Release date on KidZone yet?

[hfwarner3]

I have been looking for a release date on KidZone and have not found one yet outside of "June 2006". Does anyone know the date yet?

Also, is there a Beta you can sign-up for?

[gonzotek]

TiVo has a KZ web page at tivo.com/kidzone. It has a sign-up form to notify you of more information, when it becomes available.

There have been some reports by TiVo employees that the TiVo software 7.3 release is very imminent(source (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=4079470&&#post4079470)). Since KidZone is a pretty major UI change for TiVo, and they don't do that many major software releases per year, I suspect that it will be sometime during or after the roll out for 7.3.

[petew]

TivoJerry has mentioned 7.3 which is due out soon. My guess KidZone will be part of 7.3

Go to http://www.tivo.com/4.7.asp for information on how to register as a potential Beta tester. Based on your answers to the survey, Tivo will select Beta testers that match their criteria.

[hfwarner3]

TivoJerry has mentioned 7.3 which is due out soon. My guess KidZone will be part of 7.3

Go to http://www.tivo.com/4.7.asp for information on how to register as a potential Beta tester. Based on your answers to the survey, Tivo will select Beta testers that match their criteria.

I filled out the survey months ago, so I guess they don't want me... :(

Seriously, I made the mistake of telling the wife about it and now she can't wait for it.

[ZeoTiVo]

saying in the public forum you beta tested something is the surest way to not get invited back.

[TiVoPony]

It'll be ready soon. :)

Pony

[jfh3]

It'll be ready soon. :)

Pony


Don't supposed you'd care to define "soon" a bit more precisely?

Or "second half".


I'd be glad with either. :)

[ZeoTiVo]

It'll be ready soon. :)

Pony


will there be a priority list as done for other releases ?

[Stu_Bee]

http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/publications/reports/top10bestandworst/main.asp

#10 Best = Not Available.....heh..they ran out of shows just trying to get 10 shows they thought were ok?

[Dan203]

Don't supposed you'd care to define "soon" a bit more precisely?

Or "second half".


I'd be glad with either. :)

Soon = In the near future; shortly.

Second half = July 1st - December 31st.

Glad I could help. ;) :D

Dan

[mtchamp]

My preciction is tommorrow we find out the exact date because TiVo is presenting ZidZone at a conference in Washinton DC tomorrow.

From the Motley Fool Board; A press release from TiVo:

TiVo to Present at Washington, D.C. Policy Summit - Beyond Censorship: Policies and Technologies to Give Parents Control Over Children's Media Consumption

WHAT: The New America Foundation is hosting a policy roundtable and
luncheon to discuss how best to help parents select quality
media for their children and protect them from inappropriate
programs. Opening remarks will be provided by Sen. Hillary
Rodham Clinton (D-NY), Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), FCC
Commissioner Michael Copps, and FCC Commissioner Deborah Taylor
Tate.

WHO: Joe Miller, Vice President, Consumer Sales and Affiliate
Marketing, TiVo, will discuss how TiVo's new KidZone will
facilitate parental choice, and how its partners will provide
easy to implement content recommendations.

WHEN: Wednesday, June 7th at 11:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. ET
TiVo's Joe Miller will discuss TiVo KidZone during Topic 2:
Marketplace / Technology Approaches.

WHERE: Kaiser Family Foundation
Barbara Jordan Conference Center
1330 G St., NW
Washington, D.C. 20005

Contact: Jeffrey Weir (Sloane & Company)
212-446-1878
jweir@sloanepr.com

A recent story about the conference planned for tomorrow:

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6339302.html?
display=Breaking+News

Clinton Headlines Beyond Indecency

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 5/30/2006 12:26:00 PM

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton next week is headlining a New America Foundation event in Washington centering on parental-control devices in the age of even more media platforms to control.

For the mouthful of a luncheon program entitled, "Beyond Censorship: Policies and Technologies To Give Parents Control Over Children’s Media Consumption," the Democratic Senator from New York will join the Democratic Senator from Louisiana, Mary Landrieu, Democratic FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, and Republican Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate in addressing the issue.

The June 7 event will also host a host of "provocations" by various presenters, followed by a roundtable discussion.

The many provocateurs include the Parents Television Council promoting à la carte cable service and family tiers; Benton Foundation President Gloria Tristani talking about kids issues, and presentations from Microsoft, Verizon and TiVo on the Internet and new-tech control solutions.


Senator Clinton, for her part, has expressed concern about the media's effect on children, and pushed legislation that creates a program under the auspices of the Centers For Disease Control to track the media habits of children and impact of the media on their behavioral development.


Tate and Copps both voted to propose fining TV broadcasters millions for content they felt was not appropriate to children or the 6 a.m.-10 p.m. hours, when indecent content can be regulated.

Tate also wrote to Senate Majority Bill Frist May 30 praising the fast-tracking of a bill boosting indecency fines, but also saying parents need even more help from government and industry to control content.

The Kaiser Family Foundation, which is providing the venue for the event and will also make a presentation, has long targeted media use by children as a health care issue, releasing numerous studies on the relationship between kids media consumption and various social issues.


Website of host "New America Foundation" with event details

http://www.newamerica.net/index.cfm?pg=event&EveID=563

"New personal video recorder (PVR) and video on demand (VOD) technologies—-such as TiVo’s KidZone—-will be previewed as tools to facilitate parental choice."

[ChuckyBox]

...and presentations from Microsoft, Verizon and TiVo on the Internet and new-tech control solutions.

Hmm, now we need to cross link this thread with the Way Out Verizon Rumor thread.

[jfh3]

Soon = In the near future; shortly.

Second half = July 1st - December 31st.

Glad I could help. ;) :D

Dan


Thanks for the clarifications ... :up: :)

[hfwarner3]

OK, so we are hearing more and more about the TiVoCast service coming in the next few weeks...

USA Today Article (http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/services/2006-06-06-tivo-web-video_x.htm?csp=34)

[davezatz]

My preciction is tommorrow we find out the exact date because TiVo is presenting ZidZone at a conference in Washinton DC tomorrow.

ALVISO, Calif., June 7, 2006 -- Tom Rogers, President and Chief Executive Officer of TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVR), today offered the following comment on the public policy forum "Beyond Censorship: Policies and Technologies to Give Parents Control Over Children's Media Consumption" hosted by the New America Foundation in Washington, DC. Leading speakers include FCC Commissioners Deborah Tate and Michael Copps, Senators Hillary Clinton and Mary Landrieu, and the Kaiser Family Foundation's children's media research leader Vicky Rideout. Senior TiVo executives are participating in the forum.


"We commend the officials, citizen and industry leaders at today's
forum on these critical issues. With our diverse group of expert
public interest partners, we are delighted that in the near future we
will provide parents with a marketplace solution that does more than
simply stop children from watching inappropriate programming -- it
also makes it easy for them to choose the best programming on
television."

[HDTiVo]

Soon = In the near future

ALVISO, Calif., June 7, 2006 -- Tom Rogers, President and Chief Executive Officer of TiVo Inc. ... offered the following comment ...

"... we are delighted that in the near future we
will provide ..."
Dan, apparently now "Channeling" Rogers.

[bedelman]

The KidZone Quick Start documents have been posted in the documentation area on the TiVo Support Site

KidZone Quick Start (PDF) (http://customersupport.tivo.com/resources/pdf/KidZoneQuickStart.pdf)

[hfwarner3]

I read the setup doc and KidZone is EXACTLY what my wife has wanted for the past couple of years.

Right now, we have the v-chip turned on in the tv. That is a pain because you need two remote controls to watch anything but kid shows. Now it will be back down to just the TiVo remote. TiVo Rules!

Has there been anything said about a "kid remote" that only has the buttons they need to get their show going? I can't think of any reason why the kids would need number buttons on the remote and without number buttons, they can't type in the code, so...

[hfwarner3]

Does anyone know anything about the Weemote (http://www.familycow.com/weemote.html) ? I wonder if it will do the trick?

[davezatz]

I took a peek through the support site after reading Bob's post. There's several pages to peruse if you're interested. Sadly, still no pages on iPod/PSP conversion in an updated TiVo Desktop. ;)

[ZeoTiVo]

I read the setup doc and KidZone is EXACTLY what my wife has wanted for the past couple of years.

Right now, we have the v-chip turned on in the tv. That is a pain because you need two remote controls to watch anything but kid shows. Now it will be back down to just the TiVo remote. TiVo Rules!

Has there been anything said about a "kid remote" that only has the buttons they need to get their show going? I can't think of any reason why the kids would need number buttons on the remote and without number buttons, they can't type in the code, so...


from the PDF linked above
KidZone Settings let you fine-tune the
content you want your children to watch.
Using KidZone settings, you can control
• the channels that are available to your
children
• the age range of the programs your
children watch
• the password you use to exit KidZone
• the content ratings of the programs your children watch

so it seems that having the peanut remote makes no difference as they can not get to channels or show ratings you do not want them to

[hfwarner3]

so it seems that having the peanut remote makes no difference as they can not get to channels or show ratings you do not want them to

To deactivate KidZone, you will need to enter a PIN, right? Entering a PIN requires the number keys. If you have a remote WITHOUT number keys, it becomes impossible to take the TiVo out of KidZone mode.

The kids get a "kids" remote without keys and we put up the "mommy and daddy" remote where they can't get it. KidZone now becomes a matter of physical security (keeping the peanut remote out of their hands).

[gonzotek]

Does anyone know anything about the Weemote (http://www.familycow.com/weemote.html) ? I wonder if it will do the trick?The weemotedV sounds perfectly suited to the task:
http://www.weemote.com/products.html#weemotedv
http://www.weemote.com/art/dvproduct.jpg

[bpurcell]

And if weemote and Tivo got together and made a peanut shaped remote for kids, that would be a nice tie-in.

[ZeoTiVo]

The weemotedV sounds perfectly suited to the task:
]


My kids have an SD H400 in the bonus room so they can also watch DVDs.
so perhaps a new weemote that included DVD ability would be good as well.


and actually I have posted in the past that I had already limited my kids some by taking the remote for teh SD H400 away and did not have the cable going directly to the TV. So they could not chnage cahnnels since they had to use just the controls on the front of the SD H400, whihc did not include channel change controls. It was semi effective but they had the ability to see whatever channel the TiVo was currently tuned too - even if it was adult swin on cartoon network.

I sort of fixed it by setting season passes for Little House on the prairie, Full House and Brady Bunch which were shown a lot of times during the day and then set them at the bottom of the season pass list.


Hopefully with KidZone I can let them have the remote back so they can FFwd through all the kid aimed commercials again.

[hfwarner3]

It would be nice to have a simple remote that controlled 3 devices - TV, TiVo, and DVD Player. It would need the following buttons:

TV On/Off
DVD Button
TiVo Button
Up/Down/Left/Right with Select in Center
Play, Rewind, Fast Forward, Skip Back, Skip Forward, Stop
Menu
Channel Up/Down
Volume Up/Down

Does anyone know of any kits out there to build your own remote control?

[ChuckyBox]

Does anyone know of any kits out there to build your own remote control?
I'm not aware of any kits, but there are some high-end touchscreen universal remotes that you can program to do just about anything. Like the MX-3000 or the TX-1000 from these guys:

http://www.universalremote.com/products/

[hfwarner3]

I'm not aware of any kits, but there are some high-end touchscreen universal remotes that you can program to do just about anything. Like the MX-3000 or the TX-1000 from these guys:

http://www.universalremote.com/products/

They look awesome ... and are thus something I am NOT going to put in my kids' hands. :)

My wife had a good idea - buy another peanut remote, pop it open, cut the number buttons off the rubber pad, fill in the holes in the upper part of the remote casing, and seal it back up. Sounds easy! :rolleyes:

Seriously, I could do that if there was no other way. The remote would be $20 - 30 and it would probably take a couple hours of my time.

[gonzotek]

They look awesome ... and are thus something I am NOT going to put in my kids' hands. :)

My wife had a good idea - buy another peanut remote, pop it open, cut the number buttons off the rubber pad, fill in the holes in the upper part of the remote casing, and seal it back up. Sounds easy! :rolleyes:

Seriously, I could do that if there was no other way. The remote would be $20 - 30 and it would probably take a couple hours of my time.I was going to suggest doing that with a URC-6131 (http://www.surfremotecontrol.com/store/ofa6131m.html)(the site I linked to has a 6131 with jp1 connector and upgraded eeprom, so it costs a little more than an unmodified version). The advantage of using a cheap universal over the tivo peanut is that you can more heavily customize it for your needs. And a 6131 has a moderately close layout to the peanuts, compared with some other remotes in the same price range.

[hfwarner3]

Of course, I think the wife also likes the idea of being able to put the "mommy and daddy remote" up where the kids can't get it. It drives her nuts when the kids are finally asleep, we go downstairs, we snuggle up to watch some TV together, and we suddenly have to break into a 10 minute search for the remote.

[bpurcell]

My wife had a good idea - buy another peanut remote, pop it open, cut the number buttons off the rubber pad, fill in the holes in the upper part of the remote casing, and seal it back up. Sounds easy! :rolleyes:

Seriously, I could do that if there was no other way. The remote would be $20 - 30 and it would probably take a couple hours of my time.

You can buy a used Tivo Remote cheaper on Ebay.

[hfwarner3]

You can buy a used Tivo Remote cheaper on Ebay.

I have had so/so experience buying used ones. You see, my 3 year old is an engineer in training. We are on our third TiVo remote because she disassembled the previous 2 to the point of no return. What 3 year old pulls the chips off the circuit board?!?

She also disassembled the VCR, a phone, and a few electronic toys. I know we have 4 kids and all, so you have to go to the zone defense versus man for man, but it is not like she is left alone for hours at a time. I was sitting in the room with her while she was watching a show with her brother and sister. 15 minutes into the show, I hear her grunt followed by a crunching sound. I get off the sofa and look at what she has - it is the remote. She has broken a piece off of a ballpoint pen to use as a small prybar, has popped the remote case open, pulled the rubber button mat off, and has pried the "TiVo1 - TiVo2" switch off the circuit board. Needless to say, the remote did not work anymore. That is how we lost number 2. The used ones tend to be easier for her to get into.

She has popped them open 5 or 6 times that we have caught her and gotten it put back together, so I am pretty familiar with the insides of the peanut remote at this point.

And yes, I am already saving money to send her to Georgia Tech.

[bpurcell]

And yes, I am already saving money to send her to Georgia Tech.

I think Cal Tech would be more up her alley :D .

[hfwarner3]

I think Cal Tech would be more up her alley :D .

Did I mention 4 kids (and another on the way)? Did I mention that Ga Tech is an in-state school?

Cal Tech or MIT would be great, but she had better start working on the scholarship now ... or maybe that is what she is doing ...

[jfh3]

What 3 year old pulls the chips off the circuit board?!?

Apparently yours. :D

[hfwarner3]

Apparently yours. :D

It is only a matter of time before she figures out how to get the case off the kids' PC. I already had to move them to ubuntu linux because I was sick of her screwing up Windows to the point the other kids couldn't use it. The kids couldn't afford my hourly tech support rates ... or their little sister's. :)

[ChuckyBox]

I think Cal Tech would be more up her alley :D .
It's "Caltech." See: http://www.caltech.edu/

[ChuckyBox]

What 3 year old pulls the chips off the circuit board?!?

Does she eat them? She may be a robotic simulacrum replacing your actual child and sent by the secret government or, perhaps, nefarious aliens, to monitor your activities and terminate you or your wife if you get too close to the truth. Keep an eye on "her."

[hfwarner3]

Does she eat them? She may be a robotic simulacrum replacing your actual child and sent by the secret government or, perhaps, nefarious aliens, to monitor your activities and terminate you or your wife if you get too close to the truth. Keep an eye on "her."

No, she actually pulls parts off things and tries to build new things with them. She said she wanted the switch because the jigsaw puzzle needed to turn on and off. No further explanation (or definition of "turning off the puzzle" was given).

Truth be told, I was a paratrooper in the U.S. Army. My wife was a marine. Our children are Department of Defense experiments in the Eugenics 21 program. As a former member of the Reagan Youth, I was a prime candidate for the program. But now that the program has been taken over by neo-conservatives, there is an internal power struggle. It will end in a civil war that will trigger a global depression and the Apocalypse.

Just kidding. Now forget you read this or we will have to send black helicopters to your house.

But I was a paratrooper and my wife was a marine.

[classicsat]

I was going to suggest doing that with a URC-6131 (http://www.surfremotecontrol.com/store/ofa6131m.html)(the site I linked to has a 6131 with jp1 connector and upgraded eeprom, so it costs a little more than an unmodified version). The advantage of using a cheap universal over the tivo peanut is that you can more heavily customize it for your needs. And a 6131 has a moderately close layout to the peanuts, compared with some other remotes in the same price range.
You don't even have to phyisically mod the 6131 (beyond the EEPROM), just program it without the number keys (IE, build a TiVo upgrade and leave the numbers out), or use a learning remote to learn just the keys you want the kids to use.

[hfwarner3]

Getting back to the original topic - it sounds like it is out TODAY!