I sent in a support request to TIVO about this issue.  It took a few days before I got a response.  That was a little disappointing since many companies are moving to speed up support responses (especially those via the internet).  The answer solved 90% of these channels and now I have guide info for almost all of the newly added HD channels.  I can still watch the few that don’t have guide info but I don’t know what is going to be on that channel in advance and can’t set up a recording.

The answer showed a short cut to getting to  Channel Guide setup.   There was also a bit that tells whether you are talking standard or digital channels.

For completeness, here is the info I recieved:

• Choose TIVO Central (usually by pressing the TIVO button)
• Select Messages and Settings
• Select Settings
• Select Channels
• Select Channel List
• Press the ENTER key
• Follow the onscreen instructions.  The TIVO will ask questions regarding your channels and service.
• Ensure that you enter the proper zip code.
• Ensure that you enter the proper provider for your service.
• In the screen directly after you enter your cable provider, press the ENTER key.  This will take you to a list of available lineups.  In my case, I needed to choose <DIGITAL>.
• You will be given an opportunity to review the line up after you chose (note: it will not have the premium channels like HBO)
• Answer the remaining screens based on your service.
• It will take 10-30 minutes to reset this data so go do something else.
• Finished

Post from: Glenn's Daily Script (c)2007 Glenn Thompson. For Downloads, Pictures, and other great content go to Glenn's Daily Script. See Glenn's Daily Script Legal Information Page for Disclosure, Fair Use, Copyright, Creative Commons notices.

TIVO Support – Fixing Channel Guide Info

I’ve been rewatching the Terminator movies with Xander (a friend of his watched them and so he asked). There are scenes that are a little much for a 10 year old but Xander covers his eyes so he’s been enjoying them. It’s obvious that Xander’s maturity is going up as seen in his enjoyment of even the plot development and character development elements of the movies.

One of the things in watching both the TV shows and the movies is the difference in the John Connor portrayals. In the 2nd movie, John is kind of a punk but very confident and embraces his destiny. In the 3rd movie, John is a pathetic whiner who still worries about his future but isn’t preparing for it like his mother would have wanted. I thought the actor playing John in the 3rd movie did a fine job but the direction was just not what you’d expect the savior/leader of the human race to be like.

Now, in the TV series we have John as a super strong teenager with lots of angst but preparing himself to lead while figuring out his path and place and not the one everyone is trying to force on him. This is an excellent portrayal of this character while the 3rd movie is not as believable.

The reason I bring this up is with the up coming Terminator movie with an older adult John Connor. I am curious as to what they plan to base the character on – the movie series or the TV series.

Post from: Glenn's Daily Script (c)2007 Glenn Thompson. For Downloads, Pictures, and other great content go to Glenn's Daily Script. See Glenn's Daily Script Legal Information Page for Disclosure, Fair Use, Copyright, Creative Commons notices.

Terminator – John Connor

One style of reviewer is a “Film” reviewer. This kind of reviewer believes that all movies should present art. These reviewers often favor foreign movies and they almost always refer to movies as “Film” (and yes they use a capital F). Movies that ultimately are popular are rarely reviewed favorably by this style of reviewer.

Another style of reviewer has broad coverage in movies. They let their emotions drive them and so aren’t always locked into foreign movies. If a movie moves them, they give it a more favorable review. Some of this category loves depressing movies. These depressing movies definitely move a person but if you want to kill yourself after watching a movie, is that really entertainment.

There are many other styles of reviewers. I find the rarest one can fit into the categories above but they will often insert statements about different viewers and how they may or may not enjoy the movies. If the movie is an action film, they may review it negatively but will include statements about action film fans liking the movie. Some of these statements are not always accurate but at least the approach is the least biased.

I was motivated by the reviews of Quantum of Solace that I’ve read, heard, viewed. I haven’t seen the movie myself (yet!). I heard a few reviewers that negatively commented on the film and gave no other details. I heard that thought it was awful but loved the next 2 foreign movies. I only heard one that came at it from a Bond movie fan point of view. In this view, it came out as not one of the best Bond movies but still entertaining and perhaps a necessary transition movie till this next iteration of Bond goes to the next level.

This empathetic perspective would help me as a movie fan to try different movies.

Post from: Glenn's Daily Script (c)2007 Glenn Thompson. For Downloads, Pictures, and other great content go to Glenn's Daily Script. See Glenn's Daily Script Legal Information Page for Disclosure, Fair Use, Copyright, Creative Commons notices.

Movie/Film Reviews

Apparently, they don’t respect the current copyright laws and are, by example, telling us to not respect the laws either. Maybe we should re-write the existing laws so they work in today’s world to increase content creation rather than limit it.

The Pixar copyright violations stem from the use of a movie and it’s soundtrack being copied and replayed many times. This element of Wall-E were important at first to show loneliness and later to show romance.

Post from: Glenn's Daily Script (c)2007 Glenn Thompson. For Downloads, Pictures, and other great content go to Glenn's Daily Script. See Glenn's Daily Script Legal Information Page for Disclosure, Fair Use, Copyright, Creative Commons notices.

Pixar doesn’t care about Copyrights

Overall, the movie was fair to good. There were some tremendous action scenes. One was an actual fight scene while the rest were car races. The races were fun and truly fanciful. A healthy dose of suspended belief was absolutely required because no true laws of physics were applied during the movie. The plot was simple – a family who goes against big business and corruption. There was a bit of comic relief but it was minimal (from the little brother and his chimp).

It was hyper colorful. Most of the time it added to the fancifulness of the whole picture but there were times that it just got psychedelic and distracted from what was really going on. The end of the final race was an example of this.

I did like the characters including Speed and Trixie (Ricci was very nice looking). Mom and Pops Racer were well developed too. Rex Racer/Racer X was interesting but in some ways, his story was more interesting than Speed’s.

There were lots of fun elements but some weaknesses. It’s probably worth seeing but I don’t think there is much to miss if you wait for a rental on DVD or Blu-Ray.

Post from: Glenn's Daily Script (c)2007 Glenn Thompson. For Downloads, Pictures, and other great content go to Glenn's Daily Script. See Glenn's Daily Script Legal Information Page for Disclosure, Fair Use, Copyright, Creative Commons notices.

Movie Review: Speed Racer

With all this in mind, the repair guy gets to our house and takes a quick look at it and after a quick conversation with me (he’s a very nice guy), he pushes a few buttons on the front panel and the TV comes back on. It turns out that Pioneer was worried that people could steal their technology so they put a switch on their TV that disabled the TV if it was opened. Now if I was an engineer, I would know about such a thing and probably even have a service manual and probably even know how to bypass such a thing so this is such a silly thing. On top of that, the material that is pressing against the switch is particle board which doesn’t really hold up over time – getting soft and flexible – so doesn’t press adequately against the switch which is what caused my problem.

A ton of electrical tape over the switch to disable it and add to the pressure the back and we are good to go. Hopefully, the TV will last a while longer.

Post from: Glenn's Daily Script (c)2007 Glenn Thompson. For Downloads, Pictures, and other great content go to Glenn's Daily Script. See Glenn's Daily Script Legal Information Page for Disclosure, Fair Use, Copyright, Creative Commons notices.

Our HDTV Update

Before I comment on this movie, I do want to note that I’ve actually read the 2 books that this movie was based on.

You can check out my comments on Jumper and Reflex if you’d like. The books premise is that a teen is abused by his father and a loaner. During one of the abusive incidents, he discovers he can “jump” or teleport. He then decides to runaway and discovers the extent of his ability. In the first book, he sets up a hide away that no one can get to. It’s in the southwest somewhere in the face of a cliff, in a cave that someone would have to rock climb to get to. He set’s it up pretty luxuriously. He also finds a girl friend, Millie and reveals to her his abilities. During the book he tries to find other jumpers but never does. He does get hunted a bit by the government. The second book is different and he actually get’s captured and is more the story of Millie who discovers that she can jump too (perhaps because she has been jumping with him so much). She eventually finds Davy and helps him escape.

The movie is quite interesting in how it interpreted the books concepts. Instead of the one jumper, jumpers have existed throughout time and there is actually an organization that is hunting them down and destroying them (Paladin’s). The lead character finds another jumper that in many ways is the other side of his character (at least from the book) though they clearly don’t get a long.

Overall, I think the changes to the book are good for the movie version. I didn’t like the mother part of the story as I didn’t really think they dealt with it right or believable. Also, they made me like the 2nd jumper enough that I really wanted him to be part of the finale so I was disappointed that he wasn’t. My last criticism is the selection of the lead in Hayden Christensen. I guess I knew this from the Star Wars movies (probably because of the eye candy) but man is he a dry actor – very dead. It’s really hard to buy anything he’s playing with the way he talks. The other actors were great but he just lost it for me.

Overall, it was still a fun movie though I think the trailer made it seem like it was going to be more non-stop than it was. It had moments but it had lulls too. Fun but don’t expect a movie that is paced like a Bourne movie.

Post from: Glenn's Daily Script (c)2007 Glenn Thompson. For Downloads, Pictures, and other great content go to Glenn's Daily Script. See Glenn's Daily Script Legal Information Page for Disclosure, Fair Use, Copyright, Creative Commons notices.

Movie Review: Jumper

First and perhaps least, the video from the Toshiba HD-DVD player was great but the video on upscaling DVD players is pretty good too. I know my kids don’t care. Kathy says she can see the difference but the value she places on it isn’t high so that means that I’m the only one that places any significant value on it. Based on the other issues (see the next issues), I’ll live without it for a while longer.

Next, the usability of these particular players is just awful. When you turn on the Toshiba HD-DVD player, it takes about 2 minutes before you see any video pop on to your TV screen or any controls will work (meaning you can eject the tray to put in a movie). When you put a movie in the tray, it takes close to another 2 minutes before you see the menu for the movie. This means that it takes 3-4 minutes to get a movie playing. That is just sad. Also, the Toshiba HD-DVD player doesn’t seem to remember where it was last on the disk when you turn it off and that is also sad (not to mention that we’ve gotten used to a multi-disc version of remembering where you were on a disc on our Sony DVD players).

Lastly, content is limited and given the news with Warner Bros the HD-DVD content will become increasingly limited so HD-DVD is probably going to be a dead end. I could have stayed with the players but this was probably the deal killer for us and so we returned them.

We did briefly consider getting Blu-ray players but I think it’s smart to hold off at this point. The Warner Bros news, CES, and time itself will likely lower the prices of Blu-ray players so that maybe next Christmas we can get 2 players.

Post from: Glenn's Daily Script (c)2007 Glenn Thompson. For Downloads, Pictures, and other great content go to Glenn's Daily Script. See Glenn's Daily Script Legal Information Page for Disclosure, Fair Use, Copyright, Creative Commons notices.

Returned Toshiba HD-DVD Player

With some of it (and returning a upscaling DVD player I had just bought), I decided to get 2 HD-DVD players.  I’m not really attached to either side of the format wars (HD-DVD vs Bluray) but since I needed 2 players (more in a sec) I really needed to go with the lowest cost option and that was clearly the HD-DVD players from Toshiba and by quite a bit.

The reason that I need 2 players is that I have 2 places that I primarily watch movies.  My family and watch movies in our family room with an early generation HD rear screen projection Pioneer Elite TV (they no longer do anything but plasma).  I also have a dedicated theater in my Gym (it’s an elaborate gym and somewhat elaborate theater).  I’m really the only one who watches movies there though the kids play the Wii in there.  As I have almost 500 DVD’s, there was no way I was only going to upgrade just one location because I am an avid watcher and wanted to be able to watch in both locations.

As to the player, the picture is fabulous.  The setup was easy.  The sound is great.  The controls are great.  I still need to set up my universal remote (I hope to do that today).  My one complaint is that there was a feature that we have gotten used to on the Sony DVD players that is missing from the Toshiba players.  On the Sony players, it will remember the location on where you left off from on several DVDs even when power is turned off.  The Toshiba will remember only one DVD and only if you leave the player on.  This is frustrating and wasteful with power.  Not a show stopper but frustrating none the less.

The player came with 2 movies in the box (Bourne Identity and 300) and if you search the web for the right PDF, you can mail order 5 more so in the end, I should get 12 HD-DVD movies.  I’m not sure I’m rushing out to convert my collection but I will turn the switch on Netflix and start getting HD-DVD’s when possible.  The picture is very cool.

Post from: Glenn's Daily Script (c)2007 Glenn Thompson. For Downloads, Pictures, and other great content go to Glenn's Daily Script. See Glenn's Daily Script Legal Information Page for Disclosure, Fair Use, Copyright, Creative Commons notices.

HD DVD Player – Toshiba HD-A3

You can get to you via our Gallery at the top of the page, then Videos, 2007 or follow this link:
Mitchell’s Basketball

Enjoy!

Post from: Glenn's Daily Script (c)2007 Glenn Thompson. For Downloads, Pictures, and other great content go to Glenn's Daily Script. See Glenn's Daily Script Legal Information Page for Disclosure, Fair Use, Copyright, Creative Commons notices.

Mitchell playing Basketball

Here is a short video of Mitchell reading for me: Mitchell reading Enjoy!

Post from: Glenn's Daily Script (c)2007 Glenn Thompson. For Downloads, Pictures, and other great content go to Glenn's Daily Script. See Glenn's Daily Script Legal Information Page for Disclosure, Fair Use, Copyright, Creative Commons notices.

New Video Camera

The camera is a Panasonic HDC-SD5 which is a High Def camera that records to solid state media.  I’m pretty excited about it as it should improve pictures and the like but also the camera itself is very small and very very light.

Everything I’ve read in reviews says that it works well with iMovie too.  That, in fact, was one of my motivations.  I may some day move to Final Cut but this point I’m an iMovie guy.

Post from: Glenn's Daily Script (c)2007 Glenn Thompson. For Downloads, Pictures, and other great content go to Glenn's Daily Script. See Glenn's Daily Script Legal Information Page for Disclosure, Fair Use, Copyright, Creative Commons notices.

Ordered a new camera

First some quick decisions – I want a flat panel and I want it to be 42″ diagonal.

I want something that won’t be outdated too soon so I want to get a recent technology device though bleading edge is probably not the right product for this room.

That probably means a 1080p TV. It’s really irritating that when you go to shop for TVs that they don’t stick with the common terminology. Literature refers to TVs with 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p. When you go shoping though they will put it in pixel resolution instead so the shopper has to bring a chart to figure out what they need. For 1080p, I need 1920×1080.

I also need something that can do well in a bright room. From what I’ve read, that means an LCD flat panel though there are some Plasma TV’s that might work. The problem hear is that given it is a secondary TV, I’m not really willing to go top dollar for it so Plasma is probably not in my budget.

I’d like it to be good with TV shows, movies and video games as these are my primary uses. LCD will work though Plasma would probably be better. Again, since this is a secondary TV and I’m not willing to go top dollar for it – Plasma is probably not in my budget.

This probably means one of the budget oriented LCD manufacturers such as Vizio, Westinghouse and so on. I have read and heard mixed news on whether or not prices are likely to drop going into the holidays. I’m going to wait at this point at least till after Thanksgiving but after that, all bets are off depending on the market.

If anyone reading this has ideas, shoot me some info via the comments as I’d love to hear other thoughts.

Post from: Glenn's Daily Script (c)2007 Glenn Thompson. For Downloads, Pictures, and other great content go to Glenn's Daily Script. See Glenn's Daily Script Legal Information Page for Disclosure, Fair Use, Copyright, Creative Commons notices.

Started Looking for a TV

The video up there now is part one.  I’ve got to burn the DVD version and then I will do part two and get that up there.  Part two will cover the rest of 2000.  After that we get into Mitchell.

Post from: Glenn's Daily Script (c)2007 Glenn Thompson. For Downloads, Pictures, and other great content go to Glenn's Daily Script. See Glenn's Daily Script Legal Information Page for Disclosure, Fair Use, Copyright, Creative Commons notices.

More Video Soon

Enjoy it. The next one introduces Mitchell!

UPDATE: Here is an actual link to the video:

Download LinkAlexander James 1999 and 2000

UPDATE: I’ve changed this video. The original was just too long. The video that is now up is basically the first half of what was up there (with some better editing and some new inclusions).

Post from: Glenn's Daily Script (c)2007 Glenn Thompson. For Downloads, Pictures, and other great content go to Glenn's Daily Script. See Glenn's Daily Script Legal Information Page for Disclosure, Fair Use, Copyright, Creative Commons notices.

New Video