A foolish consistency

Tivo RCA DVR80 review

Here are my thoughts and comments on living with my RCA DVR80 Tivo DVR now that I've had it for a week or so, as compared to my old UltimateTV:

1. THERE IS NO SCREENSAVER!!!!! I can't believe Tivo has no screensaver capability! My DVD has one, the Xbox has one, my UltimateTV has one, but not the RCA Tivo box. My usage pattern for UTV was frequently "watch movie, fall asleep on couch, wake up hours later, turn everything off, go to bed". My testing has indicated that sometimes it seems Tivo goes to live TV after finishing the movie, and sometimes, like if I pause the movie, it will just stay frozen for hours on that image. A perfect recipe for severe screen burn in on a rear projection TV like mine.

So now I'm obsessive about ensuring the sleep mode on the receiver is turned on so I don't damage my TV. This is really impacting my enjoyment of the system. If someone told me there was another Tivo based DVR with a screen saver, I would switch to it in a heartbeat.

2. It's much easier to find things to watch on Tivo than UltimateTV. The recommendation system, the Showcase channels, etc. propose interesting shows, and the Tivo itself can just record what it thinks you might like. So far that has given me a few things to watch that otherwise I wouldn't have found. Not odd or offbeat things, mind you, just stuff I wouldn't have bothered to track down through the Guide. This is really nice. For example, I watched Windtalkers because it was recorded automatically, but it was not something I was motivated enough to find manually. And I really enjoyed the movie as a result.

I'll note that the last beta for UltimateTV had a much more advanced Showcase system than TiVo, but that was dropped from the final UltimateTV software as Microsoft was getting out of active support.

BTW, the manual system for finding shows on Tivo is clunky but works. You can search in various ways, but not very far ahead in time, and you can use the (horrible) Guide as well.

3. Picture quality is excellent and I do believe better than the RCA UltimateTV box. Not amazingly better, but better. Deeper blacks, sharper edges. And Tivo can record "letterboxed" TV shows like ER correctly, which UltimateTV could not - it tended to chop off a bit of the top of the picture.

4. No picture in picture capability, and no ability to scale the screen image like the UTV box. Which means the UI either replaces the live TV image entirely, or the UI obscures the live TV image. I much prefer the way UTV would shrink the TV image to a small square in the upper right as you went through the Guide. Picture in picture on UltimateTV was nice, but I didn't use it all that much. But I could, right?

5. The UI for Tivo is less computer-ish than UltimateTV . No OK/Cancel buttons, for instance. There are places where this seems better, and there are places where this seems worse. At times, I want the Back button from UTV back. There are several places in the UI that are slow ("Please wait..." on screen). Some things, like clicking Record on the Guide doesn't seem to work as well as it does on UltimateTV. The Season Pass feature essentially matches its UltimateTV counterpart.

I am not impressed that after more than 3 years have passed, Tivo's user experience isn't more feature rich, smoother and more refined, yet easier than UltimateTV. In more than a few ways Tivo is still inferior to the 2001 UltimateTV. But it's functional enough and easy enough for my kids to use.

6. The Guide sucks. It's slow slow slow slow and did I say slow? I was hoping that after a few days it would have all the data and be fast, but it's not. It's horribly 3D beveled edges type UI, which just gets fuzzy on a TV screen, and it completely obscures the picture underneath. UltimateTV would let you choose to change the TV channel along with the Guide channel, but Tivo doesn't seem to have that setting. Wouldn't matter anyway because of the obscured-picture issue.

Most of what you want in a Guide is speed. That's the P0 feature, everything else is lower priority. Get it right, guys.

7. UltimateTV has a record-from-back-buffer feature that I don't think Tivo has, but my testing was inconclusive so maybe it does, but Tivo only has 30 minute back buffer anyway so I don't think so.

What this feature is this: you're watching a movie live, you're 90 minutes into it, and you have to leave. You press "Record" and bingo, the 90 minutes you've been watching are automatically and instantly recorded, and the rest of the movie is appended to that. So you end up with a perfectly recorded movie even though you didn't start recording it from the start of the show. This is really a great feature. Of course it has limitations on UTV, like if you changed channels you lose the back buffer, but all in all it worked really well.

8. The 80 hour recording capability is quite necessary with all the automatic recording Tivo does. I can't imagine that 40 hours would leave much room for those suggested shows, given that I routinely had 25+ hours of TV shows, movies, etc. recorded on my UltimateTV.

My conclusion: Given today's choices - cable TiVo or DirecTV Tivo or a gray-market or repaired UltimateTV - the RCA DVR80 Tivo for DirecTV is an excellent choice. The two tuners are a complete necessity, the 80 hour recording is great, and picture quality is excellent. I would strongly recommend it to someone new to DVRs and/or satellite TV.

UltimateTV wins on UI smoothness and general features, the RCA DVR80 Tivo wins on picture quality, 80 hour recording capability, and the recommendation / Showcase / autorecord system. But since you can't really get UltimateTV anymore, that's a moot point.

But the lack of a screensaver is a complete killer for me and IMO it would be for anyone with a rear projection TV that could be damaged by burn-in. Had I known that there was no screensaver, I probably would have chosen to have my UltimateTV repaired rather than buy a Tivo based unit, or made sure the Tivo unit I purchased had a screensaver. But I just assumed it would have what I view as a basic, necessary DVR feature.

Some quick research has shown that DirecTV Tivos don't have a screensaver (aka "inactivity power off") but some Tivos do, and perhaps the Hughes HD Tivo unit does. There may be some hacks I could put on the box, but please. This is a consumer device that should "just work" out of the box. I have things to do in my life other than hack my Tivo to put in a basic feature.

Update 12/11/04: I no longer own this unit, see my post about upgrading to an HD Tivo.   My closing thoughts:

• While I'm still annoyed it didn't have a screensaver, I got over it in time and learned to live without it.  It wasn't so hard.  It's not a "complete killer" as I said before.
• It can record from back buffer, like Ultimate TV.  It's only 30 minutes, so be quick about it.
• You can get the 30 second commercial skip if you futz around with secret codes.
• The "other Guide" that doesn't use the grid UI is much faster than the Guide with the grid.  But I want the grid, and I want speed.  Performance shouldn't be a consideration in choosing which Guide I prefer.
• I remain unimpressed that more than 3 years later, Tivo couldn't blow UltimateTV's UI out of the water.
• I still recommend this unit.  If I had not lost my sanity and upgraded to full HDTV, I'd still own it and I'm sure I'd be happy with it.

Kirkland Triathlon race report

Edit: this is a race report from the 2004 event.

Yesterday morning I participated in the Kirkland Triathlon. The day began at 4:30am with a banana and a cup of coffee. Breakfast of champions. The entire family was coming down with me this time, which promised to be a lot of fun. I had setup all my stuff the night before, just load up the SUV and go.

We got there are around 5:30am for the setup. The transition area was large and had a few obstructions like picnic tables and artwork, but straightfoward enough. Last years complicated crossing pattern was removed, making it much easier to navigate the transition area. Everything was soaking wet since it had rained on and off during the night, and in fact it rained a bit while waiting for the race to start.

I tried out the water briefly before the start. The water was surprisingly warm, probably in the mid 60s. I had feared the two weeks of rain and clouds we've been having would have made the lake icy cold. But no, I was just fine with my sleeveless wetsuit.

My age group started at 7:28am, under a high overcast sky but no rain. I started off behind the main pack of swimmers and it took a while to get a steady stroke pattern going. Lots of splashing and waves in the face at the start, then just steady swimming. I stayed on course relatively well around the semicircular course. As I predicted, I was pretty slow on the swim - 20:53 vs 17:37 last year.

I felt a bit dizzy getting out of the water, but not as bad as I have at some past triathlons. I guess my attempts to breath more shallowly during the last part of the swim had worked. I tend to hyperventilate a bit since I haven't mastered bilateral breathing in a race situation and breath every stroke on my right side.

I felt a bit slow and shaky in T1 but didn't forget anything or go the wrong way. I presume the sheer size of the transition area this year - bigger even that last year - contributed to my 3:53 T1 time compared to 3:07 last year.

Riding the bike course was a joy as always. They had simplified the somewhat hilly route a bit this year, which I had hoped would make it faster, but due to the wet roadway I slowed down on the turns. The course marshals also slowed us down on some tight, crowded spots to avoid large group crashes. I'm surprised and a bit annoyed at my time of 43:20 vs. 40:38 last year, with an average speed of only 16.82 vs more than 18 last year. I felt I was going much faster than that.

My T2 time felt very fast - I got my helmet off during the run, racked my bike with one hand, zipped off my bike shoes and slipped on my running shoes, and I was off! Much faster than last year - 1:31 vs 3:07. I'm very pleased with that. Usually I make at least one brain dead mistake in the transitions, but not this year.

The run felt good, too. My legs felt tight and stiff for the first half mile, but after that my running legs and longer stride returned. The course was an out-and-back down Lake Washington Blvd, mostly in the street but some asphalt trail running. I kept my heart rate at 180-185 most of the way, and finished in 25:22 vs 26:29 last year.

Overall, I did miss my goal of beating 1:30:57 - I totalled 1:34:59. A slower swim, slower T1, slower bike - well, that's hard to make up with T2 and the run. Some of that is due to the wet bike course, but mostly it's due to not doing the swim training. But I had a good time and it was great having my wife and kids cheer me along the route and through the finish line.

Personal Best 5K & Heart Rate

This morning at the gym I decided to go all out and see if I could run a treadmill 5K at 7:30 per mile. This would be a 24:00 5K, which would easily beat my usual 26-29 minute 5K.

I started out with some good stretching, then ran the entire 5K at 7:30, finishing in 24:05 (I guess it took a few seconds to get up to 8.0 mph.) So yes, I can do it, even if it's a bit artificial with a treadmill.

Watching my heart rate monitor keep climbing was interesting, to say the least. Usually I try to keep my pace such that my heart rate stays between 145-150 on a LSD run (long slow distance), and between 160-170 on a sprint like a 5K. Not this time. My heart rate at 1 mile was 165, at 2 miles it was 188, at just under 3 miles I passed my prior max heart rate of 197, and at 3.2 miles my heart rate was steady at 201 bpm. That's about as all out as all out gets. I also experienced a pretty good side stitch as I overloaded my liver as it tried valiantly to remove all the lactic acid my legs were producing.

BTW, my previous max heart rate was set when I was hammering on my bike up the last mile to the top of Snoqualmie Pass, after a 30 mile ride from around milepost 22 on I90. That was on the first day of the 2002 Courage Classic, a 3-day benefit ride. The first day is over Snoqualmie Pass, the second day is over Blewitt Pass, and the third day is over Stevens Pass. My first multi-day ride and an incredible experience.

My next triathlon is Sunday

This year, I haven't had the time to do any triathlons what with work, family, and marathon training earlier in the year. And swimming was medically off-limits for the middle and end of August, thanks to the rip-off-my-right-thumbnail fiasco of early August.

I've done a few bike rides in the 30-50 mile range and a couple of 5 mile runs, but that's about it since July.

I've decided to do at least one triathlon this year, and it's going to be Kirkland's Triathlon at Carillon Point next Sunday the 19th. I just signed up online (ouch, 70 bucks). It's a sprint distance tri, with a 0.5 mile swim (880 yards), 12 mile bike, and 3 mile run.

Today I swam 1000 yards at the Pro Club and I ran 3.2 miles on the treadmill. Last weekend I did a 50 mile ride. So I'm thinking I can wing it with some more swimming and running this week. My goal is of course to beat the 1:30:57 time I set last year at the same event. That's probably not all that realistic, since I haven't been swim training at all this season and expect to be slower in the water than last year (and I'm not fast to begin with). But I felt good in the pool both today and earlier in the week, so we'll see.

UltimateTV dies, on to Tivo

For the last three months, the 1st tuner on my early-2001-era UltimateTV DVR by RCA, Microsoft, and DirecTV has been flakey, with the unit switching in and out of "1 tuner" and "2 tuners". With only one tuner, you can't record one channel and watch another live channel at the same time, or record two shows at the same time. This is a HUGE disadvantage. After all, how many times does say NBC pit its best show against CBS's best show at the same time? Well, all the damn time, right?

Well, UltimateTV unit finally gave up the ghost. Both tuners started acting flakey, so for the last week there were periods when it wouldn't work at all, or the History display would show the "Number of tuners changed" message 40 times a day.

After some research yesterday into what's available, it boiled down to three choices - get the UltimateTV unit fixed (there's one company I've heard of on the East Coast that does it), buy a Tivo-based DirecTV unit as a direct replacement, or go hell-bent and buy the $1000 Hughes HDTV Tivo unit, replacing the dish on the roof and everything.

Since I'm still sane, I didn't go for the Hughes unit although it's tempting. I've had the UTV for a long while and frankly it would be fun to own a Tivo since I've only played with them briefly. And imagine the hassle of shipping to the East Coast while my wife is on my case with "Are you going to have that thing fixed before the Law and Order premier?" So I bought an RCA DVR80 80gig DirecTV with Tivo unit from Best Buy for $100.

I've had the unit up and running since yesterday night, connected to my Pioneer Elite PRO-700HD 65" rear projection TV. Some immediate disappointments (where's the 29 second skip forward button to skip commercials!!!!) and some immediate improvements (hmm, picture quality seems better, darker blacks, sharper edges). The UX seems a mix of consumer focused smoothness (DirecTV Central) and geeky designed-by-developers stuff (the Guide). I'll give a full comparison in a later post.

Update: I've posted a bunch more comments, see this post.