Quote:
Originally Posted by JoeKustra /t/537711/sony-dhg-hdd250-500-official-thread/28800#post_23524518
The drywall company (I think) makes the PHD-VRX. The low-entry fee device is the iView 3500STB. I think TiVo can concentrate on cable and leave OTA to everyone else. There seems to be a CM7400 replacement now also (CM K77 and OTA only). It's scary out there.
Yet Gov. Rick Perry is roaming the country trying to get companies move to Texas. More [gender specific] comments omitted.
I promised myself I wouldn't buy more stuff for a while. I just gave my 1995 Neon away to a needy couple. Oil is rising (fear factor) and my fuel oil jumped 10 cents a gallon today. Expect August to be bad for energy. My sister is mad since there is no listing or For Sale sign on my place. The future isn't too bright. My nextdoor neighbor made an offer so he could tear it down to keep "bad" people from renting it, in case I have to move out. I'm not sure Mt. Carmel has its own meth lab yet or if people still need to drive to Hazleton. [joke]
I just was looking at the IView thread and glutton for punishment comes to mind. I don't know but the skeptic in me is just waiting to hear an announcement from TiVo that they are exiting the consumer DVR market now that I finally got one
I was going to say if Texas needs some fracking they can have PA's but it looks like they got that market cornered there as well.
We sold my elderly mothers car this spring and bought a new box spring and mattress. This also bought the first TiVo. The second TiVo is being bought from the savings of not having to insure and maintain the car anymore. I suspect by next year the savings from not having the extra car will be absorbed by never ending price hikes on the necessities. The lock in price for heating oil is $3.30/gallon. I am hoping the bottom falls out of the economy to get heating oil prices back down to more normal prices again which is below $2/gallon.
If your sister is selling the house for more than 10 to 15 thousand it will never sell as banks will not assess the properties around here for anymore. You will also have to find somebody that will be willing to live here and also be eligible to borrow money from the banks. They also most have at least 20% to put down as this is the minimum the banks require. The only way a slumlord will buy anything is if it is a sale for back taxes or a foreclosure.
They just uncovered a meth lab in Barnesville this morning. I suspect that there are a few operating in Mt Carmel but haven't been discovered yet.
I am thinking of setting up a dummy LLC and moving my property into it. This way if I decide to flee for greener pastures the state can't come after my income under the blight law. My mom and dad bought this house for $7500 over 40 years ago and according to the bank they assessed it at $8000 last year. I am hoping the house next to me falls down or burns down before the insurance company decides not to insure these properties anymore. If this does happen it will be like hitting the lottery. I am looking at moving to Tennessee as they have been attracting some European auto manufacturers that pay real well.
"Entertaining" is an understatement. But it sounds like something you could "tinker" with, Joe. I won't be posting there of course, although I might enjoy sparring with nickel2:
"First off it is nickle2 Not.... Nicole2. I'm just too old, mean, and nasty for anyone to refer to me with a girls name."
What's he got against girl's names? I have one.
I have nothing against monthly fees, either, and wouldn't color you stupid in any case. However ...
When I buy a piece of electronics, I expect it to last about 5 years. After that, I assume it will either be worn out or (more likely) technology will have provided a better alternative that I want. When the DHG came out, it was about $350 at Best Buy and cable DVR's were $15/month. So the decision was made.
Since November I've learned that in 2005 some folks spent $800 for a DHG 250 and $1000 for a 500. That's crazy. You'd have to go 5 years just to break even. I realize that the DHG lasted 8 years but I would never have predicted that. I would have opted for $15/mo. subscription over the Sony had it been much more than I paid. Spending $1000 on any DVR - with technology being what it is - that's just nuts.
I should never have brought up the Poconos. Obviously a sore subject. But when I signed up, I was told not to talk politics. So I won't.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jed1 /t/537711/sony-dhg-hdd250-500-official-thread/28800#post_23525146
I just was looking at the IView thread and glutton for punishment comes to mind. I don't know but the skeptic in me is just waiting to hear an announcement from TiVo that they are exiting the consumer DVR market now that I finally got one
If your sister is selling the house for more than 10 to 15 thousand it will never sell as banks will not assess the properties around here for anymore. You will also have to find somebody that will be willing to live here and also be eligible to borrow money from the banks. They also most have at least 20% to put down as this is the minimum the banks require. The only way a slumlord will buy anything is if it is a sale for back taxes or a foreclosure.
She wants 30k per side. That's a joke of course. Just to bring the other side up to code as a rental would probably be 20k. Moving there wouldn't kill me, but having to make another "man cave" would not be a good thing.
I don't worry about TiVo going commercial. I do worry that MPEG-4 or scrambling will kill the DHG before it dies a natural death. If there is a decision on whether to get a cable card for the DHG or get a newer TiVo I would have to think long and hard. For now, I'll keep my eyes open but head in the sand.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mac24 /t/537711/sony-dhg-hdd250-500-official-thread/28800#post_23525196
Since November I've learned that in 2005 some folks spent $800 for a DHG 250 and $1000 for a 500. That's crazy. You'd have to go 5 years just to break even. I realize that the DHG lasted 8 years but I would never have predicted that. I would have opted for $15/mo. subscription over the Sony had it been much more than I paid. Spending $1000 on any DVR - with technology being what it is - that's just nuts.
Nuts? Maybe. The street prices were $600 & $800 respectively for the 250 & 500. Keep in mind that in 2005 there was NO HD-DVR for OTA people. The only other way to record HD was the D-VHS, at least AFAIK. TiVo hadn't released the series 3 yet. I don't know if any cable/sat providers were offering HD recorders yet. I don't think so. So it wasn't like there was a whole bunch of options. Of course, as soon as Sony discontinued the DHGs, the prices fell like a ton of rocks, so those of us who did buy early on were feeling a bit disgruntled.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aleron Ives /t/537711/sony-dhg-hdd250-500-official-thread/28800#post_23524836
You are correct that ePVision is the drywall company. Everyone seems to have given up on the PHD-VRX, as ePVision isn't releasing new firmware revisions anymore. The iView is getting attention instead, although its firmware updates are just as useless. It still isn't even smart enough to know that there are seven days in a week, so "weekly" timers will record once every six days, or something like that.
I personally don't think that there is going to be a DVR that will truly take on the TiVo especially for a cheap price. I noticed that there seems to be a core group of members who buy these junkers with the hopes that somehow they will do everything they want. You figure with the cost of these devices and the large amount of time mucking around with them it would be much cheaper and easier to just get a TiVo and be done with it. The only way a Chinese company will make a decent DVR is to totally rip off the TiVo, other wise I think the Chinese are purposely ripping off American consumers.
The DHG was the closest DVR to compete with the TiVo and it probably gave the TiVo a run for its money at that time. Also remember the original price for the DHG was $1000. I just payed $600 for a Premiere 4. That is not bad for a device that can record 4 cable channels at once compared to the DHG's one channel at a time.
I used to have the same level of enthusiasm when I first started with HD many years ago but I slowly learned my lesson with each painful step forward. I just wait a while to see how things play out before I decide to purchase anything anymore. This saves me a lot of money and time.
Now as long as TiVo doesn't announce that they are exiting the consumer DVR market I will be happy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JoeKustra /t/537711/sony-dhg-hdd250-500-official-thread/28800#post_23525205
She wants 30k per side. That's a joke of course. Just to bring the other side up to code as a rental would probably be 20k. Moving there wouldn't kill me, but having to make another "man cave" would not be a good thing.
I don't worry about TiVo going commercial. I do worry that MPEG-4 or scrambling will kill the DHG before it dies a natural death. If there is a decision on whether to get a cable card for the DHG or get a newer TiVo I would have to think long and hard. For now, I'll keep my eyes open but head in the sand.
It would be a miracle if somebody paid that price but you never know as the old saying goes there is one born every minute. I suspect it will be a new TiVo as the DHG will be done when MPEG 4 gets here. This is the main reason why I got two TiVos as my two Pioneer Kuros can't decrypt an MPEG 4 stream and I also own the two cablecards.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jed1 /t/537711/sony-dhg-hdd250-500-official-thread/28800#post_23524404
I assume the "other device" is the company that does drywall work also.
I cracked up laughing about the inflation remark as that is one thing that gets my blood pressure up quickly. I love it when they say inflation is low if you exclude food and energy. Well that is the only thing I can really buy anymore is food and energy. I also get annoyed about jobs created and the number of jobs that go unfilled. Where is all these jobs at and where are the jobs that go unfilled. And most importantly how much do these so called jobs pay?
If you are interested Joe Amazon has the 500 gig TiVo Premiere for $99 right now and the Premiere 4 for $189.99. I used the PLSR code when I activated my first TiVo and I got $100 of the lifetime subscription. But you have to activate it online do not call as they won't give you the $100 off.
Well-I live in Michigan and work for one of the Big 3 Auto Companies and Michigan experienced a "lost decade" throughout the 2000's. People/talent left the state of Michigan for greener pastures and of course the bankruptcies happened for some of the car makers. Well, now things are looking a lot brighter, and I can tell you for a fact that there are very good paying jobs left unfilled (for engineers) because I see some of the nin-com-poop's they have brought in as contract engineers and I have to work with them. Mind you these guys supposedly had 20+ years experience at the likes of Ford and retired and came back to work. Some of these guys are soo bad they couldnt tell you anything about the vehicle development process when they supposedly had 2 decades experience. No-much talent left Michigan, likely never to come back.
So there are jobs out there, and very highly paid ones at that.
Back when the DHG came out, I was worried about my job and my employer going belly up (they later were rescued) and refraining from purchasing a Sony out of fear for the future.
After 2008, I ended up playing "catch-up" and picked up 2 new 250's off ebay. The Sony is a nicely built machine, too bad the TVGuide protocol is proprietary preventing someone from making a PSIP-TVG bitstream converter or similar device to re-enable guide functionality...
Quote:
Originally Posted by mac24 /t/537711/sony-dhg-hdd250-500-official-thread/28800#post_23525196
Since November I've learned that in 2005 some folks spent $800 for a DHG 250 and $1000 for a 500. That's crazy. You'd have to go 5 years just to break even. I realize that the DHG lasted 8 years but I would never have predicted that. I would have opted for $15/mo. subscription over the Sony had it been much more than I paid. Spending $1000 on any DVR - with technology being what it is - that's just nuts.
I should never have brought up the Poconos. Obviously a sore subject. But when I signed up, I was told not to talk politics. So I won't.
I started my naive quest with HD for everything back in 2004 and everything was expensive and outdated quickly but I didn't know that yet. I have to admit it was quite exciting but after a while it became frustrating and tiring as everything became problematic. The crash of the housing market in 2008 didn't help matters any and the CE industry is still reeling from that incident. Ironically it was around 2004 that Sony's electronics division was the last time it operated in the black.
You will see how nice the Poconos are as where you are going hasn't been ruined yet. Any PA leader should know better as where Joe and I live and most of western PA has been ravaged by a century of unregulated coal mining. Yes the commonwealth prospered from the mining but all that fails in comparison from the steep cost it has left behind today. It wasn't wrong to bring up the Poconos as maybe you will learn not to do this where you live. Also if they do mess up the Poconos you can be a witness to its decline.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Possumgirl /t/537711/sony-dhg-hdd250-500-official-thread/28800#post_23525224
The street prices were $600 & $800 respectively for the 250 & 500. Keep in mind that in 2005 there was NO HD-DVR for OTA people. The only other way to record HD was the D-VHS, at least AFAIK.
Back then, there probably wasn't much HD to record in many markets, either, considering stations didn't have to go digital until 2009. If you want to be an early adopter of a particular technology, you must be willing to pay the price.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jed1 /t/537711/sony-dhg-hdd250-500-official-thread/28800#post_23525239
I personally don't think that there is going to be a DVR that will truly take on the TiVo especially for a cheap price.
That depends on how you define a worthy challenger to TiVo. TiVo has successfully managed to convince most viewers that its business model facilitates the best DVR design, which makes it hard for other companies that use a different business model to compete. The market isn't really big enough to have multiple subscription-based DVRs in play; the only reason more options than TiVo exist at all is due to various pay-TV companies managing to implement proprietary DVRs that only function on their networks. If you look at the Australian market, in contrast, there are multiple DVR options available, because other companies still saw a business opportunity, even in a country where TiVo operates.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jed1 /t/537711/sony-dhg-hdd250-500-official-thread/28800#post_23525239
The only way a Chinese company will make a decent DVR is to totally rip off the TiVo, other wise I think the Chinese are purposely ripping off American consumers.
Skytop had a great golf course last time I was there...especially if you like really hilly courses. There are also about half a dozen courses withing 20 miles of Skytop if you have the time. Usually this time of year, you'll find more wild life on the courses than golfers.
That area gets very crowded around October when they actually start bussing people in to watch the leaves change colors... I thought it was a joke at first, but it's not. It is actually very picturesque, but we see it all the time. I guess for out of towners from the big city it must be a thrill.
I agree, and would add that you also must be willing to take the risk.
The DHG was risky enough at $350. HD was new and the jury was still out. The warranty was 90/365. It relied on a 3rd Party for Guide data. I needed 2 years to break even, and even had to think about that for a bit.
During the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray battle, everyone knew there'd be only one winner. I'm glad I waited.
When 3D showed up, we decided we wanted in. The first 55" Sony was $3000. When it dropped to $2000 we pulled the trigger. Now they're $1500. Can't be right all the time.
Sony has had successes (Trinitron, Walkman, PlayStation, Blu-Ray) and failures (Elcassette, Betamax, MiniDisc). Any company that tries to be innovative is going to have winners and losers.
I've said it before. The DHG's made it 8 years. Even those that paid $1000 (10.50/month) are money ahead. The product was a complete success.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mac24 /t/537711/sony-dhg-hdd250-500-official-thread/28830#post_23525603
When 3D showed up, we decided we wanted in. The first 55" Sony was $3000. When it dropped to $2000 we pulled the trigger. Now they're $1500. Can't be right all the time.
I waited a number of years for a big screen TV. Then I decided that I better wait to go large with an HDTV. That was a fairly easy decision since my neighbor across the street at the time bought (something like) a 57" SD-RPTV in like 2000 or so. I remember thinking those scan lines were horrible. I had to wait.. the HDTV's were coming . . .
So in November 2002 I bought my Mitsubishi Diamond series WS65711 (haha) which cost me a shade over $6000 including tax. ATSC and QAM tuners, no DVI or HDMI, one (1) set of 1080i Component inputs, 300-plus pounds of TV. It still serves me well. It broke once (within the past year) but I was able to repair it myself by changing out 8 capacitors on one PCB. Cost me about $12 to fix.
There WAS a fair amount of OTA HDTV to watch when I first connected an antenna to the Mits in January 2003. CBS had some primetime shows in HD, and PBS used to have some spectacular stuff on the digital OTA feed. The other networks came later, and cable seemed to lag behind by several years.
Umm.. Actually I do. In December 2004 I bought a 26" Sharp LC-26GD4U that had HDMI, ATSC tuner, and a CableCard slot. It set me back $1800.
More recently (Feb. 2010) I added a 46" Mits LT-46246 with CableCard slot, for another $1800. Then in December 2012 (yes, post TVGOS announcement) I added a 32" Sony for a shade over $300. Finally 24" LG for about $150 in early 2013.
I just got my first HDTV 18 months ago, so I definitely don't fall into the "early adopter" category.
I wouldn't have even gotten one if the audio components on my CRT hadn't failed beyond repair. I do, however, have a Blu-ray player. I just got a USB Blu-ray burner as well, since DVD5 storage capacity is insufficient for most HD material, and BD-Rs cost about the same as DVD9s, despite having triple the capacity.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aleron Ives /t/537711/sony-dhg-hdd250-500-official-thread/28830#post_23526106
I just got my first HDTV 18 months ago, so I definitely don't fall into the "early adopter" category.
I wouldn't have even gotten one if the audio components on my CRT hadn't failed beyond repair. I do, however, have a Blu-ray player. I just got a USB Blu-ray burner as well, since DVD5 storage capacity is insufficient for most HD material, and BD-Rs cost about the same as DVD9s, despite having triple the capacity.
No point in a Blu-Ray player if you don't buy or rent discs. Now that streaming is here, we'll probably see less and less.
But I'm not a fan of streaming. My Netflix account is Blu-Ray only. I tried streaming, and the picture just isn't as good. Plus I like the added features that Blu-Ray offers.
There's also the sound. Since 5.1 came out, I was hooked. There's nothing like digital surround sound when watching The Phantom of the Opera or Moulin Rouge. This might be one area where the gals are a bit more picky than the guys.
But there I go, bringing up that "gender" thing again. Oh well ...
I had been trying to convince myself that my "starter" 5.1 set was good enough. Worked until I put Phantom in the player. A few weeks later I had myself real speakers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mac24 /t/537711/sony-dhg-hdd250-500-official-thread/28830#post_23526838
No point in a Blu-Ray player if you don't buy or rent discs. Now that streaming is here, we'll probably see less and less.
But I'm not a fan of streaming. My Netflix account is Blu-Ray only. I tried streaming, and the picture just isn't as good. Plus I like the added features that Blu-Ray offers.
There's also the sound. Since 5.1 came out, I was hooked. There's nothing like digital surround sound when watching The Phantom of the Opera or Moulin Rouge. This might be one area where the gals are a bit more picky than the guys.
But there I go, bringing up that "gender" thing again. Oh well ...
Actually from a scientific point woman have better hearing than men so you ladies will get a better experience with the lossless surround sound than guys do. It was explained to me that men can hear up to about 12000 cycles per second and women up to 18000 cycles per second. The guy I bought my first HDTV from told me this as he was a RCA field technician from the late 1960s. RCA had complaints from females that they can hear a buzzing noise coming from their new RCA TVs. But every service call he went to he could not hear the buzzing. This became a widespread complaint and when the engineers looked into it they found that the newly designed transformer was buzzing. They had to get the women working at RCA to help find the problem and if the replacement transformer solved the problem as the engineers could not hear the buzzing neither.
What brought this subject up that he was receiving complaints from the women of the households that bought the DLP TVs as they were annoyed at the high pitched whine the color wheel made.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Possumgirl /t/537711/sony-dhg-hdd250-500-official-thread/28830#post_23526956
That movie cost me some coin.
I had been trying to convince myself that my "starter" 5.1 set was good enough. Worked until I put Phantom in the player. A few weeks later I had myself real speakers.
IMHO, digital audio was the best thing to happen to HiFi. Like everything else it had its "debugging" phase which caused some hardware to be retired early.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jed1 /t/537711/sony-dhg-hdd250-500-official-thread/28830#post_23526959
Actually from a scientific point woman have better hearing than men so you ladies will get a better experience with the lossless surround sound than guys do. It was explained to me that men can hear up to about 12000 cycles per second and women up to 18000 cycles per second. The guy I bought my first HDTV from told me this as he was a RCA field technician from the late 1960s. RCA had complaints from females that they can hear a buzzing noise coming from their new RCA TVs. But every service call he went to he could not hear the buzzing. This became a widespread complaint and when the engineers looked into it they found that the newly designed transformer was buzzing. They had to get the women working at RCA to help find the problem and if the replacement transformer solved the problem as the engineers could not hear the buzzing neither.
What brought this subject up that he was receiving complaints from the women of the households that bought the DLP TVs as they were annoyed at the high pitched whine the color wheel made.
As I mentioned a while back, we still have my husband's college system from 1978 in the Midlife Crisis room. It still works. But I can't listen to it for very long. It even bothered me back then, but there was no alternative. Now, happily, there is.
The Nakamichi 700 has enhanced Dolby NR, but the tape hiss is still plenty audible. Dolby helped, but also compromised the treble. I thought the noise reduction method was primitive even back then.
The HK ST-7 has audible rumble. Every turntable does. And no LP is perfectly flat or has the hole perfectly centered.
Now I can't tell the difference between Dolby 5.1, SDDS, THX, or whatever. But anyone with normal hearing could pick up tape hiss or rumble. Digital audio solved all those problems.
When I bought my first VCR in 1982 ($300), I couldn't wait for a consumer device that recorded video to disk. I was in the computer business and knew the technology was coming. I never liked any tapes - cassette, VHS, 9-track (computer) - any of them. They stretch. They break. They wear out. And no random access - even an LP had that (sort of).
Now, there are audio purists who feel that digital audio lacks the "fullness" of an LP played on a high-quality analog system. There was even an article in yesterday's paper about it:
Quote:
Originally Posted by mac24 /t/537711/sony-dhg-hdd250-500-official-thread/28830#post_23527096
Now, there are audio purists who feel that digital audio lacks the "fullness" of an LP played on a high-quality analog system. There was even an article in yesterday's paper about it:
There are rock bands that use tube amplifiers because they prefer the sound over a transistor amp. Tubes are very expensive, especially in the kw range.
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