Other Gadgets (general gadgets)

[Dualit]

Originally posted by Alex_de_Large
I've heard good things about the JBL creatures. FYI, Harman Audio (JBL's parent) has a huge store on ebay . You may be able to get them cheaper than MSRP.

I have the JBL creatures attached to my Powerbook in my home office. Sometimes I listen to iTunes or a CD. I am very satisfied with them.

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Originally posted by Dualit
I have the JBL creatures attached to my Powerbook in my home office. Sometimes I listen to iTunes or a CD. I am very satisfied with them.

Thanks, and you too, AdL. I've ordered a set of the Creatures. I'll report back soon f anyone cares.

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Originally posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)
Thanks, and you too, AdL. I've ordered a set of the Creatures. I'll report back soon f anyone cares.

Arrived very quickly from buy.com. (Ordered thurs. night with free shipping, est. 7-9 days). Arrived Monday. Wow.

Set up last night. Sound pretty good. Solid bass; easy set up. I'll test more with a greater variety of music, but for $75 they seem to fit the bill quite capably.

[Flanders]

Anyone buy one of these yet? I am tempted, but not sure if I want to part with almost a grand to get it. Maybe it will go down around Christmas? In any event, it is about time they made it!

Flanders

"Behold the amazing union of High-Definition technology and Digital Video Recording technology – the DIRECTV® HD DVR.

Now you can record and play back High-Definition programming at your convenience. Get the coolest features of a DIRECTV DVR mixed with nifty new touches, all packed into a monster 250GB hard drive. Nothing else on the market compares. Then again, what else do you expect from DIRECTV?

At just $999 with an annual programming commitment, there's already a big demand for this technological breakthrough, so click on the DEALER LOCATOR button and contact your nearest retailer to check availability."

[NotFromHere]

Originally posted by Flanders
Anyone buy one of these yet? I am tempted, but not sure if I want to part with almost a grand to get it. Maybe it will go down around Christmas? In any event, it is about time they made it!

Flanders

But it. It's worth every penny. The menu system runs slower than the other Tivo boxes we've had (I think we've had 5 altogether). But you get 200 hours of programming or 30 hours of HD. You shouldn't need more than that. Plus you can program the "peanut" to switch from 480p to 720p to 1080i right from the remote.

We had to wait a month to actually get it, but it was totally worth it.

[Alex_de_Large]

I know, I know, beating a dead horse, but with our upcoming move, I have to make a choice. I presently have comcast digital cable and it is great, save for the $75 I pay thone jackals every month. DirecTV sounds like a nice alternative, and I like that I can get a DirecTiVo unit.

Still, I have 2 major concerns:

1 - I have to hang that ugly dish on the front of my beautiful south-facing house

2 - I have heard feedback about serious problems with rain and/or snow

For those who have used DirecTV and live in the North East (or anywhere else that gets rain and snow), what is your experience with signal quality in bad weather?

Re No. 1, I guess I will just have to get over it...

[Oliver_Wendell_Ramone]

Originally posted by Alex_de_Large
For those who have used DirecTV and live in the North East (or anywhere else that gets rain and snow), what is your experience with signal quality in bad weather?

I live in Portland. It rains a little bit here. We also just had our biggest snow winter in recent memory. No problems at all with the DirectTV. I've been very, very pleased.

[Atticus Grinch]

Originally posted by Alex_de_Large
Still, I have 2 major concerns:

1 - I have to hang that ugly dish on the front of my beautiful south-facing house

2 - I have heard feedback about serious problems with rain and/or snow

Not qualified to speak to 2, but as to 1 --- the installer put my dish on a part of my house I completely would not have figured --- the eaves of the north side. The dish's field of vision is shooting up over the ridgeline of the roof at about 40°. I assumed he'd have to mount it on my chimney; I was wrong. As it turns out, it was because this was the easiest place for the (lazy) installer to run the coax,* but it also happened to be less conspicuous than I'd feared. If your roof pitch is less than about 40°, you might be able to shoot the satellites from the back side of your house.

*Universal experience of people on the tivocommunity.com boards is that DirecTV installers are like children --- you must lead them with a firm hand to keep them from doing whatever is easiest.

[Alex_de_Large]

Originally posted by Atticus Grinch
Not qualified to speak to 2, but as to 1 --- the installer put my dish on a part of my house I completely would not have figured --- the eaves of the north side. The dish's field of vision is shooting up over the ridgeline of the roof at about 40°. I assumed he'd have to mount it on my chimney; I was wrong. As it turns out, it was because this was the easiest place for the (lazy) installer to run the coax,* but it also happened to be less conspicuous than I'd feared. If your roof pitch is less than about 40°, you might be able to shoot the satellites from the back side of your house.

*Universal experience of people on the tivocommunity.com boards is that DirecTV installers are like children --- you must lead them with a firm hand to keep them from doing whatever is easiest.

My roof is basically flat (it's an ooooold row house/brownstone in the city), and the front of the house faces south. I had not thought about the chimney, but then the question of where to run the coax becomes an issue. Also, it puts a kink in my dreams of a roof deck. Hell, maybe I should install the roof deck then attach the dish to the deck...

[Atticus Grinch]

Originally posted by Alex_de_Large
My roof is basically flat (it's an ooooold row house/brownstone in the city), and the front of the house faces south. I had not thought about the chimney, but then the question of where to run the coax becomes an issue. Also, it puts a kink in my dreams of a roof deck. Hell, maybe I should install the roof deck then attach the dish to the deck...

Installing the dish on a vertical surface is always advisable, as it's easier to waterproof. As for the roof deck, there are loads of apartment-dwelling diehards on the tivocommunity boards that have bolted the dish to a pole stuck into a 5 gal. bucket of concrete. Of course, these fellows are pasty-faced Gollumesque nerds who could think of no better use for a balcony or sundeck.

[Alex_de_Large]

Originally posted by Atticus Grinch
Installing the dish on a vertical surface is always advisable, as it's easier to waterproof. As for the roof deck, there are loads of apartment-dwelling diehards on the tivocommunity boards that have bolted the dish to a pole stuck into a 5 gal. bucket of concrete. Of course, these fellows are pasty-faced Gollumesque nerds who could think of no better use for a balcony or sundeck.

realistically, the roof deck is a couple of years away, so I think that a chimney installation is the best way to do it. I refuse to hang the thing off of a window sill. The question then becomes how to bring the cable into the house?

How much work does "standard professional installation" usually entail? How much will they actually do?

[Atticus Grinch]

Originally posted by Alex_de_Large
How much work does "standard professional installation" usually entail? How much will they actually do?

They will generally not fish cable through any interior walls. They will bolt and aim the dish where (1) you express a preference that it be located and (2) has clear view of the Southern sky, and then drape the coax to the exterior wall nearest the install, drilling a hole and fishing the raw wire through. (Remember --- for a DirecTivo, you need two coax feeds from the dish or multiswitch for every DTivo.) If you're lucky, they'll foam the hole they've drilled.

People who are picky about wire runs and outlet boxes are well advised to run their own coax runs to the interior locations before the installer arrives, and then tell him "Good news --- just tie into what I've already done!"

There are "hero" stories of installers who go the extra mile, but let's face it --- there is no repeat business in that line of work, and no incentive to do anything special.

[NotFromHere]

Originally posted by Alex_de_Large
realistically, the roof deck is a couple of years away, so I think that a chimney installation is the best way to do it. I refuse to hang the thing off of a window sill. The question then becomes how to bring the cable into the house?

How much work does "standard professional installation" usually entail? How much will they actually do?

Your professional installation will greatly depend on the guy that they send out. Our first guy sucked. Second guy knew a whole lot more about running cable and life in general. If the house has had cable in the past, they can just tie into the existing cable box on the outside (or inside) of your house. If the lines are old (old RG5) you may experience some tranmission and picture problems. Use as much RG6 as you can get away with.

They can put the dish on any part of the roof that you want, just figure that you need a clear shot pointing toward Phoenix. They'll usually pick the spot nearest the cable tap.

As for snow- I worked in a retail establishment during law school up in Seattle during one of the worst snow storms ever. We lost power and cable. When the power came back, the only signal we could get was off the Directv. The Dish Network dish had issues and cable took about a week to get back. We lost signal periodically, but not bad considering.

Buy an HD dish now, and you won't have to upgrade later. Buy the one with 3 LNBs and have them run all the lines they can to the rooms you will eventually use.

[Alex_de_Large]

How does DirecTV handle pay per view? I really dig that comcast cable's In Demand features, which allow you to watch PPV movies and shows whenever you want, and then control those programs like a DVR. Does DirecTV have anything similar?

[NotFromHere]

Originally posted by Alex_de_Large
How does DirecTV handle pay per view? I really dig that comcast cable's In Demand features, which allow you to watch PPV movies and shows whenever you want, and then control those programs like a DVR. Does DirecTV have anything similar?

Do you live in a cave? DirecTV invented on-demand pay per view.
Well, OK, I don't know if they actually invented it, but were one of the first pioneers of it. They have some pretty good freeview stuff as well. I think there are about 30 channels of pay-per-view with assorted movies repeated every half to one hour, so if you miss it at 8 you can catch it at 9. Most of the new releases are pay once, watch all day. The DVR function allows you to record it whenever and watch it whenever. Peridically they give you a voucher for a free movie.

Most of the movies are in Dolby Digital. Unfortunately there are only a few HD channels available, but that's going to change later this year (we'll see). And Football. Football in HD is going to rock!