Lawrence "The Dreamer" Chen's Blog

Starting to look like 6.0/768 might be a real possibility for my DSL connection.

This morning (around 3am) another bump in speed. Sync rate is now 3008/512. No noticeable change in SN Margin, but Line Attenuation has gone up by another db.

DSLReport's Spectrum Tool shows an estimated downstream rate of 4660 now.

I may really look at moving more over to it now. Think I'll move the TiVo HD....though now that Amazon Unbox is going to have HD content, that might mean that I really should be looking at the 6.0/768 tier.

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I checked the TiVo HD, and it was only recording a suggestion (that I wasn't interested in). So I canceled it.

I then setup the external drive. Found a spot on the UPS to plug in the odd shaped wart that prevented me to plugging it into my power strip. And found a spot where the tall drive would fit on my stand (couldn't find any answer on whether it would work in a horizontal orientation)....silly drive...its not a book. The 500GB My Book cheaper (and the local computer store had some).

I then pulled the plug on the TiVo HD. Hooked up the eSATA cable. And, powered up the TiVo again.

It came up...but didn't seem to see the storage. After surfing the menus a bit, I remembered that there was a selection in the settings menu for external devices. So, I went there and set up the drive. It rebooted again and did the setup....

Now I can have up to 86 hours of HD.

This time coming out, I got a message saying that it finally detected storage and asked if I wanted to set it up (again). I deleted the message, and headed into work.

I was debating whether to buy the My DVR Expander from TiVo or Best Buy.

For some reason I thought there was an advantage to getting it from TiVo....perhaps I had some vague recollection of reading that Best Buy's price was higher. But, I saw that it was the same price. And, there's the iGive factor

As I was looking at my shopping cart for my checkout options, it occurred to me that I should've gotten RewardZone certificates. Apparently you have to check the site regularly to see when they are automatically issued to you, but they had apparently issued $35 worth of certificates to me on February 25th.

So, I went and completed the order using all the certificates.

Because I've been doing too much stuff with my TiVo HD DVR at the moment, I've decided to put off the purchase the Archos 605 WiFi. Instead I'm likely to purchase the MyDVR Expander for the TiVo.

There are rumors of the Archos 606 coming out later this year, while the details of what it'll do and look like are sketchy....the consensus is that Archos is going to have regular releases of new products (which kind of fits with most consumer electronics companies ) And, since it has been a major struggle of choosing between the Archos 605 WiFi or an iPod Touch....one would hope that the next version of the Archos will make the decision easier.

Plus the thinking to push ahead with the 605 at this point was based on wanting to have it before I go on my next trip (Penguicon).

So, quick cut to my netmap for April 2008....

And, now off to figure out where other gadgety goodness falls in my budget. Like moving up my next ThinkGeek order.

I'm hurting my Internet connection!

Last night I decided to take the plunge and upgrade to TiVo Desktop Plus, to gain access to hopefully more TiVoCasts....

It didn't go well. After I got my license key, I tried to apply it to TiVo Desktop 2.5.1....it wouldn't take, said something about missing component. So, I downloaded 2.6....it required that I uninstall the old version first.

Then, it kept saying the key was invalid.

I was looking around trying to figure out how to contact sales and get them to give me a working key...when I decided to poke around in registry. I found that it had decided that I my account (even though I'm Administrator of my own box) shouldn't have permission to HKLM/SOFTWARE/TiVo, granting myself permission to this branch....made it take the key and start working....

Now to see what additional stuff I can get....well, I was specifically looking for current GeekBrief.TV feed....instead of the delayed feed via TiVo. Didn't see how I would add feeds to it....seems it just makes additional ones available on my TiVo HD.

Searching around on Google, there was mention of RSS and TiVo Desktop Plus...but I didn't find any such option. Though another blog described adding using iTunes to subscribe to (video) podcasts, and adding the appropriate iTunes folder to TiVo Desktop Plus. I used this approach. I downloaded the most recent episode and it transferred it to my TiVo HD. I haven't watched yet (and not sure when I'll get to it tonight...or if it'll have to be later this week). But, it seemed satisfactory.

So, I went to iTunes and clicked the "Get All" button...and now I'm hurting my broadband connection.

Now I wonder if there's a way to tap other casts....like the DearCali one....

Well, now that things seem to be working, I was making use of the TiVo HD last night....to the point where I didn't check any of my other recorders for content last night....

There's quite a bit of channels that I got on the Cox HD DVR, that I don't see via CableCARD....don't know if that's because Cox isn't making them all available to CableCARD subscribers or because they aren't in the lineup data from TiVo. TiVo lineup isn't very complete...there are channels it knows about, but has no program info for...so I can't schedule anything from those channels. And, there's other channels that are just missing. I had submitted the missing channel form for Fox HD, along with a link to the local lineup information...so hopefully TiVo will eventually get around to having things right.

Meanwhile, I started looking at the TiVoCasts....some of them are pretty interesting, I've downloaded just a few of them, and set up season passes to keep them coming. Checking my cacti monitor, I see that I've already downloaded >10GB of data in the last week. Wow. Probably the most downloading I've done....even more than when I set up my last new computer. Though that's probably because it wasn't a Windows computer.

Someday I'll get a new Windows computer.....only because my current one is starting to fail (had originally intended to replace it a couple of years ago, when it was 3....) And, want to get one before I can't get Windows XP anymore.

Well, I got to a point where it said it was going to take a long time to update. So, after waiting a while....I decided to go in to work.

When, I got home, it was still finishing its connection. It was the the slow count up of "Loading". It was at 40%. After about half an hour...it neared 50%....but while I was checking what channels I was getting (and ignoring the messages that it had no program info...) it rebooted on me.

It wanted guided setup again (but I ignored it)....afterwards, live TV was funny. Sometimes I would get ESPNHD, ESPN2HD, TNTHD, UHD, etc....but most of the time I didn't. So, I tried guided setup again. It kind of worked, but mostly didn't....hopping around the setting some more and few more unexpected reboots, some successful and some failed net connects. I once again was asked to do guided setup...so I did.

Finally, I poked around in the CableCARD menus....found that CableCARD 1 was working for everything, but CableCARD 2 was having issues. I contemplated calling the Cox installer to see if he could help, but opted to try another guided setup, but tried to see if instead of confirming 23 as QVC what it would ask and see if I saw it. But, it would ask if 24 was X, then 25 was Y, then 26 was Z....they all were, so I stopped there. Would take to long to see if it would tune digital channels.

The gist was CableCARD 1 was getting all my digital channels (SD and HD)...while CableCARD 2 seemed only able to get broadcast HD. So, I gave the Cox installer a call. He said he would call somebody and then call me back. While staring at a black screen of something I should be getting (what happens when CableCARD 2 is selected...) It jumped...flashed an error screen....and then seemed to work. Though I found that CableCARD 2 now reported that it had no channels, and CableCARD 1 was doing all the work.

I got the call back, he said he had them do a reset/refresh for that card and asked if it was working. I described what I was seen and that it was currently saying no channels available for CableCARD 2. Said it would take some time and that he would call back in 5 minutes.

Soon afterwards...it started working, and I had everything. When he called back, I told him that it was now working.

Now to start scheduling stuff to record on it.....

The process got off to a rough start...the installer put card 1 in and then put card 2 in, and called to do the pairing. During the call he was instructed to remove cards and then do them one at a time.

That seemed to go somewhat better.

He didn't want to go through guided setup, just wanted to see live TV to confirm that things were working. But, it stayed at Acquiring Channel Info, forever. A quick call, seems he would have to do it, if he wanted to see channels.

So, we did the guided setup.

Still no channels. He decided that everything was done on their end, that it must be TiVo that is preventing things....so he left his number, and said to call if there were any problems on their end.

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Well, I pulled that trigger....

I called Cox, navigated through the phone menus...entered my old Vonage phone number (the Ohio one)...and then got to talk to someone about getting CableCards.

The only hang up was how many did I need? I asked if they did S-Cards or M-Cards...she didn't know, said the installer will bring the right card based on the work order of what they would be installing the cards into. Saying that it was for a TiVo HD didn't help answer the question, she needed the model number and then she would go find out.

The answer was, I would need two cards.

The installation is scheduled for between 10-12 on Thursday March 20th.

It never came up that I have other Cox boxes already, etc. Just the one time fee for them to come out and install the cards and the monthly fee that having the cards would add.

A much improved experience so far.

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...but to be fair, I have like 15 (unique IR code) devices in my Home Theater setup.

I used to have one remote to control them all...a URC-6131 which was hacked controlled 7 ReplayTVs, and the TV + Receiver.

I had a another URC that that I had reprogrammed to control the Momitsu V880N because it worked better than the original remote. And, even though this remote could control my Cox HD DVR, I opted to keep the Cox remote around.... I have a few other remotes stashed to control less frequently used devices or modes...like the Samsung SIR-T351/SIR-T451 remote, Samsung HLN4265W1 remote, CD changer.

But, yesterday two new remotes got added to this mix. The TiVo HD's and the Zektor HDVI5's. I could reprogram the Zektor to respond to a different remote, but I don't have extra buttons around to do that....and I need to think what would make good codes. Or find a open spot somewhere else to add it.

I briefly thought about reprogramming the second URC for the TiVo or getting another universal remote of some type...but one of the problems of universal remotes is the layout doesn't match the original or keys aren't labeled as clearly as the original, etc. And, I decided against that...at least for now.

I would like to find another URC-6131, since the buttons on that are starting to give me trouble.... Which might prompt to get JP1 software going again so I can at least clone the URC-6131 (wonder how straight forward to clone to a 6131N....of course, the layout is different so I'd have to learn another layout for something I've gotten used to).

Oh well.....