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RE: Showshifter & me - all your base belong to us


  • To: <ukha_d@xxxxxxx>
  • Subject: RE: Showshifter & me - all your base belong to us
  • From: "Kenneth Watt" <kennwatt@xxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 27 May 2002 18:35:55 +0100
  • Mailing-list: list ukha_d@xxxxxxx; contact ukha_d-owner@xxxxxxx
  • Reply-to: ukha_d@xxxxxxx

All fair enough points but not exactly off-the-shelf is it? I walked into Currys, picked up a box, plugged it in and presto…it works virtually flawlessly!

 

Since many people have trouble operating a PC let alone building one I cannot see SS going anywhere fast on a commercial basis other than into a specialised PC market (for now) and the whole point of this, for me anyway when it comes to HA in general, is that if it cannot be operated by the un-initiated inside five minutes then it amounts to a useless pile of techno junk unless I need it for a specific purpose. SS is not as easy to use and intuitive as the TiVo interface and I would bet that Replay is along much the same lines as they have to design it so non-technical people can operate it without intimidating them.

 

As for writing apps to take out advertising I cannot program, I would like to learn, but for the foreseeable future have neither the time not the inclination to do so, it would be nice, but not exactly a major sticking point IMO. After all, remember VHS?

 

Each and every system has its pros and cons, it’s whether you can live with them or not that seems to be the question.

 

K.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Jason Lee [mailto:jasonjlee@xxxxxxx]
Sent: 27 May 2002 18:11
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx Subject: Re: [ukha_d] Showshifter & me - all your base belong to us

 

Sorry for the subject guys, but I posted 2 fact based replys yesterday that somehow have not appeared, and its very annoying.

 

Someone mentioned IR control from showshifter. YES

 

Someone also mentioned IR control when Showshifter box is not in the same room. Would this not be a problem for Tivo as well, or does tv come with some magic method of communicating with all the hardware on the planet that is TIVO only and Showshifter cannot use?

 

This is one point I will conceed, that Showshifter before 1.5 sucked a fair bit. I did having it running on different (early via chipset) hardware but I couldn't trust it 100%.

 

The current release version 1.50 is very stable and has been recording all my tv viewing since release. Showshifter does improve with every release, I should know I've been fighting with it for about 2 years now..

 

The latest 'Preview Release' of Showshifter adds overlay displays of show position etc...

It also adds FREE SUBSCRIPTION scheduling. Oh and MP3 handling is improved greatly, album pics and lots more.. Segmented avi recordings..

 

I am capturing to a raid array in a silencing enclosure.  I can capture from my S-vhs deck or ntl digibox losslessly or with compression. In fact with compression on I can capture to a network drive! Oh and I can install more than 2 disks! It then runs thru a little app I wrote that edits out adverts by watching for station idents(mostly for sky1 captures). Once I check the edits, IF I want to archive, I convert the files down to Mpeg2 and burn them to dvd-r/rw. Once I put a flaging system in place in the recording filename and have the ident software perfect, I'll move my dvd-r drive into the Showshifter box and leave a blank in it, and it will do it all automatically.. Tivo can , um , it can do none of these things. oh. But the case is nice!

 

It comes down to this....

 

Tivo can only do a fraction of what I've just described. FACT. And you guys have to forward thru commercials don't you? :) I know it's only a button press, but still, how much disk space you using for adverts? Thats just stupid. Oh and even if you edit out commercials, you still have to spend time transfering the data at 100 base network speed.

 

Oh, and I have seen/used a Tivo. The fact most users here defend the fact that their Hard earned money wasn't wasted doesn't surprise me in the least.

 

I think we will see that, providing Showshifter keeps improving at it's current rate this thread should be quite funny to look back on in a couple of months. For Showshifter users!

 

And for those who wanted my specs...

 

Main SS machine (Live one doing all the work)

XP

Abit motherboard kt7a

Matrox g200 !! (yes it works under xp)

AMD Athlon 1gig running 100fsb

128mb Ram

2*80Gig maxtor drives

15Gig of mp3's

IR Remote

Logitech RF key/mouse

DXR2 mpeg2 out card

 

 

Test SS machine (For betas and dev)

XP

wintv card

p4 1.6a running 2.13g

512mb ram

2*40gig maxtors

2*19inch monitors for 2560x1024 lovin!

Pioneer a03

 



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