Gizmodo: survivor

Is CBS Blocking Shows From Your DVR?

Benny Goldman — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 20:10:00 EDT

John Sciacca at Sound & Vision says his DVR no longer lets him record his favorite show, Survivor. Sciacca claims that despite setting his Time Warner box to record every episode of the reality show, when the time comes, it acts as if there is nothing to record. Sometimes, he says, the record light even goes on during the show, but it isn't saved to the hard drive. Apparently he's not the only one stuck without Survivor.

Following Sciacca's advice, I ran a Google search for "'Survivor' 'dvr' 'didn't record'", and found several message board posts detailing similar problems. The issue is present in other DVR types as well, including DirecTV and standalone TiVo. However, some other users say that they haven't experienced any problems with their time-shifted Survivor eps at all. To make sure this problem was confined to Survivor, I checked other popular shows like Lost and American Idol, and came up empty-handed.

We've put in a call to CBS to explain this paranormal activity, and the folks there are looking into the problem. Sciacca suggests that this may be a case of altering show metadata to instruct DVRs to stop recording—in the past, networks have been known to alter their programming to stop DVR users from getting content (and skipping ads)—but we will reserve judgment until we hear more. In the meantime, if you've been experiencing similar problems, please share. [Sound & Vision]

Corsair Brings 32GB Flash Drives, College Students Get Excited

Jason Chen — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 15:00:37 EST

We've been using an 8GB to tote around our critical data (Futurama episodes), but Corsair's 32GB USB flash drives can carry four times as much Fry and Bender on the go. The two drives, Voyager and Survivor, will be retailing for $229 and $249 each—not a bad price for this much storage. The Voyager is enclosed in a proprietary all-rubber body, and the Survivor is in an aluminum water-proof body, which is kind of backwards from what you'd expect. They're not much to look at, but that's the point—you don't want anybody stealing these things.

Virtual Trading Cards: Real Stupid

Mark Wilson — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 10:23:09 EDT

As if enough money weren't being made through overvalued mobile downloads, CBS has added Survivor virtual trading cards (translation: wallpapers that cost more) to their mobile offerings. For a subscription fee of $7.99/month you get 12 cards at a rate of 3 cards per week - with duplicate downloads entirely possible. Not fast enough for your wallpaper...err...trading card addiction? Then download a booster pack. Still not fast enough? Then just pile up your money, cover it in gasoline and throw a match to it. And be careful! Because it would be a loss to humanity if you fell in. – Mark Wilson

Product Page [via textually]

CBS Adds CSIs, Survivor and NCIS To iTunes

Jason Chen — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 21:37:09 EDT

As yet another sign that online distribution has hit the big time, CBS adds its big name properties to iTunes. The three CSIs, Survivor and NCIS join Numb3rs on Apple's iTunes service. Prices are $1.99 and the only shows available are from the 2005-2006 season.

We think the upcoming 2006-2007 season could be the year where online TV finally really takes off. We predict almost all the top rated shows being moved to either iTunes or some proprietary distribution so viewers can catch up on episodes they've missed. ABC's done it already with their own free online streaming, and where one network goes, the other networks will surely follow. – Jason Chen

CBS puts CSI and Survivor on iTunes downloads [Reuters]