TiVo’s new universal Swivel Search is a TiVo search feature that helps you navigate both traditional broadcast TV plus the brave new world of broadband video with one simple search. Kind of like IMDB for TV, or to a lesser degree, Stumbleupon. Maybe more like 6 degrees to Kevin Bacon.
Just put in a word or phrase, and TiVo searches thousands of hours of TV programs, the free program downloads (like The New York Times, CNET, The Onion, and more) as well as the TV and movie titles you can buy or rent from Amazon.com.
Example: You just watched How I Met Your Mother, which uses a lot of Flashbacks in the plot. The Swivel “FLASHBACK” Tag leads you to The Family Guy, which stars Seth Green. Seth was also in Austin Powers, as was Will Ferrell. Will was in The Producers with Matthew Broderick, and Matthew will always be Ferris Bueller. Ferris was directed by John Hughes, who also directed the movie She’s Having A Baby, which starred—go figure—Kevin Bacon.

The great guys at Tivo just sent me mail!

“Thank you for using the Amazon Unbox on TiVo service! We are proud to announce a new feature for the Amazon Unbox on TiVo service – now you can also rent or buy Unbox videos directly from your TiVo DVR. This means you have access to Amazon Unbox’s unparalleled selection of movies and TV shows, available right from your remote. To take advantage of this new feature, you need to establish a personal identification number, or PIN, that you will need to enter each time you make an Unbox purchase from your TiVo DVR in order to prevent unauthorized charges. To configure your PIN, visit the Amazon Unbox Settings page located at http://www.amazon.com/unbox/setup/tivo. To shop for Unbox videos on your TiVo DVR, go to “TiVo Central” and select “Find Programs”, “Download TV & Movies”, then “Amazon Unbox”. Thanks, The Amazon Unbox Team ”

According to this article, TiVo has released this new feature which will allow you to order Amazon Unbox movies directly from your TiVo.  I signed up last month when they were offering a $15.00 movie credit just for signing up. I have downloaded two movies, although I found the Amazon user interface fairly difficult to navigate and that getting my movie downloaded to the Tivo was a little more than a few clicks away. And my second attempted movie download seemed to download the same movie 5 times in succession. But I will not give up on it yet, as the interface through Tivo promises to be simpler if nothing else.  Anyone else using Unbox?

The 2006-7 TV season has slowed to a crawl. While there is still some good new material being shown, the majority of the viewing is re-runs. This means that the TIVO is not quite as busy as it was earlier in the year, and it hasn’t had to make so many critical decisions about what the record and when and just how we would like our recordings prioritized. Mr. Tivo (yes we give it some respect) does an admirable job of reliably saving just the shows that we will want to watch, and showing them to us, whenever we are ready to see them. Now is the time to review the Season Pass settings we have for this year, to weed out the shows that we loved but for some reason the networks didn’t think we wanted to see. The season pass list must be modified because has become pretty complex, and the new shows are starting to appear on the independant channels.

This post is about what we have on our existing Season Pass, in our currently prioritized order. Later I will explore the additions to the Pass for 2007-2008

• Cycling – All the pro-tour bicycle racing all year, shown on Versus. Their are lots of them, the Tour de France is just the biggest one.
• My Name is Earl – So many funny lines.
• The Office – We work in offices, sometimes this makes us cringe.
• Grays Anatomy – Honey loves the romances
• Lost – Everything said or seen is there for a reason.
• Desperate Housewives – Like the show, but don’t like the characters?
• How I Met Your Mother – Simple premise, good acting, complete characters, and funny.
• Monk – Clean, decent, obsessive compulsiveness, whats not to love.
• Ugly Betty – Dramatic comedy with some originality.
• Scrubs – Great mix of laughs and sentiment, with some sick stuff going on in the background.
• Eureka – Sci-Fi show that could be real, except you know its not.
• Meerkat Manor – Loved the tiny meerkat family drama, but wondering if the show is still going on?
• Psyche – Hilarious private detectives.
• Brother and Sisters – Full stories, great acting by everyone in that very large and close/semi-dysfunctional family.
• Hustle – A new show on American Movie Classic channel. This BBC show of con-men is simple yet there’s always a twist at the end you didn’t see coming.
• Men in Trees – Light, romantic, fluff. Nothing more.
• My Boys – Using baseball analogies to explain relationships. Something for both of us.
• Friday Night Lights – Sports theme show that isn’t really about the sport.
• Austin City Limits – Some really good musical guests, produce some listenable hour long shows.
• The Riches – Interesting premise, with a storyline that doesn’t appear can last for too much longer. Very good acting though.
• The Simpsons – 13 years and running. Its the Simpsons. Nuff said.
• 1,000 Places to See Before You Die – A light travel show focusing more on attractions than any travel issues, we can pick and choose the places that interest us.
• Reno 911 – Flashes of things funny, dull, crude and weird. You never know.
• Myth Busters – Those guys make and often then destroy, some cool stuff.
• Good Eats – Cooking show that is educational and from a different perspective than most.
• Victory Garden – When I am in a gardening mood.
• Sound Stage – Sometimes have some good music.
• Beavers All Access – Behind the scenes of Oregon State University sports. (Still looking for a good University of Oregon Sports show)
• Crater Lake – Honey wants more info on this. This entry is actually a “Wish List” for the term “Crater Lake”. Mr. Tivo will automatically record any show with the term “Crater Lake” in the show title/description.

These are interior design shows for Honey. She loves these things.
When a TV is showing live TV its usually HGTV.

• Divine Design
• Debbie Travis
• Get Color
• Double-take
• Designer Challenge
• Big ideas for a small planet
• Design Remix
• Redesign
• Designing for the sexes
• Get it together