Entries from November 2005 ↓

This story in Variety really pisses me off. Do the suits/morons that work in the entertainment business have any semblance of a clue? Their panties are getting all in a bunch just because TiVo is going to offer out-of-the-box support for downloading shows to iPods and PSPs. I say right on TiVo.

There are quite a few programs out in the wild right now that will allow consumers to do just this very thing. TiVo gets my applause (Hurry up with the Mac support!) for making this easier for the non-techies out there who would love to watch Lost or Veronica Mars on their iPods while they’re on the go.

Everyday I realize that the only fair use the entertainment boneheads are interested in is what’s fair to them. Now I know why I don’t feel bad when I use BitTorrent.

Technorati Tags: iPod Video, ReplayTV, Television, TiVo

I came across this post over at Lost Remote while I was catching up on my feeds, and I started thinking about how I refer to my ReplayTV when I’m posting online or talking in casual conversation. A research firm called Brandimensions points out that TiVo seems to be losing mindshare to the more generic terms “recorded” and “DVR” in place of “Tivo’d” or “TiVo”. I guess this is a double-edged sword for TiVo. On one hand it helps them keep their name out in the public, but on the other a company doesn’t want their brand name to become the generic term for a market either.

Personally, I think it has more to do with the recent rise of Home Theater PCs and DVRs offered by the cable and satellite companies. Being a ReplayTV owner, I’ve always shied away from using the term “TiVo” or “TiVo’d” in reference to my box or recording. I’m sure my ReplayTV thanks me for that.

The Brandimension study also pointed out that the market doesn’t see TiVo advancing fast enough.

The study also concluded that consumers are growing increasingly concerned with TiVo’s standalone box and its inability to record in HD or two shows simultaneously.

This is probably true in some sense. TiVo and ReplayTV have been stagnate in the field of HD recording innovations. TiVo has one unit that will allow HD recording, but it’s locked up with DirecTV service. ReplayTV, on the other hand, is totally lacking in this area. I’m also not sure if they are developing a HD capable recorder or not.

Both TiVo and ReplayTV should be able to rebound a bit once CableCards become readily available. Then they’ll easily be able to offer HD recording and become the one and only set-top box required. The only problem is getting the cable companies to agree on a standard, but that’s an entirely different ball of wax.

Tags: TiVo, ReplayTV, Television

Being the resident “Geek” in my family, most of the tech support issues that crop up in my immediate family tend to fall on my shoulders. As you may have read in my earlier post about buying a Mac mini, I’ve moved away from the Windows platform so I don’t have to play games with my OS to keep it updated and virus/spyware/malware/RATware/crapware free. I’d rather focus on using my computer as a tool rather than fighting with it in order to get it operational.

While I’ve been able to successfully move away from the menial updating tasks in my everyday computing life, I still have to deal with my family and their desire to buy the cheapest Dell they see advertised in the paper on Sunday. I’ve already set my mom up with a good base of spyware removal and blocking tools (AdAware, Spybot and SpywareBlaster), additional firewall software (ZoneAlarm), a virus scanning and removal tool (AVG Anti-Virus) and a more secure browser platform (FireFox of course).

This seems to have kept her secure for the most part; the only real problem with this set up is keeping it up-to-date with patches and new definition files. Usually this takes me an hour or so every month since my mom has no idea how to operate any of this software effectively. The best thing about this is my mom is always nice enough to feed me every time I go over to her house to help with her routine maintenance.

I’m sure there are more “geeks” out there who are, by default, the main tech support facilitator for their families. It’s not a bad thing, but I sometimes find it hard to comprehend that my mom or dad didn’t grow up doing this and they don’t care to learn about it as much as I do. They just want it to work. From here on out, I’m recommending all of my family members buy a Mac when it comes time to upgrade. That will take the burden off me after I set them up initially.

Technorati Tags: Family, Macintosh, Tech Support, Windows