaming allows people who subscribe to the (currently) $8.99 subscription to stream UNLIMITED movies available for Instant Online viewing to their XBox or TiVo for no extra cost on top of their monthly subscription. To sweeten the deal, Netflix also offers up to 300 movies in ‘HD’ quality at no extra charge.

So, let’s review the score. HD-DVD has gone the way of Beta Max and although both Apple and Amazon have offered rental and purchasing of movies electronically but are still bound to their respective platforms (Apple being iPhone/Pod and Amazon being TiVo) including the PC. I’ve yet to see either party partner with another distribution outlet which is expected from Apple but almost a shock with Amazon.

When I think about it though, Netflix is an obvious answer to the question of what company would be the first to provide movies to Microsoft for online streaming. Netflix partnered with Microsoft in the first place to provide online instant viewing of movies through Microsofts (at the time, new) Silverlight technology, which is a competitor to Flash (which popular video sites like YouTube use).

So now you have a company with an already established shipping and distribution system setup for physical media (both DVD and Blu-Ray) and has partnered with two ‘direct to TV’ companies who have in total over 30 million set top boxes already installed in homes across the WORD! Could this be the coming of the revolution?

I certainly hope so!

About six months back I finally decided to just sell my entire DVD collection. I personally was just done with physical media. I was tired of moving them, dusting them, having them take up space and never really sitting down to watch them. I mean really, I owned a little over 200 movies and sat down AT MOST one time a month to watch one. It got so bad that some of the movies were still in their original shrink wrap packaging. The industry had hooked me on the idea that I needed to COLLECT movies and I had come to the realization that it’s seriously a stupid hobby.

I became a personal flag barer for electronic distribution starting with the ability of renting a movie from Amazon unbox for only $.99 (when they’re on sale) but even then I’d have to wait about 30 minutes for the movie to buffer enough for me to be able to watch it the entire way through without having to pause and let it buffer some more.

Enter Netflix. Not only does it let me INSTANTLY begin watching a movie by detecting my connection speed and ability to download data at real time, but I can also ‘shop’ online for more movies to watch while not at home using Netflix.com. This means I can think of a movie while at work or on the go, queue it up and watch it instantly when I get home.

The bonus? This is all covered under my $8.99 Netflix account that I already had. Oh sure, there are more costs involved, but let’s break that down (and to keep it fair, I’ll break down as if I’m starting with NOTHING):

- Netflix: $8.99/mo ($107/year)

- XBox 360: $199 for Arcade Edition ($199/year, first year)

- XBox Live Gold Account: $7.99/mo ($49.99/year)

- Digital Cable: $39 for 10mbit down/1mbit up (in my area) ($480/year)

So even including your monthly Cable bill, you’re only looking at a monthly average cost of only $70 or only $29 pr month if you don’t include your monthly cable internet bill! FOR UNLIMITED INSTANT MOVIE VIEWING!

That’s pretty amazing to me! I hope more people hop on this bandwagon and we begin the revolution! Down with physical media!

I’ll step off my soapbox now

Cheers!

Many, many moons ago I purchased my first TiVo. A 20GB Series 1 recorder. This was back when Cable DVR’s didn’t exist and Digital Cable was still a developing technology. TiVo was glorious in its ability to record my shows and it’s super easy setup of scheduled recordings, handling overlaps with grace. The ability to set recording priority, to me, made TiVo the perfect television recording device ever made.

Fast Forward three years later. My Series 1 has mutated into a Dual 120GB recorder with built in WiFi for network connectivity. My love for TiVo is just as strong as the day I first brought it home. In three years, after all my modifications, it was still just as stable and had never given me a single issue. It performed its thankless job and gave me absolutely no grief.

But the clouds of change were on the horizon.

I had purchased my first HDTV. A Mitsubishi 50″ Rear Projection HDTV. My world had become awash with terms like HDTV, Dolby Digital, 1080i. My poor Series 1 recorder was unable to speak this new language and fell victim.

With these new times came a new DVR. The only offering out here in San Diego was the Scientific Atlanta 8300HD. DEPENDING on the Cable Provider and the DVR software they’re using, this can be a half-way decent box. I know that Time Warner in San Diego uses Pioneer Passport Echo as their DVR software. Not nearly as friendly as the TiVo interface, it did have some basic features like program recording priority and ‘Season Pass’ management. In addition to the basic features that TiVo had, this DVR also supported HD recording.

A few years later, we moved to North County San Diego which is only serviced by Cox in my area. Cox also has the Scientific Atlanta 8300HD, but their using Pioneer Passport as their DVR software. This software is terribly out of date and looks like it hasn’t been updated in YEARS! The DVR functionality has about as many features as a VCR. Sure, it has dual tuner, but if you had a third overlapping recording, it’d ask you which recording to permanently cancel. It couldn’t handle simple logic like, “Just record these two shows over this one”.

And this was my frustrated, teeth grinding life for a little over a year.

That was until TiVo announced the new TiVoHD which was at a decent price ($299) and had the ability to record HD! At last, my previous TiVo’s great grandson had come to rescue me from the icy grasp Cox had on my balls.

This brings us to present day.

While my wife opted to toss the Scientific Atlanta 8300HD out the window, I told her that unfortunately Cox wants this floppy turd of a DVR back so it can torment another customer.

I called Cox this morning to gleefully order my CableCARDs. I thought to myself, “How hard could this be? They should be 100% willing to cooperate because I’ll still be a paying customer. Worse case, they’re losing about $5/mo because I won’t be using their DVR service.” Little did I know how frustrating the process would be.

The first operator I speak to gives me the following words of Wisdom:

• The Cox DVR is just as good, if not better than the TiVoHD because of the following reasons:
  • It doesn’t use CableCARDs so the picture Quality is Better (Bull flop!)
  • It can record two shows at once just like the TiVoHD (True, but god forbid you have three that overlap)
  • The TiVo is one way, meaning it can’t do Pay-Per-View or OnDemand (True.. but..)
  • CableCARDs are fragile and break frequently (Yes, if you try and eat them)
• TiVo charges $20 per month which is twice what Cox charges for an HDDVR (Three Year Pre-Pay, $8.30/mo)

The only point from the above list that holds any water is the one-way capability. Recently this has been brought to light by the tech community and the cable providers and TiVo are currently working on a solution. This doesn’t matter much to me as I don’t use OnDemand much these days and I’ve never purchased any Pay-Per-View.

The next thing they told me simply blew me out of the water.

A Cable Technician will have to be sent out to setup the CableCARDs. It’s too complicated for a home user to set this up, so they actually have to send someone out. Oh yeah, and there’s a $50 installation fee.

What the fuck? When I order a DVR from Cox, it gets shipped out to me by UPS and I’m supposed to set it up on my own. Wiring it into my TV, Home Theater and Cable all by myself. Cox seems OK with this. But a CableCARD? A device that only requires me to just plug it into the front of my TiVo for it to work?

Well, it seems that the act of inserting a CableCARD into the TiVo is too technical of a task for a mere mortal to perform, so they have to send a technician out to perform this heroic task.

So my advice to anyone out there reading this that’s thinking about purchasing a TiVoHD??

Do it! It’s just as great, if not better, than my Series 1. The video quality looks great and there’s tons of new features.

When calling your local cable company, just do this:

• Say you’re returning the DVR. Don’t give a reason, just say you’re done with it. If they persist, tell them it took money from your wallet and borrowed your car without asking.
• Ask for two CableCARDs. Again, don’t give a reason. You’ll be 100% better off.

Cheers!