TiVo Inc. has all but told me my series one is discontined... Lifetime Membership and all.

How so? I've got a series one w/ lifetime and it still works like a champ. I've also gotten no notification from them about impending discontinuation.

Well I opted for the Lifetime since I got a very good deal on the unit, plus the then Sony $100 rebate. The Lifetime subscription has paid for itself already...

And by "discontinuing" I mean the complete lack of updates as opposed to the Series2. See, the Series2 is currently getting a software update for simple things like show groupings in "Now Playing", serial control of the cable box and "Soft Padding" (which I think means you can pad one show to run overtime, and it will still record then next scheduled recording). TiVo Representatives have claimed they never promised to continue support for the Series1, leaving a lot of people debating the meaning of "Lifetime Subscription". I don't think they are going to drop scheduling information, but then I hadn't foreseen them dropping software updates either.

That, and the highly paranoid realization that my Tivo started acting up at the exact time they announced the Series1 -> Series2 upgrade offer, has left me rather non plused.

TiVo does look really crappy on my 57-KV700... I want to see what HD looks like on it since DVDs look so nice. I could spend money on putting a new hard drive in the TiVo and wait for the HD version, or just concentrate my finances on a nice HTPC with HD support right now and easy hard drive upgrades...

Plus, you can't play video games on the TiVo series1, or music, or photos, or web browse...
(heh... I used to sing the praises of TiVo. Now I feel like a jilted lover...)

What do you mean show groupings in now playing ?

I must not have gotten that update yet.

I don't think you are missing much with the serial control I think it works for about one cable box unless they are changing something.

See, the Series2 is currently getting a software update for simple things like show groupings in "Now Playing", serial control of the cable box and "Soft Padding" (which I think means you can pad one show to run overtime, and it will still record then next scheduled recording).

I did not know that. That does piss me off. I'll have to look into it.

It just a simple folder system where you can opt for organizing shows in folders. So if you have a number of episodes of the Simpsons they will all be listed under the Simpsons group.It's nothing special, but they refuse to say whether the Series1 will ever see it.

One of the symptoms of my previously stated paranoia was the sudden channel changing screw ups. It happens all the time now. I've tried the "fort" and various other tricks to improve it, but it still records the wrong channel more often than not. I know my cable provider has the right box, I'd just have to ask for it.

...but that doesn't matter since the only way to get serial control would be to hack my TiVo. It appears the software is in there, they just refuse to "flip the bit" on the Series1. There is a way to do it on the Series1 if you hack it. Dumb...

Hmm, I hadn't heard about that either. Groupings is a pretty cool idea, although I like seeing clearly which shows are nearing deletion. But I suppose that with my recording of about 4 daily programs, it might help a bit.

SnapStream in USA Today on Tuesday:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/edwardbaig/2003-04-22-snapstream_x.htm

May be good to see a neophyte's view of installing SnapStream. I think he was a little hard on it. I don't read the paper, so I don't know if this guy is really a moron or not.

A little update...

I played with myHTPC a little last night and I am very impressed. It is quite simple, but it does what I want for the most part. I only tested the music and pictures aspect of it. It shows all my directories with their album covers by default. It also uses WMP9's visualizations which is okay... Winamp is supported too, but I couldn't seem to get it to work correctly. No fancy stuff like Empeg, but the new release today adds searching, ID3 support, and a Jukebox mode that could be promising for parties.

I think i am going to try and use this when I build my HTPC. Does anyone here know if hooking a DVI cable from PC to TV would work correctly? The menu font's look really nice on my monitor, but S-Video looks annoyingly fuzzy.

What version did you try I got a email today saying a new version was released (R20).

I have wondered about using the DVI input on my tv to connect to my computer too. The info I could find is that it is not supported by anyone. I have read of people doing it but you have to figure out the max resolution and refresh for your tv and they say if you use the wrong settings you can damage the tv.

It's good to know the svideo still is crappy looking I can just skip trying that. I have been thinking about getting an ATI card with a dvi out and using their DVI to component adaptor. I wonder how that looks.

I have a friend who has a friend that used that n his 65" wide-screen. Reports from the friend say that it is quite impressive (Unreal2 at 1900+rez!), yet suffers from overscan problems. I think that can be fixed by setting the resolution with powerstrip, but I haven't asked if he's tried that.

I have a Nvidia GeForce4 in this machine and it supposedly supports HD resolutions... with a DVI to component cable that is, to quote Nvidia, "rare and difficult to find". Great... I've seen some for Digital projectors, but always out of stock.

I'm using R20 and it's pretty cool. The new Music module has to be setup in the Configuration program. It is a little rough, but the author is taking feedback on how it works. the Jukebox mode, with some UI tweaks looks like fun. You can sort by Artist, Title, Album, or Genre and then do alpha searches within that grouping. I believe his plans are to combine the functions of the default Music module with this new one. My big excitement is it's use of the Artist and Album artwork I have already set up... very nice.

My plan is to find a way to get HiDef to my TV and make my decision from there. I haven't even played with the MAME and "myGames" aspect yet! I have all the WMP9 Hidef demo files in my Video folder and they play well from the interface. I have to get this all setup before my next Amazon order arrives...

... Bootsy Collins in High Definition... ooooh yeah.

I have a Nvidia GeForce4 in this machine and it supposedly supports HD resolutions... with a DVI to component cable that is, to quote Nvidia, "rare and difficult to find".

This isn't a problem if your TV supports RGBHV (five-plug) input. You don't need a DVI-to-component cable, just a VGA-to-RGBHV cable, which you can even make yourself with a little care and sweat (I did). Heck, some TVs even come with VGA inputs.

I'll have to double check, but I don't think it does have RGBHV. It has DVI, but it seems that is not the same as what is coming out of my videocard. Dumb...

Nope... no RGBHV.

• Front A/V Input (1)
• Front S-Video Input (1)
• HD Component (Y,Pb,Pr) Video Inputs (2R)
• Composite Video Input (3R)
• S-Video Input (2R)
• RF Input (2R)
• Control-S In/Out

There are VGA to component converters
Link

Link

I don't know how well they work though.

I could have sworn that second one was the exact same one that was discussed in a previous thread. This was some time ago though, so I'm not sure where you'd find it. I'm pretty sure someone found something a lot cheaper. Not sure if it worked, though

Thanks... I have seen those, but was hoping there was a less expensive, easier way.

Damn, I was just about to give in and buy one, but it appears they require a power source. That seems odd to me. I have enough wall warts making a mess behind my TV as it is. Arg...

This is frustrating... especially because in a year this will probably be something you can pick up in the Fred Meyer camera department for $6.95...

How about a VGA to RGBS (4 RCAs or one SCART) converter? I'bve been looking for one of these for several weeks....

I dunno about that one. I don't know what RGBs is or what devices use it. A VGA plug uses two synchs: Horizontal and Vertical. A VGA-to-RGBHV plug is just a way of expanding the VGA connector into five RCA plugs for each of those five parts (three color guns and the two synchs). It doesn't have any electronics, just the right RCA wires connected to the right VGA pins. Would RGBs be the same thing but just use only one of the synch plugs?

I guess the both syncs are conbined into one signal. This is supposedly a standard for high-end TV's in Europe. Most DVD players sold in Europe output such a thing, which is connected to TV's using something called a SCART connector.

Electronics would definitely be invvolved in such an adapter.

Perhaps, but not much, probably. Older (1993 and prior, I'd guess) high-end monitors often had four BNC connectors -- RGB and combined sync. These cables had no obvious electronics in them. For all I know, you may just need to combine the signals directly, but there may be more to it, but if there is, it ain't much.

You are right! Its a simple matter of combining the H and V sync into a single cable. Theoretically you need to XOR both syncs, but just joining them works according to some web site I was able to locate.

Things are never easy, it turns out that VGAs use a higher horizontal scan rate than most RGBS devices (30 something kHz vs 15.75 khz). So most video boards have to be reprogrammed at the register level to do this, which might be a no-no in an op sys such as WinXP. I don't know why everything I want to do requires hacking

30 something kHz vs 15.75 khz

Aha. So RGBS is at the same horizontal scan rate as video game cabinets? (Ref: other threads on MAME cabinets...)

If you put a mod chip into an xbox and install xbox media player you get alot of the same functionality and look of home theather edition.

The TV tuner functionality obviously isn't there but it plays tunes, shows gifs/jpegs and plays divx and other movies. You can stream from another computer through the xbox as well as install a larger hard drive.

You are limited in what you can do but it's also alot cheaper than many other options. You can get a refurbed xbox for $150 plus $50 for a mod chip. All the software is "free" (since it's black-market type stuff).

I don't have any of it, I just know people who do.

I just got the update that has the show groupings and it is pretty nice. I record alot of shows that are on daily and I will let a bunch of them build up before I watch them. The grouping feature is nice because I don't have to scroll through 4 pages of shows to get to the one I want.

I can't remember, you have a series 2, right? I still hope this comes about for the series 1. Has anyone heard any news about that?

I have a series 2 I only found out about it because bootsy was mad that it isn't coming out for series one.

Has anyone found any new software that is like the Windows Media Center software since the last time someone posted on this thread?

so has anyone tried the real Windows Media Center?

My experiences with Windows Media Center (version 1), were rather poor. I played with a system my friend built, and even had the official remote for. And the remote was one of the worst ones I have seen. The ATI Remote Wonder has me sold on RF for computer control, not IR like the Media Center. Even the old Gateway Destinations had this right, in bundeling an RF keyboard and remote with the system.

Beyond that, the problems with the DVD player not outputting a digital surround signal even when the symbol was clearly on the screen was irritating. The need to actually quit the interface and run a normal DVD player was not good.

I never tried the PVR aspect, as the system was not set up to do so. My friend did not trust the software enough, and instead has a Dish Network PVR that works.

I'm using SageTV (http://www.sage.tv) right now and it's not too bad. They're coming out with a new version that has a better UI layout and some more features..