I got cable! TiVo does Rhapsody, Amazon “Unbox”; Netflix on the way.
The last time I had cable television was 2001. The last time I watched any television broadcast regularly was 2002. TV-on-DVD has made some brief appearances in my life, but, for the most part, I’ve been a TV-free dude for most of my adult life.
What happened
My handynerd roommate moved out, taking his tablet-PC Rhapsody jukebox and his Roku with him, leaving me without music in the living room and without any hardware-free movie options. The Rhapsody jukebox was an awesome concept with an interface that worked well, but network issues prevented it from ever working as I’d hoped. The Roku was only around for a couple months, but I quickly fell in love with it.
The impetus to get back in the movies and music business was the outright failure of my internet connection. Several splendid calls with Time Warner support and a new modem yielded no benefit, so a service call was set up. I had to work from home to let the guy in, so, after a few minutes of research, I decided it might be time to add cable and TiVo.
Why cable?
Satellite dishes are a pain in the ass. I already get cable internet, which is nice and fast. The few channels that I care about are included in the entry cable TV plan.
TiVo?
TiVo, like the recent gaming consoles, is a platform with potential. Amazon Video on Demand (formerly Unbox, a name I liked) works well with the TiVo, effectively replacing the Time Warner on-demand service (which is good, because TiVo breaks the on-demand channel). A minor quip is that the movies take several hours to download, and don’t stream effectively. On the other hand, the quality is excellent, and having the movies downloaded in full before watching ensures a seamless viewing experience.
TiVo also recently released Rhapsody integration. I was very excited about using the TiVo as my one-machine media source. Unfortunately, the current version of the Rhapsody software for TiVo is highly unstable. Since the last software update, Rhapsody crashes after playing just two songs, on average. For the time being, I’ve reverted to using a laptop as the music source, which is a bummer.
TiVo and Netflix recently announced that Netflix on-demand titles will soon be available on TiVo. I’m going to see how much I spend on Amazon rentals and do a little mental math to determine whether I should sign up for Netflix, once it is available through the TiVo.
One last TiVo quip: my Element brand flat-screen TV is not supported by the TiVo remote, so I’m still stuck using two remotes.
Conclusion
Cable TV is working pretty well for me. HD versions of Discovery, History, National Geographic, and all of the networks are very slick. For now, I am happy with the TiVo, despite some serious flaws. It’s a great DVR and it integrates well with some web video sites. TiVo and Rhapsody need to get that marriage working better, and TiVo needs to keep pushing forward with more internet-based offerings in order to fend off competitive threats from other devics.
