Comments on: Quick Hits https://wolfhusky.net/duncan/wp/2007/01/quick-hits/ My little corner of the web Thu, 11 Jan 2007 02:26:30 +0000 hourly 1 By: feren https://wolfhusky.net/duncan/wp/2007/01/quick-hits/#comment-4697 Thu, 11 Jan 2007 02:26:30 +0000 http://woofwoofarf.wordpress.com/2007/01/10/quick-hits/#comment-4697 I, for one, welcome our TiVo cable overlords.
[Eclipsed in all the hoo-hah yesterday, TiVo announced that they’re going to start testing their software on Comcast’s existing DVR hardware this spring. Perhaps at some later date Comcast will not suck. Or at the very least, suck somewhat less.]
I had the Comcast DCT-6412 HD/DVR set top box (STB) from Motorola and it was utter and complete shite. The user interface was horrible, it was slow as hell when I changed channels, it couldn’t record shows for crap, it was buggy and actually made the analog (non-HD channels) look worse. I found that last part hard to believe myself until I put a splitter in ahead of the STB and tuned the analog channels off my HDTV, then switched between inputs for comparison. That was when I knew I had to get rid of this thing at all costs… so it was the quality of the signal and TiVo’s amazingly great user interface that drove me to DirecTV. Since DirecTV has broken up with TiVo in favor of masturbating producing their own DVR (reinventing the wheel is fun) I may switch to Comcast once the TiVo-based Comcast DVR is released. Right now there’s two things that weigh strongly in Comcast’s favor once the TiVo comes up on their service:
1) Comcast currently more HD channels than DirecTV, and carry CHICAGO LOCAL stations in HighDef (though this may change as per item #2)
2) My HR10-250 does not do MPEG-4, so if I want the “new” HD channels that DirecTV is announcing I will have to give up my TiVo and go to their box in order to decode the streams from the new birds they’re putting in orbit. Give up my TiVo? Not likely. I’ve been down the non-TiVo route, and it sucked badly.
Maybe, when the day for switching comes, I can get Comcast to run new lines to and inside my house. The current cable-company coax infrastructure is old and rotting RG-59 from sometime in the early 1980s, whereas the coax DirecTV ran is shiny new RG-6.

]]> By: feren https://wolfhusky.net/duncan/wp/2007/01/quick-hits/#comment-4696 Thu, 11 Jan 2007 02:12:21 +0000 http://woofwoofarf.wordpress.com/2007/01/10/quick-hits/#comment-4696 No. No tomato & gin soup. It is forbidden by the cuisine gods and with good reason.
I’m not sure what to think of a gin from Turkey, but I’d find it rather suspect as well.

]]> By: rustitobuck https://wolfhusky.net/duncan/wp/2007/01/quick-hits/#comment-4695 Thu, 11 Jan 2007 01:50:17 +0000 http://woofwoofarf.wordpress.com/2007/01/10/quick-hits/#comment-4695 TiVo’s making their own suck. Now that they support the Mac for video transfer, I bought the Toast software on a convention special only to find that TiVo managed to break video to computer transfers in November, and may get it working again…someday…
I pay about $125 a month for cable and TiVo, so I can wait for the shows I like to happen to come on so TiVo can get them. If TiVo doesn’t keep their act together, watch out for Apple TV.

]]> By: rustitobuck https://wolfhusky.net/duncan/wp/2007/01/quick-hits/#comment-4694 Thu, 11 Jan 2007 01:40:27 +0000 http://woofwoofarf.wordpress.com/2007/01/10/quick-hits/#comment-4694 In reply to linnaeus.

Unfortunately, I don’t think it could have happened any other way.
Apple probably went with GSM for compatibility in Europe and worldwide. So considering that T-Mobile uses Cingular anyway for backup coverage, it leaves one choice for a collaborator. Some of the iPhone features required development on the provider end.

]]> By: zonereyrie https://wolfhusky.net/duncan/wp/2007/01/quick-hits/#comment-4693 Wed, 10 Jan 2007 21:47:11 +0000 http://woofwoofarf.wordpress.com/2007/01/10/quick-hits/#comment-4693 Hi, I run – I have some more photos and a description of the software over here. It does look very nice.

]]> By: linnaeus https://wolfhusky.net/duncan/wp/2007/01/quick-hits/#comment-4692 Wed, 10 Jan 2007 19:28:31 +0000 http://woofwoofarf.wordpress.com/2007/01/10/quick-hits/#comment-4692 In reply to ottr.

I too was dismayed, but since my main problem with Cingular is their asstastic rate plans, I’m waiting for them to announce what their talk + data plans look like before I get on a plane to Cupertino so I can slap Jobs.

]]> By: frostyw https://wolfhusky.net/duncan/wp/2007/01/quick-hits/#comment-4691 Wed, 10 Jan 2007 19:11:27 +0000 http://woofwoofarf.wordpress.com/2007/01/10/quick-hits/#comment-4691 Hey feren – it turns out that you can do something else with all that gin around your house.
But … it was designed to be filtered through his liver. x.X *blink*

]]> By: ottr https://wolfhusky.net/duncan/wp/2007/01/quick-hits/#comment-4690 Wed, 10 Jan 2007 17:13:21 +0000 http://woofwoofarf.wordpress.com/2007/01/10/quick-hits/#comment-4690 Glad to see I wasn’t the only one dismayed at the provider-of-choice news…
A new multi-touch dynamic display? Check. Integrated phone, audio, video, and storage? Check. Wi-fi and total wireless connections? Check. Only available through Cingular? Awww, sorry…So close. FAIL.

]]> By: woofwoofarf https://wolfhusky.net/duncan/wp/2007/01/quick-hits/#comment-4689 Wed, 10 Jan 2007 16:10:49 +0000 http://woofwoofarf.wordpress.com/2007/01/10/quick-hits/#comment-4689 In reply to gypsypet.

Take heart – there’s always cellular providers. Therein resides a deep and abiding pool of suck that will surely exist until the end of days 🙂

]]> By: gypsypet https://wolfhusky.net/duncan/wp/2007/01/quick-hits/#comment-4688 Wed, 10 Jan 2007 15:31:13 +0000 http://woofwoofarf.wordpress.com/2007/01/10/quick-hits/#comment-4688 It would knock my entire world off it’s axis if Comcast didn’t suck. I’d have to find something else to direct my ire at. And that’s an awful lot of ire.

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