Day 224 – Girl versus Tivo & Other Battles

A week ago, I got this great idea.  We would subscribe to Netflix, and we would hook a computer up to the TV to watch the downloaded movies.  Great idea. 

Then I read that you could stream Netflix movies through a Tivo.  I have a Tivo.  Perfect.  I activated the Netflix membership and was set to go.

Except – my Tivo was too old.  It did not have the proper CODEC installed to play the movies.  I did a bit more research and found, that for a reasonable price, I could upgrade the hardware to a newer model that would support this feature.  Perfect.

I got the new Tivo on Friday and set forth to install it this morning.  All was going well, until I realized there was not way to hook up the cable box to the Tivo.

Fuck! 
(Of course, I figured this out after I tore everything apart.  And, it was a pain in the ass to get this to work the first time because of the damn cable box we have.)

I went online and found that I need to replace the cable box with a PC Card (very similar to what we used to use for modems and network connectivity on a laptop).

Great, I thought, I’ll go to the cable company and get one.  No problem. 

Except the cable company won’t allow a layman like me to install a PC Card. (Yes, you slide it into the slot, but I’m not qualified – insert joke here.)

Fuck again!  I called the cable company to get one ordered and its installation scheduled.  The first guy I spoke to decided he couldn’t do it.  I had to talk to a technician.  He decided this after I had been on hold for 30 minutes.  He transferred me to the technician who thankfully was able to put in the order.  She pulled up the schedule for installation – and I got my first break – they had an opening from noon to 2pm today.

The guy came out about 12:30, slide the card into the slot, took my cable box and left.  Perfect.  Now my AV hookup for the TV, DVD, and Tivo and Cable is radically simplified.  Cool.  (Oh, and I upgraded our cable to get HDTV, so I killed two birds with one stone.)

Except….I still can’t stream Netflix on my fucking Tivo.  I think it has to do a software upgrade overnight.  At least that’s what I’m trying to tell myself.  I love my Tivo normally, but this fucking project went from simple and quick to time consuming really quick.

One person who did have great success was Garbanzo.  He had an idea for turning an old clarinet that has been in the family for many, MANY years into a lamp.  The clarinet itself isn’t playable, and he could do it without destroying it.  It worked right the first time even.  At least one of us had some success today.

One Comment Add yours

  1. Osbasso says:

    Hey, cool! I have a homemade clarinet lamp too! Not in use right now because I don’t have a lampshade for it, but at least it’s made!

    Bummer about your troubles though. 🙁

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