Argh, I just lost today’s entry and have had to retype it. Excuse me if that makes me a little grumpy.

The one thing that’s for certain is that I need a new digital Set Top Box. This time, however, I’m researching which one to get, so that we don’t have a repeat of the XMS debacle. It turns out that I need to get a “dual-tuner” STB, which basically gives you the ability to watch one channel digitally, while recording another, also digitally. Isn’t technology wonderful? The same thing we’ve been able to do for eons with analogue recordings require special equipment to do digitally. Bravo.

I’ve pretty much got two choices - the first, a Toshiba, which has one HD-quality output and one SD-quality output, which is more quality than you’ll get on a video tape anyway. The second options, a Topfield, has two SD-quality outputs, but also a DVR (Digital Video Recorder), which is basically a hard drive that records things digitally. This guarantees that you’ll get SD-quality playback on recordings.

They’re at similar price points.

I’m probably leaning more towards the Topfield, because it has FAR better reviews than the Toshiba (which I found suprising) and that I don’t have - nor am I likely to be able to afford anytime soon - a HD-TV compatible television. Home Theatre is becoming a priority for me, and slowly, I’m upgrading my stuff. Baby steps. Little baby steps.

Oh, and to confuse matters more, Topfield have a new model that has 120Gb hard drive instead of 80Gb. So, you can pick up the 80Gb at an online store for about $100 cheaper. Thing is - I’m not sure I want to buy something so expensive online. I never thought I’d say that.

In other news, early tomorrow morning, I’m getting my carpets cleaned. The straw that broke the camel’s back was spilling a milkshake on them last night. I was most disappointed that I’d lost my milkshake.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 28th, 2004 at 9:35 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.