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New TiVo Premiere -- User Experience

I am now the proud owner of a new TiVo Premiere and I thought that I would share that experience with those of you out there thinking about upgrading or jumping into the TiVo world.

 

I bought the TiVo from Weaknees because they let you order one with an upgraded hard drive. Instead of the stock 400 SD / 45 HD hours, I got one with 2,777 SD / 317 HD hours!

I upgraded the drive in my old Series 2 TiVo myself with a kit from Weaknees. I've also used a "do-it-yourself" program to increase the size of the old TiVo, but so far nobody offers a way for users to upgrade the drive in the new TiVo Premiere EXCEPT Weaknees.

The TiVo came in its normal box, like any of the ones you can get at Best Buy or wherever. The only difference was a couple small advertisements for Weaknees inside the box. They included a very small sticker that says "this TiVo was upgraded by Weaknees". The nice part is...

they leave the sticker for the customer to attach.

 They don't just slap their sticker on the back. You can't even tell the TiVo was ever cracked open!

The remote is a little different than the old one. It has a shiny black finish and the bottom has ridges so you can tell immediately if you are holding it upside down. The buttons have been moved around slightly and there are a few additional buttons that only work with the Premiere. I thought it would take a little getting used to, but my thumb seemed to naturally find the right placement. I think the slightly different layout makes sense. The new remote would be perfect if it had the little 1/2 switch like the old ones. I know there is a way to still switch it (hold down a couple buttons, then type the number of the TiVo you want to control), but a simple switch was so much easier.

The new "HD" menus are nice. I have an older model HDTV, so the left side of the new menu gets cut off. I can't really see the different colored dots in front of the shows, so I can't easily tell if something is recording or transferring. I've connected it to another (newer) TV and the HD menus looks great! For now I have switched to the standard SD menus. I'm not at all disappointed to be using the SD menus because they are so fast and it still has a few extra things that the old Series 2 does not (like the option to play a whole folder!) Someday I will upgrade my TV and switch over to the HD menus, but I'm not in a big hurry like I thought I would be.

As with the old Series 2, my new TiVo Premiere lets me transfer videos that I have on my computer. These can be home movies or even recorded programs that were transferred TO the computer (to cut out the commercials for instance.) They advertise that the new TiVo has a faster transfer speed. I couldn't believe how fast they move now! It takes less than 5 minutes to transfer a half hour show! After the first 2 transfers finished I had to check them because I literally thought there must be a problem! The old TiVo transferred at about 1 to 1... a half hour show would take about a half hour to transfer (maybe a little faster.) I can also transfer shows directly between the 2 TiVo's, but only shows that are not marked as "Copy Protected" by the broadcasting station. Of course the transfer can only go as fast as the SLOWEST link in the chain, so transfers from TiVo to TiVo are as slow as the old Series 2 transfers have always been.

One of the common complaints about TiVo is that you can't copy your season passes from one TiVo to another. They have gone to great lengths to make it easy to find shows at least. The new TiVo Premiere goes one step further in making it easy... it supports a USB keyboard. When I purchased the Premiere, I also purchased a fairly cheap wireless USB keyboard. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I only needed to plug it into the USB port on the back, and it was instantly working! The arrow keys are just like the up/down/left/right keys on the remote. Enter is like Select, and some of the function keys map to some nice shortcuts. Oh, and of course, you can TYPE the name of the show you are searching for in the season pass menu!

That feature alone makes it worth the upgrade.

We've Moved to a New Office!

It's finally official - we're in our new office on Oriskany Boulevard in Whitesboro. After two weeks of renovations (big thanks to Matt Smith), we are enjoying the benefits. Two great big windows that let lots of sunlight in. Door that we can leave open to feel the fresh spring breeze. A beautiful kitchenette with everything we could need. A great living room setup with a couch, loveseat and chair with ottoman - all in front of the TV! We are able to walk to some of the local businesses for lunch and dinner

AND THERE'S A BAR NEXT DOOR.

We haven't brought over our marketing items yet so no signs are up but they will be soon! Also, we are considering opening our office up for MVCoWork so if anyone is interested, please leave a comment so I can contact you when we're ready.

I would've posted the address; however, the lease agreement is in my home office, otherwise known as the dining room. I'll post the street address with directions as soon as possible. Please feel free to stop by and introduce yourself or just say Hi!

Facebook Won't Increase My Income

I was speaking at an assembly this weekend and someone in the audience made this comment:

Facebook won't increase my income (or grow my members)

And, you know what, he was RIGHT!
All I can do, using Facebook among other tools, is bring you leads. I can get you in front of your target audience. I can get you found in the search engines. I can create calls to action that encourage people to contact you. I can design your website to create a clear path for a visitor that leads them to contact you. I can use Twitter to introduce your brand to an audience that has never heard of you. I can do A LOT of things for you; however,

YOU HAVE TO CLOSE THE DEAL!

I can help train your sales people, your customer service department, your engineers, your technicians, even your high-level executives but at the end of the day - they work for YOU! Do you encourage them to close the deal? Do you inspire them by words and actions? Do they want you to succeed? Do they care if you succeed? What's that old saying?

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.

Remember that Internet marketing is an integral PART of your entire sales and marketing umbrella.
So, here are some tips:

1. Don't answer the phone in a gruff voice and bark HELLO!
2. Don't hang up on people.
3. Remember that a disgruntled customer can ruin more than just a single sale for you - think long-term benefit.
4. Remember that a happy customer can bring you more than just a single sale - think long-term benefit.

When an Internet marketing consultant comes in and starts asking questions about your internal sales process, understand their motives. They are trying to get a feel for the whole picture. They can help you - not just online but as a part of your sales team.

Where have you seen clients/prospective clients lose leads because of internal procedures?