http://www.pvrwire.com PVR Wire http://www.pvrwire.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.pvrwire.com en-us Copyright 2008 Blogsmith, LLC. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.pvrwire.com/2007/01/24/directivo-owners-reboot-now/http://www.pvrwire.com/2007/01/24/directivo-owners-reboot-now/http://www.pvrwire.com/2007/01/24/directivo-owners-reboot-now/#commentsFiled under: News, Support, Tips, DirectTV, DIY

Back in December reports of problems with DirecTiVos began to appear explaining that the PVRs were being erratic in their ability to record shows. The PVRs would often fail to record shows altogether and mysteriously delete some recorded programs.

DirecTV then said that it had fixed the problem but DirecTiVo users still continued to have the same problems. Now DirecTV spokesperson Robert Mercer told TVPredictions.com yesterday that "a reboot will clean it up and the unit will start recording again."

So the age old trick of "turning it off and on" should hopefully put your DirecTiVo back on track.

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]]>directivodirectvfaultChris Tew2007-01-24T11:21:00+00:00http://www.pvrwire.com/2007/01/08/poor-mans-home-entertainment-for-under-1000/http://www.pvrwire.com/2007/01/08/poor-mans-home-entertainment-for-under-1000/http://www.pvrwire.com/2007/01/08/poor-mans-home-entertainment-for-under-1000/#commentsFiled under: General, Hacks, Support, Tips, DIY, Home Networking, Streaming

One of the big topics at this year's CES is 'digital connections', ie. accessing media on different platforms and moving it around without the need for complex systems, setups or hard work.

As things move on, year-on-year, a big aspect of the digital home will not only be moving digital media around the home, but using your PC (or similar device) to control various other devices around your home.

But is it currently possible to set up a system on a wireless home network so that you can view your photos, videos and listen to your music from anywhere in the house -- on a budget of less than $1000, using components bought from high street stores?

Unfortunately, the answer is mostly no. Maybe $10,000 would be more like it.

However, with an 802.11n router, a few cheap upgrades to the various wireless devices around the house, and $500 worth of network storage -- and hook it all up to your current setup (presuming you have more than one PC) and you could be well on your way to a makeshift home entertainment system.

Unfortunately, this NY Times-based article doesn't really give any solutions as such -- more suggestions -- but I'd like PVR Wire's readers to give us an example of the setup you have at home (along with the rough costs) to give people an alternative to the expensive products being released this week in Las Vegas.

List your devices, model numbers, cost -- and how you went about setting things up in the comments section.

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]]>digital homeDigitalHomemedia extendersMediaExtendersroutersMartin Conaghan2007-01-08T15:30:00+00:00http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/12/27/post-holiday-support-guide-uk-edition/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/12/27/post-holiday-support-guide-uk-edition/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/12/27/post-holiday-support-guide-uk-edition/#commentsFiled under: General, Hacks, Support, Tips, Humax, BSkyB, NTL, Telewest, Downloads

If you were lucky enough to receive a PVR-related product for Christmas, but you're finding difficulty figuring out how to use it, then here's some handy numbers and websites for you to try out before losing your marbles.

Sky+: The customer service number at Sky can vary in the waiting times, from as low as five minutes, to up to an hour. However, they tend to be quiet helpful and knowledgeable -- and if you're not getting satisfaction, insist on a engineer coming out to visit. But make sure you do have a fault, or you could end up being charged if you've done something stupid like taken the batteries out of your remote. Customer service ebsite: www.sky.com. Phone: 08705 800 800 for Sky+ support or 8702 43 5000 for other technical enquiries.

Telewest TVDrive: most people who have a Telewest/NTL product also have the telephone as part of the deal. If so, just dial 150 from your phone and follow the instructions to find the service helpdesk that you need. If you don't have the phone, try the FAQ section first or phone 0845 142 0000.

If you picked up a Humax PVR, try out their website first: www.humaxdigital.com/uk or phone 0208 744 5510. You can also email them on: sales-info@humax-digital.co.uk

If you received a Topfield PVR, try their website: www.topfield.co.uk/ or visit their forum, which has a small community of people ready to help out with any problems.

Most importantly, don't lose the plot if you're starting to get frustrated by a problem you can't resolve. I usually find that obsessing over it is often the best way to lose the affections of your closest family members -- while a simple process of taking a break and then methodically working your way through the issue usually brings about the best results.

If you're really, really stuck - just email us using the contact link here on the site (or comment on this entry) and we'll do our very best to help out or point you in the right direction.

Whatever you do, enjoy your holiday period and your PVR gift.

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]]>Martin Conaghan2006-12-27T10:00:00+00:00http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/12/07/fun-with-multiple-tv-tuners/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/12/07/fun-with-multiple-tv-tuners/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/12/07/fun-with-multiple-tv-tuners/#commentsFiled under: News, Support, Beyond TV

NVIDIA's DualTV MCE TV tuner looks like a nice alternative to Hauppauge's WinTV-PVR-500MCE. But NVIDIA's drivers only let you install one card. So what do you do if you want to install 4 DualTV MCE's to create an 8-tuner PVR? Well, if you're Snapstream Media, you ask NVIDIA to pretty please let you test out some prerelease drivers.

That's exactly what the folks at Snapstream have done, with a set of DualTV MCE pre-release drivers (version 5.9.5.23) available for BeyondTV users. These drivers may not work if you want to install multiple cards for a SageTV, or Windows Media Center system.

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]]>dual tunerDualTunerdualtv mceDualtvMcenvidiatv tunerTvTunerBrad Linder2006-12-07T10:59:00+00:00http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/11/19/complaints-over-comcast-pvrs-roll-in/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/11/19/complaints-over-comcast-pvrs-roll-in/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/11/19/complaints-over-comcast-pvrs-roll-in/#commentsFiled under: Cable TV, Support, Comcast

Apparently John Batelle isn't the only person out there who hates his Comcast PVR. Dennis Rockstroh at the San Jose Mercury News wrote a column about problems with Comcast PVRs, and apparently got a flood of letters from readers with similar problems.

Here's a few of the highlights

• A number of readers complain that the controls are slow to respond
• One reader says his box freezes when you try to flip channels
• Another says her Comcast box gets stuck on fast forward or rewind. By the time she gets it to stop, she's often moved forward 10 minutes when she had just meant to skip past the commercials.
• And my favorite... One reader says she'll push a button and when nothing happens, she'll push a couple of other buttons. After a moment, the PVR tries to implement all the commands.

Do we have any Comcast PVR users out there? Any suggestions for solving these problems? Or are the only solutions throwing out your Comcast PVR or waiting for Comcast to add TiVo software to its boxes?

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]]>complaintsdvrmotorolaBrad Linder2006-11-19T08:49:00+00:00http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/09/21/ntl-telewest-updates-tv-drive-boxes/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/09/21/ntl-telewest-updates-tv-drive-boxes/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/09/21/ntl-telewest-updates-tv-drive-boxes/#commentsFiled under: Cable TV, HDTV, Software, Support, NTL, Telewest

If you're one of the many subscribers to NTL Telewest's TVDrive service, you might notice a few changes, since they recently updated the software running the popular PVR.

Most of the changes in the recent code-drop are bug fixes, but some enhancements are also apparent in the update, including a widescreen output option for archiving and stretching for 4:3 pictures.

It should also be easier to operate HD mode and a new audio option forces the box to output in Dolby Digital 5.1.

A few bugs still exist, and will probably be handled in the next update.

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]]>hdntltelewesttvdriveMartin Conaghan2006-09-21T17:07:00+00:00http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/08/21/pvr-repair-and-troubleshooting/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/08/21/pvr-repair-and-troubleshooting/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/08/21/pvr-repair-and-troubleshooting/#commentsFiled under: Support, TiVo

I had a look online a couple of days ago to find some articles on TiVo repair.

I expected to find quite a lot but to my surprise there was not many at all. I guess this is a good indication that TiVo PVRs are very reliable.

However, if you have been having any problems with your TiVo then you might want to take a look at this little troubleshooting guide from weaknees.

This is a neat comprehensive list of the most common problems and hardware failures you can have with your TiVo PVR; it lists the possible causes of the problem and the solution (if any).

Be aware that opening your TiVo voids your warranty.

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]]>repairtivotroubleshootingChris Tew2006-08-21T16:27:00+00:00http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/08/15/waking-a-dead-tivo/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/08/15/waking-a-dead-tivo/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/08/15/waking-a-dead-tivo/#commentsFiled under: Hacks, Support, Tips, DirectTV, TiVo

Our friends at Engadget have a handy how-to this week Will O'Brien lost his DirecTiVo to a power outage last week, and undertook the task of restoring the system to a fresh hard drive. Lucky for us, he took a lot of pictures along the way.

Basically, the tutorial explains how to get a copy of the TiVo software for your unit, open the box without burning yourself or disabling your TiVo, and install the software onto a hard drive using your host desktop computer.

This is not for the faint of heart, or for anyone who's TiVo is still under warranty, because if you try this yourself, it won't be by the time you're done.

One of the handiest things about the tutorial is that O'Brien talks you through the Linux commands in such a way that someone who's never had any experience with the OS, or with any command line utilities should find it easy to restore a TiVo system. That's assuming you're comfortable opening your desktop, disconnecting your hard drive and attaching your IDE cable to a different drive.

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]]>hackreinstallrestoreTiVoBrad Linder2006-08-15T20:21:00+00:00http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/07/04/bskyb-patches-up-v1-sky-boxes/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/07/04/bskyb-patches-up-v1-sky-boxes/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/07/04/bskyb-patches-up-v1-sky-boxes/#commentsFiled under: News, Satellite TV, Software, Support, Tips, Sky+, BSkyB

You may not have noticed, but BSkyB issued an EPG and software update for V1 boxes over the past week or so, largely due to issues surrounding upgraded boxes.

For example, if you're one of those enterprising souls who upgraded thier hard drive beyong 40 GB, the recent software updates probably caused your box to stall in standby mode. However, the forced upgrade should have cleared the issue.

If you're experiencing standby lock on your box, just perform the following trick to set it right:

Power off your Sky+ box and remove the power cable from the back of the unit.

Hold down the BACKUP button on the front of the box and reconnect the power cable to the back of the unit.

After about 15-20 seconds, all of the LEDs on the front panel should light up, at which point you should release the BACKUP button and you should see some text on the screen reading "Updating System Software. Do not disconnect from mains supply or satellite dish."

After about 10 minutes, the box will reset itself with the new software installed.

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]]>bskybskysoftwareupdateMartin Conaghan2006-07-04T17:39:00+00:00http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/06/12/soup-up-your-tivo-for-129/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/06/12/soup-up-your-tivo-for-129/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/06/12/soup-up-your-tivo-for-129/#commentsFiled under: HDTV, Support, Tips, TiVo Series 1, TiVo Series 2, TiVo, DIY, Reviews

I'm not sure if this is news or not, but I've certainly never seen this one before.

The Chicago Tribune's Alex L. Goldfayn has posted an article which really amounts to a free advert for Lou Jacob's Chicago-based DVRupgrade Inc.

 According to the item, Jacob has been upgrading TiVos for the popular TiVo digital video recorders for six years and currently has offers ranging from $129 for an 80 GB drive (70 hours of video) to $1,000 for two 500 GB drives (150 hours of HD content).

DVRupgrade can do the work for you for an extra $50 to $100, but if you browse about on the Internet, you're bound to find plenty of places that will do it either cheaper, or who will provide step-by-step instructions on how to do it yourself.

In fact, if you know of any such places, post them here and we'll give them some airtime.

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]]>TiVoupgradeMartin Conaghan2006-06-12T15:45:00+00:00http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/06/07/expand-your-sa8300hd-pvr-s-storage-capacity/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/06/07/expand-your-sa8300hd-pvr-s-storage-capacity/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/06/07/expand-your-sa8300hd-pvr-s-storage-capacity/#commentsFiled under: Hacks, Support, Tips, DIY

Do you live in Canada?

Do you own an SA8300HD PVR?

Do you fancy having more capacity on the box to store more TV shows and movies?

Well, pay a visit to Digital Home Canada, they have a whole section on how to upgrade your SA8300HD by adding an external hard drive.

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]]>canadaSA8300HDMartin Conaghan2006-06-07T19:45:00+00:00http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/05/24/sky-tip-of-the-week-scan-those-channels/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/05/24/sky-tip-of-the-week-scan-those-channels/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/05/24/sky-tip-of-the-week-scan-those-channels/#commentsFiled under: Hacks, Satellite TV, Support, Tips, Sky+, BSkyB

I've only had my new Thomson Sky+ box for two weeks, and I've already had to perform a cold reset three different times in order to restore my channel list.

I originally thought the loss of channels was potentially a problem with the box itself (Thomsons are known to be a bit on the flaky side), but I gave BSkyB technical a call and they helped me sort it out.

So, if you find that you've lost most of your channels and can only access one or two, here's how to get them back:

Press the SERVICES button on your Sky+ remote, then press 4 (System Setup), then press 0,1 and SELECT. This takes you to the hidden installer's menu.

Next, select number 6 (new installation), and press SELECT 3 times until the screen reads "astra channel scan".

When the screen informs you that the channel line up is complete, press BACKUP then the Sky button and you should be back in business.

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]]>BSkyBSkytipsMartin Conaghan2006-05-24T15:00:00+00:00http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/05/02/are-you-having-trouble-finding-dual-tuner-tivos/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/05/02/are-you-having-trouble-finding-dual-tuner-tivos/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/05/02/are-you-having-trouble-finding-dual-tuner-tivos/#commentsFiled under: Deals, News, Support, TiVo

You should have had a day and a half so far to find a dual-tuner TiVo at major electronics retailers and directly from TiVo and Amazon.com. Have you had any problems finding a Series 2 DT unit? We'd like to hear about it if you have. Let us know in the comments section if your local Best Buy or Circuit City was already out of them (or never got them) when you went to buy. I managed to find the 80-hour dual-tuner unit on Amazon. It's also available on TiVo's web site, albeit with a $30 "upgrade fee." Also let us know in the comments section if you had any problems ordering the DT from either online store.

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]]>dual-tunerTiVoTodd W. Carter2006-05-02T17:36:00+00:00http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/03/30/beyondtv-4-2-released/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/03/30/beyondtv-4-2-released/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/03/30/beyondtv-4-2-released/#commentsFiled under: News, Software, Support, Beyond TV, DIY

We seem to have missed this one, but it's worth noting that BeyondTV 4.2 was released last week.

Some of the new features include the ability to record on any channel (allowing you to schedule a show to be recorded on any channel that it airs on), faster and more reliable guide updates, enhanced support for the Firefly Mini and the ability to expand the padding option to allow for ten minutes extra on a recording.

You can download it now from the BeyondTV website.

Via BYOPVR.

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]]>4.2BeyondTVMartin Conaghan2006-03-30T15:16:00+00:00http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/03/25/ettix-releases-web-based-video-conversion-tool/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/03/25/ettix-releases-web-based-video-conversion-tool/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/03/25/ettix-releases-web-based-video-conversion-tool/#commentsFiled under: News, Support, Apple, Microsoft, Sony

ETTIX Solutions, a company which specializes in web-based applications, has released a product called I-Net Video Center, also a web-based platform, which allows users to convert videos for their video-capable iPod and Sony PSP.

With I-Net Video Center, you simply upload files in various video formats (such as .AVI or .MPEG). and the application converts them to the required format, and when the conversion is finished, you just download the files for viewing.

There's also a streaming version of the software, to allow users to view video content on any Internet-connected PC. You can upload and stream AVI, Mpeg1, MPeg2, MPeg4, DivX files and Quicktime MOV, FLV, ASF, WMV7files. I-Net Center automatically converts the uploaded files to Flash Video Streaming format.

There are currently no indications on costs at the official website.

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]]>I-Net video conversionI-netVideoConversioniPodPSPMartin Conaghan2006-03-25T04:17:00+00:00http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/03/20/tivo-bug-cutting-off-the-good-bits/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/03/20/tivo-bug-cutting-off-the-good-bits/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/03/20/tivo-bug-cutting-off-the-good-bits/#commentsFiled under: News, Software, Support, Tips, TiVo Series 2, TiVo

If you set your TiVo to record the first episode from the new season of The Sopranos and found the cliffhanger missing from the end of your recording, you can blame a time clock bug in the operating system software which has now become apparent in some Series 2 machines.

Some users have been complaining of up to 15 minutes lost from the end of an important recording, which started becoming widespread knowledge when users began posting complaints on TiVo's own website.

TiVo is saying that it has built an upgrade to the operating system on all Series 2 boxes (v. 7.2.2), which will download automatically and should solve the problem permanently.

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]]>bugsoftwareTiVoMartin Conaghan2006-03-20T16:00:00+00:00http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/03/16/upgrade-or-repair-your-sky-plus-box/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/03/16/upgrade-or-repair-your-sky-plus-box/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/03/16/upgrade-or-repair-your-sky-plus-box/#commentsFiled under: Hacks, News, Photos, Satellite TV, Support, Tips, Sky+, BSkyB

Back in November, I posted an entry about the hard drive failing on my Sky Plus box, and my efforts to resurrect the most important electrical device in my house.

It really wasn't all that difficult, but I'm one of those people who is generally happy taking things apart with a screwdriver -- often out of nothing more than curiosity, so I'm probably not the best example to choose from.

However, IT Week has recently published an extensive item on how to remove the miniscule 40 GB hard drive from your Sky Plus box and upgrade it to something a bit more substantial.

They even have a bunch of pictures taking your through the steps, just like Morlock's Sky Upgrade page.

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]]>BSkyBSkySky PlusSkyPlusMartin Conaghan2006-03-16T15:36:00+00:00http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/03/09/showshifter-gets-shifted/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/03/09/showshifter-gets-shifted/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/03/09/showshifter-gets-shifted/#commentsFiled under: News, Software, Support

Home Media Networks, the company behind ShowShifter, one of the very early PC-based PVR applications, appears to have permanently closed for business.

I tried out ShowShifter out about a year ago (before I started writing for PVR Wire), and I wasn't spectacularly impressed, but one of my friends has been using it for over two years and relies on it to record almost all of his TV shows from a cable TV signal via his PC.

I'm sure it won't be long before the talent behind ShowShifter is snapped up, but it's discouraging to see such a prominent name drift off into the night.

Via eHomeUpgrade.

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]]>closedPVRShowShiftersoftwareMartin Conaghan2006-03-09T04:56:00+00:00http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/02/21/galleon-developer-says-hes-moving-on-criticizes-tivos-develop/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/02/21/galleon-developer-says-hes-moving-on-criticizes-tivos-develop/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/02/21/galleon-developer-says-hes-moving-on-criticizes-tivos-develop/#commentsFiled under: News, Support, TiVo, DIY

The developer of Galleon, a TiVo HME application that lets you do a whole list of things on your PVR, is calling it quits, saying he hasn't received the kind of third-party support from TiVo that he expects. People rave about Galleon, but, frankly, I've never been able to get it to run on my TiVo. I'll try again soon, but my past experiences ended in frustration.

"I think that TiVo has not done enough to keep my interest in their technology," he wrote on his blog. "I think that they can still do something about improving the situation, but then they have to be committed to really supporting third-party developers. They need to do much more than throwing their SDK over the wall and hoping that something will come of it."

His "hope was that the technology would go somewhere and that TiVo would communicate with third-party developers about their roadmap. Although Galleon is developed as an open source project, it would have been nice if it opened up some commercial opportunities. So, I'm sad to announce that I've decided to reduce my development efforts on the project. I might still release some bug fixes, but these won't be as frequent as the releases in the past. I also don't have any plans on adding any additional functionality to Galleon. I've decided to rather spend my time on other interesting technologies and open source projects."

I was able recently to see a demonstration of Galleon, which is impressive. It's now one of the HME apps you can choose to run on your TiVo Series 2 unit at apps.tv. I've had no problems running the Subscription Manager, which lets you add Yahoo weather, games, a Flicr app and Galleon. The Galleon on there is only an example of what the application can do; you can't change the parameters, so you're seeing the same thing each time you use it. But it's a good way to introduce people to the application, which is now sadly heading into the TiVo sunset.

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]]>GalleonHMETiVoTodd W. Carter2006-02-21T11:59:00+00:00http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/02/15/tivo-launches-new-tv-listings-guide/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/02/15/tivo-launches-new-tv-listings-guide/http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/02/15/tivo-launches-new-tv-listings-guide/#commentsFiled under: News, Support, TiVo

We reported on it more than a month ago when it was in beta, but TiVo has now officially released its newly revised TV listings guide, which uses some slick Ajax technology to make a once-bland TiVo Central Online into something that even non-TiVo subscribers will want to use. The TV listings are beautiful and the new grid layout lets you jump to a channel, filter out only the kinds of programming you want to watch and sports a cool feature where a program's listing slides down to reveal more information about that show. You also can easily record the episode, get a Season Pass and learn more about the show. You can try it out here.

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]]>AjaxTiVoTV listingsTvListingsTodd W. Carter2006-02-15T17:18:00+00:00