OT: brings out the fanboy in me...

Sky Atlantic series to debut on DVD and Blu Ray

The two big drama series in the Sky Atlantic / HBO stable are both debuting on disc early in 2012. Season one of Boardwalk Empire finally comes out on disc on January 9th, a ridiculous 15 months after it debuted on HBO and a month after season two has finished. Those waiting for season one of Game of Thrones will be happier as that box set will be released just before season two starts - March 5th.
Why the long gap? I don't think it's anything to do with the Sky Atlantic deal as they've both been delayed stateside too. It's, more likely part of HBO's strategy with it's HBO Go service and the competition with NetFlix.
Season five of AMC's Mad Men is scheduled for the spring on Sky Atlantic by the way. The show may appear on online services such as iTunes as previous seasons have been available there immediately after UK airing.

TiVo iPlayer issue resolved

I haven't experienced any problem myself but some customers have had issues with the BBC iPlayer App since the recent software update on the TiVo. A post over on the Virgin Media TiVo blog suggests the issue has been addressed by removing a bandwidth bottleneck on part of the network.

Virgin Media adds three but no more HD yet

Virgin Media has added three additional channels but none are high definition.
Sony Entertainment Television is on channel 193 and has TV shows such as Hustle, This Life, Huff and newer series such as The Tudors, along with Sony movies including Spider-Man 3 and Surf's Up.
We also now have CBS Action on channel 192 which includes Star Trek Next Generation and NCIS in its lineup.
And finally news channel NDTV, India's most watched English news network, on 621.
Hardly Sky Atlantic but some will be pleased.

TiVo on the iPad - US App works...kinda...

Thanks to Richard for the following:

The US TiVo app can be made to work on the VM TiVo but needs a few tricks and a PC or mac set up running a piece of software that tricks the Tivo iPad app into thinking the VM tivo is a US Tivo. For those who want a sense of what is possible with the ipad/phone app, there is a great posting on Cable Forum with some brilliant people contributing more than a simple few words, but actual coding and testing time.
BUT BE WARNED, the Tivo app was never designed to work on the VM Tivo so sometimes crashes because the responses are not what it expects.
If you look at Post #241 and #242 which are the replies to sn00p where he posts the PC and Mac files, you will see both the link to the files and the replies where people are testing and say it works.
I’ve been using the old versions of the ‘hack’ and this version and they all work fine(ish) this latest version is definitely more stable and easier to use to use and less of a problem for IT illiterate. Thanks to sn00p we have this app.
So 3 things…
1. YOU USE THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Do not critisie people for things not working and do not flame or slam people for this contribution. It was a hack to show the US Tivo app.
Do not criticise VM or TiVo for the iPad app. This app was never designed for the VM product and is in no way supported.
Do not ask for support, this is a hack for people who know what they are doing not for the masses who don’t know how to spell ‘IP address’
Don’t start if you don’t know what you are doing and do not get upset if you have problems, you used at your own risk.
2. You need to know how to get a US only app from itunes for free.
Don’t ask, use Google it is well documented .
3. You need to do all the network setup on the TiVo and put in the right settings. Read the guide from Jason on his Virgin Media TiVo blog site. 

Richard added
"The app does crash, usually when you are trying to select from the 'my shows' area. This is because the VM TiVo is sending back info the ipad app doesn't understand and so 'bang' the app closes. However, the ability to browse, set recordings, manage seasom passes etc without stopping what you watch is brilliant. The speed is really quick. I've not tried on the iphone, but it should work on there."

I asked my old friend Scottivo to give this a look (I just knew he wouldn't be able to resist) and here's what he wrote back
"Downloaded the Mac file and had it working in less than a minute, once I'd got the Media Access Key code from the TiVo menu. Looks very impressive. Changed channels, then played the start of a Modern Family ep from My Shows but when I pressed Stop it took me to the Media Access Key page again and wouldn't let me out. I had to reboot the box. No pics showing so far but EPG is all there."
So it is probably worth waiting for the real thing to launch, but for those who enjoy playing, Christmas has come a little early...

Spotify...does anyone else have problems?

Sound on the TiVo has drop outs more frequent than I can cope with, and what's worse the iPhone App crashes out after ten minutes every bloody time. Infuriating. Last week was fine and I haven't changed anything - is anyone else experiencing this?
UPDATE: I've now update my iPhone to iOS 5.01 and reinstalled Spotify, and it's been playing all day without a single hitch. So, a reminder that the "cloud" can be an infuriating, flawed experience for all the treasures it may hold. Ho hum

Virgin's deadline for Christmas installations: December 9th

If you're planning to sign up to Virgin Media broadband and TV services in time for the Christmas break you must complete your order this week.
Virgin Media has set a deadline of midnight on Friday December 9th 2011 for a guaranteed installation.
Consumers who order a Virgin Media TV, phone and broadband bundle after this date may have to wait until after Boxing Day to see their service activated.

Netflix and Lovefilm on TiVo? Maybe...

The Competition Commission's is getting its recommendation on breaking BSkyB's hollywood movie dominance, and maybe this could lead to Virgin Media getting perhap Netflix or Lovefilm services (via TiVo?) on Virgin Media, too. No-one knows for certain how the movie services will play out in the long term, but here's how Paid Content is speculating on this:

BSkyB’s set-top boxes may have to offer services like Netflix, Lovefilm and Blinkbox alongside its own Sky Movies, under new proposals from the Competition Commission.
That is one of two new remedies proposed by the commission, which this summer provisionally ruled that Sky’s exclusive deals with six Hollywood studios is anti-competitive.
In an additional new consultation, the commission is asking…

• “whether access to Sky’s Ethernet-enabled STBs would enable qualifying OTT movie service providers to compete more effectively with Sky’s movies services”
• or “whether, in the foreseeable future, this remedy will be rendered superfluous through technical and market developments, in particular the adoption by consumers of Internet-enabled TVs and STBs, including YouView”.

Sky has only recently enabled its own on-board on-demand service, Anytime+, which includes movies, on its boxes. It is also increasingly making its own content available on other devices and platforms including YouView, for which it is a content partner, when it launches next year.
A compulsion to host rival services on its own box would be a massive boon to rival services like Netflix, Lovefilm and Blinkbox because Sky is in around 10.5 million UK homes.
But the notion is likely be contested vigorously by Sky. In any case, the technical challenge could be considerable since Sky’s current Sky+ box was not built to host over-the-top services

VMHD has now had over half a million unique visitors

A momentary diversion: this blog has now been running for just over four years and hit a few landmarks in recent weeks

1,545,621 Visits

502,751 Unique Visitors

2,118,319 Pageviews

Traffic's still growing, so thanks everyone for your support.

How to network your TiVo and a Spotify review

Couple of fine blog posts for those enjoying the 15.2 TiVo upgrade:
First off, Jason's mighty-fine Virgin Media TiVo blog now has a How To Network TiVo guide which looks pretty comprehensive.
And our old buddy Afront has reviewed VM's TiVo Spotify up on his own blog.
Both are hugely informative if you're looking at setting up and using either service on your PVR.