TiVo overlap protection

Yesterday when I sat down to check out the TiVo I got a message about a new feature that was just enabled in a TiVo software update called "Overlap Protection". It seems they finally listened to the customer feedback and allowed for shows which conflict by a minute or two to both be recorded. The conflicting part is recorded for the higher priority season pass.

This is pretty cool, although right now the only case which has this problem on my schedule is Everwood vs. ER. Everwood is 9-10pm and ER is 9:59pm-11pm.

New TiVo arrived!

The new TiVo arrived a bit more quickly than I expected. Things are working well so far and I think I have most of the season passes set up again. (I ended up hooking up my 15 inch Apple display to the old TiVo and doing a sort of poor man's picture in picture to make sure I had things correct on the new TiVo.)

A few observations for now... more later once I've had it running for a while:

- TiVo's activation web page went down right around the time I started trying to get activated… I'm not sure if it took or not, and of course TiVo's support number closes at 8 pm and it was about 8:05 when I realized this. Oh well. Luckily there's a grace period for a new box before it gets grouchy about that.
- You can't watch a DVD before guided setup completes as far as I can tell (though I didn't actually try)
- There's no subtitle button… it's buried inside the Settings. Bummer. Instead I get the Angle button on the remote… does anyone actually use that feature?
- I can't figure out how to show time remaining on the built in display when playing a DVD.
- Picture quality seems fine to me so far. Using the component inputs probably gives it somewhat of an advantage over my old TiVo which uses S-Video.
- Playing DVDs with the TiVo UI is pretty cool (time bar at the bottom, instant replay, slow motion, etc.)

New TiVo ordered

I finally ordered my new TiVo/DVD Recorder combo... a Humax DRT800. The guarantees on delivery time are not that impressive (usually within 4-6 weeks but could be as much as 8-10 weeks). I'm hoping this is a case of underpromise and overdeliver, since I already goofed and just barely missed the number of points needed to get the DVR on last month's credit card bill and had to wait an additional month due to that.

So, it looks like I'll be taping some stuff to start the season due to conflicts.