You know the old sayings... "The only difference between men and boys is the size of their toys" and "He who dies with the most toys, wins!"

Well, one of the advantages of having a wife who understands ( and tolerates ) me, plus NOT having any kids is that I can endulge myself in a few toys. This generally takes the shape of something in the electronics family.

In recent years, my buying sprees have become fewer and farther between, but I do have several toys that I would like to discuss with you. I have found enjoyent and real uses for these, unlike some of my other electronic purchases over the years:

TiVo

I first purchased and fell in love with TiVo in September of 1999. In case you don't know about TiVo, this is basically what it is and does...

TiVo is both a technology and a service. The technology allows many hours of video and stereo audio to be recorded in real time, in MPEG-2 format, directly from any standard television signal input. This means that you get a box that looks like a VCR without the hole for a tape. Inside is a computer and a high-capacity hard disk drive plus some specialized video components. You hook up one or two different input sources (I have a DirecTV sattelite receiver and a basic cable hooked up to mine). The TiVo box allows you to control both sources from a single remote control. You can watch TV as per usual, record anything you receive onto the hard drive (with up to 60 hours of storage time available *) and even watch something you had previously recorded while recording something new.

I have three of these things, each a standard TiVo from Philips. There are combination units out there that also have a built-in DirecTV receiver, but they do not have the ability to record from the second signal input. You can watch that second source, and you can directly record the satellite signal, but you are hosed if you want to record "Star Trek: Anything" from your local UPN station.

Ah, well.

TiVO is the first and only electronic gadget that Patty (my wife) truly enjoys and finds great value from. The fact that you can fast forward through all commercials on anything you have recorded is worth the price of admision. And, that you can pause live TV anytime, back up in case you've missed something, view what's on on all of the channels you receive for up to 2 weeks in advance (and to push a button to record anything you find in the guide), and the ability to set up "season passes" to find all the episodes of your favorite shows, and all of the other features like being able to set the TiVo to look for and automatically record anything you want from weekly series to old movies that aren't even on the schedule right now. TiVo will let you create a Wish List that continuosly looks for what you want.

It is truly amazing how TiVo can change your life. We now watch as many programs as we use to, perhaps a few more, but we actually watch less physical time (thanks to forwarding through ads for Bowflex, Viagra substitutes, breast enhancing pills, and leg hair removal substances).

Best of all... I don't have to go find a VHS tape at the last moment to record something I just found out about. If a show is on and I have been watching it for up to 30 minutes, one push of a button and I can go back and record it from the beginning right up through the end.

Video CDs

The Video CD, or VCD, is a format that compresses video and audio signals in MPEG-1 and allows them to be recorded onto standard CD-R and CD-RW discs. This is a format that is quite popular in Asia with almost all new movied being made available on VCDs.

The MPEG-1 format allows for about 73 minutes of video on a single CD, so most movies are delivered on 2 VCDs. The quality is about equivalent to VHS, but can show some artifacting (big, square pixels when there is too much darkness in the scene or there is a lot of fast action).

Still, there is a good use for this format. Especially archiving.

Thankfully there are companies that are selling VCD recorders. Among them is Terapin who manufacture and sell the Terapin Digital Video Recorder, also known as the Terapin. I purchased one in August of 2001 and have been using it to archive off some old video tapes that are starting to have playback problems (many are more than 20 years old) and to record such things as HBO's "Band of Brothers" spectacular.

The quality is definitely dependent on the source. GIGO (Garbage In Garbage Out) applies. But I have had some great success with things recorded on my TiVo in high or best quality and from DVDs where I have a PAL-format (from the UK) DVD of something I want to watch on my NTSC DVD player. The Terapin takes either signal and can output VCDs in either format.

It records in real time so I can even do off-air recordings if I want to. For short programs (under 20 minutes) it can even use the 3.5-inch mini CD-Rs rated at 185 MB of storage space, great for recording off performances of singers or commedians.

The Terapin will also record standard CDs for you from analog or optical ausio inputs. Speaking of inputs, it has S-video and analog video inputs on the back as well as the analog and optical audio inputs, S-video and analog video and analog audio outputs on the back, and a set of analog video and audio inputs on the front of the unit.

It plays standard VCDs which can be ordered from such companies as CoolVCD (check them out... VCDs can also be played on most of the DVD players out there today).

Final question... will I spring for a DVD-R unit once the price comes down on the recorders and the media? Probably, but I also probably will continue to use my VCD recorder, especially when I want to share videos with friends in the UK.

New in the House for 2002

Titanium is here!

Patty surprised me with a new Macintosh Titanium Powerbook computer for Christmas 2001. For our British viewers, I was gobsmacked! And chuffed!

For the rest of you, I was very and pleasantly surprised. Now, I have been a Mac fan since early 1984 when I forst began working on an original Mac 128K And I have stuck with Macs ever since. I've had three different PowerBooks beginning with the old 145c, then onto a G3 and now this. And, of course, the home units have all been Macs (with at least one Mac clone throwning there).

Oh, sure, I have to work with and understand the PC realm in my line of work, but that isn't to say that I like PCs.

Far from it. They are buggy, the operting system has more security holes in it than a Swiss cheese factory making the proliferation of viruses very easy indeed, and many of then comtain components so cheap that they beg to break down.

But I digress.

This is a very light, large-screen, thin and good feeling computer. And it came with both OS-X as well as 9.2 so I can bounce back and forth between them. Can't say that I'm really wowwed by OS-X, but it does have many good points.

Looking for your next laptop? Ever had or thought about a Mac? This is the one for you!

New for late 2002 and early 2003

Back in the summer of 2002 my beautiful Sony Hi-8 video camera decided to die a mysterious and fatal death right in the middle of being used to document a video Merlin Media was creating. Damn!

So, with a shelf of several dozen tapes and a vacation with both mothers (more coming on by April 1) in Hawaii, it was time to get a new camera.

And rather than just get another Hi-8 camera, we decided to jump up to MiniDV. Amazing!

We picked up a Canon ZR40. What a nice camera it is. Gret zoom features, wonderful picture and it even has image stabilization for those of us who insist on NOT using a tripod; it overcomes the little shakes and motion bobbles when you move the camera around.

60 minutes on a tape small enough to put in your mouth. Very acceptable night shooting capability as well. We went to a luau on Maui with the moms and took movies fo the performance well into the dark hours.

Then, we came back, downloaded the DV into our Titanium Mac, used iMovie to edit it and then sent it back out to tape with no loss of quality.

Of course, neither of the moms have the ability to play a miniDV tape. So, that brought us to the decision to jump into the DVD world and right into the -R and +R wars. For those who don't know, there are different formats created by different companies and consortiums. The one that has been around longer is the -R (minus R) format, but the up and comer is the +R format. Not wanting to own a "Beta" deck when the world was going to VHS, I was in a quandary. Enter Sony and their DRU-500 DVD recorder that offers BOTH the -R and +R formats; it all depends on which format of blank disc you put in.

So now the moms have DVDs of the vacation. Both are amazed. Both "hate" the way they look )"Did that camera put wrinkles on my face? I look so old...")

Sticking with the world of DVD recording, my birthday present this year (courtesy in large part to a wonderful mother-in-law) was a Philips DVDR985 DVD recorder.

This IS THE ANSWER to those who still cling to their old VHS decks stating that they "absolutely have to be able to record" programs and that's why they don't have a DVD player.

It hooks up just like a VHS deck (except that it has all the high-quality ports and connectors you need for great video quality) and then acts just like a VHS deck. I mean that you pop in a blank DVD (this is the +R/RW format) and start recording. You can set the unit to record in six modes (1 hour per disc, 2 hours per, 2.5 hours per disc, 3 hours per disc,4 hours per disc, and 6 hours per disc... each one with slightly less video quality but the longest mode still beats SVHS quality). You can plug a digital video camera into the front to make DVDs of family and vacation videos (or those naughty videos you finally talked the girlfriend or wife into letting you make). And you can make copies of your videos for the grandparents (NOT the naughty videos... be SURE to get that one right!)

I have mine set up between my TiVo and my TV. That way, I can record all the shows I want to watch on the TiVo and then archive beautiful copies onto DVDs. And the current cost of DVD+Rs when purchased in stacks of 25 or 50 is as low as $1.45 each — about the same as a medium to low quality VHS tape — and the quality discs from manufacturers (Verbatim, Maxell,, Memorex, etc) going for about 2 - 3.5 times that amount. I also have my old SVSH deck hooked un to one of the inputs so that I can archive off some video tapes of movies and TV shows that never get broadcast these days, and the tapes are starting to have some video issues due to age.

And, it can record on the +RW format DVDs meaning that you can record programs, then erase them and record new ones ALL WITH NO LOSS OF QUALITY. Even after 1000 recording on the same disc.

It plays store-bought DVDs just like any other player and makes DVDs that you can play on most newer DVD players. The original players were build before the +R and the entre concept of RW (ReWritable) DVDs came about, so they just can't recognize the output from this unit. But who cares? This unit won't let you go into the video pirating business; it recognized the Macrovision copy protection. It is for home use and for making fairly permanent archive copies fo your favorite shows and movies — which store in less than 1/2 the shelf space of tapes; less if you use the new thin jewel cases instead of the black/clear plastic clamshells DVDs typically come in.

It is still a bit costly, especially when you consider that cheap VHS decks are going for under $60.00 these days, but the retail price came down about $300.00 in 2004 (just before they discontinued it). And, if you compare the cost of buying a new, quality VHS deck PLUS a quality DVD player, then the price of this all-in-one unit begins to look pretty good.

(added June 2003) But can be a stormy lining to every silver cloud.
(added January 5, 2005) And getting Philips to support or repair their products is a nightmare!

Christmas (early) 2003

Santa brought me a new toy, a Palm Tungsten C

You say you want your Palm platform? You say you want a good size screen... at least 320 x 320 pixels? You say you want a real QWERTY keyboard? And, you have the audacity to say that you want wireless built in?

Can you say "Palm Tungsten C?"

My newest addition is the item you see to the right. Under 6.5 ounces in total weight... and everything you see above.