Here's an even worse example of Daylight Saving Time. After many years of not being on Daylight Saving Time, Indiana's government decided that it would be best if we observed DST so that businesses in other states don't get confused and refuse to do business in this state (seriously that's the primary point the backers pressed). And guess which time zone Indiana is in? Eastern. There's supposed to be discussions to move some counties to Central, but the same companies that pressed for DST in the first place are pressing to stay in Eastern so that they can do business more easily with New York City (even though Chicago is much, much closer).
The thing is... multiple tuners wouldn't really help TiVo users with digital cable (which I'm guessing makes up a larger percentage of their users as time passes). Not only would it need 2 tuners, but it would need to control 2 digital cable boxes (and the owner would have to have 2 digital cable boxes, paying even more per month to the cable company). Current TiVo's are actually not far from being able to do this (they can control a digital cable box and a satellite box at the same time I believe, but only record from one at a time). The setup hassle of all the extra cables, and the extra fee to the cable company is why I say this is bad for digital cable TiVo users.
A much cleaner/nicer implementation in my opinion would be if TiVo came out with a box that had the digital cable box built into it. With that, you only need a single cable input into the box, getting rid of the digital cable boxes and all of the extra wiring they would require (and not pay the monthly equipment rental fee to the cable company). Then it should be fairly simple to record 2 (or even more?) shows at once.
But then of course you come to the whole problem with cable companies not completely following the standards that would allow this to work. At least... I seem to remember hearing that they were not following the standard completely, with the usual conspiracy theories that it's due to them trying to prevent users from buying equipment elsewhere and not paying the equipment rental fee. I'm certain someone on here will correct me if I'm wrong.
I actually don't mind the trailers usually... the thing that ticks me off is the 3 or 4 COMMERCIALS that they throw in before the trailers. Especially when it's the same 3 or 4 annoying commercials for 6 months straight!
I'm just anticipating that one of these times I'm going to show up for some action-packed movie but have to sit through commercials for some feminine hygiene product!
I would just show up a few minutes (10?) after the posted start time of the show, but instead I'm one of those crazy people that actually shows up early to get a good seat...
I've never had an AIW, but I do have a Tivo and think it's great.
My question for you is how does the software that comes with the AIW compare to Tivo's software???
Can you set up things like season passes to catch every episode of your favorite show? Even if it changes times?
Can it automatically record shows/movies that it thinks you'd like to watch based off of previous selections?
These are two of the most-important features of Tivo to me. If the AIW software can't do these 2 things, then you DO NOT have a cheaper better solution, you have a cheaper WORSE solution.
It's not so much that our demographic isn't wanted (people with disposable income is what the ad agencies want after all). The question is how many slashdot readers actually have Nielson boxes? I'm guessing that the number is extremely small... if any. Privacy of information after all.
If only I had gotten mod points today instead of last week, I'd be modding you up instead of responding...
step 1) get dubious patent step 2) sue small-fry company that cannot afford to defend themselves so that they settle out of court (thus lending weight to your side) step 3) repeat step 2, slowly increasing the size of the companies you are suing (making sure the opponents are afraid of or cannot afford to defend themselves in court) step 4) profits!
I'm guessing you've never actually tried to move your book collection to a new house have you? I know I've got a lot fewer books in my collection than you (only a few hundred) and they're being one of the most painful things I've got to move!
This whole moving thing has seriously got me seeing how nice it would be to trade in my books for eBooks and be able to simply pack them up in a small ziploc baggie instead of crate after crate(though there's just something aesthetic the actual books themselves that would keep me from trading them in for eBooks)
Re:Can I have one too please?
on
Digital VCRs
·
· Score: 1
Just out of curiosity how often does your normal VCR crash that you need to worry about debugging it?? I don't think any of mine have ever done that... Unless of course it's a hardware problem and even Linux doesn't fix that;)
Slashdot Mirror
Here's an even worse example of Daylight Saving Time. After many years of not being on Daylight Saving Time, Indiana's government decided that it would be best if we observed DST so that businesses in other states don't get confused and refuse to do business in this state (seriously that's the primary point the backers pressed). And guess which time zone Indiana is in? Eastern. There's supposed to be discussions to move some counties to Central, but the same companies that pressed for DST in the first place are pressing to stay in Eastern so that they can do business more easily with New York City (even though Chicago is much, much closer).
The thing is... multiple tuners wouldn't really help TiVo users with digital cable (which I'm guessing makes up a larger percentage of their users as time passes). Not only would it need 2 tuners, but it would need to control 2 digital cable boxes (and the owner would have to have 2 digital cable boxes, paying even more per month to the cable company). Current TiVo's are actually not far from being able to do this (they can control a digital cable box and a satellite box at the same time I believe, but only record from one at a time). The setup hassle of all the extra cables, and the extra fee to the cable company is why I say this is bad for digital cable TiVo users.
A much cleaner/nicer implementation in my opinion would be if TiVo came out with a box that had the digital cable box built into it. With that, you only need a single cable input into the box, getting rid of the digital cable boxes and all of the extra wiring they would require (and not pay the monthly equipment rental fee to the cable company). Then it should be fairly simple to record 2 (or even more?) shows at once.
But then of course you come to the whole problem with cable companies not completely following the standards that would allow this to work. At least... I seem to remember hearing that they were not following the standard completely, with the usual conspiracy theories that it's due to them trying to prevent users from buying equipment elsewhere and not paying the equipment rental fee. I'm certain someone on here will correct me if I'm wrong.
I actually don't mind the trailers usually... the thing that ticks me off is the 3 or 4 COMMERCIALS that they throw in before the trailers. Especially when it's the same 3 or 4 annoying commercials for 6 months straight!
I'm just anticipating that one of these times I'm going to show up for some action-packed movie but have to sit through commercials for some feminine hygiene product!
I would just show up a few minutes (10?) after the posted start time of the show, but instead I'm one of those crazy people that actually shows up early to get a good seat...
I've never had an AIW, but I do have a Tivo and think it's great.
My question for you is how does the software that comes with the AIW compare to Tivo's software???
Can you set up things like season passes to catch every episode of your favorite show? Even if it changes times?
Can it automatically record shows/movies that it thinks you'd like to watch based off of previous selections?
These are two of the most-important features of Tivo to me. If the AIW software can't do these 2 things, then you DO NOT have a cheaper better solution, you have a cheaper WORSE solution.
It's not so much that our demographic isn't wanted (people with disposable income is what the ad agencies want after all). The question is how many slashdot readers actually have Nielson boxes? I'm guessing that the number is extremely small... if any. Privacy of information after all.
Unfortunately there's way too many cases of prior art on this one :(
;)
Oh wait... that doesn't stop anyone...
If only I had gotten mod points today instead of last week, I'd be modding you up instead of responding...
step 1) get dubious patent
step 2) sue small-fry company that cannot afford to defend themselves so that they settle out of court (thus lending weight to your side)
step 3) repeat step 2, slowly increasing the size of the companies you are suing (making sure the opponents are afraid of or cannot afford to defend themselves in court)
step 4) profits!
Portable? Lightweight?
I'm guessing you've never actually tried to move your book collection to a new house have you? I know I've got a lot fewer books in my collection than you (only a few hundred) and they're being one of the most painful things I've got to move!
This whole moving thing has seriously got me seeing how nice it would be to trade in my books for eBooks and be able to simply pack them up in a small ziploc baggie instead of crate after crate(though there's just something aesthetic the actual books themselves that would keep me from trading them in for eBooks)
Just out of curiosity how often does your normal VCR crash that you need to worry about debugging it?? I don't think any of mine have ever done that... Unless of course it's a hardware problem and even Linux doesn't fix that ;)