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Archive for the ‘Consumer Electronics’ Category

I recently received a new Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop (running Windows Vista) along with the set of travel adapters (plugs for the car, airplane, etc.) and the Co-Pilot Navigator GPS hardware and software for laptops.

I have begun trying all of this out and will be posting a review of each item soon.  For now, I will give a quick first impression.

The laptop and Vista are both solid and Vista is much less annoying than I was afraid it would be.

The travel pack is as-advertised but also a little confusing due to lack of documentation.

The Co-Pilot Navigator is fantastic based on the first couple of test.

A while back I posted news of the pending release of the Ziova CS615.  To date, there has been no other news about the product.

News on the Ziova website was last updated December 26, 2007 announcing the CS615 with a release date of March 2008 for the US.  Since then there has been no update.  I am trying to contact a company rep and I will keep everyone posted.

Video-On-Demand

Yes, now DirecTV is entering the VOD fray. I don’t know if it’s available on the new non-HD boxes, but we have the option on the HD DVR HR20-100S.

It says it’s in Beta (what isn’t these days). But it looks fairly smooth and there’s a LOT of content available.

So, first you need an internet connection for your DirecTV box. As far as I know you have to use ethernet, but since there’s 2 USB ports it may be worth a try to insert a wireless adapter. Be warned that the manual says the USB is “for future use”, but it also says that about the 2 ethernet ports (why 2?).

I ran a Cat5 cable up through the floor to the box from a wired network switch mounted in the basement. You can probably also use ethernet over power line though.

The “VOD” shows up prominently in the main menu and you can sort programs in a variety of ways - categories such as Family and Children, Sports, Movies, etc are then broken down into smaller categories.

You simply click on a show and then choose Add To Queue. When the download is complete you can watch the program and then save or delete it. I downloaded a couple of short kids programs and it was fairly quick. There is also HD content which I suspect is not so quick!

Big Problems!

We are paying an additional $9.95 per month to receive HD broadcasts. I had assumed that would include things such as Discovery Channel HD Theater, but whenever I went to this (channel 76) it was blank. So, my wife called DirecTV and was told that this channel, along with 4 others, were part of a “special” HD package that would be an additional $4.95 per month! But, lucky us, there is a 3 month free trial so she agreed.

When I got home from work I tried accessing these channels. The info bar gave the channel name and the show currently on, bu the screen was blank. I tried several channels with the same result.

We called DirecTV. After walking through the basic tech-support (is it plugged in, etc.) they had us reset the unit. When that failed they had us reset the satellite (to a version that we don’t have!).

When the satellite reset failed it took out all of our channels! At that point they recommended a service call which would be $80.00 to fix the problem they had just created! Then they told us we could get the service call for $20.00 if we agreed to the service plan which will be an additional $5.95 per month!

I reset the satellite to the original configuration, and we now have our channels back, but now the additional HD channels we couldn’t see, but at least told us what they were and what was on, say “channel not available”!

The technician is coming the day after tomorrow, but I have no intention of paying for DirecTV’s incompetence!

I will keep you all updated!

UPDATE 2/29/08

After several lengthy phone calls to DirecTV they have decided that my satellite dish is not compatible with HD. So, they are sending out a rep tomorrow to install a new dish.

UPDATE 3/3/08

DirecTV came and installed the new dish and, voila, we have all of the HD! Now, I am not entirely letting them off of the hook here. After all, they knew what kind of dish we had when they let us order HD and they didn’t say a word!

For those about to take the plunge - YOU NEED THE 5 LNB DISH!

Interface 

I have had a few days now using the DirecTV HD DVR HR20-100s. First, I have to point out, this is NOT TiVo. Why DirecTV is still not working with TiVo is a whole different story.

That said, I have to say I am getting used to the new interface. It is not as intuitive, but it is not difficult to learn and it’s fairly easy to use once you do get the hang of it. Here are some thoughts:

• “Season Pass” is available and fairly easy to set up.
• The “Play List” is straight-forward and is similar to the “Folder” set-up in TiVo.
• The Fast-Forward is not as smooth.
• Surprisingly, a 30-second-skip is available.
• You can search for shows via several different searches, such as Title, Keyword, Actor, Etc.

Next up, I will follow up on the interface and also begin looking at the available ports.

Hardware 

I received the DirecTV HD receiver and have had 24 hours to play around with it.

At this point I don’t, yet, want to cover the interface because it has not been enough time to really get into it. I will say that it’s no TiVo, but I think I can get used to it.

For now I will cover the hardware itself. The box is fairly small and very light. It, surprisingly, came with 1 SATA port, 2 USB ports (1 rear and 1 front) and 1 ethernet port. In the manual these were all listed as “For future use”, but the ethernet, at least, is already active. I looked at the Network setup on-screen, but had not yet tried to set it up. All ports included:

Off Air Cable (1)
Satellite Cable (2)
Phone (1)
Component (1)
Composite Video (2)
Composite Audio (2)
Digital Audio-optical (1)
S-Video (1)
HDMI (1)
USB (2)
Ethernet (2)
SATA (1)

It came with all of the cables necessary - HDMI, Component, Composite and S-Video.

The hook-up (I used HDMI) was simple and then a quick call to DirecTV to activate was also smooth.

I have begun setting up my old “Season Passes” and figuring out the basics of navigating the interface. That is where I will pick up next time.

Background Information

For Christmas we got our kids (ages 8 and 11) each a Sandisk Sansa 1GB MP3 player.  So, first I’d like to give some impressions on this little player.

It’s very affordable, easy to use and set up and works great for someone not looking to put their whole library on it.  The instructions guide you to use “My Computer” to copy files to and from the player, but I soon learned that you can also use WMP 11, which I find much easier for these things.

The Problem

If you’ve used WMP you know that when you delete a file a dialogue box pops up and asks if you want to delete from the WMP library or from the whole PC.

Well, (1) I have a Zune, which runs on its own software.  (2) My kids subscribe to a podcast from which they are slowly building a library of shows.  (3) These podcasts are pulled over automatically into the Zune software and loaded onto my player.  (4) I don’t want these shows.  (5) I have gotten tired of deleting them from my Zune.  (6) The other day I decided to just delete the podcast from the Zune software.  (7) No box popped up asking if I wanted to delete them from the PC.  (8)  I obviously did NOT want them removed from the PC and didn’t know they would be.  (9) Today, “Dad where’s all of our shows?!”  (10) Here I sit re-downloading LOTS of episodes!  (11) Thanks Microsoft!

Yes, I know you can click show settings and choose to save them all and not Sync, but for some reason every once in a while it would sync them anyway..which is what lead to my deletion the other day.

Is it too much to ask for the same simple courtesy that WMP has given for years?!

Do you have a nice receiver in your home entertainment rack? Do you have a desktop PC with a lot of music stored on it? How about a wireless router and laptop? Or do you at least have an MP3 player? Well, if you would like to enjoy all of that music on your PC or MP3 player through that receiver in all of it’s surround sound glory then you can do it for $10 (or less)!

A quick trip to Radio Shack, Best Buy or any other place that sells a variety of audio cables is all you need to make. Just ask for a Y-Cable. They usually come is 3 or 6 foot models and run only a few dollars.

When you bring home your cable you will find a mini jack on one end that will plug into your headphone out port on either the laptop or MP3 player (or desktop PC if it happens to be close to the receiver). On the other end are 2 composite (or RCA) jacks (usually red and white) that can be plugged into a free Audio-In port on your receiver.

That’s it! Now either play your MP3 player through the home stereo or use the laptop to access the music on your PC via wireless file sharing and hit play!

NOTE: I have never used 802.11b, but, I assume, within reasonable range it would be fine for streaming audio. But, if possible, use 802.11g or 802.11n for best results.

Here’s a tip to change the way you can view your Now Playing List and get a few options.

• Enter the Now Playing List.
• While in the list press: SLOW - 0 - RECORD - THUMBS UP
• Now when you press 1 you will view the default (sort by record date), 2 will sort by expiration and date, 3 will sort alphabetically

If you lose power or reboot your system you will need to go through this process again.

NOTE: If you have the “Folders” option turned on this will not work.

Zune version 2.3 has been released. From Zune Insider:

Quick FYI: Zune will be issuing a software update today around 10am Pacific. There are no new features in this update, but it does provide some performance enhancements around set-up, sync and as always general reliability.