TiVo Desktop Plus 2.6 Now Released

Engadget's feed lets us know that Tivo has delivered Desktop Plus 2.6, as promised (just a week after they announced the YouTube deal). "Truth be told, there's not a whole lot here that you didn't already get a taste of in our hands-on at CES, but here's the skinny. As of today, TiVo users can grab hold of the latest version of Desktop (Windows only, we're afraid) and 'enjoy a broad range of web entertainment available directly from their TV.' More specifically, these customers 'can choose web videos downloaded on the home PC using web browsers, RSS video clients such as iTunes podcasts, or other video download software to automatically copy to their TiVo DVR's Now Playing List alongside recorded broadcast and cable TV shows.'"

DRM Stripping?

Well, once the DRM is stripped, this'll make for much faster TV ups on piratebay ...

Re:DRM Stripping?

Done [sourceforge.net].

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Well, once the DRM is stripped, this'll make for much faster TV ups on piratebay ...

Already been done (link in another post, and that link has a nice link to another open-source project that automates the entire procedure).

Only thing is, you need to edit t

Not just Windows

Their site lists Mac OS X as well as a few portable devices. Apple iPod Creative Zen Nokia n80 Palm Treo PSP Toshibe gigabeat Vision:M

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The Mac OS X software from TiVo has limited functionality - it allows sharing of photos and music from your Mac to the TiVo, but not videos. However, the makers of VisualHub (http://www.techspansion.com/visualhub/) do provide a little hack (that enables th

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The Tivo Desktop Plus software itself really only runs on Windows.
The OSX version is a few updates behind, missing a number of features and isn't getting this functionality any time soon.

The 'compatible with' mobile platforms are simply all those that can

Glacial interface

Now I suggest they spend some development time fixing their on-board software so that the interface on my Tivo [Series 2] isn't so f*cking slow! New features are nice, but when they keep adding more stuff to the point where it takes 30+ seconds to bring up

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I have 3 TiVos (series 2) and a new TiVo HD is in mail, but it's to the point where I'm embarrased by the time it takes to navigate the 'Now Playing' list. I used to demo TiVo for guests all the time, but I can't do that anymore. Since I have lifetime s

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Just out of curiosity, short of building your on DVR or using a DVR provided by a cable or satellite provider, what "something else" would you use?

Those were my main two considerations. I haven't yet seriously looked into any of the cable/dish DVRs, but I figure there's got to be one or two decent ones out there, even if most of them suck.

I've already got a Vista box with an HDTV tuner [over-the-air

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A buddy of mine has a Series 1 where he apparently installed this big drive cache (1GB of memory on some sort of special board) that allows his Tivo to keep the entire guide in memory instead of having to swap it in and out. Because of this, his menu is l

Available to other programs ?

has anyone seen any info on if and when TiVo will allow outside user programs access to these features. I am hoping that it won't take too long till Galleon [galleon.tv] can do this sort of thing.

For those that live in a bad cable system...

Living in NYC, I am beholden to TimeWarner as my only cable provider. Of course, TimeWarner unlike nearly all other cable systems in the country sets the broadcast flag for EVERY channel other then OTA (CBS, NBC, FOX, ABC). When questioned about this they just pretty much laugh and say its a part of the contract. Of course, I would love to see said contract because I highly doubt every cable channel is asking TimeWarner to set the broadcast flag, ESPECIALLY when I friends on other large cable systems that do not have this problem. This means is that TivoDesktop is useless to me and I cannot download shows to my laptop to watch on the plane unless they are from the major networks.

*Yes, I am a geek and could go find workarounds. No, I don't want too because I have more important things to worry about and things to do with my time then be denied TV on the go which is probably a good thing.

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The problem is that even if it ignores the broadcast flag, you aren't going to get HD signals from a cable box (ignoring broadcast flags remember? No on standard CBS,ABC, etc) over coaxial cable nor svideo.

So you're still only getting standard def televis

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I'm not sure that you fully understand just how TiVo interacts with digital cable in these modern times, at least in the US.

Here [tivo.com] is some information on the topic. Another article [nytimes.com] goes on about actual, real-live abuse of the Broadcast Flag on TiVo.

(And if

"Added" value

I've been a Tivo customer for maybe five years now; and for the first few years I loved them. But for the past couple of years, their main focus seems to be adding new types of advertising to their products - pop-up ads when you're fast-forwarding through a commercial (a primary reason for owning a DVR), new ads on the menu screens, etc. What they purport to give their customers are ill-conceived new ways to play computer games that don't really work well with the Tivo remote, view video (e.g. YouTube, RocketBoom and other videocasts) that works better from a computer than a television, and such. At the same time the usability of their software seems to be going downhill, such as with the significant degradation of the Multi-Room Viewing function on Series 2 boxes.

All of this is their right, since they're providing a service - I can always vote with my feet, right? Well, as with many customers inertia has kept me with them... so far. I keep hoping they'll recall their old mindset of putting their customers first. But I think, at this point, a focussed newcomer could pretty easily kill off Tivo. Lord knows I'll jump ship if, say, Apple turns the Apple TV into a PVR, or if I finally get off my butt and roll my own.

confused because I've been using this for 8 months

Tivo Desktop 2.6 is the version it displays when I start it up. It dumps to "Treo" files (downscale mpeg4), it dumps to ipod and a few other formats. It allows real time download from my computer to my tivo using the tivo remote for DIVX, mpeg4 and a few other formats.

I downloaded it ($20 fee for "plus" version) like 8 months ago and have been using it to watch drm free legitimate backups of my DVDs on my TV ever since.

Re:Sssh!

Your comment is self-deprecating - by virtue of being a geek, any spare time you have is spent on doing geekish things. Therefore geeks never have "too much time on their hands".

Still, give us geeks a shout in a couple of years time when you want to keep all those downloaded DRM-protected MP3s and movies you bought for a period of longer than two days - we'll see if we can help you out then.

You are The Weakest Link. Goodbye.

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Using a borrowed piece of dialogue from a TV show to point out my own lack of originality.

Man, you're too clever for me.

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Man, you're too clever for me.



If you were the one he was replying to, then he was clever enough to get you to stop posting as an AC. :)

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That goes for you dragging your knuckles on the floor over there also!

Nope, keep going - still a nice big pile of unburnt fuel in the "Ol' Karma Coalshed" yet!

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What you don't have are dual tuners capable of decoding the HD 1080i most cable companies are offering today, unless you're willing to shell out about $500 for it.

What you don't get is a cableCARD slot that, while not perfect, is certainly a much better so

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Simple device to device networking?

Any file a PC PVR generates is "just a file". It doesn't get any simpler than that.

Step off the Tivo reservation and the whole thing becomes a bigger
headache than the most complex Linux based PVR installation.

While cable

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1. Nice straw man. It's not about networking. It's about plug-and-play networking. About zero-setup. Contrast that with your DIY DVR.

2. I can backup and watch all my Tivo content on my PC and my Laptop. So no, I can't browse Tivo like any other Samba share

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:: Oops. Ignore the previous post. I rewrote my post into bullet-point form and accidentally included the long-form at the bottom. ::

1. Nice straw man. It's not about networking. It's about plug-and-play networking. About zero-setup. Contrast that with

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silly AC, slashdot never cared about you :)