Digital Lifestyle

DirecTV is renewing its relationship with TIVo, isn't it? Of course, that wouldn't help someone with a freestandng TIVo. I've had the DirecTV HR-21 for about 11 months now. It's okay, I guess. This represents my first foray into hdtv (along with the 720p Toshiba 32HL67 to which I have it attached), and of course it's vastly better than the SD stuff I had before. But I can see some artifacting on hd broadcasts/recordings like Lost.

Stan,

The VOIP is not offered here yet, though I do have the TMobile VOIP and it works great over the connection. The Uverse VOIP is a bit different though according to the techs I have talked to about it, they actually set aside part of the connection for voice rather then trying to compete with the other services.

Lastly I did not have the DIRECTV TIVO but one of the HRs (the black one) if you have a stand alone TIVO it might work with the none DVR Uverse boxes.

Daniel

Yes, Tivo is coming back to DirecTV, but I don't know when.

Also, I've heard that AT&T is dropping Dish and picking up DirecTV. Looking forward to that so I can combine wireless, Internet, and TV on one bill.

I looked at Uverse, but they appear to be having bandwidth issues in my 'hood. Plus, it's actually more expensive than the setup I have right now. And I've been very happy with DirecTV, so no real reason to jump at the moment. Would love the 18/1.5, but too much $$$ for my tastes.

MM:

I fork over $60 a month to comcast right now. The Uverse guy's sales sheet says I can get the VOIP AND the HSD for that. I am probably going to 'sample' the VIdeo, but plan on NOT accepting that, even if it less than DirectTV for the basic package -- I loves my premium channels...

I am not sure what the pricing is there but here I have all the premium channels (HBO, SHO, MAX, etc) and it worked out to be $20/mo cheaper because of the addons that DIRECTV had at the time, such as an extra 10$/mo for DVR, $5 for each box etc. and when I got Uverse three boxes were included at the base price so came out to be cheaper.

Daniel

I like my DirecTV. I don't let things like a compressed HD signal bother me. That compression gives me more HD channels and allows them to broadcast 1080p. I am sure that if I paused I could find artifacts, but I am enjoying what I got. I just wish I could afford the Superfan package to get Sunday Ticket all in HD...

As for the DVRs, I have a series 2 DirecTivo for sale if anybody wants it. It's a 40 hour Samsung I think. It still works well, but with since it doesn't do HD, I don't really use it.

I do like the HR series DVRs. At first they really sucked, but DirecTV is good about upgrading the software. 1080p capability was a free upgrade and while the software is nowhere as intuitive as Tivo, I am getting used to it. That being said, I am looking forward to the new Tivo DVRs when they come out. I think DirecTV is annoying to charge extra for the DVR service.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/15/2008 09:15AM by Mokers.

I'd like pay-tv, but I can't bring myself to spend more than $15 or so a month for a TV signal. And, no company will give me anything for $15 a month.

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Mokers
... I just wish I could afford the Superfan package to get Sunday Ticket all in HD...

That was my birthday present this year. Superfan is awesome. I just wish I had time to watch more games.

Hope you can get it next year, M.

Good news for anybody running a laptop with nVidia graphics under Windows.

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Dr Phred
Shame about pushing daisies being canned. It's one of absolutes favorites.

The silver lining is that the creator will return to write for Heroes which has been suffering from dropping ratings.

I got my Boxee account. now i need to add friends. scordova, if you want to add me.

I'd rather be the boxer than the boxee.

Have you squandered your resistance for a pocketful of mumbles?

Well, I often cry out in my anger and my shame.

Poking around with a new iPod touch.

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John Willoughby
Well, I often cry out in my anger and my shame.

Don't let your wife catch you near 7th Avenue.

Got Wall-E on da BluRay for Christmas. Enjoyed it thoroughly!

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Cloudscout
Don't let your wife catch you near 7th Avenue.

I do declare, there are times when I've been so lonesome I took some comfort there.

I think I've asked this before, but in hopes of an update, I wanted to describe my iTunes and iPhoto horror.

I have a mini running OS X Server (really could be generic OS X I suppose) with iTunes and iPhoto. This is meant to be our digital hub.

We also have an AppleTV. I suppose that works well enough although I am excited about the warranty running out so I can drop in a 320gb drive.

Then there are the laptops, one for my wife, one for me. That's where things get tough.

First, I use lightroom to process all my photos, work or personal. I offload those to the drobo, but that divorces them from the iPhoto library on the server except when I remember to sync everything, which is not often. My wife would like access to the kids's photos to send off via emails and put on Web sites and such.

Second, there's my iTunes library. I listen to a selection of music on my Macbook and I also add new music to that (in general…I wouldn't add a new Christmas CD to it, but I would a new song that I'd intend to listen to in iTunes to it).

As all too often, the problem really is Apple's software. Since their software isn't set up to automatically update from directories, things go awry.

I need help with getting both libraries in sync. Not sure what to do. Any thoughts?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/03/2009 06:38AM by bahamut.

I've had iTunes library on is x server for years. Main thing is to put the share in each macs startup items. Don't autostart iTunes. If you do it can startup before the itunes share and default back to a local library.

If you add music from one client you'll have to " add to library" manually from the others. There might be soMe program to do that. Just sort by date when adding it makes it easier to grab the latest updates.

Now podcasts and movies appear to work differently. Sometimes more auto.

In general things work out ok for me.