Tom Jordahl's musings

I know the description of my blog mentions Tivo, but I really don't blog much about it. But this story is a bit scary. Apparently content can now be marked by various providers (producers, TV stations, etc) with a fairly intrusive copy protection.

Here is a follow up with more info and lots of good links.

I love my TiVo, but every since I went HD, I almost never use it as my first preference for recording shows. Everything new and lots of old stuff is now in HD, and since I purchased my Samsung 56" DLP TV the picture quality on Tivo'd SDTV is just not good enough when an HD signal is available.

I am instead using the Comcast/Motorola DVR built in to my cable box, which records exactly what comes across the cable (no loss). The interface is lame, but functional. I will be watching the HD capable Tivos that are expected to be released next year very closely. If TiVo wants to maintain me as a customer/fan, they are going to have to move faster toward HDTV.

I discovered an very interesting audio-only interview about Digital Cable Ready televisions. I usually am up to date on this stuff, but this technology took me by surprise. According to the interview, the industry is working on a 2-way version of this, but are rolling out the one-way only version now. Time/Warner already provides these cards to their customers, and Motorola also manufactures them too. What does it do? It is a card that plugs in to the back of your DCR TV and gives you access to all your digital channels via the built in tuner of the TV. This includes all the encrypted channels you pay for. But the one way version means no pay-per-view and no video on demand. Two things I am willing to give up for the convenience of getting rid of a box. And the thought of plugging one of these cards in to a Tivo makes me drool.

Here is an interesting USA Today article on DCR from June 1st. Not nearly as positive about it as I am.

Comcast will probably still get me to pay for the box, because they are rolling out the Motorola digital box with the built in DVR in the Boston area soon, perhaps as soon as next month, and I want something that will record HDTV and this looks like the solution. It isn't Tivo, but the recording capacities listed for this box sound great (it has an 80 Gig hard drive). Check out the sweet Flash interactive demo!

Over on the PVR blog, Matt reported on Sony's Monster DVR.

7 Tuners? I can't imagine what I would do with that many, but it would be nice to have 2 or 3 available. My biggest complaint right now is that Tivo show no sign of releasing a HDTV capable standlone unit. There is a $999 DirecTV unit available that does HD, but its a) too expensive and b) requires satellite.

TiVo skips past naysayers. Things are looking up for the future of Tivo.

Now Preening on the Coffee Table: The TiVo Remote Control

A very interesting article on the design of the Tivo remote control.

TiVo update: Went over to Bob's house when I got my new drive. After only a few minutes plugging and unplugging IDE hard drives in to his computer, my Series 2 is now looking good with 140 hours of storage. Of course I only ever record on "Best" quality, but at 35+ hours, this is just fine.

I used the 9th Tee bracket, and did not upgrade the cooling or get the power-up delay kit that are available. The Hinsdale HowTo says you don't need them, and I trust him.

Good news for my new TiVo Series 2:
"Your drive has been shipped via UPS. Your tracking number is [deleted]"

Sched. Delivery: Sep 17, 2003
Shipped to: ARLINGTON, MA, US
Service Type: 2ND DAY AIR

Background: My upgraded Phillips 30 Hour TiVo, upgraded to 135 hrs with a 2nd 80 Gig Maxtor drive) started giving me all kinds of trouble and I believe it was the 80 Gig drive that was failing. I filled out the form at the Maxtor web site and got an RMA number. They got the drive on Friday and sent my new drive out Monday. Lesson: always get a drive with at least a 3yr warranty.