Friday, March 17, 2006

HD and Tivo

I am a tv maniac. I watch tons of tv. I am also an ex video professional and I have known about (and wanted HD) for about 5 years now. I also have the money to buy a plasma 1080p 50" monitor. But, I haven't. I've been quite happy with my 35" Sony Wega and SD. Why? Because it works and it works well. I've got 2 cable boxes, 2 Tivos and everything is nicely networked together so I can watch and record everything all the time.

HD has a million questions attached to it. First off, I've been waiting for a full 1080 resolution monitor to be released (most of the units are 720 and downconvert when needed). Secondly I've been (and still am) reluctant to use the Comcast PVR for HD. I hate the Comcast PVR for SD. It really doesn't compare at all to Tivo. I still am amazed that a company as big as Comcast hasn't solved this problem yet. And they even partnerned with Tivo a while back.. though nothing has come of it.

I love HDTV. I want HDTV but I'm not going to get it any time soon since I refuse to get rid of my Tivos. I've been considering DirectTV with their Tivo/HD combo, but they are really pricy and require all kinds of service committments and I refuse to lock into something that I can't play with first. I've been doing a ton of research on building a MythTV box. But god knows what a headache that will be. I'm a technical guy but I don't want to deal with building my own box.

Thankfully I have heard this news. And I almost cried when I read it. They say this box will go for $800. That's a lot of money but guess what? If it works as well as the SD Tivo, I will shell that out in 2 seconds. I will call Comcast, order up a couple of cable cards and fuck man.. my life will be back to normal again.. And let me tell you, I've been stressing this HD thing for a reeeealy long time. I just hope it comes out soon. I can't wait much longer..

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

dont get you hopes up about the CableCards! I can't imagine the Comcast/Motorola cartel (I did an internship at Motorola testing their settop boxes) allowing this to fly without charging you so much money that it will be impossible to bring yourself to pay. Who knows, maybe I'm wrong and comcast will be able to circumvent motorola, but I doubt it. The cablecard rumors have been around for years.

Oh, and I saw some series 3 pic which didnt have any HD inputs meaning that it would only be able to record HD with the cable cards, which make me think that the pictures were bogus.

Unknown said...

Yup. saw same photos.. I think that's the idea... with the cable cards, this will replce your settop box entirely. You can't use it with an HD cable box.. it would be for cards only.. I like the idea.. From what I hear, Comcast is obligated by law to provide me with the card if I want it.

Anonymous said...

you might be right:
http://www.engadget.com/2006/04/04/tivo-series-3-gets-thumbs-up-from-cablelabs-and-180-hr-series-2/

Blake

Unknown said...

Yea.. very cool.. I'm still holding out.. with the house and all, the HDTV is about 3-4 months away anyway... (like 5k for the one I want)