TV

DVR’s

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I am sitting at home (fighting a cold) today. What to do? Watch TV of course. I am cleaning out my Tivo of things I want to watch. After that I decided to play around with my Eye TV USB. it is a DVR for my Mac. It is a great little device, that I don’t use as often as I would like. It act’s just like a Tivo. It records the files right to my Powerbook’s hard drive, which is cool. It can export to MPEG-1 so I can burn a VCD. that is also cool. I would like to burn as a DVD using MPEG-2 files, but I don’t want to upgrade to the newer version (EyeTV-200) that will do that. EyeTV also does not require me to pay a monthly subscription fee. Why then don’t I use it all the time? It has one fatal flaw.

I have a digital cable box (2 actually). In order for me to get digital cable channels I need to plug the EyeTV into the Digital Cable box. When the EyeTV wants to record something it cannot change the Cable box’s channel. That means if I want to record something on the EyeTV I need to change the channel on the cable box for it. What good is that unless I am at the TV? Now if they made some sort of IR channel changer that Tivo has to resolve this problem then I would not need my Tivo. With the majority of the US population with cable or satellite, why not have this option? This is a great product, that I can’t use that much because of this limitation. I have no way around it for now. I am warming up to the DVR on a computer idea. I would rather do this on my Mac, then finding a PC solution. I don’t even know if the PC TV cards can change cable box channels? My old ATI All in Wonder Pro had the same issue.

For now I will stick with my Tivo. I love it, and have not found anything that works better. That said I keep going back to replayTV’s website to check out their warez every few months.

T-Minus 2 Days, Plus Tivo Withdrawal

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My Tivo is packed for my move. Last night I wanted to finish as much as I could today so it is away now. I wont have it on until thursday the earliest. that is the longest I have gone without my tivo recording stuff form me since I got it in September 2001. I don’t want to imagine all the things it is not watching for me:)

It is another rainy day in NYC. It will be muggy in the office with poor AC. Today is filled with no less than 4 meetings for me. Spaced just far enough apart that I won’t get anything meaningful done between them:( I need to get stuff done today, since I want to leave early tomorrow to finish any loose ends up with my move.

Late last night I was able to install the Entourage palm connector for Office 2004 on my laptop. I got my Treo to sync up with my Powerbook. Now I can try to use the powerbook as my PIM instead of my Thinkpad. Not sure if outlook will go away completely, but I want to use Entourage a bit more to see if I like it. For now the syncing with my palm, pc laptop and two mac’s is actually working. No corrupt data yet. That will happen when I try to edit entries in more than one place at the same time.

After work today I need to get more box’s from staples. Then I have to bring over a bunch of stuff to my parents place. They want an air mattress. I have bedding for them. I have some of my dad’s tools. I also need to give my dad some loose change (about 5 pounds of it) to sift through. He likes to look through change for anything out of the ordinary.

I also have more stuff to throw out. I am trying to get rid of as much as possible that I don’t need.

It Just Works

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Whoever said that is correct. Mac’s just work. To make a long story short, I have an Eye TV that I have plugged into my iMac. I am moving, so I unplugged it. I packed my TV, DVD, VCR, Tivo and all other gear away. I still wanted to watch tv. I went to elgato’s website and downloaded the latest software for Eye TV and dropped it in the applications folder of my Powerbook and plugged in the EyeTV. I was watching TV in 3 minutes.

I never had that kind of luck with my ATI all in wonder capture card on my PC. The idea of setting the Eye TV up on my laptop is now when my cable company shows up at my new place I don’t need my tv to be unpacked. I just need the Eye TV and my powerbook and I can verify that cable works. Both items are small so they can go in my laptop bag.

I am very happy I didn’t have to spend hours figuring out how to get the dam thing to work. I don’t even want to watch tv now that I know I can when I want for the next few days.

Tivo withdrawal is another story, and another post…

New Cable

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My order is in for Cable TV & Cable Modem in my new apartment. I am just waiting to see if I got my install date and time.

Next up is calling movers. Carrie will email me the name and number of her movers. I sent her an email yesterday, but she was off from work. She is on a big deadline for her project this week. I can hear how tired she is when I talk to her. I think she has the first milestone release of her software this weekend or something. I don’t envy her deadlines.

My landlady wants to know if I can vacate my apartment a bit early so another prospective tenant can paint and do stuff before August 1st. I said sure, since she has been cool and I will be gone completely (i hope) before the 20th. I will know exactly when once I get the movers lined up.

Simpsons Season 4

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I am a Simpsons fan. Not OJ, Homer and his family. I may not be as fanatical as I used to be, but it is still one of the best TV shows ever. I may not watch it ever time it is on TV anymore, but I can still riddle off quotes from a decade ago. Yes I may be a bit crazy.

I was very happy to open my mailbox today and find my Amazon.com box containing the Simpsons Season 4 DVD box set.

As Entertainment Weekly put it this week, season 4 is probably one of the best seasons ever. I think it has some classics, and it it the beginning the style of show we know today.

I begin watching this weekend…

New Cable

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I got a call from the cable company that provides service in the building I am moving to. They said that the management company sent them my name. I currently use Time Warner, and for the most part I am happy. This place uses RCN.

First impression is that they are more money for less services. I get 4 premium packages, digital cable and a cable modem for under $100. These new guys offer you digital cable, a cable modem, and 1 premium package for $101. I am loosing 3 premium packages. To get them, I need to pay $13 more per channel That is a racket. Extra cable box’s are also more money per box than I currently pay. The only plus side is that I can buy a static IP address for $4 per month. I don’t think I can do that now. Of course my current provider only changes your address if you leave your modem off for extended periods of time. I have had my same IP for over a year.

In a nutshell I think I am getting a worse deal than I currently have. Only time will tell, but as I like to say “i think this will end badly”.

Getting Rid Of The Tivo???

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I have actually been having thoughts about getting rid of the Tivo. I know you must think I am crazy. I love that thing. It is like a pet or something, but yes it is true I have had thoughts about getting rid of it. Why you ask? I have been looking into ReplayTV. I have heard good things about it. Not sure if they will stay around even after they have been bought up. See ongoing legal saga regarding ReplayTV.

I am hearing that it is just plain better than Tivo.

Crime Drama’s

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I saw the first episode of the new season of the Soprano’s. it was OK, not fantastic and not bad. I watch that show on and off. I saw most of last season but missed most of the 2 seasons before that. I loved the first season though. I have the soprano’s back in my season pass list in Tivo.

Another crime drama, or shall I say really bad ass bad guy as the star drama is the Shield. That was on again last night. I Tivo’ed that, and will watch it tonight or this weekend. I have actually watched the first two seasons of that show and it has been pretty good so far. I will season pass the 3rd season and see if it is any good.

Lets face it nothing else is on TV right now. All major network shows that I like anyway are in rerun’s for march and part of april. So I am trolling cable TV for good things to watch. Granted I am watching allot less TV these days but I am always looking for something good to watch…

Early Night

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I was tired after work yesterday so I just went home. I dropped off my dry cleaning and cooked myself a steak. Watched a little TV and went to bed. Nice eventful evening. I actually like that sometimes. No surprises.

What’s On TV

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I used to watch TV all the time. It was my way of relaxing when I got home from work. Tivo has changed my life, or my TV watching life. It records the crap I want. I don’t channel surf anymore. I also find myself watching less TV. I even fast forward allot of what I Tivo, or just decide to delete it after I capture it. It is rare to find good television, especially during the summer.

My new favorite thing on TV currently is Mi-5, on A&E of all places. I mentioned it before in another post. It is a well done BBC show that A&E picked up. Their are only 16 of them over 2 seasons. I just saw the entire season 1 over the past week or two. A&E had a marathon monday and I captured all the ones I had not seen. I like spy novels and shows, but this is just good. This is my spy fix since The Agency was canceled. I just ordered Mi-5 Season 1 on DVD. Gotta love that amazon.co.uk. You can find tons of stuff you can’t get in the US.

On the down side in 9 more weeks the second season will be over and I will have to wait till june 2004 or later to get more installments of Mi-5 (or spooks as it is called in the UK). I guess I will have to wait till September or October and see what crap US television puts on the air. Of course who will be watching TV when the Simpson’s Season 3 comes out on DVD!!!