Dumb TV
from the still-not-there-yet dept
A very funny Red Herring article about a guy testing both Tivo and Microsoft’s UltimateTV. While he’s excited at the beginning, he eventually discovers that both have serious flaws. The writer has never believed the hype about “smart TV”, but went into this with an open mind. As he says, “With TiVo I had an intelligence agent that would divine my preferences and record shows for me. With UltimateTV’s two tuners I could record Being John Malkovich and watch the Yankees on another. I was ready to eat crow. Plus, maybe the setup would impress my girlfriend.” By the end of the article he lost his girlfriend, if that gives you an idea of where this whole thing is headed. I’m still interested in getting a Tivo/DirecTV setup one of these days, but after reading about his experiences in not being able to record Yankee games (one of the exact reasons why I’d like such a setup), I may wait until things have been ironed out a bit. Still, most people I know who have Tivos love them.