DVRs and digital cable still lacking basic features I saw Mike's latest gadget interest and agree that the ability to program and access content via a PC is a necessity. While thinking more about my particular DVR (TiVo from ATT Broadband), I realized that there is another basic necessity that is missing - the ability to watch a program on one channel while Tivo is recording on another. This issue isn't really TiVo's fault because ATT Broadband television requires a digital decoder in order to get programming, and the decoder is only designed to have one output device. This design needs to be improved to not only allow me to use TiVo more effectively, but also to allow me to take advantage of the Picture In Picture (PIP) feature that my television provides.
In general, I think my version of TiVo is hokey. It connects to ATT's digital decoder via something that looks like a serial port connector, instead of a coaxial cable connector like a VCR requires. I believe it's because of this that my version of TiVo also requires two IR nodes (red LED at end of long wire) to be correctly positioned near the IR port on the digital decoder so that TiVo can change channels.
I really hope that the next generation of TiVo devices are more integrated with digital decoders in the future. In fact a single device that provides both TiVo and ATT Broadband digital decoder functionality would be ideal.
10:53:27 AM 
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