Tivo Announces PC Based Solution

Posted on September 29th, 2008 by William.
Categories: Modding, Tech.

Tivo announced an interesting solution that should be on sale after October 15th.  So far, it appears to be a tuner, presumably a USB tuner, and a remote.  It’s supposed to have the wonderful Tivo interface and run on the Windows platform.  It’s $200 for the package with the tuner, remote and software, or $100 for the software only.  That will include a year of Tivo schedule information, with a price of $99/yer for updates after that.  This package is supposed to allow you to save the shows to your video enabled iPod, a Playstation Portable, and DVD.

I’ll be intrested in taking a peek at this solution, but what remains to be answered is how well it will work over the network with my existing Tivo solution.  FYI, there’s many PC’s out there with a DVI (Digital Video Interface) connection on the video card, and the newer HD displays have HDMI ports.  There are cables available with DVI on one end and HDMI on the other. Keep in mind that using one of those cables, you’ll still have to run a cable for audio.  Do NOT purchase the cables from Best Buy, they ask 3 times too much.  You can get the cables cheaper at Altex, if you can just get over your nerd-phobia.

If this works well with my Sony Playstation Portable (PSP), then I can justify an 8GB memory card to hold some shows.  I like the idea of being able to back up shows to DVD.

0 comments.

Proof The Samsung Instinct Sucks

Posted on September 10th, 2008 by William.
Categories: Tech.

Here’s further information  in the Samsung Instinct vs iPhone battle.

YouTube Direkt


YouTube Direkt


YouTube Direkt


YouTube Direkt


YouTube Direkt


YouTube Direkt

0 comments.

infoMania’s Take On The iPhone

Posted on September 5th, 2008 by William.
Categories: Tech, Humor.

0 comments.

Google Adsense Ads Have Been Removed

Posted on July 20th, 2008 by William.
Categories: General, Tech.

For those poor fools out there looking at the site with Microsoft Internet Explorer, or Firefox without Adblock, you’ll notice that the ads have been removed from the site. If you have been surfing with Firefox with Adblock installed, then you won’t see any difference.

0 comments.

How To: Decoding Tivo Error #86

Posted on April 10th, 2008 by William.
Categories: Modding, Tech.

My faithful DirecTV Tivo has been upgraded with a 120GB hard drive about four years ago and has been on 24/7 ever since. I noticed that it had recorded anything since Saturday night, and with nearly 40 season passes, that’s highly unusual. I tried to record off the air, to transfer a show from another Tivo in the house and also from my Tivo Server, even just try to keep an existing show - every time I’d get an ‘Message #86′. I did the lazy tech thing - aka ‘rebooted it’. No love, still an angry Tivo. Then a large storm came through the area came through the area last night and the power loss resulted in completely cold reboot. Still no happiness was to be found. Now it was time to summon the powers of Google and roll up my sleeves for some good ol’ hand to circuit combat.

The search pointed me HERE which gave me this advice:

Phase 1:
1) Unplug the Tivo power cable.
2) Hold the pause button on the remote.
3) Plug the Tivo power cable back in; while continuing to hold the pause button on the remote.
4) When two yellow/orange lights on the front of the Tivo light up (may take several minutes), release the pause button and type 57 on the remote (you only have a couple seconds to enter 57 so hurry).
5) The machine will boot and eventually enter a green screen. While in this screen the Tivo will run a scandisk utility and fix any bad sectors on the hard-disk. This can take several hours (3 hrs or so). Do not unplug or power down the Tivo until it has completed.

If after 3 hours it is still on the green screen you can either wait a bit longer, or try the steps above a second time. My suggestion is to wait a bit longer.

Before completing phase 2, run the guided setup and test to make sure you still get error #86. If you don’t get the error, great, your problem is fixed. If you still get the error continue on to phase 2.

Phase 2:
1) Enter messages & settings from the main tivo screen.
2) Select Restart or Reset System.
3) Select Clear & Delete everything.
- WARNING: This will erase all your recordings and settings on the tivo box.
The Tivo will do a low-level format on the disk, which may take several hours. Do not power the Tivo down during this time.
4) After the Tivo reboots complete the guided setup and test to ensure the problem has been resolved.

If you have completed both phases and your Tivo still has error #86 you may have to replace the hard-disk, or the entire Tivo box.

I had to go through all the steps, finally erasing all the shows and having the Tivo rebuild itself. Now I’ve got a healthy, happy Tivo once again. I used TivoWebPlus that was already installed to connect to the Tivo and attempted to backup the Season Passes, but that didn’t work because the internal database in the Tivo was mad at the world and wasn’t about to unleash any meaningful data. That’s OK, now I have a fresh Tivo with the same 200GB drive just waiting to get filled once again.

0 comments.

A New Contender To Overthrow The King Of Media Centers?

Posted on April 7th, 2008 by William.
Categories: Tech.

Anyone that knows me, knows that I use my XBox Media Center (XBMC) daily to stream movies, music,  and pictures to my modest home theater.  the XBMC has been able to display every .avi, video podcast, .xvid, DVD image, etc… that I’ve thrown at it and on extremely rare cases of a corrupted file or a badly encoded file caused an issue.

Now, there seems to be another contender that’s entered the ring that may be able to actually worth a second look, the Popcorn Hour A-100 Media Tank. Here’s a great review comparing it with the XBMC > HERE.

I’ll keep an eye on the development of this project, this may find a home in my bedroom media system.

0 comments.

Latest Tivo Task Complete

Posted on January 14th, 2008 by William.
Categories: Modding, Tech.

Today, I finished upgrading the Tivo I added upstairs. This one makes the third DirecTV Tivo in the house. Collectively they are able to record nearly 15 days of video, if played back 24/7, and that doesn’t include the XP box that I have acting like a Tivo server so I can share .avi files.

Next up, I’ll have to tweak TivoWeb Plus on the other Tivos so that I can record using all six tuners (two per receiver) to eliminate recording conflicts.

The MRV (Multi-Room Viewing) option means that I can record a show in the bedroom Tivo then pull it over the network to the home theater Tivo and watch it from the couch. Now I can start watching Law & Order in the home theater, then pause it and when I go to pull it over the network, the Tivo will ask if I’d like to start at the beginning or from the paused location.

The HMO (Home Media Option) allows any of the Tivo’s in the house connect to a computer in the house and display photographs on the TV, or play .mp3 files.

Some of you may be saying “So what?”, Tivo comes with these options. Well, that would be right - a stand alone Tivo has these options, but the DirecTV Tivo’s have USB ports, but they are not active. By hacking the DirecTV Tivos, it’s possible to activate the USB ports, then load networking drivers, and then load an disk image that allows these features to function. Check out DVRUpgrade for more information. I couldn’t have completed this without the help of the Deal Database forums.

0 comments.

Second Apple Airport Express Now In Service

Posted on January 13th, 2008 by William.
Categories: Tech.

Saturday afternoon FedEx dropped off the refurbished Apple Airport Express that I’d ordered earlier in the week. My Linksys router, a WRT-54G is running the third party firmware, DD-WRT, so I was able to use the directions found at Down Load Squad.

I was able to use the Airport Express to stream Airtunes to the stereo to the front room, and also the Airport acts like a wi-fi repeater for my network with the use of WDS (Wireless Distribution System). So I have excellent wi-fi coverage anywhere in the house.

To test it, I put chose some Talking Heads albums, and had Vader, my big black cat, on by lap enjoying the music and being petted.

0 comments.

Projects, Projects and More Projects

Posted on January 13th, 2008 by William.
Categories: Tech.

Today, I’ve been working on upgrading the DirecTV Tivo that I picked up from eBay for $15 a few months ago. I replaced the original 40GB drive with a 120GB, bringing the collective recording capability of all three Tivo’s to a butt flattening 382 hours, that’s over half a month of continuous recording capability, six tuners so missed shows are a thing of the past, plus I’m running Tivo Server on a computer so any .avi file can be served up to the Tivo’s.

After I got that working, I added a Apple Airport Express in the front room so I can stream my MP3 collection to that stereo (I already have an Apple Airport Express in the listening room and I’m very impressed with it.) This allows me to pull up any .mp3 file in iTunes and send it to either stereo. It also is a wireless repeater, so I’m getting excellent wireless coverage all over the house.

My friends also helped run three more runs of Cat5 cables throughout the house for the Tivo upstairs, and two were for additional network drops in my bedroom - does that make me a geek?

0 comments.

The Day The Routers Died…

Posted on December 20th, 2007 by William.
Categories: Tech, Humor.


YouTube DirektThe Day the Routers Died

The Day The Routers Died… a song performed by the secret-wg in the closing plenary of the RIPE 55 conference

a long long time ago
i can still remember
when my laptop could connect elsewhere

and i tell you all there was a day
the network card i threw away
had a purpose - and worked for you and me….

But 18 years completely wasted
with each address we’ve aggregated
the tables overflowing
the traffic just stopped flowing….

And now we’re bearing all the scars
and all my traceroutes showing stars…
the packets would travel faster in cars…
the day….the routers died

Chorus (ALL!!!!!)

So bye bye, folks at RIPE 55
Be persuaded to upgrade it or your network will die
IPv6 just makes me let out a sigh
But I spose we’d better give it a try
I suppose we’d better give it a try

Now did you write an RFC
That dictated how we all should be
Did we listen like we should that day

Now were you back at RIPE fifty-four
Where we heard the same things months before
And the people knew they’d have to change their ways….

And we - knew that all the ISPs
Could be - future proof for centuries

But that was then not now
Spent too much time playing WoW

ooh there was time we sat on IRC
Making jokes on how this day would be
Now there’s no more use for TCP
The day the routers died…

Chorus (chime in now)

So bye bye, folks at RIPE 55
Be persuaded to upgrade it or your network will die
IPv6 just makes me let out a sigh
But I spose we’d better give it a try
I suppose we’d better give it a try

I remember those old days I mourn
Sitting in my room, downloading porn
Yeah that’s how it used to be….

When the packets flowed from A to B
via routers that could talk IP
There was data..that could be exchanged between you and me….

Oh but - I could see you all ignore
The fact - we’d fill up IPv4

But we all lost the nerve
And we got what we deserved!

And while…we threw our network kit away
And wished we’d heard the things they say
Put all our lives in disarray

The day…the routers died…

Chorus (those silent will be shot)

So bye bye, folks at RIPE 55
Be persuaded to upgrade it or your network will die
IPv6 just makes me let out a sigh
But I spose we’d better give it a try
I suppose we’d better give it a try

Saw a man with whom I used to peer
Asked him to rescue my career
He just sighed and turned away..

I went down to the net cafe
that I used to visit everyday
But the man there said I might as well just leave…

And now we’ve all lost our purpose..
my cisco shares completely worthless…

No future meetings for me
At the Hotel Krasnapolsky

and the men that make us push and push
Like Geoff Huston and Randy Bush
Should’ve listened to what they told us….
The day…the routers….died

Chorus (time to lose your voice)

So bye bye, folks at RIPE 55
Be persuaded to upgrade it or your network will die
IPv6 just makes me let out a sigh
But I spose we’d better give it a try
I suppose we’d better give it a try

Words and performance by Gary Feldman

0 comments.

Older »