PVR Wire

Most poll voters planned to watch Super Bowl live

Todd W. Carter — 2006-02-06T16:12:00+00:00

Filed under: Advertising, News, Charter Communications, DirectTV, Dish Network, Time Warner Cable, Beyond TV, Freevo, Media Center Edition, MythTV, SageTV, TiVo, Polls

Out of the 234 PVR Wire readers who responded to our poll on how they were going to watch the Super Bowl, most were planning to watch it live rather than rely on their PVRs to isolate them from the commercials. Nearly 40 percent said they would watch the big game live, followed by 27 percent who were planning to delay their viewing by minutes.

Only 7 percent said they would delay their viewing for another day. But not everyone was going to watch the game: 26 percent said they had no plans to watch the Super Bowl this year. It looks like the Super Bowl may be one of those rare events where the networks can count on live eyeballs and a PVR audience that keeps the fast-fastforwarding to a minimum. The only other program that may attract similar loyalty is the Oscars.

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Charter Communications raising PVR fee $5?

Todd W. Carter — 2005-12-28T13:11:00+00:00

Filed under: Cable TV, HDTV, Charter Communications, TiVo

I don't know if this is true across the Charter Communications cable TV system, but some small newspapers are reporting on fee increasing beginning next year that include a $5 rise in the cost of PVR service. That likely would put the price close to what folks now pay for TiVo, except I'm assuming the Charter PVRs offer dual tuners and HDTV.

This is all close to pure scuttlebutt because I couldn't find an official press release on the company's Web site. But it suggests that PVRs are popular and that Charter believes people will pay the extra amount for the features they receive from them. It may also push some folks to DirecTV, which is offering a free, albeit troubled, PVR. Dish TV charges $4.98 for PVR service; a service representative just told me the Dish 508 costs $199. This is the box I had (still have; trying to sell it on eBay) from when I was with Dish and before I jumped to Charter and bought a TiVo. It doesn't have a dual tuner or do HDTV.

Would the $5 increase change your mind about continuing your PVR service with Charter Communications? Let us know in the comments area.

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Charter deploys 100,000 Moxi PVRs

Todd W. Carter — 2005-10-11T11:05:41+00:00

Filed under: Cable TV, News, Charter Communications, TiVo

Digeo, the maker of Moxi Media Center PVRs, said it has deployed 100,000 of the units in cable TV markets served by Charter Communications. Charter now offers the Moxi PVRs to more than 85 percent of its 2.7 million digital customers.

Charter will be rolling out the PVRs to other markets before year end, the company said. It now offers its new Moxi multi-room PVR service in St. Louis. The multi-room offering, called Moxi Mate, lets customers share recorded programs, DVD content and photos between rooms in the same home.

The Media Center applications include games and a photo player. Moxi said that 20 percent of customers use the applications in a given week in other markets.

The announcement of Moxi penetration in Charter markets comes at a time when TiVo is aggressively trying to increase its stand-alone subscribers. DirecTV, TiVo's largest customers, recently began pushing its own PVR. Unless the current rebate offers for cheap TiVo boxes really take off, TiVo may be left behind in a market it created.

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TiVo big winner in PVR Wire poll

Todd W. Carter — 2005-06-28T11:42:40+00:00

Filed under: News, Charter Communications, Comcast, DirectTV, Dish Network, Freevo, Media Center Edition, MythTV, TiVo

It's been almost a full week since we published our PVR poll. The response has been great! On Sunday afternoon, we were at 489 votes, so yesterday I asked for more votes to take it over 500. Now the total is 547 -- and probably still growing.

The winner, at 50 percent, is TiVo. But when you add the standalone TiVo's 275 votes with the DirecTV TiVo's 72 votes, the total of Tivo users is 63 percent. So nearly two-thirds of our readership own a TiVo, which helps us decide which news items are more important and which tips and hacks will be the most widely received.

Still, 37 percent of respondents own something else, so we're not going to forget about you! And I imagine that some of the other 63 percent wouldn't mind trying or owning another kind of PVR if they saw it was better or more convenient.

ReplayTV received 57 votes, or 10 percent of the votes. Dish Network had 6 percent, Comcast came in at 29 votes for 5 percent, linux solution MythTV had 24 votes for 4 percent and Windows Media Center had just 20 votes for 4 percent of the vote. Another Linux program, freevo, had three votes for 1 percent. Interestingly, 33 voters, or 6 percent of the total, don't own a PVR.

TiVo (275)

50%

ReplayTV (57)

10%

Windows Media Center (20)

Dish Network (31)

DirecTV TiVo (72)

13%

Comcast (29)

Charter (4)

MythTV (24)

freevo (3)

Don't have a PVR (33)

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It's lucky Friday: Charter PVR finally available

Todd W. Carter — 2005-06-10T15:57:55+00:00

Filed under: Cable TV, HDTV, Support, Charter Communications, TiVo

Whoo-hoo! I just got a reply to my e-mail to Charter Communications, where I asked whether PVRs are available in my area yet. They are!

So now what do I do? I have a TiVo box, but I want the duel-tuner, HDTV recorder that a Charter PVR contains. Plus, I'll get rid of the problem I currently have with my TiVo box selecting the wrong channel about 20 percent of the time (though it did it TWICE today).

But I'm concerned about the fact that the 80 GB Charter box can only hold eight hours of HDTV programming. According to Charter's e-mail, it alternatively can hold 42 hours of all-digital programming or 25 hours of all-analog programming. (I assume there's compression that happens with the digital content that doesn't occur with the analog content.)

Eight hours is not very much. That's about 2.5 sporting events. But it would be nice to have the PVR integrated into the cable box. I'll probably end up getting the PVR and keeping the TiVo box, at least for a while. After all, I need to keep track of it for PVR Wire and it still may come in handy until I build my own PVR.

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Missing Dish's 300x fast forward

Todd W. Carter — 2005-06-09T15:12:22+00:00

Filed under: Cable TV, Hacks, Satellite TV, Charter Communications, TiVo Series 2, TiVo

My start in the PVR world was with Dish Network's PVR. While it's not as smart as TiVo, it does have one function that I'm missing more and more: a 300x fast-forward feature. You can crank through a program at that speed!

In contrast, TiVo seems to drag, even at the highest fast-forward speed. Of course, I use the 30-second commercial skip hack, so I'm not using the fast forward as often as I might otherwise.

Now I'm waiting for Charter Communications to roll out PVR service in my area. Does anyone know if Charter has a super fast-forward feature, or does it roll along at about the same TiVo speed?

Also, for those of you with Charter's PVR, can you tell me if it has any other interesting features I should look forward to?

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Introducing your humble PVR Wire blogger

Todd W. Carter — 2005-05-17T14:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Charter Communications

Howdy. I'm the writer behind this new PVR Wire blog, which will cover everything related to TiVo and other PVRs/DVRs (personal video recorders/digital video recorders).

We might even cover other home entertainment equipment from time to time, as long as it involves your TV set and is at least somewhat related to PVRs.

Anyhow, my name is Todd Carter. I'm an author and freelance journalist. I've written four books, including one on TiVo (How to Do Everything with Your TiVo), and I'm working on a fifth (about Google for business).

I've been in journalism since high school, so there's a long history there (I'm 40). Since 1998, I've been mostly covering business and technology. I live in a small community in West Michigan. I have a TiVo and cable TV service from Charter Communications. I'm anxiously awaiting Charter's new PVR, but there's no sign of it yet.

I hope you'll enjoy reading PVR Wire on a daily basis. If you have suggestions on how we can make this blog better, please write to me here. Or you can leave a comment.

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