Archive for May, 2007

Tivo Ruined American Idol

May 24th, 2007 No Comments

Well, it’s happened again.

DVRs everywhere didn’t record the final crucial minutes of the season finale of American Idol last night because the live show ran about 7 minutes long. And everyone (including me) that recorded the show to watch later were devastated to find out that they missed the crowning of Jordin Sparks as the new American Idol.

The Washington Post said it best with its headline: American Idol + Fox + Tivo = Rage.

How could this happen? Isn’t technology supposed to transcend all and make our lives better? Yes, Tivo and other DVRs have an option where you can extend a recording a few minutes–just in case. But who ever remembers to do that? I don’t have the foresight to program that when I set up the Season Pass.

As a big fan of American Idol, I’ve noticed that the shows have been running long almost every week this season. Unfortunately, I never bothered to edit my Season Pass settings and pad the ending of the recording. I hate having to be bothered with details like this when I’m watching TV.

The main problem are live events like sports, award shows and yes, American Idol.

When you Tivo a non-live TV show (for example “My Name is Earl”) it records on the set times and there’s no chance you’ll miss the end of the show. The TV networks run things pretty timely. But with live shows everything changes.

Live TV shows oftentimes run long. I knew that Idol had been running long all season, but I never padded the end of the recording time. That’s my fault.

But really, it’s American Idol fault. They should have run on time. Fox knows that millions of people will be Tivo-ing American Idol and they need ensure that this doesn’t happen ever again. Even those of us in the west coast were affected–didn’t Fox have time to trim the show a few minutes? What’s more important: watching the Idol singers sing another lame medley or announcing the winner of American Idol?

Don’t Fox executives own DVRs?

This isn’t Tivo’s fault by any means. They don’t schedule TV shows, they just get a program guide. Nevertheless people are mad at Tivo. One article I read has a statement from Tivo:

“At TiVo, we’re huge ‘American Idol’ fans too, so had we known the program would run over, we would have alerted our subscribers to pad a few extra minutes,” said video recorder manufacturer TiVo in a prepared statement.

Unfortunately, DVRs aren’t smart enough to “sense” when a TV show is running long and extend a recording. But wouldn’t that be cool? Can someone please invent this?

Another way to prevent this from happening is to record the show that’s playing directly after your show. That way you can catch anything that runs long. But isn’t this a bit too backward?

Fox, please keep Idol and Seacrest on schedule. Because you know what happened last night after the ending of American Idol was cut? Many of those people rushed to the Internet and YouTube to watch the last final minutes. (Although some people want Fox to replay those final minutes on TV.)

By the way, in case you want to get those last few minutes, here they are. Thanks YouTube!

Bonus: The Mercury News has a story too, with lots of commenters grumbling. Makes fascinating reading.

Posted in Tivo

Windows XP Shared Folders Doesn’t Refresh

May 19th, 2007 2 Comments

I’ve been having a problem with my newly purchased Dell computer with Windows XP pre-installed. Everytime I go into my shared folders and create a new sub-folder, Windows Explorer doesn’t automatically refresh the folder. I have to manually hit F5 (or go to View | Refresh) in order to see the New Folder I just created.

This is pretty lame. I have to hit F5 after I create a new folder, after I change the name of the new folder and after I move or copy files to the folder.

Again, this only happens in my Shared folders.  Every other folder works fine.

So I did some searching and found some other people were having similar problems. But no one had a solution.

I went to Microsoft’s support website and discovered that this is a known problem with XP and shared folders only. Go figure. Unfortunately, the only solution is a HotFix, which wasn’t available for public download anywhere from Microsoft’s website–I could only get it if I contacted Microsoft’s support department.

I’d rather get a root canal than have to call or e-mail Microsoft’s support team.

I guess it’s such a rare error that they only give it out on an individual basis. But I really wanted to take care of this error right now, not in 1 business day or who knows how long Microsoft would take to get back to me. I started the process of e-mailing Microsoft tech support and discovered that I had no idea what XP version I owned or what my “product identification number” was. So I just gave that up.

Instead I did a Google search using the knowledge base number–KB873392–and was able to find a few websites that referenced the article and the HotFix.

Finally, I found a cool site–TheHotFixShare.Net–that has downloads available for all the known HotFixes that you normally have to beg Microsoft to receive. Here’s the link for the Windows XP HotFixes.

So just wanted to say thanks, TheHotFixShare.Net!

Posted in Administration

Twitter Time

May 18th, 2007 No Comments

Just joined Twitter and it’s pretty interesting. Here’s my profile and my Twitter RSS feed.

Posted in Administration

Will VideoCensus Work?

May 15th, 2007 No Comments

Last week, Nielsen//NetRatings unveiled its new video measurement service called VideoCensus. It is touting the service as the “first-ever syndicated online video measurement service to combine panel and census research methodologies.”

The level of detail that can be captured to measure is incredible. According to Nielsen//NetRatings, VideoCensus uses both desktop reporting and content-tagging technology. Video publishers attach a piece of NetRatings code to their video delivery platforms, which allows NetRatings to collect viewing activity.

The desktop part of the measurement comes from NetRatings panel members which allows full access to data from the end-user side, which can capture statistics like clicks, what’s being viewed, and lots more.

Nielsen//NetRatings and comScore have been trying to measure Internet video for many years now. And they’ve been measuring parts of the overall picture, but there’s no one place where sites and video publishers can go to find in-depth information. This can be a start. Because this information is only available to subscribers, we the public will probably never see this information.

I’m hoping Nielsen//NetRatings begins releasing aggregate anonymous information to the public.

Posted in research

What About Time Warner’s Mystro Network DVR?

May 9th, 2007 No Comments

Earlier this year, a story on Broadband Reports said that Time Warner’s network DVR service called Mystro received “rave reviews from trial participants.” Unfortunately Time Warner Cable decided to scrap the service because it was getting legal threats from the TV networks and movie studios.

That’s why Cablevision was sued last year by Hollywood and what recently led a judge to rule in favor of the entertainment giants.

As a result, Time Warner scaled back Mystro and introduced “Start Over” instead. That means that you can watch “selected” shows on “designated” channels which lets you watch the TV show from the beginning. A “Start Over” logo appears on screen and if you chose to watch it, the show will be available for “two and a half times the length of the original program.” That means a 30 minute show has a viewing window of 1 hour and 15 minutes using Start Over. Users can pause and rewind shows, but you cannot fast forward past commercials.

Guess that’s another downside of network DVRs–providers can enable or disable features as they wish, even if they are really popular like skipping ads. However, providers may start charging customers a premium (say $10 per month) in order to be allowed to have ad-skipping on their network DVR. Another idea: Time Warner can sell advertising (that can’t be skipped) in these network DVRs.

Time Warner reps say that Start Over is producing more than “450,000 viewing sessions per week on 160,000 different digital set-tops.” Plus, viewers are watching an average of 75 to 90 minutes of shows every week.

It seems like customers like it because it’s free and convenient. For example, if you arrive home late and miss the beginning of a show, you have the option to start from the beginning. Tivo can do this already of course. It can record from the beginning of a show if you press the ‘record’ button provided it has been tuned in to the channel since the beginning of the show.

Having a VOD/DVR system like Start Over is great because you can watch shows you almost missed and you don’t have to dedicate valuable storage space for the shows.

Start Over is available in parts of six markets only but should be available in 18 markets by the end of 2007.

Posted in Administration
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