I'll have more to add as the week progresses, but a quick update on life in our house with our new DVR.
The picture quality issue that I talked about yesterday was actually a channel issue, which I wasn't aware of at the time. Watching the channel later last night, I realized the colors were soft and kind of screwy watching live TV, so (of course) the recorded show wasn't any better. Having watched several shows that it recorded last night and earlier today, the picture quality is quite good - on most things, I really didn't see any different from live TV.
My wife is enjoying it as well - helps enormously that watching live TV is a no brainer, as it works just like the old does. I'm fairly sure that some of the more esoteric functions of the box will take a bit for her to get used to, but I would expect that.
As I stated before, I got a chance today to watch a couple of shows that I normally never get to see because of my work schedule - a couple of episodes of "Judge Judy" and an episode of "Good Eats". Guilty pleasures to be sure, but the ability to watch shows like these over dinner instead of "whatever was on" was nice.
Already ran into one interesting dilemna - what to do with shows that have been recorded when you have two TV watchers in the house? Some of the shows that we have asked it to record are fairly easy - only she or I watch them, so we can delete them when we are done with them. Others (like "Good Eats") we both enjoy watching - how do you handle when they get erased, particularly if you aren't watching the shows at the same time? Interesting problem, one I hope to figure out soon (before we both get paralyzed and never delete anything).
Posted by Mark at October 1, 2003 09:54 PM | TrackBackI have the TW DVR. Got one when they first came out this past summer. I already had a Tivo (Sony SVR3000), so my wife was pretty familiar with the concept.
I dont' really like it. The guide limitations area pain if you are schduling things for when you are on vacation. The software is buggy, the unit gets wierd and requires a hard reset every few weeks. The remote sucks. The software isn't as nice as Tivo's. But the dual-tuner (something only DirecTivos have) is a killer feature.
We have it in the bedroom, and my wife uses it to record her shows. So I don't even bother with it anymore. Get the Tivo all to myself. And watch a lot of shows I'd never see because all the good syndicated shows and cartoons are on overnight.
Posted by: Dan Isaacs at October 9, 2003 01:26 PM