Feb 07 2008
Jozy 1, My Stupid DVR 0
Of all nights for my DVR to let me down, it had to be this one.
I was over at a friend’s apartment tonight, screaming my lungs out while watching the Duke-North Carolina basketball game. He’s got a DLP front-projector that blasts a 9-foot HD image on the wall, so his living room is crowded during games…
Anyway, at halftime, I asked if we could switch over to the USA v. Mexico friendly for a few minutes. About 32 minutes had passed, and the USA was up 1-0. We all got to see Mexico’s incredible free kick that led to Jonny Magallon’s first goal. Then came the big moment: Jozy Altidore’s first goal for the U.S. senior team. I stood up and cheered, and everyone else in the room looked at me as if I had a fungus growing out of my head. Soccer still has a long way to go in America.
Oh, and we also saw what should have been Clint Dempsey’s goal but for a terrible offside call. Then we switched back to Duke-UNC.
Anyway, I had planned to come home, run through the highlights on my DVR and write something here about the game, but alas, my DVR failed me. I was so sure I set it to record the game, but for whatever reason, it didn’t record.
I suppose it’s not a total loss, given that this was just a friendly (so to speak) and Jozy’s goal will show up on YouTube fairly soon. Still, I don’t like writing about something I didn’t watch, so I’ll just point you to Brian Cook’s liveblog at FanHouse (1st Half, 2nd Half) and Ives Galarcep’s live commentary. Ives suggests that defenders Ramiro Corrales and Drew Moor don’t deserve any more caps in the near future. From what little I saw, that seems like a smart move — smarter than my stupid DVR, anyway.
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Picture-in-picture, dude.
Trust me, Jeff. That was NOT going to fly in that room, no matter how big the screen was.
This is why I have TiVo. Barring weird last minute TV schedule changes beyond TiVo’s control, TiVo just works. It’s hard to explain why TiVo is better to someone using a generic cable company DVR, you have to use TiVo for a while to appreciate the thought that went into the design. And since it’s easier to just rent the cable DVR, most people won’t take the time.
There’s also Slingbox, which takes your TV signal and streams it to you over the internet to your PC or cell phone (assuming you have broadband connections to both).
TiVo and Slingbox are a killer combo.
I actually got a TiVo Series 1 for Christmas back in 2000, when they had first come out. My first real TiVo memory was using it during my Super Bowl party and making an impromptu slow motion video of Giants QB Kerry Collins getting caught picking his nose on camera.
I had it for three years before the phone jack busted, just weeks after the warranty had run out. They offered me an $89 replacement, but I was broke at the time, and the cable company DVR was just cheaper. It wasn’t nearly as good, but it recorded stuff.
The Dish Network DVR actually isn’t too bad. TiVo sued Echostar for some patent infringements over the model I’ve got. For whatever reason, though, it missed this game. So yeah, bummer.
And I do want a Slingbox. I’d like to get it before the Champions League quarterfinals so that I can watch games on my Treo, but I don’t think that’s going to happen just yet.
Aha! Another Treo owner. Cool. I have the Palm Treo 700p. Slingbox works great on the Treo.
As to the old Series 1 TiVo, the busted phone jack would have been easy to fix, all you need is a modem that can plug into the TiVo’s serial port. I still have a Series 1 that is still in use and has been since April 2000. Its software is antiquated though, compared to the Series 2 and later models. It’s currently just a backup to my Series 2 and HD model TiVos.
I would probably switch back to TiVo if they would make a box that played nice with Dish Network. Right now, only TiVo Series 2 works with satellite, and it won’t let me use the dual-tuner functions to record two things at once. For someone who requires both NFL Network and Setanta Sports, which I can’t get on cable, that won’t fly.
I’ve seen Slingbox in action on a Treo 700p, actually. That’s one reason why I stayed with the Treo, actually. If Slingbox supported Blackberry, I would have thought more seriously about switching.