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RadioShark for Windows and Mac OS X
Quantrell writes "Ars Technica has done a very thorough review of the AM/FM radio time-shifting device radioSHARK. I was surprised when I read it,
because I thought it was Mac-only. Actually the device has good Windows support, and their review shows that some of the problems experienced by early adopters have been solved
with recent updates to the product. That said, there are actually some considerable flaws with the product, so buyer beware." There's a lot more meat on this review than this story which was a lot more glowing of a review.
Over at newegg you can buy a WinFast TV2000 XP PCI card for about $36 shipped. It has both a TV tuner and AM/FM radio. You can scedule records for both TV and radio broadcasts. Why would ANYONE spend $70 for the RadioShark? Does looking "cool" really sway people that much?
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
...but make sure you track down some third party software to work with it - Hauppauge may make some nifty tuners but in my experience (with several of their products) their software always sucks big time - I wish these guys would hire some decent user interface programmers/designers.
AT&ROFLMAO
The whole reason it costs more is because it needs a case and power supply the PCI card does not have.
The reason why people would pay for this is because there are not that many people who want to install cards in the computer compared to the set of computer users as a whole.
I personally would not buy a Radio Shark, but that's because radio has just about nothing I care to listen to.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
RadioSHARK software records in both AAC and AIFF on Macs. Plus it imports directly into iTunes. So no panic or angst or work on your part is necessary. ;)
The Splintered Mind - Overcoming
If it were me, I wouldn't buy it. Why? I have several Griffin products and the thing that is common between all of them is that the software sucks to start with and the software never really gets fixed. Case in point - I have a Griffin PowerMate USB rotary controller. To this day it does not work properly with multiple users in Mac OS X. By this I mean *both* there being more than one account on the system with each account logged in to at different times, as well as greater issues with having multiple accounts logged in at the same time (fast user switching.)
In the former case the issue is relatively minor, but still annoying. In some accounts rotating the knob to adjust system volume does not provide visual or audible feedback. In other accounts it does. Relatively minor, but still very annoying.
In the case of fast user switching it's a substantial problem. What happens is that the software continues to run even in the background accounts, the net result is that using the PowerMate produces unpredictable results. You can see the volume go up and then jump to some entirely different volume because it's adjust both in your account, and the one in background, fighting for control. Or you might be rotating to move "play head" in iMovie, but at the same time it changes system volume. Etc. Even more fun with 3 or more accounts logged in!
It's not like Fast User Switching (introduced in 10.3) was just released. They should have had this fixed long ago, and the best I could get out of Griffin's difficult to contact tech support was that they were aware of the problem but couldn't say when (perhaps not even if) it will be resolved.
Buyer beware of anything Griffin makes that involves software that they write. I know I won't be buying any more Griffin products no matter how cool they sound.
--- What?
I have a RadioShark, and the reception is very poor no matter where I place it (other radio receivers in the same area work fine). It is so bad that I haven't even tried the time shifting feature yet, since the sound that you end up getting is very painful to listen to anyway.
They say that plugging in headphones to the RadioShark will improve reception, but it seems to have no effect at all.
Is there some other kind of antenna that can be plugged into it to improve the reception?
RDS support in the US is spotty. My 99 Audi's factory stereo has it, and RDS signal broadcasting is mixed. Public radio tends to be very good about broadcasting it, while some stations broadcast it intermittently (maybe a particular dj, often it'll be several songs behind, sometime poor spelling), and still others never broadcast the signal.
I was a little dissapointed when my wife bought the ipod radio broadcaster thingy (iWhatchamacallit?), and it didn't have an RDS signal broadcasting the mp3 tag info. Seems that would have been perfect feature to include.