TiVo

Medialoper Bebop Episode 25: Don’t Give it Away

December 9, 2011 by Jim Connelly

This week, Kirk tells Tim & Jim his story about losing his power due to last week’s hurricane-force winds in SoCal, and how he hopped in his jeep and toured the devastation in Pasadena while searching for coffee and the internet. (6:00 – 13:28)

Then, Albert Puljos is going to Disneyland! We take a look at whether or not this is a good deal for the Angels, and have a heated discussion about whether it makes any difference that he didn’t stay with the Cardinals. (14:05 – 23:04)

Can you believe that the Red Hot Chili Peppers are going to be inducted Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Jim can’t. (23:06 – 30:20)

Finally, Tim shares what’s in his mix: The Roots, Kate Bush and The Smashing Pumpkins, which leads to a discussion about the eternal awesomeness of Siamese Dream as well as well as stories about seeing the Pumpkins at Lollapalooza & the Reading Festival. (30:21 – 40:55)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 49:00 — 67.3MB)

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Medialoper Bebop Episode 3: Conversation Fear

May 10, 2011 by Jim Connelly

On this week’s Medialoper Bebop, Jim, Tim & Kirk discuss the following:

Whether or not the huge popularity of Netflix Instant is making a dent in video piracy, and why Hollywood continues to drive people to, er, other methods of getting content, despite evidence that people want to pay for stuff.

Why fewer and fewer people are using browsers to access the internet, as Kirk & Tim have seen their digital lives reconfigure with the advent of the iPad.

And finally, we induct our very first album into the Medialoper Great Albums Hall of Fame — R.E.M. – Murmur. Of course. What else could it be?

All of this, and Coco Crisp! On an all-new Medialoper Bebop.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 36:44 — 33.7MB)

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A First Look at YouTube on TiVo

August 19, 2008 by Jim Connelly

When we talk about “convergence” here at Loper HQ, what we aren’t talking about is getting our internet, cable and phone from the same evil multinational corporation.

Instead, we mean devices that combine several formerly disparate functions into a single, easy-to-use interface. Like, of course, the iPhone, which Tim Gaskill declared this weekend to be the greatest thing ever made.

While the iPhone is most certainly a major step in portable convergence, there hasn’t yet been a device in the home video space that allows me to watch a combination of internet video and recorded TV with a single, easy-to-use interface.

You know, the One Box.

One Box to rule them all
One Box to find them
One Box to bring them all
And in the darkness bind them

Adventures With The Cable Company

October 17, 2006 by Jim Connelly

SATURDAY
MY APARTMENT

“NOOOOOO!!!!” I screamed into the phone, loud enough that the poor Third Customer Service Rep from The Cable Company probably didn’t need his phone to hear it in Bangalore. But it was nearing 10:30 Saturday morning and I’d just been on anger-building hold for 20 minutes (“Your call will be answered in the order in which it was received”).

“I WILL NOT RESCHEDULE MY APPOINTMENT!!! THIS IS YOURRRRR ISSUE!! YOU NEED TO FIX IT!!” Technically, it really wasn’t the Third Customer Service Rep’s issue, it’s just that he got stuck with me just as my asshole-o-meter had gone to 11. I was trembling with righteous fury, storming around my apartment with the cell phone jammed in my ear. I was as angry as I have ever been, and that’s really saying something.

“Please hold, sir, while I try to see what I can do.”

TiVo, Lower the Price on Your HD-DVR!

September 28, 2006 by Jim Connelly

When I made the decision to be a DVR early adopter, I chose Replay-TV over TiVo. It’s just that I thought that the Replay was slightly better for the money. It wasn’t a Mac vs. PC decision: I wasn’t taking sides in some great cultural war or anything. At the time, if you said that you were getting a DVR, people had no idea what you were talking about, anyways.

Meanwhile, a lot of other people got TiVo, and fell in love with its easy-to-use interface, and its iconic boo-bop noise, so it became the verb, even while teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. I bought a second Replay — the one with the infamous commercial skip — just a couple of years prior to the company being sold, and being sold again. Now, it’s essentially a software company, and good luck to them — rarely does a technology change my life the way theirs did — but their PC Edition doesn’t fit what I need right now, what with my HD TV and everything.

What does fit, it looks like, is this new TiVo Series 3 with the HD. There is, however, a problem. There is always a problem.

When Computers Marry Televisions

August 9, 2006 by Kassia Krozser

In an article at Slate, Paul Boutin muses about the lack of television/computer convergence. While his final conclusion — keep your television close, but keep your laptop even closer — makes sense, he doesn’t seem to consider the way our homes work in his analysis.

In order for a hybrid television/computer to work effectively, we will need a solid broadband connection to the spot where the television works. Cable companies will need to be able to deliver programming and the Internet to the same device. Phone companies will need to do the same — TiVo users generally have a phone line nearby for those nightly calls home. Satellite users will need to either figure out how to Google via DirecTV (not likely at this time) or install a second input method (more likely). Then the television will need to converge all this stuff.

The Perfect DVR – My Wish List For the Ultimate Television Machine

July 11, 2006 by Kirk Biglione

I’ve owned a TiVo for over five years now, and without question it has completely changed the way I watch television. I won’t elaborate on how revolutionary the TiVo has been because Kassia has already done that, and I don’t want to come across as one of those TiVo zealots. No, I’m not here to tell you how great the TiVo is. Instead, I want to note just how disappointed I am by the current state of DVR technology. It seems to me that the rate of DVR innovation has begun stagnating.

That’s What I Like: TiVo

May 12, 2006 by Kassia Krozser

Though I’m not one to brag, I have a busy schedule. In addition to Medialoper, I have my traditional consulting clients (cat food is not cheap), I have my blog, I write regular reviews (or irregular as the case may be), I have a regular column, I participate in a blog co-op on a quarterly basis, I read a lot of books (some even for pleasure), I exercise, and I have friends — though they’d be the first to note that I am usually too wiped out to be much good there.

This level of business makes me American, not unique.

TiVo’s Ad Finder

May 9, 2006 by Jim Connelly

OK, this seems weird: TiVo, which has long helped its users escape watching commercials, has rolled out a service that will allow its users to instead find commercials.

It’s not a full 360 — they aren’t forcing anybody to watch commercials, like Time-Warners’s “Start Over” service, or that evil TV & DVR idea patented by Philips which skips commercials only for those who pay an extra fee — but it still initially seems counterintuitive.

But maybe not.

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TiVo’s Dual Tuner: Only Halfway There

April 26, 2006 by Jim Connelly

My heart jumped when I saw the headline: TiVo Introduces Dual Tuner DVR. While I’ve always been a ReplayTV person, I recently jumped ship to a cable-company provided Scientific Atlanta DVR where the total lack of an usuable user interface has nearly obliterated the fact that it has a dual tuner and can record HD programs.

In retrospect, it was a dumb-ass move, but I’m addicted to those beautiful HD broadcasts of The Sopranos and 24. So, if TiVo was introducing a dual-tuner standalone product (they already make one bundled with DirecTV), I was on board: maybe someone else won’t make the same mistake that I did. Then I read a few more stories about it. And: sigh.