Tag Archive: review

Dec
02

Moxi Tip #7: Moxi Vs ReplayTV

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December 2, 2004

As a long-time ReplayTV DVR owner, comparisons are inevitable, so here are my rather lengthy impressions of Moxi in comaprison with ReplayTV. This comparison is an enhancement to a posting I made over on the AVS Forum. I have refined it a bit and added some more information, so read on for all you never wanted to know…

BACKGROUND
Before I get into the review and comparison, I want to provide a bit of background and perspective. I have been a long-time proponent of ReplayTV boxes and I have participated on AVS Forum’s ReplayTV forum for a number of years. I have owned three ReplayTV boxes over the past four years, and I run a personal hobby site, JimsTips.com, where I have been providing Tips & Tricks related to several topics that interest me (including ReplayTV), so to say that I’ve had some experience and interest in DVR’s would be an understatement!

As for ReplayTV boxes, I currently own an “upgraded” model 2001, an “upgraded” model 2020, and a “stock” model 5040. For me, the 2xxx models are simply “tanks” that just work. They are solid, reliable, very responsive to the remote, and have proven to be exceptional in their reliability and function. The only downside of them is that they are not “networkable” and require a phone connection to retrieve Channel Guide data and software updates. The model 5040 on the other hand has more bells and whistles, but at the same time, it seems “forced” in many of its design points. Its remote is less responsive, and it has an overall more sluggish feel when compared to the 2xxx series. For a while, it was more prone to lockups than the 2xxx series, but to ReplayTV’s credit, recent software updates have corrected this and a number of other issues.

The one real plus to the ReplayTV 5040 is its networkability: All program data can be received via broadband as opposed to dialup on the 2xxx boxes, and any show that is recorded can be “offloaded” to a PC for playback, editing, and burning to a DVD. This is excellent for building a personal library of favorite shows. You do have to jump through number of hoops to accommodate ReplayTV’s picky MPEG-2 format, but the results are quite good. (See my “ReplayTV to DVD HOWTO” on my Web site JimsTips.com for more details.)

Finally, please don’t think that I am ignoring TiVo here. I think TiVo is very innovative and an excellent product. It’s just that several years ago, I chose ReplayTV, because at the time its interface was more familiar and solid, and it provided a logical and simple transition from DirecTV’s interface. TiVo’s interface was just too different to make an easy transition. Also, ReplayTV just had a “feel” about it that seemed less intrusive. Over the years, though, TiVo has significantly improved things, and they are certainly a fine choice. So much so that if I was starting from scratch, I would seriously consider a TiVo box. I just won’t be covering TiVo here because I have no real experience with it like I do with ReplayTV.

OK, enough background. First off, I’m going to give you my Pros and Cons list about Moxi. These are based on playing around with Moxi, reading data sheets, and my experience with ReplayTV. There may be some bias, and I’m trying to be objective, but when you’ve used ReplayTV for over four years… Also note that I am not focusing at all on the HDTV features of Moxi. While this aspect is huge for many, unfortunatly, I do not have an HDTV nor do I subscribe to any HD channels. I’m focusing here primarily on the “SD” experience.

MOXI PROS:

Low Cost
Charter Cable charges a monthly charge of $9.99, and there are no initial equipment costs. This cost varies from market to market and ranges a couple bucks more or less. Over the course of a few years, ReplayTV would be more cost-effective, but if a new model becomes available, typically Cable companies let you swap them out for little or no cost whereas ReplayTV would require a new purchase and sale of the old box.

Player Bar
AKA, a Status Bar. This is pretty cool. This is something that I wish ReplayTV optionally had that TiVo has had from day-one. It gives you a quick and easy visual cue to “where you are” in a show, live or recorded. It’s clean and slick looking, and at-a-glance, I can really get a good sense of where I am in the show without having to do mental time calculations like I do with ReplayTV.

Buffer Recording
If you decide to record a show AFTER it started, Moxi can record the entire show back to the beginning as long as it is buffered. This is a very nice feature that I wish ReplayTV had.

“Skip” Button
Like ReplayTV, Moxi has a “Skip” button, but depending on the Cable company’s settings (more on that later) how far ahead it skips may vary. Initially, Charter had this configured to skip ahead 30 seconds, similar to ReplayTV. However, they recently changed it to a 15-minute skip. While at first thought this seems like a joke, it means that all “small” navigation forward is done by Fast Forwardin, and “large” navigation can be done with the 15-minute skip. For example, say you record a four hour football game and want to go to halftime. Prior to the 15-minute skip, you woult either hit Skip a couple hundred times or you would have to Fast Forward all the way to the middle. With the 15-minute skip, just a few button presses takes you forward to where you want to be. My only complaint is that you cannot skip back (reportedly, this will be addded in a future software release.

Flexible “Find” Capabilities
Like ReplayTV, you can search by keyword and category (ReplayTV “Zones”), but Moxi has some additional “advanced” search functionality. The ability to search for a show is essential and a very often-used ReplayTV feature, and Moxi doesn’t disappoint here.

Cool User Interface
Moxi’s (award winning) UI is very slick and modern. It reminds me a bit of Media Center PC’s which have very slick UI’s. Navigation is a snap, the response is quick, and the animation is smooth and pleasing to the eye. Just about everything can be accessed with just the arrow and OK keys. I have always considered ReplayTV’s UI to be more “functional” die to its unobtrusive design. Moxi seems to strike a nice balance. I’m ery happy with it, partly because it is so intuitive.

Integrated Cable Box
This is an excellent feature and most welcome. Obviously, this eliminates the Satellite and OTA markets, but consideing that we switched to Cable, it’s an excellent silution for us. It completely eliminates the need for serial connections or IR blasters required of “standalone” boxes resulting in almost instantaneous channel changes. In addition, Pay-per-view and Video On Demand channels are available.

Dual Tuners
This is another huge feature! This virtually eliminates scheduling conflicts, and the ability to record one show while watching another is something ReplayTV could not do.

MOXI CONS:

No “Grid” Guide
I really like the ReplayTV Grid Guide because it really gives you an “at-a-glance” view, especially when you want to visually look for shows. Moxi’s “dual-axis” navigation guide is novel, and I will no doubt get used to it, but I do wish it had an optional Grid Guide. Rumors indicate that an “improved” method of displaying what’s coming up is forthcoming, but it probably won’t be a “grid” guide.

No “Keyword” Themes
ReplayTV lets you create recordings based on keywords, something Moxi doesn’t do. This is nice when you don’t remember the exact name of the show or you don’t know when the show will be on. If a show matches, it will record it. This has proven to be very useful in recording shows that we know get aired occasionally but are not currently in the current channel guide data. I haven’t found a way to do this in Moxi.

“Cumbersome” Interface
While Moxi’s UI is very slick and modern, it is a bit kludgy here and there requireing extra button presses for certain tasks. ReplayTV has some “extra” buttons the let you bypass menus and jump right to specific key functions.

FEATURE-BY-FEATURE COMPARISON
OK, so how does the Moxi compare to the ReplayTV box on a feature-by-feature comparison? I will compare the Moxi to ReplayTV in general while pointing out any differences between the 2xxx and 5xxx series ReplayTV boxes. Note that 3xxx series boxes are similar to the 2xxx boxes and 4xxx boxes are similar to th 5xxx boxes. My intent is not to present a “which is better” review, but more a list of side-by-side features from which you can choose a device based on your needs and wants. As of today, I am running version “3″ of Moxi’s software. Note that software revisions can change these features and specs in a heartbeat, so if things have changed let me know and I’ll update this review.

Recording Buffer
A recording buffer is space allocated by the system where live TV is stored letting you pause, rewind, and resume watching paused TV.

MOXI
Originally, Moxi had a fixed 30 minute buffer, but it now appears that its buffer can grow much larger. The only real “idiosyncracy” to their implementation is that if you are paused for more than 30 minutes, Moxi will resume playback from where it is paused. Initiating a Recording of the current show will also record back to the beginning of the show assuming that the channel was tuned to that channel at the time of the start of the show. This is VERY handy if you missed the beginning of a show and want to retain it for later viewing.

REPLAYTV
ReplayTV’s buffer has a minimum buffer allocation of 20 minutes, with the maximum being the amount of free hard disk space. I know of no real limitations save for the amount of free disk space. I have paused and succcessfully rewound back over 12 hours or more of buffer without issue (tedious, but without issue!) Initiating a Recording of the current show will flush the buffer and begin the recording at live TV. ReplayTV does not back up in the buffer to record the beginning of the show.

Recording Quality
This refers to the quality at which the show is recorded. If you are coming from the VCR world of video tape recording, you will be stunned by either system. No more tracking problems. No more video noise. Just decent to excellent digital quality. There are two types of DVR’s available today: Standalone and Integrated. Standalone boxes have inputs that accept signals from any video source. Integrated DVD’s have Cable or Satellite decodes integrated. These typically cannot record external video sources.

MOXI
Moxi is an Integrated box and records the raw bit stream right from the Digital Cable Box, so how you see it “live” is how you see it recorded. For Digital channels, Moxi does not compress or convert between Digital and Analog because compression is done at the head-end, so the user has no control over recording quality. Overall picture quality is excellent and comparable to “normal” Digital Cable reception. Basically, what you view live is what you see recorded. For Analog cable signals are still received by Moxi and converted to Digital on-the-fly for storage and playback. Users have reported that HD viewing and recording is excellent, Digital Cable viewing and recording is very good, and analog viewing and recording is marginal–worse than ReplayTV or TiVo. Unlike ReplayTV and TiVo, Moxi has no recording quality settings.

REPLAYTV
ReplayTV, unlike Moxi, are Standalone boxes that record any analog signal as input, for example, the analog output from raw Analog Cable or Digital Cable boxes. It records the analog source signal by converting it from analog to digital on-the-fly, compressing it based on one of three recording qualities: Standard, Medium, and High.

Standard Quality rivals VCR quality. I personally think it is better, but it is also somewhat prone to digital artifacting depending on the source content. The reality is that it could be better, but over time, you just don’t notice the artifacting.

Medium Quality is decent quality and is a great compromise between quality and disk capacity. It is, in my opinion, the most “compatible” quality when offloading shows to a PC for burning to a DVD. (See my “ReplayTV to DVD HOWTO” on my Web site JimsTips.com I tend to record everything at Medium Quality for this reason.

High Quality is excellent for sporting events and fast-action movies. If you have a larger TV (and can thus more easily see artifacting) then High Quality is almost essential.

Note that on series 2xxx ReplayTV boxes, audio records at varying levels directly related to the various video recording qualities resulting in better or worse audio quality. On 5xxx boxes, audio is always recorded at the same high quality regardless of video recording quality.

Recording Capacity
Recording capacity refers to the maximum number of hours of show content that you can record. This greatly varies depending on the model of the box and the recording quality used.

MOXI
Currently, Moxi only offers one capacity: 80GB. This lets you record about 50 hours of Standard Definition content and about 10-12 hours of High Definition content. These numbers are rough estimates, but should give you a ballpark idea of total capacity. There are rumored plans for expansion capabilities. As mentioned above, there is no recording quality setting.

REPLAYTV
ReplayTV storage capacity can be approximated by considering the size of the installed hard drive and the recording quality setting. For example, a ReplayTV box with a 60GB drive can record about 60 hours at Standard Quality, 30 hours at Medium Quality, and 20 hours at High quality. Other drive capacities have the same recording capacity ratios. Note that ReplayTV boxes cannot record High Definition recordings, only Standard Definition recordings.

Channel Guide
The Channel Guide is the method by which the system organizes and presents show information on channels over time. This is the way you typically select shows to watch and record.

MOXI
Moxi uses a novel “dual-axis” navigation system. Along the horizontal is a list of “categories” like Channels, HDTV, Favorites, Settings, etc. When you scroll left and right, the available options in each category appear in a vertical scrollable column. For example, if you bring “Channels” into “focus”, all channels and the current show airing on those channels appear in a list running vertically. You just scroll or page up and down to the desired channel. The highlighted channel also displays additional information about the program and pressing the “Info” button brings up yet more detailed information. It also displays the next three shows airing on that channel in an “On Next” section. Pressing the right arrow moves you to that “On Next” section where you can scroll through that sub-list out to 14 days ahead. On any highlighted show, you can record and search for upcoming shows.

If you are used to a typical Grid Guide, Moxi will disappoint. It definitely requires a change in mindset or perspective, BUT it does work well, and is quite effective. The more I use it, the more it works for me. Two quirks: First, the sort order of the channel list is “descending” as opposed to the typical “ascending” list. Not sure why they decided to break with tradition, but this seemed anti-intuitive to me. Second, there are no channel numbers listed in the channel listing, only network logo icons. The channel DOES display on the highlighted item, and I do realize that screen real estate is at a premium, but it seems strange that they would omit channel numbers. I guess a resonable explanation could be that you may be more likely to recognize an icon than a number. If the Cable company changes the lineup, you could still quickly “recognize” the channel. Time will tell if these really are issues.

Moxi provides two weeks of show data.

REPLAYTV
ReplayTV uses a “classic” Grid Guide. If you are used to looking at a paper TV listing, then you will be right at home with ReplayTV. Channels are listed on the left of the screen, half-hour time blocks are listed on the top, and corresponding shows fill the grid. You use the arrow keys to simply move around the grid to view and select available shows. The show that is currently highlighted displays brief information at the top of the screen.

ReplayTV 2xxx boxes store one week of programming data, and 5xxx boxes provide two weeks of programming data.

Info Display
While watching a show, you often want to more information about the show such as description, actors, etc. Both systems offer program information in various forms.

MOXI
When viewing the Channel Menu, a brief show description is displayed next to the highlighted show. Pressing the Info button brings up an extended description screen with full show description, and an extensive cast list. Depending on the amount of data, this can be a multi-page screen providing excellent information. Pressing the Clear button dismisses the screen. While watching live TV, pressing the Info button brings up this screen as well.

Moxi also has a “Flip Bar” that is a small status bar that appears on the bottom of the screen when you press an arrow button. It displays information about the current show and also shows the next three shows airing next on that channel. Pressing the right arrow moves you to the “On Next” section where you can scroll through 14 days of data. Selecting one of these shows brings up options to record. Scrolling up or down in the main part of the Flip Bar will also display the corresponding show information on other channels without actually changing the channel. “On Next” information is also displayed as well. Pressing the Info buton will bring up the extended info screen as well. Pressing Clear or waiting a few seconds will dismiss the Flip Bar.

REPLAYTV
While scrolling around the Channel Guide, the highlighted show’s information displays in a banner at the top of the screen. The number of lines is is adequate, but it is limited, so if there is extended information, it gets cut off. There is no way to view any additional information.

While watching live TV, pressing the ReplayTv’s “Info” button brings up a banner at the top of the screen containing information about the current show. Series 2xxx boxes have “static” info banners while 5xxx boxes have arrow-navigable banners letting you see current and future show information on other channels without tuning to that channel.

User Interface And System Responsiveness
How quickly a DVR responds to remote button presses, and how quickly it processes requests is very important to the overall user experience. If the system is too slow or sluggish, it will turn people off very quickly. Tech saavy people sometimes have more tolerance because they understand what’s going on in the background, but to Joe Sixpack, these are appliances that should respond and operate quickly. You never had to watch an hourglass while programming a VCR, so they won’t expect delays or lags in a DVR either.

MOXI
Version 3 of Moxi’s software improves the interface performance over past revisions. Moxi responds to remote button presses very quickly, and overall, the interface is smooth, nicely animated, and pleaseing to use. Rarely do you see a delay. The only real annoyance I had was that it is painfully S-L-O-W to add and remove channels in the Channel Listing section of Settings. (This is where you can optionally “select” and “unselect” channels to be displayed, for example those channels to which you do not subscribe.) Fortunatly, this is a one-time deal, but unselecting literally a couple hundred channels was less than pleasant. It would be nice if Moxi either had an “auto-unselect” for known, unassigned channels, or at least a faster inerface.

In some cases, Moxie does require some extra button presses to get to “core” functions, but it’s not too bad. Other than that, the overall interface is excellent–probably why it recently won an Emmy award.

REPLAYTV
As mentioned above, the 2xxx series is very snappy and quick to respond. The only time things slow down is during a long search, but there is screen feedback telling you how it is searching. The 5xxx series is more sluggish, but recent software updates have improved the UI overall. It still has the occasional “lag” or “squishy” feel because things just don’t respond as snappy as the 2xxx series, but the added features and capabilities of the 5xxx box typically outweigh any response issues.

ReplayTV has several extra buttons that take you right to core functions with one button press, for example, “Channel Guide” and “Replay Guide” (recorded shows.) While not essential, this is a nice convenience.

Remote
DVRs typically require a remote to do even the most basic functions. Without one, you really can’t do anything, so the decent remote is essential.

MOXI
Moxi’s provides a number of controls on the front of the box itself that you can pretty much control most, if not all functions. This is pretty typical of most cable boxes. Should you lose or break your remote, you are not stuck.

Moxi’s remote is solid, nicely weighted, and has a rubbery backing that gives a good grip. It feels good, and the layout of the buttons is pretty decent. And, because it’s a Cable Company product, if the remote breaks, the Cable Company typically will provide a replacement as needed. I’ve grown to really like the remote.

REPLAYTV
ReplayTV’s boxes have one, yes, one button on the front: Power. All other functions are controlled by the remote. Lose the remote? You better get a new one, because nothing, and I mean NOTHING is controllable without the remote.

ReplayTV remotes have gone through three radical incarnations over the years. While all have their idiosyncracies, they are all are effective. I personally like the most recent version because it fits my hand well, it is compact, and the buttons are in a logical placement. My only issue with most ReplayTV remotes is that over time, the “most often used” buttons do wear out, and I have had to buy several replacements over the years–an added cost I wasn’t anticipating.

Conflict And Space Management
So what happens when two shows you want to record air at the same time? What happens when the networks change the time slot or extend a show (like the “Must Miss..er See TV” shows where they start them 1 minute early or extend them 10 minutes later possibly overlapping another recording.) How a DVR handles these conflicts determines if your show gets recorded or not.

MOXI
Moxi has a huge advantage in that it includes two tuners, so conflicts should be GREATLY reduced. Most conflicts occur typically occur between two shows. Yes, because you now have two tuners, you may have other conflicts, but it’s much less likely with two tuners.

For those times when you have conflicts, particularly with Series recordings, Moxi provides a “piority” method that lets you determine the priority order of selecting series to record. I don’t know how it prioritizes single-show recordings.

Moxi also provides the ability to extend the start or end times of recordings. In fact, once a show has started, you can extend the end time while it is recording–something sports fans of overtime-prone games will like.

Additionally, Moxi provides not only a “Sheduled to Record” listing, but a “Deleted and Cancelled” listing. The first displays everything that is scheduled to record–individual shows and shows associated with a series recording. The nice thing about this is that you can selectively remove shows that you may not want to record–shows that are not repeats (to Moxi) but shows for which you ahve no interest or have already seen.

The second list displays all shows that were deleted, or did not or will not record. More importantly, id shows why the show did or will not record. For future cancelld recordings, you can optionally record them or find upcoming shows. This is very handy and makes recording management a snap.

REPLAYTV
ReplayTV has a single tuner meaning it can record only one show at a time, so conflict management is much more important. For “Single” and “Recurring” show recordings, if the show moves more than two time slots from its originally scheduled time, it will not get recorded. If it is a “Theme” recording, it will still record because Themes are not limited to channels or time slots.

Further, ReplayTV uses a somewhat complex but effective system of “Guaranteed” and “Non-Guaranteed” recordings. Basically, if you flag a recording as Guaranteed, space is “hard-allocated” on the disk. Non-Guaranteed recordings will record if disk space is available. Guaranteed recordings are great for those shows you “can’t miss” and want high assurance that they will record. Non-Guaranteed recordings are great for setting up recurring “filler” shows that you don’t care if you miss an episode or two.

If you want to record two shows that air at the same time, simply put, you are out of luck, but there are several functions to let you find other occurrences of the show. There are a number of other factors that I won’t get into in this review, but ReplayTV’s conflict management isn’t too bad. And the 5xxx series has added several other features to help better manage conflicts. The only major downside is that there is no “ToDo List” showing what ReplayTV actually has scheduled to record. Recordings are listed in the “Replay Guide” but because of the varied nature of different recording types (single-show, recurring, and Themes) Specifics may or may not be available. This is a long-time shortcoming of ReplayTV.

Connections
Like Neo said in The Matrix, “Guns…lots of guns” a DVR needs “connections…lots of connections” to be compatible with the myriad of TV’s and, if applicable, input sources. Both ReplayTV and Moxi offer very comprehensive connectivity options.

MOXI
Moxi’s input is simple. It has a single input: Coax. Given that it has an integrated digital cable decoder, this makes sense. It is not a “standalone” box, so a single input is expected.

Outputs, on the other hand, are numerous. Video options include: Coax, RCA, S-video, Component (YPrPb), and DVI connections providing full SD and HDTV compatibility. For audio, there are standard stereo Left & Right RCA jacks as well as both coax and optical digital S/PDIF connectors. Depending on your cable company’s deployment, some of these outputs may or may not be active, and some may not be active while others are active (for example, if Component or DVI video is active, composite and S-Video are not active.)

Moxi passes Dolby 5.1 through the Digital audio outputs if it is available on the channel.

REPLAYTV
Because ReplayTV is a standalone box, it needs to accommodate several input sources. It has standard coax, RCA, and S-video inputs. You can configure it to utilize all or any combination of these inputs.

For output, all ReplaYTV boxes have multiple S-Video outputs and RCA outputs. The 5xxx series, adds coax output, progressive (YPrPb) video output, and an Optical audio connector. As a side note, though there is no digital audio INPUT, ReplayTV decided that providing optical audio OUTPUT would help provide the best available audio. You will not get Dolby 5.1 audio.

Playback Control
A signature feature of DVR’s is the ability to “pause live TV”. In addition, you can typically rewind back through the buffer, pause, and fast forward through the buffer back to live. Other controls may also be available.

MOXI
Moxi has basic playback functions: Pause, Play, Rewind, Fast Forward. You can also “Replay” which skips you back 7 seconds (useful for replaying a scene) and “Skip” which skips you ahead by a Cable company-determined amount of time. By that, I mean that the Cable COmpany can control the function of this button, and currently it is set to do nothing, skip ahead 30-seconds (useful for skipping past commer…um…I mean unwanted content), or skip ahead 15 minutes (useful to jump forward in large chunks, sat to quickly get to halftime in a football game recording.) You still have full Fast Forward and Rewind control, so how this is set really shouldn’t affect your viewing experience.

There is currently no (or very poor) “Overshoot Correction” so if you hit Play while Fast Forwarding, it stops exactly when you press play, so you may have to rewind or hit Replay to correct if you overshoot. I suspect that this will be correctd in a later software revision.

Missing are “specialty” features like stepping forward or backward one frame at a time and slow motion playback. I am not a sports fan, but I do find this useful with movies, especially the credits. Again, I suspect that these functions may surface in a later software revision.

REPLAYTV
Playback control is a real strength of ReplayTV. Like Moxi, it also has the basics as well as the Replay and Skip buttons. For recorded shows (and live shows on the 5xxx series) you can also skip forward or backward by number. For example pressing “5″ and then “Skip” jumps you forward 5 minutes. Pressing “15″ and “Replay” jumps you back 15 minutes. Pressing “8″ and the “Jump” button jumps you the point 8 minutes into the show. This is very handy for handling long shows like the Olympic coverage.

ReplayTV also lets you step forward frame-by-frame after pressing Pause, and pressing the “Play” button during playback plays in slow motion in variable speeds. ReplayTV’s Fast Forward and Rewind have “Overshoot Correction” where it jumps back (or forward if rewinding) a few seconds to compensate for your hand-eye coordination delay. It works very well.

Parental Control
I do not use Parental Controls, so I cannot speak to them, but suffice it to say both Moxie and ReplayTV provide fairly comprehensive channel and rating controls.

Other Features
In addition, there are other features that are uniquie to each box. Here are some examples of some of these unique features…

MOXI
For an entertainment diversion, Moxi has the capability of providing Games like Blackjack, Solitaire, etc. using the remote. They look great and are quite fun.

For the you information addicts, Moxi has the capability to provide an optional “ticker”. This is a small, user-controllable scrolling banner at the bottom of the screen that can display things like news headlines, weather conditions, stock quote, and sports scores. The TV picture shrinks slightly so you do not miss any content.

If available, Moxi has the capability of providing access to Video On Demand content with full playback control.

Notice that I say, “has the capability.” Moxi, in an effort to attract Cable Companies as customers, offers a very flexible feature set that can be tailored by each Cable company depending on their technical capabilities, economics, and market. For example, one market may enable Video On Demand while other markets may not. As I understand it, these features are typically consistent within a market, but can vary from market to market. However, I could see no real technical reason why specific features could not be offered as “premium” services.

It is important to understand that this effectively means that if you read about a new Moxi feature, that doesn’t mean you will automatically get it. You may need to contact your Cable company to request those features. While that’s a certainly a negative for the viewer, it also helps promote Cable company market share.

REPLAYTV
With some minor exceptions, the ReplayTV 5xxx series pretty much has all the features of the 2xxx series, but it does have some added features.

One significant feature is Networkability. Connect your ReplayTV 5xxx box to a broadband connection or an Internet-connected home LAN, and you can receive all Channel Guide content and software updates over a high-speed connection. In addition, by running some third-party software like DVArchive, you can transfer the shows you recorded on your ReplayTV box to a LAN-connected PC in all its full, digital glory. This is useful not only for archiving to DVD, but if you ahve a capable laptop, you can watch the shows on your commute or travels. Unfortunately, “the industry” doesn’t like this too much, so don’t expect to see this available on Moxi any time soon.

Another extra is “Commercial Advance” that auto-skips commercials. This is technology pioneered on VCR’s except that instead of auto-fast forwarding through the commercials, ReplayTV can “skip” them completely. Again, it’s a controvercial feature that works surprisingly well.

Internet Sharing is another feature that has brought ReplayTV under fire from “the industry”, so much so, that this feature was removed from newer 5xxx models. This feature lets you (in a very controlled and limited way) transfer recorded shows to other ReplayTV users over the Internet. This has proven useful on a number of occasions, but understand that due to current residential bandwidth limitations, it can take many hours, if not days to transfer a movie, so its usefulness is subjective.

The Future
In addition, there are other features that are uniquie to each box. Here are some examples of some of these unique features…

MOXI
Moxi, being a new kid on the block, has had the luxury of learning from the mistakes of its competition. Instead of going after the retail market, they are going after the Cable market. There is a staggering Cable customer base that is ripe for simple, inexpensive, and snazzy innovation, and Moxi may just be the ticket.

In addition to the current box, Digeo is working on a new “remote” version called “Moxi Mate” that provides a second “thin client” box that can be used to control viewing, recording, and playback of the main box from another room of the house. Say you are watching a movie in your living room and it’s getting late. Just pause it, go to the bedroom, and resume playback on your bedroom’s TV–while someone else watches a different program in the living room.

Digeo is also working on the “Moxi Plus” box which is a subscriber-installable box providing additional DVR Hard Disk storage space, and other optional features from card ports for importing photos to audio music streaming to CD and DVD playback and recording.

REPLAYTV
As for ReplayTV’s future, I believe that it is uncertain. ReplayTV has created some very innovative technology, but its financial struggles and failure to capture a larger market share of the DVR market has hurt its innovation. Over the years, ReplayTV boxes end up on retailer shelves, get pulled from retailer shelves, and end up on them again. ReplayTV is currently on its third owner, and it looks like “consumer grade” (read $200-$300 range) offerings will be either limited or non-existent. Dennon, ReplayTV’s current owner, has said that the Program Guide service will continue, but it looks like they are focusing on more higher-end (read $1,000+) offerings. Their technology is ambitious, but not much has surfaced. They are also trying to woo third parties to license their technology.

CONCLUSION
In my opinion, your choice of DVR is a very subjective one. Different people have different needs, so a simple feature list may or may not provide the information you need to make a choice. For example, we have been using ReplayTV boxes for years with DirecTV with excellent results. When we moved to South Carolina, we decided to go with Charter Digital Cable because of the cost savings, but because there is no serial port control capability on Charter’s Digital Cable box, we have to use an “IR Blaster” to control channel changing. Unfortunatly, while this has proven to be about 99% reliable on the 2xxx series, it is virtually useless on the 5xxx series–not something neither my wife or I like. So one of my goals of evaluating Moxi is to provide a less complex and more reliable solution. Having a DVR integrated into the cable box is certainly a step forward.

My recommendation is to give the various boxes a “test drive” and see what features you like and what features “feel good” to you. Be sure to take advantage of free trials–Charter offers the first month for free, and both ReplayTV and TiVo offer 30-day money back guarantees, so you are free to compare as you see fit.

One thing is for sure: Once you get hooked on the DVR concept, the specific make model really becomes almost irrelevent–you just have to have SOMETHING!

Permanent link to this article: http://jimstips.com/moxi-tips/moxi-tip-7-moxi-vs-replaytv

Oct
19

Vonage: Not For Me, But Still A Service To Consider

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October 19, 2004

Well, after using Vonage for almost two months, we decided to cancel our Vonage service and remain with Bell South. Unfortunatly our situation is a bit different from many others, so your experience could be quite different. So read on to see why we canceled and why I still recommend Vonage as an excellent phone service alternative. That may sound like a contratiction, but it’s not…

There was no one major reason for our cancelling Vonage. Our decision came from a number of smaller issues that, after reviewing “the big picture”, caused us to decide that despite the added cost of Bell South phone service, its reliability and quality outweighed the issues we were having with Vonage. Here are the issues we have been dealing with:

1. NO LOCAL NUMBER ISSUE
The first issue we had was the lack of a local number within our local calling area. Vonage did provide numbers within our area code, but they exist outside our local calling area. Not having a local number presented the following issues:

-11 Digit Dialing
Local callers must dial 11 digits when dialing our Vonage number. I am originally from the Chicago area which has had “overlay” area codes for several years requiring dialing 11 digits. It was a no-brainer because everyone had to do it. Call New Mexico: 11 digits. Call across the street: 11 digits. Simple.

In Anderson, SC however, the norm is currently 7 digits, so it was confusing and inconvenient when giving out our number and expecting people to reach us the first time. Of course it’s not rocket science, but was a minor hassle.

-In-State Toll Charges
Because the Vonage number resides outside our local calling area, anyone within our local area who dials our number got hit with an in-state toll charge. Again, not a huge deal, but I personally don’t like the idea of pushing off these added costs to the caller when they would otherwise be covered under my phone plan had we had a local number.

-No Phonebook Listing
This issue wasn’t apparant at first. It turns out that because the Vonage phone number is “owned” by Vonage and is “leased” to Vonage customers, there is really no easy way to get a new Vonage phone number listed in the local phonebook. Some may find this a blessing as it may reduce telemarketing callers, but we found this to be an issue. We moved to a “small-town” community that relies on these types of resources. Again, not a huge issue. Note that if you “ported” or “transferred” your number, this should be a non-issue. This only affects “new” Vonage numbers. Because our number could not be transferred due to lack of local number availability, we had to go with a new number.

-CALLERID NOT “ACCURATE”
Again, this seems to be an issue similar to the phonebook issue. Our CallerID information displays as “Unknown Number” and then our Vonage phone number on recipients’ CallerID boxes. I find this pretty lame. Given current technology, Vonage customers SHOULD be able to have their Account Name displayed on the CallerID regardless if the number was “new” or “transferred”. While I do understand the reasons behind it, the reasons are really more political and administrative than technical. Obviously, this is not Vonage’s fault as such, but it’s still an annoyance.

-911 REGISTRATION A PROBLEM
According to Vonage’s response to my 911 registration request, our address “failed [their] 911 Address Matching Test.” so our 911 registration was declined. Apparantly, we live in a county area that currently does not exist in the 911 system. I will definitely persue this issue because it could also affect our Bell South line. Again, this is not Vonage’s fault, but given current technology, this should be transparant to the user.

Looking at these specific issues, you could conclude that they are not necessarily “show-stopper” issues, and you would be correct. What concerns me is that while I’m very tech-savvy, “Joe Sixpack” would certainly have a tougher time dealing with and understanding these issues.

2. CALL QUALITY ISSUE
Simply put, my wife and I were disappointed with Vonage’s call quality. Overall, it’s pretty good, but depending on the call, there were often noticable delays, occasional “choppy” voice, and occasional dropped connections. Because I had my Phone Adapter located behind my router for security reasons, I couldn’t take advantage of QoS, so calls were more often than not affected during heavy Internet activity. Despite having 3000/256 Cable Modem service, the call quality was never on par with that of Bell South. I did not try lowering the bitrate on the Dashboard, and maybe that would have improved things, but I also didn’t want to sacrifice voice quality.

The good news (and I’m not being cynical here) is that if you are used to and satisfied with Cellphone quality service such as occasional voice delay, intermittent choppy voice, occasional dropouts, and the occasional lack of service, then you will be right at home with Vonage. I seriously believe that if you are happy with cellphone quality, then you will be happy with Vonage. However, if you prefer POTS quality, then you may be disappointed. Again, your milage may vary depending on your particular setup.

3. LINE RELIABILITY ISSUE
OK, so the fact that three hurricanes recently swept through the Southeast is truely not a normal occurrance, but unfortunatly, our cable went out twice during that two week period due to weather-related issues rendering Vonage phone service useless. Our Bell South line remaind “on” during the outage. My Cable Modem, Router, and Phone Adapter were connected to an Uninterruptable Power Supply (which was an added cost), so THAT portion of the system stayed “on”, but because no Internet connection was available, the Vonage phone service was unavailable. To be fair, in this case, the problem was NOT with Vonage, but our Cable provider.

CONCLUSION
OK, all that said, please understand that MOST of our issues have to do with our specific proximity and the fact that no local number was available. My original intent for Vonage was to save some money over our Bell South bill. Obviously, from a money-savings perspective, Vonage wins hands-down being certainly more cost-effective. That said, after dumping our second business line and re-working our long distance package, we are currently paying just about $50.00 per month with Bell South. Yes, it’s more costly than Vonage, but it’s still a HUGE savings over what we were paying previously. For us the added cost and stability of Bell South’s service outweighs the issues we have been having with Vonage.

Another thing to understand is that unlike the POTS line that relies on its own internal managed system, Vonage relies on the integrity of other interconnected, unregulated systems. Overall, this may not be a big issue, but it is a real consideration.

I also want to mention that when we lived in Chicago, we had Cable TV, Internet, and Phone service provided by Comcast Cable (formerly AT&T Broadband.) Their phone service was really not much different from Vonage in that it was VoIP, but all technical details (specifically QoS) were handled by Comcast. Their service was nothing short of stellar.

In conclusion, I have to say that the Vonage service is an excellent phone service alternative. With inexpensive features like a Web-based user-controllable Dashboard, almost real time detailed billing, a portable phone adapter, and the availability of virtual numbers, Vonage certainly provides a lot for the money. If you are willing to deal with some minor issues, then Vonage is really a great deal and I highly recommend it. For some, the cost savings alone is well worth it. To us, however, Vonage did not offer the same reliability, quality, and convenience that we have come to expect from POTS phone services like Comcast Phone or Bell South have provided us.

By all means, give Vonage a try. We gave it a chance, and for us, it wasn’t the right solution, but it may well be for you.

Permanent link to this article: http://jimstips.com/vonage-tips/vonage-not-for-me-but-still-a-service-to-consider

Sep
08

Review: Proporta Crystal Case for Tungsten T3

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September 8, 2004

Given the functionality and portability of PDA’s, it’s important to me that I always have my PDA with me. Unfortunatly, because of the design and form of many PDAs, unless you have a good case, you simply can’t “pocket” your PDA without fear of damaging the screen or inadvertently pressing a button resulting in a drained battery. Cases provided with most PDAs are marginal at best with the best cases being sold my third-party vendors.

While I’m certainly no newbie when it comes to PDA cases, (I’ve owned various cases for the US Robotics Pilot 1000, Palm III, Palm Vx, and Sony Clie NX70V) the choices are admittedly daunting. Read on to learn more about what case choice I made for my Tungsten T3…

My new Palm Tungsten T3 sports a simple stock leather-like “flip” case. While it does offer some screen protection, I am very hesitent to “pocket it” for fear of damaging the screen, so some better case was in order.

After reading some reviews and product listings, and after thinking about just what kind of case would suit me best, I decided to order a “Crystal Case” from Proporta, an excellent PDA accessory company in the UK.



The Crystal Case for the Tungsten T3 is a “flip” style case. I prefer this design over a “book” style because it lets you easily hold and navigate the PDA as it was intended. I also feel that for the T3, the “book” style is a bit impractical given its “slider” design, so the “flip” style is excellent.

The case construction is simple, rugged, and elegant. According to Proporta’s site, is made from “the type of durable and scratch resistant polycarbonate plastic that’s used to make protective eyewear”. In other words, it’s very durable. Like a pair of safety glasses, it’s clear and rugged providing great protection while at the same time letting you see and access most functions while the case is still closed. The case “grips” the T3 around the edges very nicely and utilizes the small “indents” in the back of the T3 to “lock” into place. Once attached, there is no slippage or movement. There is a “flip” cover that covers the screen and folds to almost 180 degrees when open. The case fits very snugly–almost feeling like it’s a part of the T3′s construction. The very form-fitting case adds only about an eighth of an inch all around keeping the T3 small and sleek like it was meant to be.

All buttons and ports are accessible thanks to nice, beveled cutouts that provide easy access to the power button, the voice memo button, and even the reset hole. The 5-way nav pad is NOT covered. Whilt this does make it probe to in-pocket button presses, this makes is actually nice because it lets you navigate apps without having to flip open the case. THere are several third-party apps available to prevent the buttons from powering on the T3.

At first, I thought that i could not HotSync with the case on. It simply didn’t fit into the cradle. But the, it struck me that if I just pull out the T3′s slider, it sits very nicely in the cradle! So no messing around with removing the case! Very nice.

At this point, I have absolutely no reservations putting my Crystal Case-enclosed T3 in my front pocket, but I’m still a bit hesitent about “back-pocketing” it. Time will tell, though. So, overall, I give the Proporta Crystal Case very high marks.

Oh, and I must also mention that when I ordered the case, it arrived without incident within a week from the UK (I live in the USA.) Proporta did have to backorder another item I ordered at the same time, but they didn’t charge me shipping on the second item. Little things like that make their service really stand out.

Permanent link to this article: http://jimstips.com/palmos-pda-tips/review-proporta-crystal-case-for-tungsten-t3

May
13

Gmail Beta: First Impressions

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May 13, 2004

The other day, I received an “invitation” to beta test Google’s new “Gmail” email service. After having tried and used literally dozens of web-based email services over the years, I decided to see what the buzz was all about, so I followed the Invitation instructions, and within a couple minutes, I had a new Google Gmail account. After working with this account for several days, I have discovered some things that I like about it as well as some things that I don’t. Read on for the lowdown…

First off, please note that this article is based on the pre-release beta of Gmail, so presumably, the public release will have additions, changes, and improvements. Also, I am using Internet Explorer to test this. Gmail supports most of the popular browsers, and even a few obscure ones, so if you use an alternate browser, be aware that your mileage may vary.

Webmail

While Web-based email is nothing new, Gmail introduces some new and unique concepts. Managing email has become very easy while at the same time having powerful tools to find and review information. I have used quite a number of email clients and web-based email accounts over the years. I have tried email accounts at Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, Onebox, ZipLip, FastMail, AOL, WebBox, and literally dozens more. Some are good, some are better, and some are plain junk. All the while, I have kept a “vanity” email account with NetIdentity (who uses “SecurePath” technology), and though I do pay for their account, their web-based email interface is very simplistic and the space is limited. So I continually look for “better” solutions.

But why use Webmail when I have a good client in Outlook? To me, a personal web-based email account is essential because I do not always have access to my home PC. Sure clients like Outlook are great, but if you can’t access your PC, you simply can’t easily access your email. Gmail on one hand is just another free email service, it really has the potential to become the next “killer app”, because it has some innovations not found elsewhere. Gmail does, however, need some polishing in a number of areas before it’s really “ready for primetime”.

I’m going to first walk you through some of the “features” that make up Gmail. Some are typical, and some are unique. Then I’ll detail some suggestions that, in my opinion, would make the service significantly better.

Advertising

Let’s start off with the “tough” issue first: Advertising. This is probably the single most controversial aspect of Gmail. Opponents have said that Google’s approach to inserting ads based on message content is a huge privacy breach. So much so that some legislators have proposed legislation to prevent Gmail from implementing this at all. OK, people, sit back and listen very closely as I step up onto my soapbox and explain “the truth”…

Gmail does not “read” your email. Gmail does not breach your privacy. Gmail does not care about your message content. All Gmail is doing is running your message through a “processor” that looks for ad-related keywords so that it can display unobtrusive targeted ads. Gmail’s process of scanning your messages is technically no more intrusive than EVERY service like Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, and EVERY email service that offers virus scanning and spam protection. ALL of these services “scan” every word, every character, every phrase in your emails to determine if there is a virus present or if the message might be spam. Gmail’s processing simply differs in that instead of matching message text against virus or spam pattens, it is matching against ad-related keyword lists. This is done at the session-level, so no data is retained.

Google has been extremely open and forthcoming about its privacy policy and process. The real issue is that for the first time, the general public is finally beginning to understand a concept that has been used and upon which they have been depending for years. Could this process be abused? Yes, it could, but so could ANY message scanning process. It really comes down to if you have faith in the integrity of the company. Google has a proven track record, and they would be committing corporate suicide if they were to breach that record. Yes, it could happen, but if you are really that paranoid about Gmail’s processes, I suggest you not open a Gmail acocunt and look elsewhere.

Another important point about Gmail’s ads is that they are VERY unobtrusive. They are much like the “Sponsored ads” you see on the right of a Google Search results screen. In fact, they don’t even show up on every email message that you read, and so far, that’s the only place you see the ads: when reading messages. They don’t appear in any other screen. Gmail’s ads are FAR less annoying than the flashy lights and huge billboards that services like Yahoo Mail and Hotmail use. And, given that the ads are intended to be targeted based on message content, you shouldn’t see inapropriate or unrelated ads.

OK, I’ll step down off of my soapbox now. Let’s move on to the details of Gmail…

Logging In

Logging in is typical of webmail services. The login screen is clean and simply requires you to enter your username and password. Here is what the Login screen looks like:

Inbox

Once you successfully login, you are presented with your Inbox. Once again, it is pretty typical looking:

Messages are listed in a typical way, displaying the sender, subject, the first few words of the message body, and the date. Personally, I would like to see the message size included, but I can live without it. The checkbox lets you select individual messages on which to perform specific actions. The “star” lets you “flag” particular messages (more on this later.)

On the left are links that let you compose a message, and select different standard message groups (like Inbox, Sent mail, etc.) Again, it’s one of the quick ways to find a specific message. Under the message groups is the “Labels” selector which I’ll explain later.

Finally, there are links to all the other functions which I’ll describe below.

Reading Messages

When you click on a message in the Inbox, the message opens for you to read or taks action. Here is what the message screen looks like:

Note a couple things: First, no external graphics are displayed. By default, Gmail disables displaying externally referenced graphics. The reason is that many spam messages contain externally referenced graphics. When they are displayed, the email sender can use this to track that you opened the message thus validating your email address for future spam. Clicking on the “Display External Images” link will display the images if you want. Here’s an example of the above message with external images turned on:

You can reply to or forward a message by simply clicking on the appropriate link. This is standard functionality with one glaring problem: If the original email is HTML or Rich Text formatted, Gmail will strip out ALL formatting including links, fonts, and images. ie: you can only reply in plain text. To me, this is a HUGE problem because it means that a nice, formatted message gets “altered”. My complaint is that if this is supposed to be marketed to the masses, they have grown to expect to be able to simply forward on what they received and expect it to arrive at its destination intact. I don’t think this is an unreasonable request. In Gmail’s defense, their support emails do say that they are planning on adding an HTML editor, so presumably, this may be resolved, but as of this beta, it isn’t. Note that this is NOT exclusive to Gmail. Some other Webmail services do the same thing, but it’s rare.

Starring a message

When you “star” a message, you can later click on the “Starred” link on the left of the Inbox screen and Gmail will display all messages that have been “starred”. Your specific reason for “starring” a message is purely personal. It simply gives you yet another way to “group” messages.

Composing a Message

Composing a new email in Gmail is simple. At beta, it is a simple, plain text editor. Gmail support says they are planning on adding an HTML editor.

Here is what the Compose Messagescreen looks like:

You enter the email address, the subject, and the message body and click “Send”. Pretty normal stuff. One nice feature is that if you have contacts set up, as you type the contact’s name, a quick menu of contacts containing the letters you typed comes up. You can select one of the addresses quickly and simply. Very nice. There’s also an integrated spelling checker. You can also attach files.

Contacts

Here is what the Contacts screen looks like:

Underwhelming, isn’t it? Simply put, it’s a contact list and nothing more. You maintain names, addresses, and a short note for the name. No phone entries, no addresses, bo birthdays, just names and email addresses. Streamlined to say the least. At present, there is no facility to import or export the contacts list, but Gmail support says that they are planning on adding it.

Some may view this as a weakness, bu don’t forget that this isn’t a corporate groupware product, this is a free webmail service.

Archiving

One of the first concepts that you have to get used to with Gmail is that of “Archiving”. The overall power of Gmail is in its message management, searching and archival capabilities. In order to really leverage this, you need to get past the “I have to delete everything because I don’t have enough storage space” mindset. With 1GB of storage, the average email user will have enough storage space to hold several years worth of emails. Yes, there will always be emails that you simply don’t want to keep. Don’t fret, despite some speculation, you can always delete any message you want. You aren’t required to retain every email you ever received or sent.

OK, so what’s Archiving? Archiving a message simply tells Gmail to remove the message from your Inbox screen and keep it in your “All Mail” screen. Simple enough, but what does this mean? When you receive an email, it first goes into your inbox. You can read it, reply to it, forward it, etc. You can apply a label to it (more on labels later), you can trash it, or you can report it as Spam. Pretty typical functions. All emails will remain in your inbox until you specifically “Archive” them. Archiving simply removes the message from your inbox screen.

But what happens to it? Don’t worry, all messages are always accessible through the “All Mail” screen. Archiving simply cleans up your inbox. Once a message has been archived, should you ever want to, you can easily move it back to the inbox, but there really isn’t a need for that.

Labels

The next concept that you have to wrap your mind around is that of the “Label”. A Label is a way of classifying an email. It’s similar to “folders” but it goes much farther: You can optionally assign a user-definable Label to any email. Then, when you click on a specific label in the label list on the left of the screen, Gmail displays only those emails under that label. Sounds a lot like folders, right?

The power of Labels shows in being able to assign multiple labels to an email. When you organize emails in folders, an email can reside in only one folder at a time. Say you have one folder called “Family” and another called “Jokes”. Your brother sends you a joke email, so where do you put it–the Family folder or the Jokes folder? Gmail’s Labels let you assign multiple labels to each email, so you could label your brother’s joke email with both “Family” AND “Jokes” labels. Now, when you click the “Family” label in the label list, you see your brother’s email along with all the other emails from family members. Likewise, when you click on the “Jokes” label, you also see your brother’s joke email along with all of your other joke emails. At first, this may not seem too exciting, but after a while, you will see how this could be very powerful, especially with large numbers of accumulated emails.

Here is an example of the Labels screen:

I actually like labels, and I know I’ll miss it in my other email account screens.

Searching

Searching is one of Gmail’s unique features and strengths. Every email you have sent or received (that you have not sent to Trash) is searchable from the Search screen. Here is what the Search screen looks like:

As you can see, you can search on text in various fields. The fields aren’t exclusive either–you can enter search text int multiple fields to narrow down the searches. In its current iteration, it seems pretty solid and useful. In fact, now that I’ve had a taste of Gmail’s searching capabilities, I sorely miss it on my other email accounts. This should become standard fare on every webmail service.

The only thing I don’t like about Gmail’s implementation is that it doesn’t provide for partial word searches. For example, if I want to find the email that had the City “Spokane” in it, but I don’t know how to spell Spokane, I’m out of luck. I cannot enter “Spo” or “Spo*” or “*kane”. Not a big issue, but some will complain.

Filters

Filtering is another useful feature. Filters are similar to Outlook’s Rules. First you set up certain criteria similar to the Search function:

Then, you assign an action:

It’s not fancy, but it is very useful to auto-label and archive certain emails. I read somewhere that you are limited to 20 filters. This may prove problematic for some.

Suggestions

Now that I have shown you what Gmail can do, here is a list of some suggestions that I feel will significantly improve the service. I forwarded this list to Gmail’s “Feedback” page, so hopefully, they will consider some of them.

  1. Fix the “Forward” function to forward the message UNALTERED. This may seem like an odd suggestion, but currently, if a message is in HTML or Rich Text format, Gmail strips all formatting, links, and images resulting in a simple, plain text message. Messages need to be retained as-is for a number of reasons. Maybe, this could be an option, but by default, ALL messages should be handled unaltered.
  2. Add “Report as Spam” button to same line as the “Archive”, “More Actions”, “Refresh” line. Yes, I could click on the “More Actions” dropdown and select it from the list, but I would rather have an easy-to-find button.
  3. Replace the “Compose Email” and “Refresh” links with buttons for consistency. Just a cosmetic thing. If you are going to utilize buttons for some functions, be consistent across the interface.
  4. Add an “Import ” function to bring emails into Gmail. Say that I have a lot of emails residing on another email account that I would like to have “transferred” to Gmail. Yes, I could “Forward” them all, but then they would appear to be “From” me. Instead, I would like to be able to “export” the emails from my current acount in .eml format, and then “import” them into Gmail seamlessly. Gmail should recognize them as “new” emails and apply all defined Filters.
  5. Add an “Export” function to be able to copy emails out of Gmail providing users the ability to have “offline” storage and access. Yes, I could “Forward’ them to another account, but it would be nice to have an online function that saved them all to .eml files and Zipped them all up for easy download.
  6. Integrate the Search funciton into the above suggested Export function to allow selective exporting.
  7. Add an “External Email” function to be able to pull in emails from other POP and IMAP accounts instead of having to forward those accounts to Gmail.
  8. Allow for partial word searches.
  9. Add “Import” and “Export” functions to Contacts. Managing hundreds of Contacts, requires this.
  10. Add capability to “Label” Contacts (defined separately from the Message “labels”.) Currently, contacts are simply a list. Being able to apply labels to Contacts would let us better view and manage them. Then, we could select just a Contact label for emailing and it should sent to all contacts with that label–kind of like a mailing list.
  11. Have “Filters” optionally apply to ALL emails instead of just those selected or just new emails. Once we have hundreds or thousands of emails, being able to globally process emails may become essential.
  12. Add an “Advanced Settings” option to allow “power users” to “tweak” more options such as edit box dimensions, screen colors, etc.
  13. On the Settings screen, the entry “Maximum page size: Show XX conversations per page” has values of 25, 50, and 100. Add “20″ to the list. This is large enough to show a good number of conversations, but small enough to prevent the user from having to grab the mouse to scroll down the page on a typical 1024×768 Windows XP screen.
  14. Integrate Gmail notification into the Google Toolbar that would display the number of new messages in my Gmail Inbox. Clicking the button would then either launch the Gmail login screen, or if I could set my username and/or password in Toolbar “Settings”, take me directly to my Gmail Inbox.
  15. Provide an HTML editor to compose messages.
  16. Allow Labels to be “nested” or “grouped” to allow for more granular labeling.
  17. Optionally show a Size column in the Inbox listing and while reading a message. This should be togglable through Settings.

Final Thoughts

Gmail is at the same time unique and simple. It has some excellent features that are truely innovative, but at the same time, there isn’t a lot of “depth” to many of the features. Unlike many popular webmail services, there is no caledering, no email list management, no extended contact information, and there are some pending functionality issues, but as a beta, it certainly has some teeth to it. Gmail’s interface is very fast, primarily because it is NOT cluttered with the marketing glitz and images that clutter so many other webmail services.

If Gmail was generally available in its current state, I wouldn’t recommend it for primetime, particularly for the “forwarding problam”. But given that this is beta, Google seems to be responsive, and Google has always provided solid tools, I’ll venture a guess that the final release will be an excellent service.

Permanent link to this article: http://jimstips.com/gmail-tips/gmail-beta-first-impressions

Aug
11

ReplayTV Tip #1-ReplayTV to DVD HOWTO

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August 11, 2003

If you own a ReplayTV 5000 series PVR, learn how to archive your shows to DVD. Follow these steps to transfer shows from your ReplayTV box to your PC, edit out unwanted content, and burn the "final cut" to DVD for viewing on any standalone DVD player!

ReplayTV to DVD HOWTO:

A step-by-step Guide to Archiving ReplayTV 5000 Shows to DVD

By Jim Barr

Introduction

This is a step-by-step "HOWTO" guide describing how to archive to DVD a show that was recorded on a ReplayTV 5000 series PVR. It was compiled from my trial-and-error experience along with the excellent tips and help from a number of other dedicated ReplayTV users.

The PVR I am using is a ReplayTV model 5040, but these instructions should work on any network-connected ReplayTV 5000 series model. These steps will probably also work with any network-connected 4000 series box, but I do not have one, so I cannot test this.

By the end of this article, you should hopefully understand the concepts required to record a show, transfer it to a PC, edit out any unwanted content, save the "final cut" to a file, and burn that file to a DVD for playback on any standalone DVD player. For more specific details, please refer to the credits at the end for more resources and information.

One other note before we get started: I do recommend specific software tools in this process. There are other tools available that cost more or less, and there are other "procedures" for handling ReplayTV files, but the steps I detail below are proven to work well, work quickly, and they produce excellent results for not a lot of money. If you want to investigate other processes or tools, by all means, browse and search through the ReplayTV section of the AVS Forum. There you will find a wealth of diverse information.

Step 1 – The Stuff You Need

Before we can get into the specific steps, you first need some specific components and tools to do the job. I’m not going to cover specifics such as how to set up your ReplayTV box or how to configure a home network. Those topics are way beyond the scope of this article. Here is a list of required hardware and software components:

Hardware:

  1. Windows-based PC running Windows 2000 or Windows XP (Home or Pro). I use Windows XP Pro with great success. You may have luck with Windows 98 systems, but Windows 2000 and XP systems are far more stable and the NTFS file system easily handles the large video file sizes. The faster the processor the better. Some have reported success with 500MHz machines, but I recommend as fast as you can afford. And, like speed, lots of Memory and lots Hard Disk space are essential. Remember, we are dealing with very large video files, so don’t skimp on your PC. And, if you ever want to "go beyond" just archiving ReplayTV files to DVD and do more extensive video editing and rendering, again, the faster the better.
  2. Local Area Network (LAN). A home network is essential because you need to be able to connect your ReplayTV box to your PC. Like everything else, the faster the better. The ReplayTV box has a 10/100 Ethernet adapter. While a wireless LAN will work if properly configured, a wired connection will give you the fastest transfer speeds. Expect transfer speeds to range between about 3/4 real time to 3 times real time or more depending on your connection. In other words, if you want to transfer a 1 hour show, depending on your LAN configuration, you could transfer the show in as fast as 45 minutes or as long as several hours. Remember, we’re moving a lot of data here–an hour long program is about 2GB in size.
  3. ReplayTV box. The ReplayTV 4000 and 5000 series models are the only models that are networkable. Prior models are not. This HOWTO should work with 4000 series boxes, but I have only tested it on my model 5040.
  4. DVD Burner. Buy an internal or buy an external–the choice is yours. I chose an external FireWire Sony DVD burner because it burns almost every format, the firmware is easily upgradable, I had a free FireWire port, and at the time, the price wasn’t too bad. A DVD burner can also typically serve as a CD-R/RW burner, so you if you simply replace your internal CD-ROM with an internal DVD burner, your overall PC footprint won’t change.

Software:

  1. ReplayTV to PC Transfer Software. In order to process your recordings, you have to move them from your ReplayTV box to your PC. There are several options, but two stand out above the rest: WinReplayPC and DVArchive. I’ll explain these in more detail later, but suffice it to say, these are the best, most reliable, and most effective ways to transfer your recordings. And, they’re free!
  2. "Womble" MPEG-2 Video Editing software. This will set you back about $100.00, but it’s the only consistently reliable MPEG-2 editor that easily and effectively handles ReplayTV MPEG-2 files. (I’ll explain this in more detail later.) There are some freeware editors, but my experience is that Womble simply works, and works reliably.
  3. Ulead DVD Movie Factory 2 (DMF2). This is a very feature-rich consumer-grade DVD authoring application. It’s inexpensive (about $50.00) and has no problem handling Womble-saved ReplayTV MPEG-2 files. I have tried a number of other DVD authoring apps, and I found that DMF2 will go from MPEG-2 file to completed DVD with very minimal effort and no errors. You can also burn directly to DVD, only create the VIDEO_TS file set, or both.
  4. (Optional) Nero Burning ROM. Nero is a rock-solid, top-notch burning suite that handles VIDEO_TS file sets excellently. If you don’t want to burn directly from DMF2, Nero is your answer. There are other great DVD burning options on the market, but I chose Nero because it simply works well.

That’s it! OK, it is a lot to assemble, a lot to learn, and a lot to coordinate, but once set up, the steps to go from ReplayTV to DVD flow very nicely.

One side note: I decided to build my system up from scratch to be a video editing system. I am running Windows XP Pro on a Cybertron PC purchased from Tiger Direct (I purchased it without an OS and installed WinXP Pro myself.) It has a Pentium 4 processor running at 3.06GHz with 512MB RAM, an NVIDIA graphics card, an internal CD-RW drive, two internal 80GB hard drives, two external FireWire 80GB drives, and en external FireWire Sony DVD Burner. Your options obviously are many, and for ReplayTV to DVD work, you definitely don’t need a high-end system, but I have other video projects that I am working on, so I went with the best that I could afford at the time.

Now that you have gathered, assembled, and learned to use all the required components, let’s continue with archiving a ReplayTV recording to a DVD:

Step 2 – Record a Show

The next step is to record your show. While this may be obvious, it’s not WHAT you record, but HOW it’s recorded. Make sure to record your show at Medium Quality. A Medium Quality recording on a ReplayTV 5000 series PVR is surprisingly good looking. While opinions vary greatly on this, and while a show recorded at Medium Quality is admittedly not quite as good as one recorded at High Quality, a Medium Quality recording has four specific attributes that make it ideal for burning to DVD:

  1. The audio and video are already DVD-compliant so given the proper authoring tools, there is no re-rendering required. This significantly speeds up the process. Medium Quality recordings are MPEG-2 files recorded at a resolution of 720×480 (D1) with a bitrate of 7Mbps VBR. Audio is recorded at a bitrate of 192 kbps with a sampling rate of 48000 Hz.
  2. Because a Medium Quality Recording’s bitrate is lower than that of a High Quality recording, the file size is small enough to allow you fit close to three hours of content on a single DVD without re-rendering. This is more than enough space for most programs. This will allow for most full-length movies and up to six 1/2 hour "network" shows with commercials edited out.
  3. Related to this, because the file sizes are smaller, transfer times from the ReplayTV box to your PC are much shorter.
  4. Unlike earlier ReplayTV models, The 5000 series records all audio at the same quality at all video recording qualities. For example, if you are recording a concert, your video quality at Medium Quality may not be as high as it could be at High Quality, but the audio will always be the best it can be.

Many prefer High Quality, but for me, Medium Quality is an excellent compromise of picture quality and file size, and it requires very minimal "pre-processing" in the ReplayTV-to-DVD process.

One very important goal in this entire ReplayTV-to-DVD process is to eliminate any video re-rendering steps. Simply put, re-rendering just takes forever, and it can sometimes affect the quality of the final product. Eliminating the re-rendering step significantly reduces the overall end-to-end process from many hours to just minutes. Further, how you see it on your ReplayTV box is how it will look when played on your DVD player because the original picture quality is retained.

You can set the recording quality to Medium Quality selectivly on a recording-by-recording basis or you can go into the ReplayTV’s Setup Menu and set Medium Quality as your system default. In any case, you can always change the recording quality for each recording as desired. Also, and this may seem obvious, but once a show is recorded, you cannot change its recording quality, so prior planning can save you lots of time later.

Step 3 – Transfer the Show from your ReplayTV box to your PC

Once your show is recorded, you next have to copy the show from your ReplayTV box to your PC. Because the 4000 and 5000 series boxes are networkable, transferring the show is quite easy given the proper tools. As I stated above, there are several apps out there to transfer shows from your ReplayTV box to your PC, but I recommend one of the following two: DVArchive and WinReplayPC. Both are excellent for transferring shows to your PC. Your decision really hinges on your ultimate intent.


WinReplayPC is designed to do one thing–transfer programs–and it does it well. Its interface is clean and very easy to figure out, and setup is a snap.

If you have multiple ReplayTV 5000 boxes, you can select from which box to transfer. You can also "queue up" multiple shows for transfer. WinReplayPC runs on most flavors of Windows and can be found here.


DVArchive transfers shows, but that’s just the beginning. DVArchive literally turns your PC into a "ReplayTV server" allowing you to stream shows back and forth among multiple ReplayTV boxes on your home network. To other ReplayTV boxes, DVArchive looks like just another ReplayTV box, so standard show streaming is available. DVArchive is a bit more complex to set up, but the resulting setup is stellar. The end result, like WinReplayPC, is that you can easily transfer shows to your PC. DVArchive is written in Java and can be run under many OS’s including Windows, Linux, and MacOS (I think) and requires you to install a Java runtime. DVArchive can be found here

Both program authors are very responsive, and know more than I ever will about the ReplayTV boxes. These programs are very stable, well engineered, fun to work with, and best of all, free. But don’t let the price fool you. These programs are better and more professional than many commercial apps.

Regardless of which program you choose, the goal is to get a show copied from your ReplayTV box to your PC. The actual functionality of each is beyond the scope of this article, so I’ll just say that each program connects to the ReplayTV box over your home network, presents you with a listing of what shows have been recorded on the ReplayTV box, and lets you choose which shows to transfer. You can choose to transfer single or multiple shows. The end result is that after a while (it could be minutes or hours depending on your network setup and the length and quality of the show) a copy of the recording will reside as a .MPG file on your PC.

Note: DVArchive is also an excellent program for streaming video BACK to a ReplayTV box once it has been transferred to your PC. Just be aware that if you change any of the MPEG files that you have transferred, you cannot typically stream them back to a ReplayTV box. In other words, if you transfer your favorite episode of Friends and cut out the commercials, don’t expect to simply stream the cut version back to your ReplayTV box. There are improving methods to do this, but they are beyond the scope of this article. Check out the ReplayTV section of the AVS Forum for info on this.

Quick tip: Transfer your shows when the ReplayTV box is not being used or not scheduled to record anything. Also, turn off the ReplayTV box during the transfer. While these steps aren’t necessary, they can significantly improve the transfer speed and reduce the chances for "lockups" or "freezes". You can use your ReplayTV box while it is transferring, but it is more prone to freezes, and you will definitely notice significant delays in system response.

Step 4 – Edit the show and create a "Final cut" file using Womble

OK, you transferred a show from your ReplayTV box to your PC. The file you transferred is a DVD-compliant MPEG-2 file, but unfortunately, the file most likely has two problems: technical and cosmetic.

  • Technically, ReplayTV’s MPEG encoding, though DVD-compliant at Medium Quality, often introduces errors that can wreak havoc on most DVD authoring programs (including DMF2.) Typically, the file contains PTS (Presentation Time Stamps) errors, and sometimes GOP (Group Of Pictures) errors. So, the .MPG file needs to be "cleaned up" somehow so your authoring program can import it. These errors are notorious for throwing your audio and video out of sync.
  • Cosmetically, some changes will need to be made: If it’s a movie, it probably has leading and trailing content that you could care less about. If it’s a network show, it probably has commercials or other content which you probably want to eliminate. (Unless, of course, it’s the Super Bowl, and then you want to remove all that erroneous football stuff and keep just the commercials!)

Enter Womble.

Womble, or MPEG2VCR, is an MPEG-2 file editor that lets you easily edit .MPG files with frame-accurate precision. With this app, you can copy out selected parts or clips of a of a video and re-paste them back into a new file to create your desired "final cut". A very important "side effect" of editing a ReplayTV recording with Womble is that when you finally save the file, Womble automatically "cleans up" any PTS or GOP errors so that the resulting file can be easily imported into most DVD Authoring tools. Here are the steps required to edit a ReplayTV file recorded at Medium Quality into a "final cut" file:

Edit the Video


The method I use to edit a file is a "copy" and "reverse-paste" method to select clips and build my final cut file. There are two methods for removing content: "Cutting" and "Copying". Intuitively, you might think that you would simply mark-in the beginning of the section you want to remove and mark out the end of the section you want to remove and then just click on "Cut". While this does work, for some reason, it’s not always reliable. Specifically, the resulting final cut sometimes has out-of-sync video and audio. The best method, as detailed in many posts on the ReplayTV section of the AVS Forum and at Rich’s site, is to mark-in and mark-out the first section that you want to save and click on "Copy". This copies the saved section to Womble’s clipboard. Mark-in and mark-out the next section that you want to save, click on "Copy", and continue until you have copied all the sections you want to save to the clipboard.

You now have a clipboard with all your saved clips. Close the original file.

Note: At this point, Womble hasn’t actually "saved" anything or altered any files. It has just "remembered" the mark-in and mark-out points that you defined for each clip.

Build Your Final Cut


Now, you have to assemble the clips into your final cut. Here’s where my method diverges from the other methods: Drag the last copied clip to the workspace. (Yes, that was the last copied clip. I’ll explain why in a moment.) This opens a new video edit window with the "scrubber" positioned at the beginning of the last clip. next, drag the next-to-last clip onto the open edit window. A "Transition" dialog will open letting you choose what kind of transition you want between clips. For now, just click on "OK" to accept the default–you can play with these later. The clip you just dragged will be inserted before the last clip. Your pointer should now be positioned at the beginning of the clip you just dragged. Continue dragging and dropping the clips in reverse order until you finish with the first clip.

Save Your Work


You now have your final cut, so let’s save it. Make sure that the mark-in pointer is at the beginning of the file and the mark-out pointer is positioned at the end. Click on the "Save" icon, choose a filename, and click the "Save" button. Be sure not to change any of the default settings, especially, the Video settings, because if you do, Womble will re-render the video. Remember what I said about re-rendering? After several minutes a new video window will open allowing you to play your final cut. I recommend that at this point, you scrub through the video, especially near the end, to verify two things: 1. that the clips are in the proper order, and 2. that the video and audio are in sync. If you notice any problems, just go back and repeat the process.

An Explanation

OK, now to explain the reason why I paste the clips in reverse order: Specifically, I have had problems with "extra" frames being inserted when you start with the first clip. Pasting clips in "normal" order also takes more steps. For example, after I paste the first clip, I am positioned at the beginning of that clip, so I must manually move the scrubber to the end of the first clip and then paste in the second clip. I am now positioned at the beginning of the second clip, so I must then move to the end of the second clip. The problem that I encounter is that for some reason, the last frame of the first clip seems to be duplicated at the end of the second clip, so when you are positioned at the end of the video, you have to step one frame forward to be at the "actual" end of the next clip. Pasting successive clips requires you to move to the end, and step forward until you are at the actual end of the pasted clip. When you finally save the final cut, you have to ensure that the mark-in pointer is at the beginning and the mark-out pointer is at the actual end of the last clip to avoid saving the duplicated frames. Sound confusing? Well, it is. Give it a try and see for yourself.

So, pasting in reverse order saves you steps and the video ends up being "cleaner". The process is now: paste last clip, paste next-to-last clip, etc. continuing to the first clip. It’s simple and effective

About Womble’s GOP Fixer

You may have read about Womble’s PTS/GOP Fixer utility. If not, read up on it. It can be very useful. When recordings are made at High Quality, you MUST run them through the GOP Fixer utility to fix the GOP errors. In contrast, my experience has shown that Medium Quality recordings do not have any GOP errors, so this step is unnecessary. They DO have PTS errors, but I’ll get to that. Further, when I run files through the GOP fixer, I find that the video and audio almost always end up being out of sync. Lengthy discussions on the AVS Forum have shown that this really is a Windows system problem, not a Womble problem, and it varies from system to system. So far, there seems to be very little information as to what is the "magic recipe" for a "clean" system, but the fact remains that even after clean installs of Windows, some have reported great success and others have not. Because the Medium Quality recordings rarely have GOP errors, there is absolutely no need to run the file through the GOP Fixer utility. In fact, as I stated above, when you "save" your final cut file, Womble automatically fixes any PTS errors! Again, if this seems confusing, it is. You are probably better off just following these steps!

Handling Long Video Clips

Here’s an important tip for long video clips over 1 hour (like movies): Typically, when editing movies, you just want to remove the leading and trailing stuff. There are no commercials, just one long video that is the movie. Some systems (as related to the problem described above) save the file successfully, but the file still ends up having out-of-sync audio and video. Your best bet to correct this is to edit your long movie using the same process detailed above to copy out "chunks" of the movie that are, say, 30 minutes in length. Then, paste these chunks back together as detailed above, and save the file. Womble will save a clean file with the audio and video in perfect sync. It turns out that the out-of-sync problem is a "progressive" one–it gets worse and worse the longer the clip is. The problem does exist with shorter (under 1 hour) clips, but the out-of-sync condition is so small that it really isn’t perceptible. Over a longer movie, the out-of-sync is more noticeable, especially near the end–so much so that it can be very distracting and annoying. Again, like the problem detailed above, some systems do not have this problem, but for those that do, copying and pasting "chunks" is a great workaround that yields excellent results.

As I stated above There are some free MPEG-2 editors apps available, and though they do work to varying degrees, Womble is hands-down, the best solution.

Step 5 – Author and burn the DVD using Ulead Movie Factory 2

You have transferred the show, edited it to your liking, now the final step is to author and burn the video to a DVD. For this, I recommend the Ulead DVD Movie Factory 2 (DMF2) program. There are other solutions, but DMF2 is inexpensive, it imports ReplayTV .MPG files very well, menu creation is a snap, the final results are excellent, and all disks I have burned with DMF2 have played successfully on my PC and on RCA, Sony, and Panasonic standalone DVD players. Again, speed and reliability are the keys in this process.

A Digression

Why is speed so important? Let’s face it: Time is money. OK, maybe that’s a bit strong, but do you really want to be spending hours and hours and hours just to be able to save a 22 minute network show? Maybe you do, but my point behind these steps is that by streamlining and speeding up the process of converting a "raw" ReplayTV file to a watchable DVD now takes me minutes as opposed to hours. End-to-end, (not counting the recording, transfer, or burn times, because these are fairly constant) the process is now under 30 minutes for just about every show I have processed. This is down from well over six to ten hours before I followed these steps. OK, back to our regularly scheduled program…

Authoring the DVD


First, open DMF2 and start a new project. Select "Add Video" and browse to and select your final cut .MPG file. If you have more than one file to include on the DVD (like multiple episodes of a sitcom), continue adding the video in the order you want it played.

First Play


Depending on your preference, you can set one of the videos as the "First Play" video or not. If you set a video as "First Play", when you insert the DVD, it will automatically play that video. If you don’t, when you insert the DVD, it automatically goes to the menu. This is purely your preference, but my recommendation is whatever you choose, keep it consistent. If you are burning multiple short shows, (say 1/2 hour or 1 hour programs where you have cut out commercials) each video will show up as a separate menu item. One long show (like a movie) will display only one menu item.

Define Chapters


If you choose, you can set up "chapters" for each video, but that’s your preference. DMF2 lets you define chapters at any point you want. You simply move through the video and stop where you want the chapter to be marked, and then click on Insert Chapter. Simple as that. If you are burning a movie, I recommend that you definitely create chapters, otherwise if you want to view a part well into the movie, you will waste tons of time fast-forwarding. Obviously, creating "actual" chapters such as at scene or act changes is very time-consuming and tedious, so I just use DMF2′s "Auto Chapter" creation function and let it automatically create chapters every 10 or 15 minutes. That way, if you need to stop viewing the DVD part way through, you can just use the Chapters to skip forward in blocks of 10 or 15 minutes. While this step is not necessary, but it’s something that I prefer to do.

Preview and Burn


Once you have created your chapters and menus, preview the session and then select "Share" from the top menu bar. From here, select the "Create Disk" choice. At this point, you have two relevant choices: Just create a folder containing the video files or burn a disk. The first option saves your files into a standard VIDEO_TS folder, which you can burn using Nero or some such. The second option will let DMF2 do the burning. While your mileage may vary, I have had excellent success just letting DMF2 do the burning.

==> Insert concluding information here.<==

Resources

ReplayTV to DVD step-by-step checklist:

  • Acquire, assemble, and learn to use the required hardware and software components
  • Record a show at Medium Quality
  • Transfer the show to your PC
  • Create a "Final Cut" .MPG file using Womble:
    • Edit the .mpg file using the "Copy/Paste" method
    • Save the final cut file
  • Author and burn the DVD in Ulead DVD Movie Factory 2
    • Import the final cut .MPG file
    • Create any chapters
    • Define your menus
    • Preview the DVD to verify
    • Create the DVD files
    • Optionally, let Ulead DVD Movie Factory 2 burn the disk
    • Optionally, burn the DVD using Nero or your favorite burning tool.
  • Test the DVD on your PC
  • Test your DVD in a Standalone player
  • Enjoy your archived show!

Credits

While I take credit for compiling this information into one place, I definitely can’t take all the credit. The kind folks at the ReplayTV section of the AVS Forum have been invaluable. They are too numerous to name, but if you spend some time there, you will learn to whom I am referring.

I also want to thank…

  • "djdementia", "Slack", and "Patrick" for helping proof this article
  • "Gerry" for writing DVArchive, the ReplayTV server application
  • "Rich" for writing WinReplayPC, the ReplayTV to PC transfer application
  • Womble for creating MPEG2VCR, an MPEG-2 editor that will handle the idiosyncrasies of ReplayTV MEPG files
  • Ulead for developing Ulead DVD Movie Factory 2, a simple, yet effective consumer-grade DVD authoring application
  • Sony for creating the DRX500ULX multi-format external DVD burner that writes in every DVD format, and whose firmware has been continually user-upgradable (Burned at 2x when I bought it, now burns at 4x!)
And finally, the two most important credits go to:

  • My wife for putting up with my never-ending "techno mania"
  • ReplayTV for bringing us the ReplayTV technology that gives users the ability to manage TV programming the way they want to.


I’m Jim Barr, and I frequent the AVS Forum as "jbarr" and my web sites are jim.barr.net and JimsTips.com. I have been using and promoting ReplayTV boxes since early 1999, and ReplayTV has changed the way my wife and I watch TV!


Obligatory Disclaimer:

The information supplied in this article in particular and on JimsTips.com in general is not intended to promote or encourage the illegal copying of copyrighted materials. It is provided solely for educational purposes to assist viewers to archive TV programming as allowable under current "Fair Use" copyright laws. Use of applications like WinReplayPC and DVArchive are not officially supported by ReplayTV, so use them at your own risk. Use of this information is entirely at your own risk. I take no responsibility for any damage, data loss, loss of profit, or any other damage or loss, monetary or otherwise, resulting from these instructions.


Support JimsTips.com!

As always, all information on JimsTips.com is free. If you find any of this useful and would like to help support JimsTips.com, please consider contributing any amount by clicking on the "Donate" button on the left of this page. Your contributions help to defray hosting and bandwidth costs. Also, a hearty "Thank you!" to those of you who have donated to help helped keep JimsTips.com up and running!

Permanent link to this article: http://jimstips.com/replaytv-tips/replaytv-tip-1-replaytv-to-dvd-howto

Apr
07

Tip #17-Some Clie and Palm Resources

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April 7, 2003

This tip isn’t so much a tip as a list of resources. Most are probably obvious to you, but for those who are very new to the Clie and Palm world, here are several good sources for information, news, and third-party applications. In no particular order:

PALM APPS

PalmGear.com
This has been the “definitive” source for acquiring Palm apps. Recently, they have instituted a new policy for downloading, but they are still an excellent resource. With some minor exceptions, if you can’t find it here, you can’t find it. Palmgear offers freeware, shareware, and commercial software, but they seem to push shareware.

Handango.com
This is a another app site that has grown considerably over the years. They offer an excellent selection of freeware, shareware, and commercial apps for the Palm and other PDA platforms.

FreewarePalm.com
Lots of popups, but you do get what you pay for! This site focuses exclusivly on freeware Palm apps. The quality of apps ranges from extremely poor to better than most commercial apps. he programmers who provide apps for this site are not trying to make a buck, but put out excellent software for the sake of the challenge and self-gratification. If you are on a budget, check out this site. You are bound to find lots of great apps.

Note: Just please be aware that for ALL of these sites, all programs may not work on the latest Clies running PalmOS 5.

INFORMATION & NEWS

PalmGear
Yes, they carry apps, but scroll down their home page, and you will see the latest news from the Palm world. This site is updated as new news comes in.

Palm Info Center
Up-to-date, thorough, and informative. This site gives you all the latest news and buzz in the Palm world. Each article also has a comment section so you can voice your opinion and view the opinions of others. This site is updated as new news comes in.

CliePlanet
This UK site maintains all news that is Clie. From the latest apps to the latest hardware, this site is updated daily with the latest news. There is also a linked discussion forum for your and others’ views.

ClieSource
I stumbled on this site shortly before buying my Clie, and it has been invaluable. They offer news and a discusson forum that can’t be beat, It is heavily trafficked and is, in my opinion, the best source of Clie-related information. They suffered an unrecoverable system crash several months back losing everything, but today, you would never know. The information flows fast and freely. If you have a Clie question, you are guaranteed to get an answer from this site.

The Gadgeteer
This site specializes in news and reviews of the latest Gadgets. It’s not limited to the Clie or the Palm. In fact, you will find stuff there you never new you needed!

PDAGeek
While not devoted to the Palm or Clie, this site offers a lot of great general PDA news and reviews.

cbulock’s Clie Home Page
Cameron Bulock’s NX Page is a good starting point for some excellent Clie NX information. He also has a Yahoo Groups forum set up which is a nice resource.

TankerBob’s Clie Home Page
Tanker Bob’s Palm OS Device Page has a lot of good Clie and Palm information.

PDA Buyer’s Guide
Looking for a new PDA? This site has excellent reviews and comparisons of just about any PDA you could want.

JimsTips.com
OK, time for the shameless plug. JimsTips.com has a number of tips available to Clie NX users, new and old. I also added to this site www.wondersilkskins.com, a resource for free skins for the WonderSilk program. And for you Mobile users, point your browser or offline reader (such as HandStory, AvantGo, etc.) to mobile.jimstips.com for the latest tips in a Palm-readable format.

As always, all my information is free, but if you like what you see and would like to help support JimsTips.com, please click on the “Donate” button. Your financial support, no matter how large or small, helps keep this site alive and kicking.

Permanent link to this article: http://jimstips.com/palmos-pda-tips/tip-17-some-clie-and-palm-resources

Nov
22

Tip #8-Digital Camera Adjustments

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November 22, 2002

Digital Camera Adjustments

The NX70V has a great little digital camera. It’s definatly not a pro-grade camera, but for quick-n-dirty snapshots, it’s wonderful. By default, it takes fairly decent pictures, but did you know that you can adjust some settings to compensate for varying conditions to improve the results?

Launch the Clie Camera app and click on the “tools” icon–it’s the round one on the left of the screen that looks like a two-ended open end wrench. This opens a preferences screen that allows you to tweak several options, two of which are important to determine what your final picture will look like: “Brightness” and “White Balance”. Adjusting either of these settings will be reflected in the small preview window in the Tools screen as will as in the standard preview window.

Let me start off by saying that I am definatly not a photographer. I can’t tell you what an “f stop” is nor do I really care, but I do know what I like. That said, your best bet is to experiment and just try all the settings for yourself. Remember, these are digital pictures, so take as many as you can! You can always delete them if you don’t like them! Now for the tool settings…

Brightness
“Brightness” is a sliding scale from “-2″ to “+2″ giving you 5 possible brightness level settings. Experimentation will tell you which is the best setting.

White Balance
This setting adjusts the White Balance of the picture based on one of 4 settings: “Auto”, “Indoor A”, Indoor B”, and “Outdoor”. The specific details of these settings are beyond the scope of this tip, so refer to the manual if you want more details. I can say that depending on your lighting conditions, these settings CAN affect the overall color and quality of the pictures you taks.

OK, so you have adjusted the settings, you have taken some pictures, you have transferred the pictures to your PC, and when you view them, you may or may not be totally happy with the results. Because of the nature of digital pictures and the data, you may have the opportunity to tweak the picture further. There are a ton of programs out there that can be used to tweak and enhance digital pictures. The Sony NX70V comes with Picture Studio which has “correction” functions that work pretty well. Try them out and get comfortable with them. They can certainly improve your photos!

Enhancement Example
While vacationing in the Napa Valley in California, I took a picture of the Culinary Institute of America. The picture was taken on a very cloudy, overcast day, and as you can see, it’s dark, very blue, and there isn’t a whole lot of detail. Click here to see it.

Now, to see what the same picture looks like after using Photoshop’s various level tools (the same could be accomplished with Picture Studio), click here. THe difference is stunning. You can pick out detail that was not in the original, and the colors look more true-to-life. The truth is that what I actually saw with my eyes was somewhere in between the two, but the point is that the NX70V camera captures a lot of information that can often be tweaked to enhance the results.

Bonus Tip:
Be aware that lower light conditions tend to yield lower quality pictures. They tend to be grainier, not as sharp, and the color isn’t as brilliant.

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