Tomorrow, July 13th is a big day for TiVo Australia owners with 12 brand new on-demand TV channels. The new channels will be ad-supported or “sponsored” with the first channel announced – Bella TV being sponsored by Cadbury. Bella TV will be a dedicated channel targeted towards women, so the Cadbury sponsorship makes a lot of sense with plenty of chocoholics out there.

As for the content of the other 11 channels, we’ll have to wait and see tomorrow as TiVo has been quiet on what they’ll include. 

The new channels will be part of the CASPA section of TiVo and require users to have a CASPA wallet. This effectively means to access the new IPTV channels, you’ll need to hand over your credit card, despite the channels being free. For those TiVo owners who haven’t yet got a wallet, it’s also required to download the Movies, TV Shows or Music content from CASPA.

More info @ TiVo Australia

TiVo is the latest in a long line of manufacturers to catch the 3D bug, announcing today they will support 3D channels. If you live in a major city, you may be getting a 3D channel right night, try rescanning your channels. The TiVo is capable of interpreting this channel and doing the pass-through to your 3D enabled TV.

Hybrid TV, creators of TiVo in Australia say that if you don’t have a 3DTV yet, you can record the shows to your TV now and watch them back when you do. A nice idea, but given most people won’t replace their HDTV for a few years, you’ll need a lot of storage to hold all your 3D.

If you are one of the ‘lucky’ ones with a 3D TV and live in a major city that’s getting 3D, then you can watch the State of Origin tonight in 3D. With TiVo you can record it and show it off to your friends later, after all there’s not a lot of other 3D content around to demo your 3DTV.

For those without a 3DTV the channel is still viewable and looks like this. The 3DTV would take the left side of the image, un-squash it to the full 1920×1080 image, then follow that frame with the right side of the image. Showing one frame after the other and pairing that with appropriate glasses will give the appearance of 3D. This technique should mean that recording 3D shows on your TiVo requires the same storage as a normal show, the smarts is done by the TV, rather than more data being sent in the broadcast over-the-air stream.

Update
I’ve had confirmation from Hybrid TV PR, makers of TiVo in Australia, that TiVo users will still be able to browse CASPA content without a wallet (registering), but won’t be able to download. This is the current situation, which begs the question, why the email if nothing has changed?

TiVo owners will be familiar with the CASPA menu item that provides access to video on-demand content. This is currently open to browse, but requires signup before downloading even free content, this is about to change.

In an email message to TiVo owners users yesterday, TiVo is now requiring users to create a CASPA wallet (i.e. hand over your credit card) to even browse the store. If users can’t preview the content before signing up, I’m not sure how they are expected to know why they’d want CASPA in the first place.

Thanks TiVo, but I’ll pass. Now I have a dead menu item, not the best user experience. Just let me hide CASPA and I’ll be happy.

More @ TiVo

Earlier today HP released an awesome new add-in for their MediaSmart Home Servers. The MediaSmart Expander for TiVo allows you to copy your favourite recordings to the MediaSmart so running out of storage should never be an issue again. Another feature is the ability to stream those shows from your PC back through your TiVo to your TV.

This means you’ll never need to fork out for that Western Digital 1TB Expander drive, your own storage that you’ve already invested in. The only downside is the transfer is a manual one. So you’ll need to open the Home Server Console Periodically and transfer the show you wish to keep, then delete them from the TiVo. While that may seem annoying, the upside is the storage amount is only limited to the size of your Home Server array, which as you know is easily upgradable.

This Add-in is supported on HP MediaSmart EX490/EX495 and HP DataVault X510 models, earlier models are not compatible. On the TiVo side you’ll need a Series II, Series III, TiVo Premier. Both Australian TiVo models will work. One more caveat is that both the TiVo and MediaSmart must be on the same network. In the standard home setup, this isn’t an issue.

If you in the US, you’ll see a new Add-in available in the Settings screen of the Home Server Console. If your outside of the US, then head over to http://www.hp.com/united-states/consumer/everyday-computing/mediasmartserver/us/en/tivo.html and download the Add-in manually.

Step 1 – Setup
Copy the HPTivoExpanderAddin.msi file into the Software/Add-ins folder on your Home Server. 

Step 2 – Install the add-in
Open the Windows Home Server Console, click Settings in the top-right corner.

Step 3 – Activate
Select the MediaSmart Add-in and click install. Once finished installing the Home Server Console will need to restart.

The next time you launch it, you’ll notice the addition of the HP MediaSmart Expander for TiVO© item to the left-hand side menu.

Step 4 – Configure
There’s very minor configuration required before the devices can talk to one another. Simply click on the Configuration button at the top-right and enter your TiVo Media Access Key, available from your account page on http://tivo.com.au

Step 5 – Select
Once configured you’ll see the files stored on your TiVo. To transfer files to your MediaSmart, select each file (holding CTRL+click for multiple), when your ready to go, click the Transfer Selected Files button.

Once the Transfer is in progress, go make yourself a coffee, or 10.. this process is not fast. When complete the files (shows) will display in the third tab Files on Server where they can be deleted if you wish, or simply browse to the folder and delete them like normal files.

Step 6 – Location and Playback
After some investigation I discovered the files are actually transferred to \\MEDIASMART\Recorded TV\tivo. If you’d like to playback the files, you’ll need the TiVo Desktop software installed on your machine.

Step 7 – Watch on TV
Another option, and probably the more common, is for playback through the TiVo to your TV. To play the files (now located on your MediaSmart, scroll right to the bottom of your Now Playing list and you’ll find a new item called HP MediaSmart Server (MEDIASMART) where MEDIASMART is the name of your server.

That’s it, that’s all there is.. well except for an nice little easter egg.. those guys at HP seem to love them. Discovered by the guys over at mediasmartserver.net, if you double-right click on the TiVo DVRs Found section, you get a 4th tab Team Info.

In other news.. while hunting around HP site today I noticed, the HP EX490 MediaSmart Servers have dropped in price. I paid A$899 for mine only a few months back, they are now A$749.

More info @ HP.com

Cnet have just spilled the beans about the latest TiVo update. Expectations were high TiVo promoted the event with the tag line ‘A DVR was just the beginning’. So what did TiVo deliver and does it live up to the hype ?

The new Series 4 TiVo will come in 2 varieties, TiVo Premiere with a 320GB HDD (US$300) and a TiVo XL containing a 1TB HDD (US$500). Sadly Americans will still be forced to pay monthly, annual or lifetime subscription fees, something we gladly escape in the Aus version.

The new TiVo remote is essentially the same, with the addition of a slide out qwerty keyboard. Personally I think Boxee’s keyboard on the back would have been a better solution. It does look like they’ve been able to pull it off without adding much extra bulk to the remote, but not doubt it’ll weight a little more. The up, down, left, right control scheme for TiVo is fine for basic functions, but when searching for content it becomes a pain.

There’s a new UI, this time in HD, something current model seriously needs. Whilst the existing TiVo models do support widescreen, the interface is only SD and after being around for 10 years, it was well overdue for a reboot. The new TiVo UI features integrated online video sources including Netflix and YouTube.

The ‘Premiere’ model of TiVo comes with cable support, which is equivalent to our Austar or Foxtel PayTV.

Another new feature is the ability to manage user profiles. Naturally the way a home works is that different people like different shows, until now they’ve all been bundled into one main list of recorded shows. Now they can be browsed by user.

Sadly existing TiVo owners (Series 3 and HD) will not receive the update, so if you want the new hotness, you’ll need the new box. To pull of the new faster UI, there’s upgraded internal hardware which will ship in the US next month.

The skinny
Basically it’s an interesting announcement, fairly predictable, no massive shocks here and certainly doesn’t live up to the hype of the event. Where’s the 8 tuners, or boxee integration, or xbox media extender support, or even just DLNA streaming from PCs, sadly none of the features that would have been truly impressive have arrived.

Update
I may have been a little hasty to condemn the announcement as not that interesting. After reading through the official press release there is indeed a number of interesting changes.

Premiere is built on multi-core architecture that greatly facilitates future development of third party provided applications.

We Listened: By popular demand Premiere includes an on-screen disk space meter that shows how much room is left to record, a built in 30 second scan, and a new video window that lets you watch your favorite show while navigating the TiVo menus.

A new relationship with FrameChannel brings the best of the web directly to the TV offering users access to nearly 1,000 content widgets of personal and commercial content, ranging from Tweets, photos and status updates to news, weather, sports scores and stock quotes.

Even More Content: A brand new relationship with Pandora means in the coming months, Premiere as well as TiVo Series3™ and HD DVR customers will be able to listen to their personalized Pandora radio stations..

Australia
TiVo in Australia is only licensed, by Hybrid Television Services, so a US announcement like this does not automatically correlate to an Australian release. As a TiVo owner, I was really looking fwd to getting an updated UI, new features all via a firmware update, sadly this won’t be the case.

More @ cnet and zatz not funny

Well only a few days after Valentines Day, we’ve got a breakup on our hands. This morning TiVo announced it will be discontinuing it’s Blockbuster movie rental service.

“Blockbuster Movie Service on TiVo will be permanently closing on Friday 5th March 2010”

There is some important information about the closure of the service.

1. Existing customers will have the balance of their accounts refunded automatically.
2. Blockbuster movie rentals will disappear from the TiVo interface.
3. Movies will continue to be released up until the shutdown date.

The IPTV battle is a tough one that TiVo and CASPA On-Demand will really need to step it up, to have any chance at all. First of all there’s iTunes, with a massive library of content. But more importantly is the newest entrant..

Through the Zune Video Marketplace on Xbox 360 consoles, users can rent and buy movies in both SD and HD quality either by downloading first, but also streaming. The difference here is that Microsoft offers 1080p quality, 5.1 surround sound movies that start streaming instantly using their Smooth Streaming technology.

With the rapid adoption of large HDTVs, high definitely content is becoming a must for consumers. Neither CASPA or Blockbuster offers / offered a HD version. Also in Australia, the number of Xbox 360 owners, is many magnitudes the size of TiVo owners.

If you had to choose, what IPTV service would you use ?

One of the nicer features of TiVo is the ability to schedule recordings remotely from any web browser. The TV Guide used for remote scheduling belonged to Yahoo, in association with channel 7. While technically it worked as advertised, the user experience was pretty poor. Slow page load times and far too many screens required to actually make the recording happen. Furthermore there was never any control for season passes, so TV shows had to be set for recording one at a time.

Launched yesterday is a brand new beta for remote scheduling – TiVo Genie. This provides all the functionality a TiVo owner could want. A very slick ajaxy TV guide, quick access to record shows, the ability to add season passes, even A’La Carte choice from upcoming episodes of your favourite shows.

Mobile users also have remote scheduling in their pocket with a mobile-formatted site. Sure, not as nice as a dedicated app, it’s a nice start. It also provides access to search, guide, 1 click record and more.

My only complaint is that TiVo only grabs updates about every hour, so you have to think ahead of time. It’d be nice if the TiVo received a ping from TiVo Genie to grab updated recording information.

Check it out @ http://genie.mytivo.com.au

The old Yahoo7 TV Guide.

TiVo is set to get a new model, the first since it’s Australian launch in August 08 and with plenty of upgrades just in time for Christmas. In a Press Release from Hybrid TV, creators of TiVo in Australia, it’s been announced that a new TiVo model will be release on the 1st of December 2009. Labelled TiVo 320, you can probably guess, it’s hard drive size is now 320GB, rather than the original 160GB.

The TiVo 320 attracts a A$699 RRP, but for the holidays that includes the Home Networking Package, which previously cost an additional $199. The 160GB model now drops to A$599 RRP, so expect prices of close to $500 in the lead up to xmas.

Also included in the announcement was TiVo’s new video on-demand service called CASPA. This is in conjunction with partners channel 7, which will offer both free and pay-per-view TV shows, music and movies. There’s no mention of the existing movie service – BlockBuster On-Demand, so wether that’s been scrapped or integrated into CASPA remains to be seen. We’ll find out soon enough, CASPA launches along with the new TiVo 320 on December 1st.

It’s important to note CASPA On-Demand on TiVo will be unmetered on Internode, Primus, iiNet. If your not on one of these ISP, check with your ISP, or you’ll burn through your download cap in a heartbeat.

Source: NBR NZ

On a side note, TiVo Desktop 2.8 is now available, this ads Windows 7 support, as well as speed improvements.

Update
The new channel – 7TWO has now launched, unfortunately regional customers have been forgotten yet again! Like OneHD, the promotional material prior to the launch mentioned nothing of the new channel launch only being available in city areas. Very disappointing.

Another feather in the Freeview cap is about to arrive. A new channel Seven free-to-air channel will launch this Sunday 1st November called 7TWO. Making it easy to remember the channel will be located on channel 72.

7TWO, the brand new entertainment channel is jam-packed with movies, action, drama, lifestyle, kids programming and even theme nights. Comprising classic hits such as The Sopranos, plus brand new series’ of favourites such as Ugly Betty, Heroes, Lost and 24 which will be premiered on 7TWO, Seven has delivered a channel with shows for the whole family to watch.

Tivo owners don’t need to do anything, the new channel will be automatically scanned and simply show up in the Program Guide.