Four new TiVoCast channels launching on Tuesday, Sep. 18 -- incl. Weather Channel

3460 Views 36 Replies 19 Participants Last post by jkovach, Sep 25, 2007

TiVoStephen

Discussion Starter · Sep 19, 2007

Today were proud to announce four new partners for your enjoyment:

The Weather Channel (http://www.weather.com/) -- Twice each day, available for five different regions (National, Northeast, Midwest, Southern, and Western), you can now get an up-to-date weather report downloaded directly to your DVR.
Bride-o-Rama (http://www.brideorama.com/) -- "The first network of I Dos and Donts for brides" with new episodes each Monday and Thursday.
Viropop (http://www.viropop.com) -- "The first network to treat the new environmental pop culture with a sense of irreverent fun" with new episodes every Wednesday.
Bleacher Bloggers (http://www.bleacherbloggers.com/) -- a network that brings all your bragging, belly-aching and blogtificating together in one place. Sports commentary every Tuesday and Friday.

To subscribe to any or all of these new additions, you can either visit TiVo Central Onlines list of TiVoCast partners and pick the ones you want (http://www3.tivo.com/tivo-tco/cds/index.do) or on your DVR just go to TiVo Central -> Find Programs -> Download TV & Movies.

A quick tip regarding the Weather Channel: Out-of-date weather reports are no fun. When you subscribe, consider selecting a lower number than default (such as 1 or 2 instead of 5) for the Keep at Most section under Options. And be sure to erase any weather reports you see on your DVR that are out of date, because once you reach that keep at most limit, new reports wont be downloaded until you delete an old one.

1 - 20 of 37 Posts

gonzotek

· #2 · Sep 19, 2007

TiVoStephen said:
A quick tip regarding the Weather Channel: Out-of-date weather reports are no fun. When you subscribe, consider selecting a lower number than default (such as 1 or 2 instead of 5) for the Keep at Most section under Options. And be sure to erase any weather reports you see on your DVR that are out of date, because once you reach that keep at most limit, new reports wont be downloaded until you delete an old one.

First let me say thanks as always, Stephen, for working to bring us more content through TiVoCast. Even though most of the channels don't appeal to my household, we've found a few we do like, and even with the ones we don't like, trying out something new never hurts.

I was wondering about your comment about the weather reports. Under the current set of rules for downloading TiVoCasts, isn't selecting a higher number to 'keep at most' the safer route? If a user can't get around to viewing/deleting an old forecast (ie because they weren't home for a day or two), then wouldn't increasing the KAM value buy them a few more downloads until they have to delete to get a new forecast? Or does it work more like so: if a user reaches their KAM limit on a TiVoCast season pass, and several more episodes of that show are released, do they then queue up and then download, delivering (possibly) stale content to the box?

TiVoStephen

Discussion Starter · #3 · Sep 19, 2007

Hi gonzotek, thanks for the kind words and I'm glad you're trying out some new shows.

As for the Weather Channel, gonzotek, my reasoning is that even if you set the KAM to 10, eventually (if you stop watching and deleting them) you'll hit 10 downloads. Then you'll be in the same boat as someone with 1 or 2 downloads, but you'll have more stale episodes to delete.

As for what happens to "queued" up episodes -- at the time you delete an episode, we'll check to see what's current, and queue that one up. Any episodes you missed are not queued (but you can download them individually if you want to see them, by going to the Past Programs section). That's how it works for all TiVoCast channels.

For most TiVoCast channels, we'll keep between 6 and 12 episodes available in the archive. To make things a little easier for Weather Channel subscribers (since there's very little value in stale forecasts), we won't keep old episodes of the Weather Channel archived.

mazdanut

· #4 · Sep 19, 2007

That's great news (can't have too much TiVocast IMO) .. Now if we could get a snazzy little folder to put them all in.

gonzotek

· #5 · Sep 19, 2007

TiVoStephen said:
Hi gonzotek, thanks for the kind words and I'm glad you're trying out some new shows.

As for the Weather Channel, gonzotek, my reasoning is that even if you set the KAM to 10, eventually (if you stop watching and deleting them) you'll hit 10 downloads. Then you'll be in the same boat as someone with 1 or 2 downloads, but you'll have more stale episodes to delete.

As for what happens to "queued" up episodes -- at the time you delete an episode, we'll check to see what's current, and queue that one up. Any episodes you missed are not queued (but you can download them individually if you want to see them, by going to the Past Programs section). That's how it works for all TiVoCast channels.

For most TiVoCast channels, we'll keep between 6 and 12 episodes available in the archive. To make things a little easier for Weather Channel subscribers (since there's very little value in stale forecasts), we won't keep old episodes of the Weather Channel archived.

Thanks for the explanation, it answered my concern perfectly. Looking forward to Weather and ViralPop downloads in the near future. I'm sorry, Stephen, but I could not convince my wife to show any interest in Bride-O-Rama.

Our wedding in January was the 5th of about 7 weddings in two years which we've been directly involved in, with one more still to go in October. She's the first to admit she's more than a little burnt out on the whole Bridal bandwagon

.

ITGuy72

· #6 · Sep 19, 2007

TiVoStephen said:
As for what happens to "queued" up episodes -- at the time you delete an episode, we'll check to see what's current, and queue that one up. Any episodes you missed are not queued (but you can download them individually if you want to see them, by going to the Past Programs section). That's how it works for all TiVoCast channels.

Wouldn't it be more intuitive to allow an option where the tivocasts are replaced with each download rather than requiring user intervention (manually deleting) to make sure they keep getting downloaded? That way if I'm away for a week I can come back knowing I have the latest content at my fingertips rather than falling behind because I'm not there.

rich

· #7 · Sep 19, 2007

ITGuy72 said:
Wouldn't it be more intuitive to allow an option where the tivocasts are replaced with each download rather than requiring user intervention (manually deleting) to make sure they keep getting downloaded? That way if I'm away for a week I can come back knowing I have the latest content at my fingertips rather than falling behind because I'm not there.

Right ... for example, currently I record the 11:00 news and tell it to keep one copy. The next night, it automatically deletes yesterday's news and records a new one. That's the way I'd expect the Weather Channel download to work.

ZeoTiVo

· #8 · Sep 19, 2007

ITGuy72 said:
Wouldn't it be more intuitive to allow an option where the tivocasts are replaced with each download rather than requiring user intervention (manually deleting) to make sure they keep getting downloaded? That way if I'm away for a week I can come back knowing I have the latest content at my fingertips rather than falling behind because I'm not there.

Yes, I have the same concern. I am likely to check this maybe 3 or 4 times a month. Most days the weather is a known quantity where I live and I might look to see if rain is coming to know how to water outside or if snow is in the forecast etc..

With all other TiVocasts to date it makes sense to have a Keep at most and not overwrite. The Weather channel is the first one I want to overwrite much like the news shows I record and leave at keep at most 1.

While on the subject I would love if TiVoCast would work more like a Season pass and if I wanted to save one I could change around the Keep Until parameters on that one episode and it would fall out of the keep at most rotation.

PS - thanks as always for all the work on keeping TiVocast moving forward and fresh. This is really becoming quite a feature differentiator for TiVo :up:

mtchamp

· #9 · Sep 19, 2007

I saw those new TiVoCast channels last night. I look there often for new stuff. I very much like The Weather Channel forecast. They need to do a quick 5 day chart as well.

CheezWiz

· #10 · Sep 19, 2007

Good News!

TiVoStephen

Discussion Starter · #11 · Sep 19, 2007

ITGuy72 said:
Wouldn't it be more intuitive to allow an option where the tivocasts are replaced with each download rather than requiring user intervention (manually deleting) to make sure they keep getting downloaded? That way if I'm away for a week I can come back knowing I have the latest content at my fingertips rather than falling behind because I'm not there.

The problem with this is the cost.

Downloads are not free; the costs are borne by someone. Whoever pays doesn't want to pay for shows that are downloaded and deleted automatically without being watched.

ZeoTiVo

· #12 · Sep 20, 2007

TiVoStephen said:
The problem with this is the cost.

Downloads are not free; the costs are borne by someone. Whoever pays doesn't want to pay for shows that are downloaded and deleted automatically without being watched.

does that apply to something like the weather channel downloads that would be deleted without being watched if they are old?

TiVoStephen

Discussion Starter · #13 · Sep 20, 2007

ZeoTiVo said:
While on the subject I would love if TiVoCast would work more like a Season pass and if I wanted to save one I could change around the Keep Until parameters on that one episode and it would fall out of the keep at most rotation.

PS - thanks as always for all the work on keeping TiVocast moving forward and fresh. This is really becoming quite a feature differentiator for TiVo :up:

Thanks for the kind words, Zeo. As for the behavior -- what you suggest is how it does work. If you mark an episode as Keep Until I Delete (KUID), it doesn't count against your Keep At Most (KAM) limit. After you mark one, the next time you delete an episode, two more will be downloaded to take its place.

d_anders

· #14 · Sep 20, 2007

TiVoStephen said:
The problem with this is the cost.

Downloads are not free; the costs are borne by someone. Whoever pays doesn't want to pay for shows that are downloaded and deleted automatically without being watched.

Understood, but weather.com has to understand the value of only watching the current forecast. The current delivery model doesn't work well for them. The value of their download is only valid for about 24 hours.

I can't guarantee I will watch every single day, but having the most current forecast available is certainly alluring and I would watch it from time to time, and probably become habit forming if it was always current and ready to go.

If this is something I have to maintain, then forget it. Tell Weather.com I would watch their download if I could just always just have the most current forecast ready to watch...otherwise forget it.

TiVoStephen, please don't take this as any type of personal criticism, I absolutely appreciate all of your efforts to improve the value of TiVoCast, but this one to pass back to the folks at weather.com.

I don't have this issue when I visit their website at any given time, and I shouldn't have this issue when I watch their download on my tivo...

See less See more

TerpBE

· #15 · Sep 20, 2007

Did anybody else notice that fast forward doesn't work when watching the Weather Channel downloads? Hmmm...is this a trial for future downloads that won't let us skip through commercials?

ITGuy72

· #16 · Sep 20, 2007

TiVoStephen said:
The problem with this is the cost. Downloads are not free; the costs are borne by someone. .

This might sound a bit harsh, but isn't that where my $16 a month comes in? Sorry, but I thought I was paying for TV my way.

tlc

· #17 · Sep 20, 2007

TerpBE said:
Did anybody else notice that fast forward doesn't work when watching the Weather Channel downloads? Hmmm...is this a trial for future downloads that won't let us skip through commercials?

I was wondering about this too.
My first guess was that it was streamed. But that doesn't jive with the rest of this thread.
My second guess is that it's mpeg4 (or some variation) and requires FF/RW software changes that aren't there yet.

Does anyone know if any of the downloaded material is other than mpeg2?

tlc

ZeoTiVo

· #18 · Sep 20, 2007

TerpBE said:
Did anybody else notice that fast forward doesn't work when watching the Weather Channel downloads? Hmmm...is this a trial for future downloads that won't let us skip through commercials?

dude, the forecast is 60 secs long for Southren regional. It does not even have a green bar. What is to fast forward through ? I highly doubt your speculation is accurate

rich

· #19 · Sep 20, 2007

TiVoStephen said:
The problem with this is the cost.

Downloads are not free; the costs are borne by someone. Whoever pays doesn't want to pay for shows that are downloaded and deleted automatically without being watched.

I'm surprised to find out that this behavior is by design, not some flaw.

If I want to find out the weather now, I can turn to the Weather Channel, or go to the web, newspaper, radio, etc, with no hassle. I don't want to have to keep remembering to delete the old weather forecast every day so that a new one can be downloaded (eventually). Ugh.

TiVoStephen

Discussion Starter · #20 · Sep 21, 2007

For the fast forwarding question in The Weather Channel broadcasts -- I have not been able to reproduce this. I can fast forward just fine. I tested on several boxes with all of the downloads to date. We have no mechanism by which we can disable fast forwarding. Are others unable to fast forward? If so, what box type, and what speed(s) did you try fast forwarding?

For the behavior regarding downloads ceasing when the KAM limit is reached: This has always been the behavior for TiVoCast, and is disclosed when you create a Season Pass. The way it works for the Weather Channel is perfect if you check daily or frequently. If you don't watch TV that frequently and are not able to delete your forecast downloads regularly, I do suggest using a different method to get your weather info, because TiVoCast won't be able to meet your needs.

ITGuy, I'm mindful of your comment, but there is a limit to what we and our partners can afford to give everyone for free. That limit is the point at which money is being spent for no purpose whatsoever except to tie up your network. If you're not watching it, we're not going to keep sending it -- and I would hazard that this is exactly the behavior that most of our customers want and prefer.

See less See more

1 - 20 of 37 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.