Troy on TiVo

Last night my Tivo had a new message right when I hit the Tivo button on my remote. The new online services have installed (it took about a week from the time I requested them). I now have access to My Yahoo traffic, weather, and photos. It was easy to setup, just entered my Yahoo username/password, and agreed to the terms. Each of the services worked just fine, although the responsiveness with selections using the up/down/select buttons are not perfect. There is a slight delay which can be frustrating, but not the end of the world. I also looked at the Fandango movie tool, and updated the list of my local theaters. The Live365 is also pretty sweet, with access to an vast assortment of radio stations broadcast via the internet. There are even a few games on the menu -- all in all, thumbs up to this added feature of Tivo!

So, if you are thinking about getting a Tivo, I'd be happy to tell you all about it. We got ours when I found a deal at Best Buy on the 80 hour Humax Tivo w/DVD recording, and love it so far! You are making a pretty big investment, buying the machine, plus the monthly service or lifetime activation. It truly is a new way to watch TV -- no more will you rely on watching programs when they air on the networks. Just click through a few simple screens and it will record your show digitally on an internal hard drive, then watch it on your time. No more messing with VCR tapes and dealing with confusing VCR settings to record. You also get sweet features like streaming photos and mp3 songs from your home networked computer. Plus, Yahoo has teamed up with Tivo and recordings can be requested right from the TV module on My Yahoo. I would love your referral if you end up buying a Tivo, please use [tpullis at yahoo dot com] when you activate the service.

I was banging my head trying to find out how to get My Yahoo weather content on my Tivo. Yesterday, I saw an ad about this on Yahoo, but didn't see a way to activate on the landing page. Finally today, I found the page that explains how to turn on the new features. The page is here, and I entered my service number. After that I saw: "Thanks! Your information has been received. Please allow up to three business days for you to receive the new software." I'll blog again when the new features are available and share my thoughts.

Over my holiday break I got our Tivo hooked up to the internet. When I first bought the Tivo, I didn't think it was possible to use high speed broadband, because it doesn't have a Ethernet port on the back (which Replay TV has). However, it does have 2 USB ports, and those work just as well but require an adapter. I picked up the Netgear WG111 wireless USB network adapter at Best Buy for $30 (normally $60 with an instant $30 discount). After some setup on the Tivo and configuring on my Netgear router, I had it working. Now the Tivo appears to check for shows more frequently, instead of just once a night when using the phone line. For proof, I was at my desk at 10pm last night, and on My Yahoo, I selected to have Dave Letterman record so I could see the Bill O'Reilly interview. Within 15 minutes, I had a confirmation email that my show was going to record. Heading up to bed just past 10:30 and I see the glowing red light on, Letterman was recording!