The Golden Age of Television Recording

I got my first VCR back in '83, and it used heavily for years thereafter. Now, I could record and watch TV on my schedule, not the networks. It must have been essential because when it broke back in '93 for the final time, it got replaced within the week- much faster than anything else that broke in those days. However, the possibilities really opened up when I acquired a second machine a few years later. Now I could seriously timeshift as I could record in one room, and watch in another. While two VCR's did seem a little excessive, they were well worth it, especially when I could watch a movie on DVD on a third machine, and record two feeds simultaneously.

Needless to say, all of this recording led to piles and piles of videotapes. I'm not an archiver, and watch 99% of things once, and don't watch again so I rerecord the tapes. It was still a challenge to keep multiple episodes straight, and be able to watch them in order, and I frequently complained when there were other things on the tape. I'll easily admit that under this plan, I did lose content I had taped, and in those days, the episodes weren't online on the network's website or Hulu.

For the last few years, I had my difficulties in keeping one recording machine working at the house. First, my combo deck died, then the DVD recorder that replaced it barely lasted a year, and then after a first foray into a DVR, my bargain DVD/VCR was not a bargain. After a pile of failed machines, I decided to spend the bucks, and got a good DVR, the Philips 3575.

Over the last several months, I've been pleased with the device. Finally, a machine that could timeshift all the shows I wanted, record and playback simultaneously (I needed two VCR's to do that feat), and keep it all neat and organized on the hard drive, ready for viewing. Want to timeshift an entire season? Finally, it was possible without breaking a sweat. Clearly the DVR was the best device to get the job done.

When I was getting my new cable system, I toyed with not getting a DVR, but the Philips works best with an OTA signal, and I got the Optimum folks to toss their DVR into the price (for the year at least...), so now I have two DVR's. While it may seem even more excessive than my two VCR plan of last decade, I have to say this is the best it has ever been in terms of TV recording around my house.

The Optimum DVR, a Scientific Atlanta 8300 HD, has a few tricks that the Philips can't match. The first is that it can record in HD if the program is available that way. This feature alone has me recording more of my regular shows from the local channels on the 8300. Add in a channel guide, and it's a breeze to use. No longer do I need to look up the exact times, or figure out how to switch stations when a show ends at 9PM, and the next one starts on another channel at 9PM. The box does all the work (although I do miss the first few seconds sometimes). Another benefit of the channel guide is that the recordings automatically get labeled with the titles. The final benefit is that the 8300 has dual tuners, so it can record two programs simultaneously, and even playback a third. Now this is serious timeshifting!

The only real downside to the 8300 is that the content is contained to the box. Apparently there is a way to send it to a VCR, but it sounds too labor intensive, and not worth the effort as the recording would have to be done in real time. Other than that, this machine is a winner.

So, putting it all together, for the first time, I can now record three video feeds simultaneously, something I've never been able to do before. This makes just about any timeshifting scenario possible, and I'll not watch many commercials any more. If you haven't taken the plunge for a DVR yet, I speak from experience that I've done it twice now, and it's clearly the way to record. Clearly, this is the "Golden Age of Television Recording."

Jonas

Hi Def, Finally!

I'll have much more to say about my new Optimum triple play service after I play with it some more. However, for now, I did want to share my initial experience with the high definition TV service. While Bill refers to them as garblevision, so far, the quality of the picture is quite good for the high def channels.

While even with a fat cable, that's still a lot of info to come into my house, and of course it's compressed. The regular definition channels are not really any better than my old analog TV feed, except that the few lines of interference are gone, and there are a lot more channels. Still, it's not any better in the end, except for having some more stations to flip past.

The high definition is another story though. Needless to say, after you see the crystal clear picture once, in all the glorious detail, it become quite addictive, and I see why whole web sites are devoted to this technology. Not even in the stores selling the TV sets have I seen a feed this good (they probably divide it up so many times that it loses the detail). My cable box is hooked into the TV with the component inputs, but I hope to get an HDMI cable if for no other reason than to simplify the spaghetti behind the set.

Optimum TV gives me the locals hi def, and a handful of other channels, but I quickly realized that it's too bad there's not more HD choices. Also, even for the hi def channels, not all of the programs are broadcast in hi def. For example, when watching the local news, I can see the studio cams are hi def, but the field reporters are shot standard def, and they look like something I could do with my Flip Video cam, well, you get the idea.

Speaking of news, while NBC and ABC's nightly news broadcasts are in hi def, CBS is lagging behind with a standard def broadcast. While I'm no fan of Katie Couric, and hope she leaves the broadcast, there may be more to her slacking ratings than the lack of appeal of her perkiness for a national news broadcast, and CBS should upgrade to level the playing field.

While I'm completely unimpressed with digital television over analog, I will say that hi def is a really nice implementation of technology. While it's too bad that it requires too much gear and service to be able to see it (hi def TV, cable subscription, hi def converter box, HD channel and HD broadcast on HD channel), when the planets align, it is something to behold. Here's to a hi def future!

Jonas

Correction: While my local news on ABC is in hi def, my national news is not. As of now, only the NBC Nightly News is in HD of the 3 OTA newscasts. And ABC's is in 1st place, with NBC's in 2nd. Perhaps the HD effect is not as strong as I thought...

The Other Digital Divide

There's been plenty written about the digital divide. Unfortunately, our nation's policy on leveling the playing field between urban and rural for the access to broadband services is somewhere between nonexistent and haphazard. While I'm rarely for bigger government, there a few times when they need to regulate things so users can have more access than dialup at a reasonable price.

That out of the way, I wanted to mention the other digital divide that I see coming. The digital TV transition is creating another divide of those that can obtain a TV signal with an antenna, and those that can't. I saw this on the CBS news today. They manage to take a complicated issue, and simplify it to the point of uselessness. It's why I can't stand folks like Suzie Orman who would approach the DTV transition as just get your coupon for a new converter box, hook it up to the TV, and you'll have digital goodness with an improved picture and sound. Yeah right, if only this "one size fits none" approach ever got anything done.

I'm here as the living proof that it's not that simple. Even with a new TV, and a digital recorder, both with ATSC digital tuners from different manufacturers, hooked up to a set top antenna, I have yet to see digital television (unless you count my DVD player, but that's another story). And yes, I do have good analog TV reception currently. They really need to explain to folks that most of the digital signal is in the UHF spectrum (at least for now), and half of it is likely to stay there. This depends on the specific market you're in, of course. However, for those that live too far from the metropolitan area, without a really great antenna, their OTA signal will likely go dark on 2/19/09. None of the advertising ever wants to mention that, and no amount of converter boxes are going to change that.

While I don't see folks moving out of suburbia and back to the cities just to get free digital television, just realize that this is a problem that no one is discussing, but they just might be a year from now. Too bad the nation's consumers cannot really afford to upgrade everything right now, as this could get expensive during these lousy economic times.

Jonas

Premium Hi Def

I found this report today that talks about the predicted growth of hi def television. More specifically, it talks about how many more folks are going to be paying for the premium content to feed their TV set. However, I'm not so sure that it is this simple.

First of all, there are plenty of folks that have a hi def TV, but haven't figured out that there signal is still analog. Sure, they realize that the picture isn't that good, but I hardly think they're clamoring to buy the most expensive subscription. They probably will only upgrade when forced to do anything.

Then there are the folks that are upgrading their tuners with a new external box so that they can use their old CRT set. Again, I don't see them getting premium content soon. Those coupon boxes that folks are getting while tuning in a digital signal are 480, and not hi def.

Also, there are some folks out there that use an antenna for the locals to get hi def. Many report that the OTA signals, direct from the networks, are among the least compressed of any feed. They may supplement with a satellite plan, sans locals, and sans hi def. Again, there folks are not premium hi def subscribers.

Finally, over the next five years, it's a safe bet that we'll see more online video, not less. Video on the internet is still in the early stage, but it's already made a big impact 9not to mention the ISP's constantly whining about the bandwidth used). With higher quality online offerings, there will be less reason to become a premium hi def subscriber.

If we look at things more objectively, and start to account for more of the factors, divining the future of television is anything but simple. Stick around, it'll get more interesting, I'm sure.

DirecTV Not So Direct

I was just reading your post about DirecTV and thought I'd tell you my experience with them. We had DirecTV for a little over a year. The channel selection at the time was good but the equipment they gave us was clearly worn out. I ended up calling support four times in about three months because the screen would blank and a "You need to pay your bill" message would pop up. The bill was never in arrears so I would call Support to get the service turned back on. Finally the problem became unfixable short of a cold reset. They wouldn't replace the box and the support calls all went to India to an office where apparently no one spoke anything approaching English but, worse, on the last call, the support guy clearly was reading from a script and had no idea how to do anything else and absolutely no knowledge of the equipment. His instruction to me was "Push the red button." Unfortunately there was no red button visible. So I said, "I don't see a red button" and he replied "Push the red button." After five times through that cycle I finally asked for a supervisor and got someone in California. She told me where the mystery "red button" was. Clearly he didn't know. (It was behind a small door way down in a corner and nearly invisible.)

The point of that long rant is that if you decide to go with DirecTV be sure to check that the equipment you get is new and I'd find out where their support people are located now. My experience with them was well below satisfactory. We now have telephone, computer and TV on an optical cable, all from a local supplier, with marvelous support by knowledgeable English speaking people. There is no way I would go back to DirecTV.

As an aside there was a strange little problem that cropped up in the Winter. After a snowstorm the quality of the reception dropped dramatically. Turned out that there was snow piled up in the bottom of the dish. Fortunately it was mounted right next to the edge of the roof and I was able to brush the snow out with a broom. If it had been on the peak of the roof it would have been unreachable with a foot of snow on the roof. Obviously that wasn't a DirecTV problem but it happened more than once.

--Oldster

The Last Ten Feet

For years, the recurring statement has been "the last mile," referring to when the faster fiber optic connection would reach the house directly as the slower copper cable bottlenecked home users bandwidth. In urban areas that has become less of an issue with offerings such as Fios. However, as many users have enough bandwidth to download DVD quality full length movies, the question becomes if they will do it. In my mind, it's the issue of the last ten feet.

These feet I'm referring to are the distance between the television set, and the computer. Let's face it, most of us want to watch our movies on our TV set, and not on our desktop. Sure, we've all watched a movie on a computer once in a while. I generally don't mind if I'm watching alone. But would I want to watch all my movies that way? Definitely not.

Where is this video coming from? There are several possibilities for watching movies on your computer. They include NetFlix with their new unlimited movie watching, and dedicated services like Vongo. However, both of these services keep the content on the computer as streamed media, so good luck on watching it on the TV set.

One way around this is the dedicated media center PC. With offerings such as this, at least there is now reason to justify the expense of such a device. However, in most cases, it won't pass what many call WAF- the wife acceptance factor. No, that desktop box is fine for the basement, but won't pass muster for the living room.

This is why there has been a slow but steady push to bridge this gap. Two products that attempt this are AppleTV and Sandisk's TakeTV. I can tell you about both in the nutshell. Apple's product is overpriced, both in hardware, and in rental fees. They're going to have to get their rental fees down so that they're significantly less than Blockbuster, and I can watch the flick for more than 24 hours. The TakeTV works well enough, but there is simply not enough content out there for it yet.

What we are left with to solve the problem are the devices that we keep hearing about. Which of these that will bridge these last ten feet is anyone's guess. Will it be a media center extender? Will the XBox get the job done? How about an Apple or Zune dock that can do HDTV quality? What about a dedicated NetFlix box? Perhaps all of the previous will only be transitional technologies as we progress to a networked TV. As more of our content to be viewed ends up online, this trend seems rather inevitable.

In the meantime, as we continue to watch our DVD's, and cheer Blu-Ray or HD DVD in the next generation disc battle, just realize that it's all about getting the internet hooked up to our television set. You know, that last ten feet.

Jonas

DTV Answers, What You Really Need To Know

Now that we're nearing the cutoff date for the end of analog television broadcasting, and the digital transition is a little over a year away from being complete, I thought this would be a good time to discuss what users should be aware of. While the government has a web site devoted to this, like everything they do, it's hardly as simple or complete as it should be. I'll do it as a FAQ so it's easy to reference down the road.

What are we talking about?

Since the beginning of television, the signal from the TV transmitter (the tower) to your television set has been analog. It will be replaced with a digital signal, which offers some advantages.

When is this happening?

The date is February 17, 2009. While there's always talk of changing it to another day, it seems firm this time.

What are the advantages of digital?

A digital signal promises a cleaner picture, with no static, and clean audio. A digital signal is also required for a high definition TV to display the broadcast in hi def (which by definition is >500 lines of resolution). It's like the jump between listening to music on a CD (digital) versus a cassette tape (analog)- both provide the music, but the digital is a lot clearer, and no one wants to go back to tapes.

Are there any disadvantages to digital?

The main disadvantage is that in an area where the signal is not too strong, and you could watch a fuzzy analog picture, in some cases with digital, you may get no picture at all. Also, you may need some new gear to watch your TV. Finally, changing the channel takes longer to tune into the new signal.

Who is really effected?

First of all, only 15% of the nation is really affected by this transition. They're the folks that get their television over the air (OTA) with an antenna. For the other 85% that have cable, Fios, or satellite, things will continue the same. In most cases they have set top boxes that do the decoding, and will continue to do the same.

(As an aside, that's not entirely true as those that watch analog cable will have some type of transition in 2012. They will likely need new converter boxes as well. See more here.)

What's needed?

For the minority that get their signal over the air, there are two essential components here. The first is an antenna that can pull in the signal. The second is a television set with a digital tuner. Without both, you're not going to be able to watch digital television, or after 2/19/09 any TV at all.

Do you need a new antenna?

Maybe. While there is no such thing as a "digital antenna" most of the digital broadcasting is done in the UHF range (these are the channels above 2 through 13, those are VHF). For those that are close to the transmitter, good ol' rabbit ears may do the trick. If your antenna is old, it might need to be replaced, er, I mean upgraded.

In the picture above, the antenna covers both UHF and VHF. You can tell that because it has the "V" on the left side of the image. If your rooftop antenna looks like this, you should be ok in receiving a digital signal. Without the "V" you have a VHF only antenna, and you're going to need an upgrade.

What about this tuner?

This is the tricky part. Assuming you have the right antenna, and are pulling in the signal, that doesn't mean that now you have digital television. There needs to be a digital tuner (known as ATSC in television jargon), to decode the signal. All the TV's sold since the spring of 2007 have one, and the larger TV's (>35") since 2004 have one. However, that still leaves tons of older sets with no digital tuner, including those that were sold as "hi def ready," and had no digital tuner.

If you're on the fence about a new TV, and you get your signal from an antenna, then over the next year is a great time to upgrade to a new TV set, with a digital tuner to simplify things. Then, as long as the antenna can bring in the digital signal, you're good to go.

What do we do with the older sets?

I'm glad you asked! No, you don't automatically need to toss it in the garbage. If you're otherwise happy with the set, you'll need a digital converter box. This will attach to your antenna feed, and decode the digital signal for the set, thereby bypassing the internal analog tuner of the set. These are the so called set top converter boxes that many are talking about. The government is giving out two $40 coupons to defray the cost of this to any citizen that asks for it. If you're interested in the coupons, click here.

Just to be aware, before you grab your coupon, there are a few gotchas. The first is that the coupon expires in 90 days. The second is that it can only be used for this converter box, from an approved list, and not for anything else (like a new TV with a digital tuner, for example). Also, remember that if you get your TV from cable or satellite, you really have no use for this box, so don't get the coupon as it may keep someone who really needs it from getting it, and these are not unlimited. Finally, while it is a $40 coupon, the boxes are expected to cost $60 to $70 so it still will cost you a few bucks.

What about other devices?

Quite bluntly, they probably won't work. While your VCR will still playback prerecorded tapes, it won't be able to record from its tuner. A possible work around may be to have it record from "line in" and send it a signal from the converter box, but I haven't personally tried it, so proceed accordingly and don't blame me when it doesn't go according to plan.

Devices that have an internal tuner, but no input, like a handheld TV for example, will also end up in the brick pile once there is no more analog signal.

Also, the older TV tuner PC cards, like the ATI All-In-Wonder stuff will end up not being able to tune in anything as the analog signal will be gone. There are some new tuner cards that have a digital tuner from Hauppaugue so look for this feature if you're purchasing anything.

Why is the government doing this?

Aside from the greater good of better television for all, and the electronic lobbies wanting to sell us new TV's, antennae, and converter boxes, the vacated analog TV spectrum will be auctioned off for some type of wireless broadband. The details are sketchy still, but the government stands to make billions, but if we get wireless broadband out of it, I'll gladly buy a new TV and antenna.

Feel free to ask any unanswered questions in the comments.

Jonas

Look For Yourself

I've written before about the process of buying an HDTV, and it still rings true. I wanted to point out that this is a shifting landscape of technology, and what folks say is often not up to date.

I've heard too many times about the weakness of LCD's- contrast. The party line goes something like this. Sure, LCD's can go bright, but they are limited by their technology. The backlight can't be turned off, and they can't go too dark with the current crop of LCD's out there because there is always some light leaking through. Plasmas, using a different technology aren't limited in that regard, and have far more contrast. Right?

Well, I was wandering through the local price club, and after buying pounds of iced tea, I wandered past the televisions. Wow, what a nice setup; they have a Blu-Ray disc player hooked up, and the latest Spider Man movie being displayed in hi def across a whole line of TV's. I will say that they had a much better setup for picture display than most of the stores that I have seen (maybe that's what they use the membership fee for).

What catches my eye is that they have a Sony plasma and LCD side by side. They are similarly sized, I believe the plasma was a 50 incher, and the LCD 46. I take a quick look at the two TV's and I notice right away that the blacks are far darker on the LCD than on the plasma. Yup, on scene after scene, the LCD image was far darker on the blacks than the plasma was.

Is there a lesson here? I think there are two. The first is that just because "everyone" spouts that plasmas are better at something, it doesn't make it true in every instance as these are generalizations of two very different technolgies. There has been plenty of development, and there will continue to be, as LCD's are clearly catching up in the contrast department, at least in today's informal test. The other is that there is no substitute for seeing the TV set in person before purchase.

For my money, I'm glad I voted for LCD, and I can see why plasma sales have lost market share.

--Jonas

Television Wiring Issues

I guess I was due as I've been working on the quadruple play of problems with my phone, my internet, and my cell phone- all in the last few months, so it should come as no surprise that the TV signal had an issue this week. However, you might not expect why it happened.

I needed to get a gutter replaced. Unfortunately, my TV antenna was in the area. I deliberately sought out a reputable gutter crew, and made sure that I could communicate with them as they spoke English (the last time I had another company work on the gutters I was fumbling through my limited Spanish to say "Pitch the gutter more," and ended up with some broken shingles, but that's another story).

I made it a point to show my estimator that my rooftop TV antenna went into a splitter that then sent the signal to my two televisions. Simple enough I'm told, and I remind him that I want this all to work when we're done. This is what it looked like before we started:


When the guys arrived for the job, I also show them the setup and reiterate that this should all work when we're done. I think I'm getting on their nerves, but I'm reassured that this is simple. I'm asked if I want the wires buried underneath the new soffits, but I decline and tell them that I want access to everything so leave it out- good thing I went that route.

I kept an eye on these folks, and when the job was completed, I went out to take a look. I notice that one of the TV wires is out and hanging in the breeze. #$@&*?! Why is that wire out? I'm told "It was a spare and not active." I remind him that this is not the case, and I'm told he will fix it now. I go in and check on the TV which looks ok after he's reconnected it, although there is a little more noise on a few of the channels so I start getting that sinking feeling.

That night, I start watching TV, and there is a ton of interference. One station, CBS, is not even watchable, and this has never been the case. Something is not right, so the next day I go up on the ladder and take a look. Geez, the wire that was disconnected is in the splitter, but only by a thread. The connector at the end that had been crimped on is now pushed on, but not securely on the wire as there is no way to reattach something like this. I try to adjust, but it's clear that I need to do some work.

I first turn my attention to the internet so get up to speed on coaxial cable. I learn that not only does the center copper wire need to be connected, but also the outer metal covering beneath the black plastic needs to be connected. This is why just shoving the center copper wire in doesn't solve the problem. I also learn that while the pros will use the crimped connectors that require a special tool, the average homeowner can just use a screw on one that doesn't need any special tools (although the purists say it's not as good).

I head on over to Wal-Mart, and they have the parts. I also decide to pick up a new splitter as the other one has been up there since Carter was in office.

Back up the ladder, and I put on the new connector. It's hard to screw it onto the plastic, but it does go with some effort. The package suggests stripping the wire, but I don't want to shorten it and I plunge ahead. Ahh, it's on. I swap out the splitter and cross my fingers.

Thankfully, both TV's now are back to baseline reception which is about as good as analog TV gets in these parts.

I'm annoyed at the gutter folks for not being honest about this. Why couldn't they tell me what they did and not make me waste half a day on this? This can't be the first time they had to work around some wires to put a gutter up. I'm not even sure why they disconnected anything in the end. After their shoddy workmanship, I learned more about coaxial cable then I wanted to know.

--Jonas

Taking TV Back To the Television

On the seemingly never ending quest towards digital convergence, we have one more stop along the way. While it's possible to get recorded television content from the PC to the television, it's a long way from being done easily. Apple has made some efforts with their AppleTV (which I've not been a fan of, see here), or the third party docking devices that interface with the iPod line. Other possibilities include using the Zune's video out, a media bridge device, or hooking up the 'puter to the TV directly, none of which are cut and paste simple.

The media player devices that have focused on this sneakernet shuffling of video content have been hard drive based. Now that flash based memory capacity has reached the size that can hold video, SanDisk is entering the foray with a new player, the new TakeTV Video Player, as well as a new content source they're calling Fanfare.

If we look at it simply, this new TakeTV is really a USB flash drive, initially available in 4 or 8 GB capacities. That's actually a decent capacity as in initial testing the videos are 350 megs per hour of content. The idea is to download the video on the computer, and then insert the flash drive into a dock that hooks up to the TV set. Pretty simple, and easy enough for anyone to do. It even includes a remote in the deal.


The content comes from Fanfare, a new online media service. Initially the content is free, but I'm sure this will change soon so that an hour episode goes for an iPodlike $1.99. It is only in beta so I wouldn't be so hard on that it only has content from a few networks including CBS, TV Guide, Weather Channel and Showtime. After a 7 meg download, and a flash upgrade, I had Fanfare running on the desktop. Unfortunately, a TakeTV player is needed to download and play anything so I can't preview what the service is really like. Reportedly the player TakeTV will also play back DivX files as well.

The units will initially be priced at $99 for a 4 gig model, and $149 for an 8 gig one, with larger capacities to follow. While that price of admission is downright affordable, all of this hinges on them getting the content part of this right. If they can provide more to watch, and can keep it affordable, then TakeTV just might emerge as another "sneak from behind" from the SanDisk folks. I'd also hope that if this takes off that they'd include some of the other SanDisk players to able to view content either on the TV or portably on the screen. The Sansa View could be suited to this purpose.

--Jonas

Unbox, You've Done Me Wrong

I've heard about Amazon's Unbox video service. The idea is that they want to compete with iTunes by letting users buy and rent content to watch with their software player. While I'll occasionally watch a missed episode on the computer, I'm not a big fan of watching content on the computer, and I'd rather watch it on my TV. However, last week I was enticed to download an advance episode of NBC's upcoming show, "The Bionic Woman," and I decided to get the jump on the Fall Season.

So, I headed over to Amazon, and found the show. As part of the intro, it was free, but it did have to go through my Amazon account, and let them know which credit card to charge my free episode to (???), but the transaction went through. Next I had to download a 6 meg player. All right, so far, so good. The player then found my purchase, and started the download.

This one hour TV show, that's barely 45 minutes without commercials was a full gigabyte download! If I wanted it with the additional files for a portable player, it was a whopping 1.2 gigs! Seriously, on my DSL connection via WiFi, this was a daunting download, and just about as big as anything I've ever attempted to squeeze through my narrow broadband connection of 768/128 kbps. Amazon should remember that not all of us have a fiber optic connection, and compress things more aggressively. Still, I persisted.

The Unbox player intimated at first that I would be able to watch the episode in a streaming format where I could start viewing after I downloaded some, and keep downloading the rest simultaneously. In fact, the entire gig needed to be on my hard drive before the viewing could begin.

OK, after hours of grabbing data, I had the full gigabyte of video, and the player ready to go. I had a week to watch the episode before my license expired. I eagerly started the Fall season and fired up my Unbox player. Hmmm. The graphics seem off on this show. This looks rather funky. Imagine turning the color setting back to 16 colors like in Windows 95, and that is what the episode looked like. I thought at first it was just the beginning, but it was the entire episode.

I went back now to try and grab a screen capture to show all of you exactly what I was talking about. Unfortunately, the saga continues. For whatever reason, Amazon Unbox won't even open, and the shortcut is missing or some such nonsense.

Let's summarize by saying that in my experience of one episode, I've found Amazon Unbox to be half baked. I've never had problems with any of the networks streaming content, and not had to download for days just to watch a single episode. I've also never experienced such poor video quality on any other video content I've watched on my computer. In the end, the price of free was just too expensive.

--Jonas

Hard Drive TV Recorders

I've been quite forthcoming with my plan to acquire a Philips 3575, and I've had experience with last year's Polaroid 2001G. I'll have a review up, but in the meantime, one of our reader's Barry "Bear" got in touch with me, and I've collected our correspondence into the following thread. --Jonas

The New HDD TV Recorders Take a Step, But Is It In the Right Direction?

Why can't the manufactures of current HDD/DVD recorders ever design consumer video equipment that meets the needs of the consumer! Consumers today have an HDTV with an HD cable or satellite DVR. This is great; you can view in real time your show in HD, pause live TV, jump backwards and forwards and record and save the show to the HDD to play the recording again viewing it in HD! The problem everyone still faces is the ability to record an HD broadcast, edit, and then archive the edited recording to a standard DVD in SD resolution to appease the copyright gods. And they never seem include a user friendly interface where you can select from a guide the show you want to record like you're already able to do with satellite and cable DVR's manufactured currently.

For example, you see an HD show on an OTA or QAM channel that you want to record on these new HDD/DVD recorders with digital tuners. You have to manually setup a timer after you look it up on the internet, or TV Guide when it will air. Now it gets recorded. YEAH! Not really, this is where the problem starts. What you have is a recording on your HDD that is in SD resolution. If your replay the recorded show it is in SD resolution! The change in resolution from HD to SD needs to take place when you record it onto the DVD. Otherwise I still need to record the same show on my cable or satellite DVR so I can view it in HD AND I also need to record it on my new HDD recorder so I can archive it onto a DVD.

There must be a way to down-convert a HD recording off a cable or satellite DVR HDD and record it to a DVD in SD resolution. This is what we want. A HD DVR capable of receiving HD OTA and QAM broadcasts, that records to the HDD in HD resolution (which exists!) WITH a built in DVD recorder so you can archive the HD recording to a DVD in SD resolution.

I originally looked into just getting a DVD player that would play my Divx collection off my WD 250 GB portable HD thru a USB port. Well....that is just NOT an option as I tried the RCA DRC285, Philips DVP5982/37 and Pioneer DV-400V-K and none of the have enough power to run this drive from the USB ports. (Editor's note: That's a common issue as the ports in these devices generally work best with USB flash drives).

So......I decided to evaluate the Philips DVDR3575H/37. I have a Liteon 5045 which I like that but no USB port, no upconvert, no ATSC or QAM tuner.

Last month there were several Philips 3575's at Wal-Mart, but with college starting they disappeared quickly! I finally saw Amazon had them and with the mostly positive reviews I decided to get one. Then yesterday I saw the Polaroid DRA-01601A at Wal-Mart so I decided that since I have looked at 4 pieces of DVD gear why not another!

Out of the DVD players I saw.....The Pioneer wins hands down with QUALITY video and workmanship. Unfortunately, they're not currently making one with a digital tuner.

You want to see CHEAP check out the RCA. Totally plastic enclosure, but it did function as advertised.

Now for what I have observed with the HDD devices.....

Let me start by saying that I wish that everyone would get their act together. It seems like the options missing on one recorder are available on the other and vice versa!!!!!

I have had a HDD recorder for a few years now (Liteon 5045- Editor's Note: This aging LiteOn, no longer for sale, is practically legendary for its hackability) so let me see what I like about the equipment I already have. Every user has their own needs and want, I have a HD DVR from Time Warner and I can watch HD until the cows come home. But I can only archive it to SD. Having an HDD DVD recorder that accepts OTA digital HD and QAM channels will allow me to record programs I really know are keepers. Then I can edit and burn the content to a DVD.

What we need is an HD DVR that can high speed dub from the HDD down to a built in DVD (even if it is SD).

I like the ability of
- copying non copyrighted DVD videos to the HDD. Like a video juke box!
- copying MP3 audio file to the HDD. Like an audio jukebox!
- copying JPEG photos to the HDD. Like a slideshow! You can have your family and friends over and sit in fron of your 65" TV and play all your travel photos with MP3's playing simultaneously.

So the Liteon is actually a media center!

I also like.....
- the ability of editing video content recorded off the HDD. The Liteon does this, but not as well as the Philips.
- connecting a DV camera via firewire to transfer videos.
- playing VCD's
- playing PAL DVD's
- a good user interface

OK, so it's been 2-1/2 years since I purchased the Liteon. Let's compare these new DVD HDD recorders see what they offer......

New tuner to receive the new OTA Digital broadcast!
New tuner to accept QAM digital channels from your cable TV
USB ports!
Upconversion to 1080P

So from what I have seen, these are the capabilities of these 2 machines.

Polaroid DRA-01601A:
Quality workmanship: average
Quality video: above average
QAM: It really sucks, just like all the other reports! Don't go there
OTA: Seems to work A-OK
copying non copyrighted DVD videos to the HDD: Nope
copying MP3 audio file to the HDD: Nope, this thing only plays WMA files! However you can copy them to the HDD!
copying JPEG photos to the HDD: Yup
playing photos and music at same time: Manual states it will
editing video content recorded off the HDD: Yes, however I did not want to go through the pain
connecting a DV camera via firewire to transfer videos: Yes, has a firewire port. Did not try it.
playing VCD's: Manual says yes
playing PAL DVD's: YUP
good user interface: The only way I can explain the feeling I get when I use this interface is that I would rather get a mouthful of root canals without novocaine! If you go into a prison you will see convicts that killed someone because of the effects this interface had on their minds!
Remote: SUCKS!
USB: Powers my portable HDD
Upconversion: Nope
DIVX: No way

-If it loses power, you lose your timers. However time is AOK

-It can display DTV channels listing (Show name and time) like a guide for 12 hrs. However the times are all wrong.

-It has an HDMI problem. Every time I turn the unit on, I have to press the I/P button 2 times on the remote to get a picture. Must default to Interlaced 480

-It always defaults to the DVD mode. That sorta sucks!

-It has a favorites list

- Many of the buttons have different functions on the remote depending on what mode you are in. Like I am watching TV and press zoom and it shows me a list of available DTV channels and I can arrow down and select one to change the channel.

- I made a YES DVD; it took awhile. It makes a DVD with a title screen with all the different scenes like you would see in a DVD that has chapters. Sorta cool.

Philips DVDR3575H/37 (You get what you pay for)

Quality workmanship: above average
Quality video: above average
QAM: no problems so far. Not losing channels.....
OTA: AOK
copying non copyrighted DVD videos to the HDD: Nope
copying MP3 audio file to the HDD: Nope
copying JPEG photos to the HDD: Nope
playing photos and music at same time: Nope
editing video content recorded off the HDD: Yes, and quite well, wish you could merge files
connecting a DV camera via firewire to transfer videos: Yes, has a firewire port. Did not try it.
playing VCD's: Yes
playing PAL DVD's: NOPE
good user interface:Very nice interface, impressed daily
Remote: OK, however I wish it was a good as the Pioneer. You did not even need to point that at the equipment!
USB: Powers my portable HDD
Upconversion: YUP
DIVX: Yes, however you can't copy them to the HDD

They went through the effort of having this thing auto clock set the time from the PBS station, but it loses all the program settings in a long power outage! I have to test this, but I read that it does.

Noise: Philips is much quieter.

The rapid play on the Philips is really cool. You should be able to save a timeshift event.

You have to rename the timed recordings. Why can't they incorporate the OTA digital data into a guide so that you could just select what you want to watch and it would populate the title field with this data.

It has chase play and it works well.

I also read that it will not play MP3's off a DVD. Why? (Editor's Note: I don't know of any DVD player that will do this feat.)

On the Polaroid for timeshift you use 2 different buttons pause and play. On the Philips it is the same button. On the Polaroid you can save timeshift events. On the Philips no can do. They need to fix that one!

I am noticing that on the Philips, unless you have recorded a show in HQ you cannot do any High Speed Dubbing. So for example, I have 3 1 hr recordings I want to transfer to a disc. I have done my editing, and it is going to take 3 hrs to burn the disc. And I don't think I can watch TV until it is done.

I am trying to think how my Liteon does this. I think it copies the files like a computer would. No way does it take 3 freaking hours. Is the Philips doing a bit to bit copy or is it doing an analog copy! That would be real bad, as you would have quality loss.

In Closing...

The Polaroid is going back. However it had some capabilities that the Philips didn't offer: PAL playback, copying JPEG and music to HDD (and MPEG videos). The QAM tuner is hurting for sure. The manual is a waste of paper! Not to mention the lack of ability to upconvert!

So now I will continue to play with the Philips and make a decision if I should keep it or send it back. It really is the only one out there right now. Has a lot of capabilities, but it could be so much better.

What the Philips does, it does very well.

The answer for me may be to continue using my Cable HD DVR (that records to the HDD in HD resolution) coupled with my Lite-on HDD DVD recorder. At least then I could watch my programs in HD! The only regret with this setup is the quality loss I would experience by recording to the HDD DVD recorder via the S-Video input.

Frustrating for sure!

--Bear

Feel free to discuss the Philips and Polaroid DVD recorders below.

An Observation of Target's TV Line

This week when I was at Target, just for kicks, I decided to wander through the electronics department (Where did you expect me to go...housewares?). While there, I meandered over to televisions. I can make two observations about their department.

First, the less important one, is that compared to some other retailers that come to mind, the worst offender being Wal-Mart, all of the TV sets had a great signal. It did appear to be high definition as well. All of the TV's had the same signal with no static, or digital noise, or signal dropouts. Whoever set this up did it right, and it shows. This makes it a lot easier to compare sets when the only variable in the picture is the television itself.

Speaking of TV's, that brings us to our second point. Out of the entire wall of sets, big and small, I noticed only one plasma set. True, there were a ton of sets in the 26" to 32" range where LCD truly shines and is more affordable, and this size has never been plasma territory which is 37" and up. Still, when the number two retailer is so heavily slanted towards LCD, and away from plasma, it kind of makes me wonder if plasma is going to be relegated only to the high end specialty stuff. I seriously doubt that too many technophiles shop for their gear at Target, but if this is what the bulk of America is buying, you can bet that the sales figures will show it, and the manufacturers will build for it.

For years, there has been ongoing debate on if a plasma or LCD was the "true" HDTV (as if there could be only one). It went as far as coworkers telling me that "I had to buy a plasma as it was the only way to go." Needless to say, I took their advice from whence it came, and proceeded to buy what looked good, and I could afford (which is always good advice no matter what the product). Bearing that in mind, I find it ironic that perhaps this is how the LCD vs. plasma debate will be settled- "Not with a bang, but a whimper," with consumers voting with their wallets strongly in favor of plasma.

--Jonas

Site To Store To Nowhere

Here We Go Again!

I've been trying to get a new hard drive based recorder. I say trying because not only is my local Wal-Mart out of it, but only one store out of the twenty closest has "limited supplies." I found out that Wal-Mart has this new Site To Store plan. It works kind of like the old Sears catalog pickup. I order it online, they ship it to the store, and they send me an email when it is ready to be picked up. By sending it through the Wal-Mart distribution channel, they don't charge me shipping. They also claimed on the site to not charge my credit card until I pick up the item. Reportedly, if I don't pick it up, I don't get charged.

With the above in mind, I decided to give it a try. My order went through. Because it was shipped through the Wal-Mart distribution channel, there is no way to track the package like with UPS or FedEx. After a week of looking up my order, and it only saying "shipped," and never receiving the email to pick it up, I started to get curious. Make that impatient. After all, the Fall TV season is starting in two weeks. I wondered if maybe I had missed the email, or it hadn't gotten past the spam filter.

I copied down my order number, and headed to the store that the device was to be shipped to. At the desk was a pleasant woman, who offered to get some help. She called on a handheld radio, and I heard several of the associates say that they were doing something, and couldn't respond. On the 3rd request, an assistant manager did respond to the desk.

I explained the situation to the at least partially disgruntled woman. She took my order number, entered it into the system, and told me it was "returned." Huh?! I never received it, so how could I return it? She then told me that the item must have arrived at the store damaged, and it was returned for credit.

I then asked if they were getting me another one. I was told "No, there's a shortage of these." She then suggested that I put the order through again.

Then, this was the final shocker. She asked me for my credit card for the refund. Huh?? I thought I wasn't being charged for this? I was told that I had been charged when I placed the order, but they would take it off now.

I left wondering, empty handed mind you, that if I hadn't gone to the store, that the charge would have been on my credit card bill for an item never received!

Overall, I am completely dissatisfied with my Site to Store experience. Last night, I received a survey from them. I started to fill it out, but after 10 minutes of filling in dots of how the experience went, I gave up. I was hoping for a text box that I could explain it to the higher ups, but I decided to simply post it here instead. Maybe they'll get the message- then again, maybe not. Next time, I'll use Amazon.

If you've used Site to Store, feel free to share below.

--Jonas

NudgeCast 9/3/07

This week's episode looks at a networking company that stands behind their gear, some thoughts about the upcomng iPod line, an incoming consumer electronics product, and a podcast service.

Click To Play

--Jonas

Site To Store

The purpose of this post is twofold. The first is to share that I'm purchasing a video hardware recorder. The second is to share how I'm planning on getting it.

There has not exactly been an overwhelming array of choices in the set top TV recorder arena if you don't want the Tivo logo, and the associated monthly fee. In fact, only Wal-Mart sells two of these devices. Of the two, the cheaper one is a Polaroid, and is widely regarded as a piece of junk. After my experience last year, I can confirm this. The other is a Phillips model which goes for $300. Not exactly cheap, but when compared to building a PC based home theater, it starts to look affordable.

The companies that previously made these devices claim there isn't much of a market for them. I'd have to disagree.

With the Fall television season starting next month, I decided that it was time to take the plunge. I noticed last time I was in Wal-Mart that they didn't have any on the shelf. With gas still skirting $3 a gallon, I decided to let my fingers do the walking, and figured out online that many of the Wal-Marts in my area are completely out of this thing! No market, hey? I think the other companies, like Panasonic, bailed too soon on this category of device.

What to do? Now I'm getting to the second part of the post. One option is to drive to the next state as it is listed as having "limited supplies" of the item of interest. I'm thinking that when I get there, there may only be one or two, and what if they are in a broken box, or returned. Nah!

This is where the "Site To Store" logo comes in. Back before the internet, we used to buy stuff at Sears and their lengthy catalog. In order to save money, we would ship it to the store to save on the shipping costs. For those that remember, Sears was the original Amazon, and they stupidly eliminated their catalog at a time when they should have been putting it online.

Anyway, when I went to order this at the Wal-Mart site, they gave me the option of shipping the item to the store. In the process, we save around $7 in shipping costs. No big deal, but if I'm heading over there anyway, I might as well save the dough for something else. Also, I can return it right to the store, and not have the hassle of shipping it back if things don't work out as expected. Reportedly, the item is picked up in customer service. To safeguard my purchase, I have to bring a photo ID, and the email letting me know its arrived. So far, this appears to be one of the better ideas a B&M retailer has come up with, and I'm wondering why more retailers haven't embraced a similar system (although Circuit City is one of the few others that has), rather than just whining that they can't compete with online offerings constantly.

Stay tuned, we'll let you know how this turns out. BTW, I'm getting this Phillips recorder.

--Jonas

Triple Play

With the deregulation of the telephone industry, now we traded the monopoly for a duopoly. In many areas, now the phone company sells in addition to phone services, television. Also, the cable monolith is branching out from TV to your phone. As they both already also provide internet broadband access, they now package their services into a phone, internet, and TV combo, and call it "triple play" with supposedly one low monthly fee (although in my opinion, it should be a little less).

In my area, the offerings are Verizon Fios for $95, or Optimum for $99. While at first it appears a good deal, when I remember that my phone bill and internet access are under $45 a month, and I don't watch that much TV, I stick with what I currently have which is less than half price.

I've thought about changing the phone to a VoIP provider, such as Vonage. For the same amount of money per month on the phone end of things, I can have unlimited calling. There are three deal breakers though. The first is that I'm not sure how I would physically connect my phone to the internet without pulling Ethernet cable throughout the house. My router and DSL modem is in the basement, while my phone lines are upstairs. This is not the simple plug and play that an apartment dweller can take advantage of. The next issue is that my DSL is not that fat of a data connection (hence the affordable price), and while fine for surfing, it may not do so well with voice data and simultaneous surfing, so that's not good. The final problem (maybe I should have mentioned this first), is that if I cancel my phone service, I can't keep my DSL. Yup, those phone company bean counters are no dummies, and the DSL requires a phone account with them.

So, up to now, I've kept the status quo, not triple played anything, and been on the lookout for a new offering as this is a dynamic area. I heard that Direct TV, those makers of that mini satellite dish, were feeling left out of combo services, and expanding their offerings. Hmmm. I head on over to their website, and take a look. Turns out those satellite endowed folks are teamed up with Verizon in my area, and they can sell me both satellite TV (Choice Extra Package, 185 channels), and my same DSL for $55/month (it would go up a few dollars at the end of the year as the $14.99/month goes up to $17.99/month). This would then allow me to use Vonage as a telephone service, and the total would be around $80/month. Can I really put together my own triple play for less?

Not so fast! After reading the fine print, this is only for "new" Verizon DSL customers. So they want me to cancel the service to sign up for it again? For all of the deregulation, I'm still seeing too many restrictions on all of this. At least for now, I guess, once again, I'll stick with what I've got.

--Jonas

New TV- Not Quite Hi Def...

Over the weekend, I received my first "digital television," a Samsung 26" LCD. It came via UPS, and it was worth waiting around all day for it to arrive. While I was at first a little worried that the TV only shipped in the manufacturer's box, and not any outer box, it did arrive unscathed.

I had looked into the issue of antenna reception a while back, and had read that there was no such thing as a digital antenna. The rule of thumb is that those that get decent analog TV reception should do fine with digital as well (www.antennaweb.org is a rule of thumb for what channels you should expect to get, and I expected several). Good enough, I figured as I get all the analog channels without too much difficulty. However, there was a crucial detail that I didn't realize, and now is a lot more obvious with some searching.

Anyway, I hooked up the set, and plugged in my rooftop antenna. I did a channel scan, and it found the usual analog stations, plus brought in three UHF stations with tons and tons of fuzz. Curiously (more on this later), I had one channel, ABC in digital glory. Actually, it kept pixelating every few seconds and dropping out. Outside, it was raining pretty hard so I figured I'd have to redo the channel scan in better weather. Curiously, the analog version of ABC didn't look so different to the digital version, except for the pixel pattern being a digital exclusive.

A few hours later, the rain stopped, and on the channel scan there were no digital channels! Hmmm- this is not what I expected. Like any self respecting TechNudger would do, I turned to the internet. Before I asked for some sagely Oldster advice (who has fiberoptic deliver his TV these days), I looked into some forums. When I searched through these threads, I started to realize that my venture into digital content was grounded from the start. I learned that the hi def content is sent over vacant UHF channels, not the VHF frequencies, that we better know as the 2 through 13 channels. The problem is that my antenna is the classic 70's model that only tunes in VHF and not UHF. When I picked up the digital ABC one, due to some weather anomaly, that was the exception, and not the rule (that I haven't been able to duplicate, FYI).

The bottom line is that without a newer antenna, made to bring in the UHF signals, there will be no high definition content on the new set. Thankfully all is not lost. The Samsung set does have an analog tuner as well. While it does not have the perfection of a digital signal, the TV is still perfectly watchable. For the time being, I plan to research and save up for a new antenna. I'm just glad that I started the switch to digital TV this early because it got a little more complicated than I would have expected. At this point you can count me in with the 15% of Americans with an HDTV, but remember that 47% of us don't have any hi def content on it- yet.

--Jonas

What Can Brown Do For Me?

So I ordered that new HDTV from Amazon on Monday this week. I was originally told by Amazon that it would ship on June 11th, and to expect it on June 18th to the 22nd. Was that accurate information? Naahh! After a few day delay because I didn't pony up the extra dough for overnight shipping, they decide to ship it last night, and I expected it at the local distribution center overnight some time.

First thing this morn', I'm online checking how far the new TV made it overnight. I found out that it hit my local UPS center at around 3 AM, and was on a truck for final delivery at 3:45 AM. WOW, I think, special thanks to those overnight Keebler elves that stayed up late to get my purchase to me.

At 8 AM this morn, I get a phone call from the UPS computer to inform me that the package will be delivered from 7 AM to 8 PM today, and it will need to be signed for. Seriously, I appreciate the phone call, but that is a thirteen hour window! Can't they do any better than that? Am I supposed to stay at home all day long? While I want the purchase, I really need to go to work to pay for the darn thing!

Of course, I'm thinking that if it was on the early truck, it should be coming in the morning. Let's just say that the UPS guy didn't quite make it for breakfast today, and the Starbuck's got cold. Ditto for lunch, or even dinner. No, the brown truck didn't roll up until 7 PM this eve.

In this day and age, didn't they know that they wouldn't deliver it until night was falling? Why call me so early? Couldn't they give me a more specific window? Does everyone stay at home for these deliveries? Why put it on the truck at 3 AM if it's not coming for another 16 hours?

The good news is that the TV arrived in one piece, although it was only in the Samsung box, and not another outside box. Stay tuned as I (hopefully) enter the digital era.

--Jonas

Jumping On Board the Hi Def Band Wagon

After doing my research, choosing the model I wanted, and waiting for the price to drop, I've put my order in for a new high definition television. As the price just dropped this week to a more affordable $730, including shipping at Amazon, I pulled the trigger on the sale. When I saw the same set at Circuit City this week, it was going for $810, so at least that makes this big ticket item seem like a relative bargain of some sort.

That price includes the "super saver shipping." They should rename it the "back of the line" shipping