An archive of blog entries about media gadgets and technology.
Got a Mac? Been cursing Channel 4’s name for ages since you couldn’t use its 4oD video-on-demand service because it was Windows-only?
Channel 4 would like to apologise to you then, and point out it’s made 4oD available to us as well now.
No really.
It’s even made an advert about it.
The hardware may have changed, but Bastard, my PVR, continues to be a bastard.
And it all looked so different a couple of weeks, when I discovered he could now record two things at once. Cracking! No more worrying about scheduling conflicts, no more worrying that the end of episode one is going to get recorded on the beginning of episode two if there’s an over-run.
Marvellous.
Except I updated him to version 3.1.1 of his EyeTV software, which worked fine in most regards, except with exports. Suddenly, little Bastard didn’t like to export programs with their soundtracks intact. I didn’t realise this until about a week later, by which time I’d deleted the originals.
Curses.
So I downgraded back to 3.1, using Elgato’s preferred method. Except I didn’t restart my computer since they didn’t ask me to. Now Bastard won’t start recording unless EyeTV is already running. The problem went away after a restart, but not before it had failed to record one programme: American Outlaws, starring Ali Larter.
Bastard.
My trailing cable has arrived to save the day. The aerials on my EyeTV Diversity turned out to be complete pants, so a 15m trailing cable was needed to restore little known networks such as ITV1 and Channel 4 to my channel roster.
Fortunately, someone had already had a cable running round the place once, and had left all the tacks behind, so with just a couple of cable ties, I’ve managed to make said trailing cable almost entirely invisible.
And look, I have my line-up back:
And with decent signal: this means I get picture-in-picture, too: record one channel and watch another at the same time. Incidentally, note how, even though they’re been fed by the same aerial, the two tuners have substantially different signal qualities.
Woo hoo. So now I have a decent, non breaking-up version of this week’s Being Human, too. One thing to note: if you buy a signal splitter so that you can have two aerials coming out of one TV socket, check to see if you’re getting male or female connections or else you’ll find your cables won’t work. Doh.
PS If by chance you also happen to buy a Heroes mousemat off eBay, be prepared: it might smell a bit.
Well, finally, after all that fun with the Sky+ competition last year, I have Sky+HD. As you may recall, I was this close to getting it when at the last moment, I found out you need two feeds from the satellite dish to be able to record a programme while watching another, so we never got it. Fortunately, at our new flat, there are two wall feeds from the communal satellite dish (even if one, for some strange reason that even the Sky engineers couldn’t fathom, is on the other side of the room from the other feed).
As it happens, I made a slight cost saving from delaying, since the cost installation and the box has gone down from £75 (reduced from £150) to £49. Bargain.
So, after a few days, what am I reckoning, apart from it’s all worth it just to see Ali Larter in high def on Heroes?
Well, finally, after all that fun with the Sky+ competition last year, I have Sky+HD. As you may recall, I was this close to getting it when at the last moment, I found out you need two feeds from the satellite dish to be able to record a programme while watching another, so we never got it. Fortunately, at our new flat, there are two wall feeds from the communal satellite dish (even if one, for some strange reason that even the Sky engineers couldn’t fathom, is on the other side of the room from the other feed).
As it happens, I made a slight cost saving from delaying, since the cost installation and the box has gone down from £75 (reduced from £150) to £49. Bargain.
So, after a few days, what am I reckoning, apart from it’s all worth it just to see Ali Larter in high def on Heroes?
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