An Error Occurred Communicating With Netflix

I’ve been using Netflix’s Instant Queue feature on my TiVo for a few weeks. It works fairly well except for occasional stops to rebuffer, but last week I started getting this message: “An error occurred communicating with Netflix. Please try again.” I called Netflix support and they had me delete the Netflix connection from my TiVo’s “Video on Demand” menu and then connect it again, and now it works. I think what happened is that my TiVo’s IP address changed (which can happen occasionally when the device or the router restarts) and Netflix got confused.

Enable the 30 Second Skip on your Remote

Enable the 30 Second Skip on your Remote

TiVo tip.

TiVo Series 4 Wishlist -- Observation Point

TiVo Series 4 Wishlist

I haven’t used an HD TiVo but may be switching to one soon-ish. I didn’t realize it didn’t already understand how to distinguish/prioritize HD vs. SD versions of the same show.

Story of a Peanut: The TiVo Remote's Untold Past, Present and Future

Story of a Peanut: The TiVo Remote’s Untold Past, Present and Future

Comcast TiVo part 500

Reuters reports that, though behind schedule, Comcast customers will be able to get boxes running TiVo software any time now. My hope is that in another year or two I’ll be able to rent a dual-tuner HDTV box from Comcast, rather than buy a box from TiVo and pay them for monthly service on top of my cable bill. Until then, I’m sticking to my standard TV setup.

TiVo says Comcast accepts software for DVRs

TiVo says Comcast accepts software for DVRs

Not much of a story, but good to hear the plan is moving along.

It's official: TiVoToGo for Mac

It’s official: TiVoToGo for Mac

Good stuff. Now to get a video iPod…

Comcast and TiVo Demonstrate Integrated DVR Service at CES

Comcast and TiVo Demonstrate Integrated DVR Service at CES

Excited about this.

Who Killed TiVoToGo?

Who Killed TiVoToGo?

EFF piece on why you can’t move shows from your TiVo to your computer on the new HD units.

Usability tweaks in the Series 3 Remote | PVRblog

Usability tweaks in the Series 3 Remote | PVRblog

I’ve actually been waiting for someone to write about the new remote ever since I heard the HD units had different ones. The traditional TiVo remote is designed so damn well.

On TiVo Top 10 Moments of Games Agony of Defeat Wins Out

On TiVo Top 10 Moments of Games Agony of Defeat Wins Out

Canadian skater Marie-France Dubreuil slamming to the ice was the most instant replayed moment of the games

HD TiVo Series 3 @ CES | PVRblog

HD TiVo Series 3 @ CES | PVRblog

Still no release date, but it looks like it’ll be a bunch of months and it’ll be on the pricey side.

Seven Questions with Michael Cronan, designer and creator of the name "TiVo" and the mascot | PVRblog

Seven Questions with Michael Cronan, designer and creator of the name “TiVo” and the mascot | PVRblog

I honestly think the TiVo logo is one of the best in recent years. The way they animate it is fantastic, too.

Online Scheduling - Yahoo! TV

Online Scheduling - Yahoo! TV

Yahoo! adds buttons to its TV listings that let you set your TiVo.

TiVo: Overlap Protection

TiVo: Overlap Protection

TiVo finally adds some logic into their recording to account for overlapping shows.

TiVo 7.2 OS Adds Content Protection, Blocks Transfers, and Auto-Deletes Some Show

TiVo 7.2 OS adds content protection, blocks transfers, and auto-deletes some shows | PVRblog

Is calling this “heartbreaking” over the top? It really upsets me that they’re caving like this.

Yesterday's TiVo Investor Call

Yesterday’s TiVo investor call

Finally posted a profit. Pairing with cable companies and giving away free boxes are things they should have been doing all along. Good to hear they’re on it now.

Free TiVo Box with One Year of Service

Free TiVo box with one year of service

This really should be their standing deal. I can’t say enough good things about TiVo, so if you’re interested, take a look.

The TiVolympics

PVRBlog has a good little rant on how NBC probably won’t do a good job covering the Olympics this year no matter how hard they try. It’s a tough problem: there are many more events than you can cover at any one time. Only some are very popular, but all have at least a small following. Since it’s happening in Greece, many events will occur in the middle of the night in the US, so internet reporting will beat network tape delay with the results. Here’s Matt Haughey’s suggestion:

You know what I’d do if I were NBC? Provide downloadable video of all sports, regardless of whether or not they aired on TV. Plus, I’d toss ads into them. You probably can’t air coverage of Archery on NBC in primetime, but imagine if you had every Archery event on the NBC servers. I bet companies selling bows and arrows would jump at the chance to buy an 30 second slot in a online-only video. You’d have happy fans and happy advertisers, because both NBC’s content and their advertising could reach their perfect audience: superfans.

Here’s my prediction: if in a couple months we hear NBC claim that internet downloads of pirate sports recordings cost them millions in lost revenue, know that a savvy network could have turned that kind of demand into a revenue source (via ads in downloadable video), instead of letting folks route around their damage. If NBC can’t look at someone cruising dozens of shady websites, then waiting hours to download a couple hours of shoddy video as extreme demand for something they’d happily pay for, then NBC has bigger problems than I thought.

If NBC had been thinking, they also could have plugged TiVo as the ultimate Olympics platform. Considering how much Olympics tickets cost, $99 for a TiVo box isn’t very much. They could air as many events as possible and supply very specific program data to TiVo so that viewers could set up Season Passes to certain sports. TiVo works 24 hours a day, so if a sport you cared about were on late at night it would still get recorded. Sure, people might still fast forward through the ads, but it’s better to have them fast forwarding through them then not have recorded them in the first place. (Networks would be well advised to do this with prime time television as well. Instead of worrying who’s going to win the Survivor/Friends battle this week, NBC and CBS could each rerun their primetime lineups late at night so that TiVo owners (and viewers with unusual schedules) could watch both.)

For as much time as networks spend trying to stifle new technology, none of them have realized how many hours there are between the end of the Late Late Show and the beginning of the Morning Show.

A Content-Provided World

I live in a content-provided world. TiVo faithfully records all my shows. The comic book store reserves all the titles I read. My newsreader checks the websites I like. LiveJournal collects my friends. I never have to go out and find anything. Information arrives in prescribed doses, pretending that the world is built to deliver media tailored to my tastes.

But the danger of having the whole world at your fingertips is that you never have to find out what’s beyond arm’s reach. There’s probably a lot out there.