Other interesting technology purchases

[dibbkd]

muckle, no, they don't require satellite tv, but like brucewright said, you can buy them that are made special to work with satellite service.

As far as how many hours you can record, that ranges from like 40 to 160 hours, depending on which unit you buy.

And yes, you can do an RCA out to your VCR to take shows off it. Just go to www.replaytv.com or www.tivo.com and check them out, you'll love it.

[AtlSeg]

I have two ReplayTV units and concur with everyone else--I couldn't live without them! I got the first one because at that time, ReplayTV wasn't charging a monthly or "lifetime" fee. I got the second, because I found it at a yard sale for $20! (The sellers didn't have a clue what it was.)

Although TIVO certainly seems to have a wider acceptance, I have absolutely no problem with the ReplayTV unit. You are only limited by the size of the disk, the quality at which you record your shows, and (at least on ReplayTV), by how many shows you have "guaranteed" record time for.

Either one will change your life--unless you don't watch TV!

Dick (Richard) in Atlanta

[muckle]

OK - I didn't realize there was a monthly or lifetime fee for service - how much is it?

[pt]

we have "ultimate tv" and it's just like tivo / replay tv, but it has more features (like bruce said, it's about the features).

the tivo is okay, but the first gen models aren't that great compared to what's out there now.

no matter what, if you watch tv a pvr is the way to go. the challege is, not many people know about them or what they do. but once you do, you could never watch tv without one.

cheers,
pt

[BruceWright]

Muckle,

It's time you stop asking us, and look into the product features yourself!

Yes you can record hours and hours and hours. I get 35 hours on mine, but the new ones get hundreds of hours. Yes you can dump to tape, yes it works with satellite OR cable OR Rabbit ears, depending on the model,
Yes, some require a membership fee, others don't, mine's included in my directv bill.


Look it all up yourself, as all of this stuff is model and brand specific.

-Bruce Wright

Segway: Vehicle of Dream

[opti6600]

muckle, go to tools.google.com, and download the google toolbar.

Hmm...interesting technology purchases...well, I have a NetShelter VS rack sitting out in my living room with three Sleekline slim-profile servers in it. Not too unusual, but certainly interesting to see in a house's living room.

The iPAQ is pretty neat, everybody that has one swears by it if they learned the power behind the device. Built-in wifi, bluetooth, fingerprint scanner, and 128 MB of RAM on mine.

The two most functional technology purchases I've see come into this house so far (besides the segway) are a 20.1" Dell LCD, and the Aeron chair. It makes sitting in a dimly lit room much more tolerable to have a crisp display, and the most comfortable chair I've ever sat in. Anybody with a desk job - you need a LCD and an Aeron, if even the basic model...it's worth the price! So far I'm fairly sure the Aeron and the Segway are the only two consumer products I've ever seen that actually specify the torque recommended in tightening particular screws/bolts during assembly and maintenance.

There's all kind of interesting stuff around here that would be mainstream if it weren't so, well, uber. Uh-oh...the SuperStack just became self aware...be back later!


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Let's just take the safety labels off of everything and let America's problem sort itself out.

[dibbkd]

One interesting technology purchase I made many years ago was a DVD/Divx player. I'm not talking about the Divx media player that you see on the net now that a lot of movies are recorded in, I mean the original Divx format.

You would buy a "DVD" movie that you could play for 48 hours for like $4.00, then when you played it again you'd be charged $2.99 each time. It was like renting but you didn't have to return the thing to the store.

They eventually went under, I think because people didn't "get" the idea and also because it was somewhat proprietary to Circit City and a few other stores backing the product. Didn't anyone learn from Sony/Betamax that open standards are best??

Anyway, most people don't remember or never new what it was, and most who do remember it just remember it as being a failure, but personally, I still think it was a good idea.

But I do like my ReplayTV much better than that anyway...

[BruceWright]

Yeah, I fought against that DIVX format because I believed (and the market research indicated) that it forestalled adoption of DVD because it created confusion in the marketplace. People were sitting out adopting dvd because they didn't want to be stuck with the next betamax.

It was the wrong time to fracture the market. Now would be a better time to roll out that technology, when it wouldn't be a distraction, and let the marketplace decide.

I don't have a problem with the business model. I don't think it would work, but I'm not against someone trying.

But at the time it was threatening the whole marketplace for DVD, and that had significant impact on the bottom line for my industry.

-Bruce Wright

Segway: Vehicle of Dream

[dibbkd]

Well the cool thing about the Divx players was that they also played regular DVD's, and the player was the same price (cheaper than some) of the normal DVD players. I think the main problem was that it was confusing for people, and the fact that they had to pay each time they watched it, even though they had the physical media in their possession made them upset (even though it was cheaper than renting a DVD).

You also had the option to permanently "buy" the Divx so that you could watch it as many times as you wanted without paying that fee...

Anyway, I don't ever see it coming back, especially with "video on demand" and DVRs, and stuff like that..

BTW- I still have my Divx/DVD player and it still plays my DVDs....

[BruceWright]

But if you "permanently" bought the Divx:
1. you could only play it on your machine.
2. you could never loan it to a friend.
3. you could never sell it to anyone else.
4. you had to continue to be a member of their service (give them your credit card number).
5. if the company folded it would never play again.

(doesn't sound like a purchase to me.)

Also, at the time, Studios weren't releasing their a-list titles on DVD, because they were waiting for the divx vs dvd shake out. So that reluctance to release A-titles also forestalled adoption of dvd. The month divx folded, all the studios announced big new slates for DVD, including the one I work for (the one that is the most home-video dependent), which had been holding off.

Plus Divx-players cost $100 more on average.

Plus divx players required a service membership, and tracked which movies you were watching.

It wasn't cheaper than rental. Titles cost $4.49 for a 48-hr viewing period. That was more expensive than most dvd rental, and certainly more expensive than VHS rental. That didn't make sense to consumers. A MORE EXPENSIVE player to play more expensive titles? I'll stick with my vcr, thanks.

I know a lot of folks, myself included, didn't like the divx buying model, and if it "won" the format wars, would stay with laserdisc, and forget dvd altogether, thanks very much.

So I didn't want to pay $100 more to stave off obselescence on a format I didn't like, when there were no compelling titles anyway. I wanted DVD, but I wanted it with a robust catalog of titles, and lots of bonus features, and widescreen and good sound. So, like most consumers, I waited for the shakeout, and hoped that divx would go away.

The adoption curve for dvd spiked and hasn't ebbed since the very month divx folded. It certainly stalled the dvd adoption curve.

The DVD format represented an unprecidented agreement on the part of hardware manufacturers and video publishers. They all agreed on the DVD standard precicely to avoid the vhs/sony format war that had stalled vcr acceptance for ten years. Once the standard had been accepted and agreed to by all parties, and everything was a go, the DIVX group broke that agreement. Divx was owned by Circuit City and Ziffren, Brittenham, Branca & Fischer, an entertainment lawfirm.

They took dvd, and added another proprietary standard on top of it, completely negating the consensus that all the stakeholders had fought for. It was a move to draw a line in the sand, and cordon off themselves as the defacto standard, as the one most needed to stave off obselescence. That standard wasn't based on superior technology, as betamax had been. No, it was based solely on a proprietary lock-out system to make seperate publishing deals. That was, in my view and many others, an anti-consumer decision. (What do you expect from a format created not by a consumer-product company, but by a law-firm?)

Divx was magnanamous when they folded. They gave every owner of a divx machine a $100 rebate, which brought the price down to what they would have paid for a dvd player with the same features. Plus any "purchased" discs (which would no longer work anymore when the company folded) would be refunded.


http://www.dvdjournal.com/extra/divx.html


-Bruce Wright

Segway: Vehicle of Dream