If you got a fancy new high definition television set the past holiday season, but still haven't found the ideal way to feed it some HD content Dish Network may be the company for you.
They're offering new subscribers a free high definition ViP622 DVR which was given a 8.7 Editor's Choice award by Cnet.
Dish is calling this offer the first HD DVR to be offered for free in the satellite industry.
I can't verify if that's actually the case, but regardless if it's the first of the seventh, the promise of a free HD DVR is worth looking into.
Getting the free ViP622 appears to be as easy as signing up for the HD package we mentioned earlier during a post about the new Dish Advantage Package.
If you're a Dish Network subscriber or are interested in becoming one, the company announced a new DVR package that might interest you.
Effective February 1st, they'll be offering a new plan called the DishDVR Advantage Package to new and current subscribers.
For a reasonable cost of $49.99, customers will recieve 200 stations with local channels, a dual-tuner standard definition receiver, and an 18 month home protection plan (tech support, free equipment replacement, free installation upon moving, etc).
Those craving High Definition programming can also get in on the act. For an addtional $20, customers will get a VIP622 DVR and 30 HD channels along with local HD channels where available.
This is a great deal for current customers looking to upgrade their existing packages but it's much sweeter for new customers who will be able to realize an additional $100 in savings for the standard definition option or $200 in savings for the HD option via a mail-in redemption form.
The savings are spread out so you're effectively paying $39.99 or $49.99 for the respective plans during the first 10 months of your service. Before the discount consumers will save approximately 7% compared to purchasing all these items a la carte.
I'm pretty sure at this point TV tuner cards outnumber actual PCs in need of a TV Tuner card by a ratio of 2-to-1. That's hyperbole of course, but there seems to be a new TV tuner unveiled every week.
With the release of Windows Vista, Hauppauge has released a new line of Windows Vista compatible WinTV products. If you ask me it's all starting to get a little confusing, especially when considering the fact that the Win-TV-PVR-150MCE currently sitting in my Media Center box works just fine with Vista.
Anyhow, the new cards are as follows:
WinTV-NOVA-TD-500-For the European and Asian markets, WinTV-NOVA-TD-500 is adual tuner digital DVB-T TV tuner board that can be used in either a dual tuner or diversity configuration. Diversity uses two tuners to give better digital TV reception on a single DVB-T digital channel, while the dual tuner mode enables you to watch one digital TV channel while recording another digital channel.
WinTV-HVR-1800-For the North American market where the ATSC digital TV transition continues, WinTV-HVR-1800 is a PCI Express TV tuner for receiving analog cable and high definition ATSC digital TV. In a half-height PCIe board, WinTV-HVR-1800 has separate tuners for analog NTSC and ATSC digital TV. With Vista's Media Center application, you can watch a cable TV channel while recording high definition digital TV from another channel.
WinTV-HVR-1600-This is an analog cable TV and high definition digital ATSC PCI TV tuner for Vista PCs. On a single full-height PCI board, WinTV-HVR-1600 has separate tuners for analog NTSC and ATSC digital TV. With Vista's Media Center, you can watch an analog TV channel while recording high definition digital TV from another channel.
WinTV-HVR-1500-A dual format hybrid analog and high definition digital 54 mm ExpressCard TV tuner, WinTV-HVR-1400 brings NTSC analog and high definition ATSC digital TV to laptop computers running Vista's Media Center in North America. Watch and record either analog or high definition digital TV on your Vista Media Center PC.
The above cards will be available starting this month costing between $99 and $149.
Comcast and TiVo showed a working version of the TiVo software running on Comcast PVRs at this years CES. The highly anticipated partnership announced over a year ago has many a Comcast cable subscriber excited at the prospect of getting some TiVo love on their current boxes.
While the companies started trialing this service in select markets near the end of last year, the formal unveiling at CES shows that a mass rollout is probably very close to occuring.
The biggest advantage to the partnership is that Comcast customers will be able to utilize a single set-top-box with TiVo's graceful user interface and still have access to great services like video-on-demand (VOD) and high definion programming.
The added TiVo software will be available for a "modest montly fee" although there is no indication of what that fee will be.
So last night I watched The Funniest Commercials of the Year on my TiVo. I made it through the hour long show in about 2 minutes. It was full of advertisements...
I kid of course, but it got me thinking. With the exception of a Super Bowl ad that made the list and a few random ads here and there, I hadn't seen most of the domestic commercials the show highlighted.
In this age of time-shifted TV, I'm sure a lot of you find yourself in a similiar situation as me and stare at your non-PVR owning friends blankly when they ask, "Have you seen that hilarious commercial where the monkeys point the laser lights at that dude's crotch?"
In addition, the show pulled in a bunch of foreign spots, pretty much all of which had me laughing hysterically. If we could get away with half the stuff they pull off in other countries, I'd probably record blocks of television and skip through the programming just to see the commercials.
The program is definitely worth a watch if you want to catch up on all the funny commercials you missed out on in 2006 while utilizing your remotes fast forward and 30-second-skip capabilities.
The show airs again on WTBS Friday, December 29th at 10:30 PM and again on Saturday, December 30th at 6:00 PM.
One of the biggest deterrents to me picking up a dedicated Media Center extender for my Media Center PC has always been the cost.
Prices for these devices have always lingered right around the $200-$250 price point which was far enough off from an Xbox 360 to prevent me from buying a second one as an extender, but still high enough that I couldn't justify dropping that much cash for a box that's main purpose was to stream content.
With the imminent release of Vista Media Center, and the fact that the current crop of Media Center extenders will not work with the new OS, you're starting to see this generations extenders at much more reasonable prices.
Case in point, today only Woot has the refurbished Linksys WMCE54AG Wireless Media Center Extender for an attractive $99 with $5 shipping. This is just about low enough to make the purchase a no brainer for me.
Features:
Connects your Home Entertainment Center to a Windows Media Center PC through a Wireless-A, Wireless-G, or wired network
Watch home or downloaded digital movies and browse your digital pictures on your television. Also watch, pause, and record live TV shows
Listen to your digital music collection and Internet radio through your stereo system
Select entertainment from on-screen menus with the easy-to-use remote control
I've used Vista Media Center for the last 2 months, and while it's pretty to look at, I was perfectly content with the XP Media Center Edition.
After picking one of these up I fully see myself using the current version of Media Center for at least another year or two thanks to this inexpensive streaming option.
Regardless of what holiday you celebrated this season, PVR Wire poses the question: What the hell did ya get?
Item's don't have to be PVR related, although we'd really like to know whose wife is cool enough to buy them a Series3 and whose wife hates them enough to buy them am an HR20. Just teasing DirecTV fans.
Did you score an Xbox 360, Wii, or PS3? Did you grab any items on the bleeding edge of tech that will make us all drool? Please share your stuff in the comments below.
I'll start us off.
Strangely, I didn't get any personal video recording products this year. I got a new ride that randomly came with a free guitar (most bizarre marketing scheme ever) and a Sirius S50 that's essentially a PVR for satellite radio.
I also picked my wife up a digital picture frame for her desk, which I was surprised to find plays audio and video files. Coupled with one of those record directly to memory card devices Brad and I are always talking about, a digital picture frame could actually make a nice clandestine PVR for your workplace that could bring new meaning to the phrase "water cooler talk". Why "water cooler talk" when you can "water cooler watch"?
Let us know what you received (or what you gave) below.
Posted Dec 21st 2006 2:00PM by JJ Hawkins Filed under: Tips
Christmas movies bore me to tears which is a shame in my household because if there is a Christmas movie on TV, expecially if it's in black and white, my wife is all over it like a gaudy background image on a MySpace page.
For most movies I have a threshold of about 2-3 viewings before the sight of it makes me want to rinse my eyes out with Liquid Plumber, so it amazes me that people are able to watch the exact same movie over and over and over again every year.
Of course, this is coming from a guy who has seen Braveheart at least 30 times, which equates to around 88 man hours of viewing.
It's friggin' Braveheart though and of course an exception to the rule...
Anyhow, instead of listing my favorite Holiday movies or a guide on which to record, I'm going to list the Top Five Holiday sporting events worthy of your PVR.
There's nothing better than crunching a three-hour sporting event into a single hour of commercial and commentary-free viewing.
Well, except for reciting all the lines in Braveheart a second before the on-screen characters say them -- much to the dismay of anyone viewing it with you.
In honor of TiVo releasing the Top 10 TV moments in 2006, and not actually releasing something that will gain them some favor with current customers, potential new customers, and shareholders such as a non-fan created TiVoToGo for Macs, a robust movie delivery system, TiVoToGo on Series3 boxes, or a TiVo that dispenses Samuel Adams - I've decided to make my own list that highlights the top 11 most worthless or annoying TiVo moments at PVR Wire in 2006.
4. TiVo thinks up innovative ways to advertise to its money paying subscribers. I have to admit, the ads are pretty benign. Doesn't make them any less aggravating.
6. In '05 TiVo announced that software would be available on Comcast set-top-boxes with a similar deal announced in '06 for Cox. Deals are pretty much universally appreciated by fans, but TiVo fails to mention rollout would not occur until after the biblical rapture. Shouldn't this be out by now? Particularly the Comcast arrangement? Can't wait to try this out during my stay in Hell.
7. TiVoCast updated! Still less fun than replacing your friends dandruff shampoo with the contents of a bottle of Nair, although most things are. Is anyone using this?
8. Cablevision brings TiVo to Mexico. Como se dice "who cares"? Okay, this was actually good to hear, but I wanted to break out some busted Spanish.
9. TiVo unveils "It's Not TiVo Unless it's TiVo" marketing campaign. In related news, The Captain Obvious Marketing Company signs its first client ever.
10. TiVo offers free pizza for anyone who signs up for a years service and gets a new TiVo box. Let's see. A PVR, a pizza, a remote, and a couch. You wonder why the country has an obesity problem?
Walmart has this "toy" for $48 on clearance with $.97 shipping, which is a pretty phenomenal price considering it cost $199 at release and can currently be found on Amazon for $126.
512 MB of internal storage (expandable by 2 GB via memory card) is probably the devices biggest shortcoming, but you have to remember this is for the kiddies.
You can cram plenty of episodes of Blues Clues or Dora the Explorer on one of these things - at least enough to keep your pipsqueak satiated for a good while, and that leads us to the units strongest selling point.
There's no downloading of shows off the web and transferring them to the unit to mess with.
The Riproar records programming directly to the unit from any video source giving you an endless supply of free content (let's just assume you steal your Cable TV / Satellite) to entertain your child with on the road.
It also includes some other nice features such as an external speaker, scheduled recordings, 5 hours of battery life for video, MP3 and photo playback, TV out, and an IR remote for controlling the unit while on the included dock. Is it wrong that this feature set sounds better than some of the real adult PMPs on the market?
At such an inexpensive price, this thing is either a seething piece of digital poo or nobody is aware of this decent looking product and as a result they simply aren't selling. At $48.97 I'd be willing to take the gamble on this one and give it a try.
This definitely falls into the "gifts that are ostensibly for my child but really for me" category, but whatever. I do what I want.
Brad is a prophet. In his post earlier this week about Decrypting TiVo Recordings on a Mac, he said, "Check out Dave's post for instructions on building your own command line. Or wait a few days until someone comes out with a front end for the program."
Right on cue, the front end has been released and it's called TiVo Decode Manager.
The program throws a GUI on top of the convoluted process that was previously required and effectively automates the moving and decoding of TiVo files onto your Mac.
Current limitations are listed as follows:
Current limitations:
Only one file can be downloaded at a time.
The progress bar may not be completely accurate.
The resulting MPEG-2 files are likely unplayable in Quicktime and may require a player such as VLC or MPlayer.
This has only been tested on a limited number of Intel Macs.
Download location is currently limited to one's Desktop.
This is an unsupported product, and there may be many other bugs.
The TiVo Decode Manager site states that, "DO NOT SHARE COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL. This is intended your own private use to play TiVo files on your Mac until such time that there is an official way of doing so. "
1. HD/DVD Add-on Xbox 360 - Of the plethora of tech devices that adorn my house, my Xbox 360 is probably my favorite. Since the system integrates well with different devices (i.e. Media Center PCs, MP3 players, etc) and is also a full-fledged videogame powerhouse with a robust content delivery system to boot, it's truly the closest thing I've seen to a multimedia hub for your living/game room. As a result, tops on my list this year is the HD/DVD add-on. If you play your cards right, for around $159 you can have the perfect device to add even more functionality to your home entertainment setup and with Netflix renting HD-DVDs, now is the perfect time to enter the high definition movie revolution.
2. Xbox 360 with Xbox Live Marketplace (Video) - I already have an Xbox 360 and use the marketplace frequently and I love it so much I feel it's my duty to spread the word on this fantastic service. While the current video downloadable offerings are a bit anemic at the moment and while there have been stories about slow ass downloads - one can really see the potential of this service once it all gets flowing properly. Don't forget that you can utilize this method to get 1600 free Marketplace Points which is the currency of choice for the service.
3. Logitech Harmony 1000 Advanced Universal Remote - This gem of a remote has been available since September and I've been eyeing it ever since. Unfortunately, eyeing it is all I'll be able to do since purchasing it would set me back $500 which is ludicrous amount to spend on a remote. Despite that, you get a 3.5 inch color touchscreen, one-touch activity controls, computer set-up, control through cabinets and walls all in a rechargeable package. I'm a big fan of narrowing down the 6 remotes that currently reside in my living room. If I could afford it this would definitely do the trick.
4. Slingbox A/V - The Slingbox is one of those devices I don't really have a real use for, but really want. It's kind of like a bidet. It'd be nice to have but I've made it all this time using toilet paper alone so why change things up now? Okay, it's nothing like a bidet, I've just always wanted to talk about one in a post, but never found the opportunity.
On those rare occasions I find myself out of town, and hard-up for a Nip Tuck fix, I'd love to be able to have access to the shows stored up on my PVR. Buy.com is offering Slingbox AVs for $149.31 shipped assuming you use the heavily pushed Google Checkout. Kind of an obvious choice to be on this years wish list, but that doesn't make it any less desirable.
As reported on PVR Wire last month, those wretched Comcast banner ads found their way back to the program guides of customers living in the Tucson, AZ area.
We speculated that Comcast was on the verge of rolling out this fantastic feature to more markets around the country and appear to have been correct much to the dismay of Comcast digital subscribers.
Livid users have reported seeing the invasive, home-wrecking ads in the Michigan, Minnesota, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maryland, and Washington DC areas.
Some may inquire what the big friggin' deal is?
The big deal, ladies and gentlemen is this.
The ads are annoying. Apparently flipping from one page of the EPG to the next requires an additional button press because the EPG cursor must navigate over this ad to move to the next page. The ad is also a bit of an eyesore and takes up a significant amount of real estate.
There's also the fact that we've all gotten accustomed to the idea that when we pay to subscribe to a service (think satellite radio) we don't really encounter ads for the most part. On the contrary, when we don't pay for a service (think terrestrial radio), we must endure a certain amount of advertising. The ads aren't the primary reason behind the discontent, it's more the principle outlined above. To add insult to injury it's been reported that the company line appears to be that the ads are here to stay.
Perhaps the ads will slide through unnoticed among the typical Comcast subscriber and just be accepted as part of the guide. Reader Jack McMillin hopes that does not end up being the case and has created a petition so like minded customers angry with the EPG ads can vent their frustrations, and hopefully get them removed.
Flash video recorders are all the rage these days. At least that's what the manufacturers of these products must think because we've seen a swarm of them hitting the market in the last few months.
The fine folks at Hagiwara were kind enough to loan us an Easy Recorder 2 for review and the second installment of Up Close takes a look at the product to get the 411 on these "record directly to a memory card" devices to see how they fair.
Admittedly, video to memory card devices fulfill the needs of a very niche market. The Easy Recorder 2 caters to the PSP and iPod owning group because it creates content in MP4 format that is formatted specifically to fit on the smaller screens found on these devices.
However, with the advent of sites like YouTube and its competitors, devices like these are my tools of choice for capturing content from any device with an A/V out. For instance, the video in this post was captured from my TiVo and uploaded to YouTube using the Easy Recorder 2.
On the whole, we came away pretty impressed with what the Easy Recorder 2 had to offer. Find out what we thought about the product and get an exclusive coupon code for a discount after the jump.
Back in October Matt wrote up a post showcasing the alleged new Microsoft Vista Media Center remote.
It was long, white, and a little blocktastic, but I found it to be a nice change of pace from the roundness that is all the rage in many aspects of design these days.
Apparently, the Vista Media Center remote has gone through another redesign if it was in fact the Vista remote and not some new version of the Xbox 360 remote which it resembled slightly.
Long Zheng has pictures of what appears to be the redesigned remote on his blog.
The new remote keeps the long shape from the version back from the Digital Life Expo but adds the slightest bit of contour to the top and bottom.
Gone too is the white plastic with colored buttons, in favor of the grey that currently resides on the small remote that ships with Media Center XP Edition.
The black band remains around the center which draws focus to the main navigating keys you end up using most frequently on PVR remotes.
Aside from that, it seems pretty standard fair.
In all honesty, I liked the old white one better. Long points out that the official Windows Vista Product Guide shows this version as the Vista Remote on page 159 so in all likelihood this is the real deal.
If you got a fancy new high definition television set the past holiday season, but still haven't found the ideal way to feed it some HD content Dish Network may be the company for you.
Regardless of what holiday you celebrated this season, PVR Wire poses the question: What the hell did ya get? 
Christmas movies bore me to tears which is a shame in my household because if there is a Christmas movie on TV, expecially if it's in black and white, my wife is all over it like a gaudy background image on a MySpace page.
3. Logitech Harmony 1000 Advanced Universal Remote - 
As reported on 
