Black Boxes

by Larry Lemm
Winter 1999/Spring 2000

TiVo Takes Control of TV
TiVo PTV100 Personal TV Receiver

Manufacturer: Philips
(877) 367-8486
www.tivo.com

For its whole existence, the TV has controlled its viewers, dictating when they can watch their programs. Although the introduction of the VCR promised to allow viewers to "time-shift" TV programming into their schedules, their awful programming interfaces led to their current use as little more than movie players. All of that is about to change

A new category of set-top television recording devices is here, and you’ll never watch TV the same way. These products are so new that the industry hasn’t decided what to call them. Some call them PVRs (Personal Video Recorders), others call them DVRs (Digital Video Recorders), we prefer to call them VRCs (Video Recording Computers). But no matter what you call them, Replay TV and competitor TiVo are blazing new trails in the as yet untamed world of television.

TiVo, a personal TV receiver from Philips, is a small set-top box about the same size as a VCR or DVD player. You connect it to your cable or satellite connection, to your TV and to your phone line. The phone line allows TiVo to call headquarters. From there, it downloads the TV listings that match your local cable or satellite system’s. Not only will TiVo display local listings, it is crammed with hard drive storage that allows you to record your favorites from the program guide by clicking a single button. No complicated programming or tape is required. The TiVo is loaded with features that expand the way you watch live TV too.

How it Works
The TiVo unit contains a hard drive like the one in a PC. It also has a video-digitizing chip that converts the video signal coming in from the cable, satellite or antenna into MPEG-2. MPEG-2 is the same format used by DVD players. One of the advantages of MPEG-2 is its variable compression rates, meaning you can trade image quality for a lower file size. In the real world, this means that the TiVo PTV100 can record anywhere from its advertised 14 hours in the lowest-quality to about 4 hours in the highest-quality picture setting. The 14-hour PTV100 costs $499 while the 30-hour PTV300 costs $999.

To play MPEG-2 files, TiVo has an MPEG-2 decoder, like those found in DVD players. TiVo can play and record MPEG-2 video at the same time. In fact, if you are watching live TV with the TiVo, it records and plays the video almost simultaneously, but creates a buffer of recorded TV, providing on-demand instant replay. One downside of this is that you can’t record one program while watching another. You need to bypass the TiVo and watch the other program using a separate tuner.

TiVo has some features that make watching live TV more amenable to your schedule. If the phone rings, you can hit the pause button, and the TiVo will start recording the program. When you are through talking on the phone, hit play, and the TV show will pick up right where you left off. You can then catch up to "live TV" by fast-forwarding through the commercials.

TiVo allows on-demand slow motion of live TV. This is handy when watching sports. The fast-forward command on the TiVo is really well made. You can push the button up to three times to make the fast-forward faster. At the fastest setting, you only see one still screen from each commercial as they whiz past. When you see a still screen from your show, hit play, and the TiVo will automatically back up a few seconds to account for your reaction time. In testing, it almost always brought the program back exactly as the commercial break was ending.

The TiVo has a modem that calls TiVo headquarters and downloads an EPG (Electronic Program Guide). This is very user-friendly: it’s like having a TV Guide on your TV. Not only can you see what is on, but when you find a listing for a show that you like, you can press one command, and the TiVo will record the program for you when it comes on.

TiVo features something called a season pass. The season pass function will automatically record every showing of the shows you like best. As you watch recorded episodes every day or every week (depending on the show), you can delete the shows you’ve seen to make way for more.

TiVo is a subscription service. You’ll pay a monthly fee beyond the price of the box itself. The TiVo service costs $10 a month, $100 a year or $200 for lifetime service. The fact that Philips, NBC and a host of other large corporations have invested in TiVo make it a pretty sure thing that TiVo is going to be around for enough years to make lifetime service worth the extra up-front cost.

It's Got a Free Agent
TiVo has an interesting feature that is not available from the competition: an intelligent agent. The remote control has a thumbs up button and a thumbs down button. You rate the shows you like and don’t like, and soon the TiVo will begin to suggest shows that you might like to watch. It won’t override the shows you tell it to record, but if there is extra hard drive space, TiVo will even record some of these suggested programs. When you go to the list of programs that are recorded on the TiVo, you sometimes find something you didn’t pick (but if you made good use of the thumbs up and thumbs down buttons, there’s a good chance you’ll like them).

The Grade
The TiVo records really well. In the highest-quality setting, the picture looked far better than a show recorded on VHS tape. The only problem we noted was that TiVo would momentarily glitch and create a messy screen of digital artifacts when trying to display a series of wild effects (found mostly in music videos). Some people might not even notice them.

TiVo is a great product at the forefront of a new product category. More than likely, you’ll see this category explode with products in the next year.

--Larry Lemm

Tech Spec: TiVo PTV100 Personal TV Receiver

Suggested Retail Price: $499 + service: Monthly $9.95/month, Annual $99.00/year, Lifetime $199.00

Inputs and Outputs: Video In: S-Video, Composite Video RCA; Video Out: S-Video, Composite Video RCA (2); Audio Line In: Stereo L/R RCA (1 pair); Audio Line Out: Stereo L/R RCA (2 pairs); RF In: Cable Ready F-Connector Female; RF Out: F-connector Female, Channel 3 or 4 (switchable); Telephone: RJ-11 female; IR Control Out: Mini stereo audio jack, female; Serial Control Out: Mini stereo audio jack, female

Let's Go to the Replay
ReplayTV 2001 Personal Television Server

Manufacturer: ReplayTV
(800) 266-1301
www.replaytv.com

Primetime. Anytime. That's what the ReplayTV Personal Television Server promises. And it delivers right on the money. Setup is fast and easy. It took just 10 minutes to cable the VCR-sized unit and about 20 minutes for it to download our local program info to the built-in program guide. Half an hour after opening the box, we were putting ReplayTV through its paces: pausing live TV, watching on-demand instant replays and setting up our own Replay Channels to automatically record our favorite programs.

The unit we tested holds about 10 hours of programming. ReplayTV units that hold 14-28 hours of programming are available at higher price points.

On the Air
Hooking up is as easy as cabling a VCR. The instructions provided in the Quick Start Guide were easy to follow, breaking the setup procedure into just a few simple steps. First we connected the VCR-sized set-top unit to our cable TV, antenna or satellite and to your existing TV/VCR combination. Then we connected a telephone line using the provided line splitter. Finally, we hit the power button, and followed the on-screen instructions to configure the unit, dial-up and retrieve the local program listings. The program guide is attractive and easy to read, displaying a full week of program information. The guide shows the start time and length of each program, and it provides a brief summary of each show you select. Recording is done with the touch of a single button. Simply highlight a program on the program guide and press the red record button on ReplayTV's remote control once to record an episode. Click it twice and ReplayTV will record every episode of that program that occurs at that time. And, we should note, there are no monthly fees to pay. The ReplayTV service and upgrades are free.

Make Your Own Channels
ReplayTV allows users to set up their own Replay Channels, based on theme or show, for repeated taping of programs of a common title or theme. Show-based channels will capture first-run or syndicated programs from a specified television channel and time. Theme-based channels will seek out and record programs based on key words entered by the user, regardless of channel or air time. For example, a show-based entry for Frasier on Thursday night at 9 p.m. will record only episodes airing at that time. A theme-based entry with Frasier as the keyword will seek out and record any program whose title contains the word Frasier airing on any channel at any time. This entry would yield first-run or syndicated episodes of the sitcom, an Oprah Winfrey interview with the cast of Frasier, or Biography's behind-the-scenes look at how Frasier is made.

With ReplayTV there is no videotape to worry about. Recorded shows, whether selected from one of your customized channels or straight from the program guide, are stored as MPEG-2 files on the built-in hard drive. Picture quality is excellent; the recorded image looked almost identical to the original broadcast image. Only on close inspection, did we notice a small amount of digital artifacting, a common by-product of MPEG-2 video.

Is it Live or is it Replay?
Using the Replay remote control, you can watch live TV or programs that Replay has recorded. You can toggle between live television and programs recorded to the hard drive by clicking buttons on the remote control labeled Channel Guide (for live television) or Replay Guide (for recorded programs). Once you're inside the Replay Guide, a pop-up menu lets you decide to view a recorded program from the beginning, resume watching a program where you left off, or delete a show that you have watched. If you're a hard-core fan who wants to collect and archive every episode of your favorite TV series, you can offload files to videotape before deleting the MPEG-2 files from the drive.

Watching live TV is a whole new experience with Replay TV. And a likeable one at that. ReplayTV records every program as you watch it. Why? The answer to this question is the key to this product category. Because ReplayTV records and digitally buffers the signal before it hits your screen, you can take control of the program, pausing, rewinding and cueing on-demand instant replays. If you've ever missed the end of a movie, the last shot of a big game or the crowning of Miss USA because the phone rang, you'll love the pause feature. Just hit Pause on the remote and ReplayTV freezes the screen while it continues to record the show until you return. Press Play on the remote to pick up where you left off. Want to see something again? Press the Rewind button and shuttle back as far as the point when you turned on the unit, or when you last changed channels. The unit will continue to record the show as it airs while you watch a few minutes behind the live broadcast. When you come to a commercial break, tap the Quick Skip key to zip ahead. This feature displayed just one frame of each commercial when we tested the unit. Three or four taps of the Quick Skip button and we were back to the program. If you like, you can fast-forward through the buffered program until you catch up to the live broadcast. Pretty cool.

A Critical Eye
Overall, we were pleased with the performance of the ReplayTV 2001. It delivered on its promises and lived up to our expectations for what a unit of this type should be. But there were a couple of things that could be better.

While the program guide is attractive and undeniably useful, we found that it often got in the way of the program we were viewing. A picture-in-picture feature, ala WebTV Plus, would have been a nice way to allow a user to check the program listings or scan the Replay guide for recorded shows without obscuring a program. Sure, you can always pause a show while you check the listings, but, hey, we want it all.

Next on our list of beefs is the remote control itself. The unit is clunky, crowded with tiny buttons and not well contoured to the hand. We found that we were constantly straining to read teeny labels next to very small, identically-shaped round buttons. The problem of small type and small buttons is compounded when we tried to use the device in a dimly-lit living room. We would have preferred a larger remote with easy-to-identify backlit buttons, at least for those used most often.

Thumbs Up
Even when you take these critical observations into consideration, ReplayTV is a winner. The device does the job and does it well. Television has never been this user-friendly.

-- Chuck Peters

Tech Specs: ReplayTV 2001 Personal Television Server

Inputs and Outputs: Video In: S-Video, Composite Video RCA; Video Out: S-Video, Composite Video RCA (2); Audio Line In: Stereo L/R RCA (1 pair); Audio Line Out: Stereo L/R RCA (2 pairs); RF In: Cable Ready F-Connector Female; RF Out: none; Telephone: RJ-11 female; IR Control Out: Mini stereo audio jack, female; Serial Control Out: Mini stereo audio jack, female

One For All
harman/kardon-Microsoft TC1000 System Controller

Manufacturer: harman/kardon-Microsoft
(800) 422-8027
www.harmankardon.com

Audio component manufacturer harman/kardon partnered with software giant Microsoft to bring out this computer-programmable universal remote control. Like the Philips Pronto (reviewed in the Summer/Fall 1999 issue), the Take Control allows the user to use a touchscreen interface to control the various components in the home theater system. The unit requires at least a 486 25 MHz computer w/8MB RAM, 2MB free hard disk space, a CD-ROM drive and a free serial port.

The first step in setting up the Take Control is teaching it to control your specific components. Infrared (IR) codes for a number of popular devices come pre-installed in the unit. You can select your components from a menu or "teach" the unit the codes for any device not listed. To do the latter, you line up the IR window of the remote from the new device with the IR receiver on the heel of the Take Control. Push the Add button on the Device Setup menu and follow the instructions of the setup wizard. This will prompt you to press the buttons on your device's remote one at a time, sending its IR codes for each button into Take Control's memory.

Once the Take Control has an IR code for each button on each of your remote controls, you can customize its display by hooking it up to your computer's serial port and running the software provided. In fact, you can create a number of different displays, each showing all the buttons needed for a given "activity." For example, you could create an activity called "Watch a video." This display could include the "on," "play," "rewind" and "fast forward" buttons that control your VCR; the "on" button that powers up your amplifier; the "VCR In" button that selects its proper input channel; the "center" and "surround" buttons that control its surround sound and the "on" button that turns on your TV. You can also set the hard "+" and "-" buttons to control the amplifier's volume. Voilá, all the controls necessary for watching a video on one display. You can almost forget your system has different components, and think of it instead as a single machine that enables your various home entertainment "activities."

The Take Control also allows the user to write macros for it as does Philips' Pronto. For example, you can program a single button to send all the commands necessary to power up and configure TV, cable box, VCR and receiver for an evening’s viewing pleasure.

It took quite a while to teach the Take Control all the commands for five devices, simply because of the sheer number of buttons it had to learn. After that, it took using the unit and tweaking its various activity screens every evening for about a week before I settled on a configuration that filled most needs. The promotional literature says that the unit can control up to 15 devices, but the total number must surely vary with the number of buttons the Take Control must hold from each device. In my attempt to store quite a few buttons from each of five devices, I found that the unit would sometimes lose some of the controls for the fifth device. I suspect I'd filled its memory.

At a length of seven and a half inches and a weight of 13.4 ounces, the Take Control is sometimes cumbersome, but not nearly as cumbersome as the collection of remotes it replaces. Hitting the virtual buttons on its LCD touchscreen, with the correct pressure (this is adjustable) and duration is not as easy as hitting real buttons on a remote, nor can one simply feel around for the correct button: an LCD screen offers nothing tactile to distinguish one button from another. For the wish list: an RF version of the Take Control that can control devices through closed cabinet doors.

Take Control is a welcome simplifier of TV and audio control.

--Stephen Muratore

Tech Specs: TC1000 System Controller

Suggested retail price: $349

General Specifications: Size: Length7.5 in. (190.3 mm) Height2.1 in. (53.3 mm) Width3.4 in. (87.3 mml; Weight:13.4 oz (380.0 9)with batteries installed; Operating temperature range:41° F (5° C) to 95° F (35° C); IR transmission range:23.0 ft (7.0 m); IR transmissicn frequency:120 KHz (maximum); IR learning frequency:120 KHz (maximum); Touchscreen Viewing area:2.5 in (64.0 mm) (height) x 2.0 in. (51.4 mm) (width); Resolution:200 x 160 pixels total Backlight coiorgreen; Batteries: Quantity4 Standard AA-size and weight, alkaline; Serial Cable Length:6.0 ft (1.8 m); Computer serial-port connector: 9-pin, D-shell; Computer-connector plug:0.1 in. (3.5 mm) mini-stereo piug
Computer System Requirements (For software installation and use, only.): Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT Workstation version 4 0 or later, Windows NT Server version 4 0 or later operating system; PC with 486t25 MHz microprocessor, or equivalent; 8 MB RAM; 2 MB free hard disk space CD-ROM drive; Serial port

DISH it Out
EchoStar DISHplayer Model 7100 Satellite Receiver

Manufacturer: JVC EchoStar/Dish Network
(800) 333-3474
www.dishnetwork.com

EchoStar/Dish Network has released a new top-of-the-line receiver, the EchoStar DISHPlayer sporting a number of interactive features not available in its existing high-end units like the model 5000. EchoStar introduced the DISHPlayer at an aggressive introductory $199.00 price to attract many subscribers to its interactive services. The price will hold until September 1.

The unit offers a beautiful user interface that far surpasses Dish's previous designs. One navigates through well-designed menus through three groups of new features: a WebTV Plus Electronic Program Guide (EPG), the WebTV Network Plus service, and the beginnings of EchoStar's Personal Television Service. Let's review them each in order.

The WebTV Plus EPG
Like that in the EchoStar 5000, the DISHPlayer offers two-click programming of one's VCR from its EPG. Select any program from the listing to get info about it; then click "record." The unit tunes to the appropriate channel and sends infrared (IR) "record" and "stop" commands at the beginning and end of the program.

However, the DISHPlayer shows up to a full week of programming in its EPG unlike the model 5000's up-to-two-days; and where the 5000 can hold only 10 programs in memory, the DISHPlayer has no such limit. This is one of the areas the unit's 8.6 gigabyte hard drive must come in handy.

Searching for programs, one can cruise through a TV-Guide style onscreen grid showing all available channels, jump to the listings for a specific day and time, search for programs by categories, or search by keywords. Here, you enter words from a title or a name of an actor or director to get all matches for the next week.

However you find a title, one click brings you details of the program, another pulls up its associated Web page (if it has one), another sets a reminder that will signal you before the program begins, and still another will record the program on your VCR.

Through most of these maneuvers a picture-in-picture (PIP) frame continues to show a TV channel. This can serve as a window into any channel you scroll to in the listings grid, or, if you choose, it can show you only one channel as you cruise through listings and information about programs on the others.

To this couch surfer, the WebTV Plus EPG is the single most valuable feature of the DISHPlayer. This alone justifies the cost of the unit by the search time it saves and in the tight matches it achieves between viewer preferences and "what's on." The WebTV Plus program listings are downloaded into the DISHPlayer free of charge, whether or not one subscribes to the WebTV Network Plus service.

EPG: Improvements Needed
Three suggestions for the EchoStar/WebTV Plus development team: first, and most importantly, bring back inclusion of local channels in the EPG. Tuners like the EchoStar 5000 have RF connections for TV antennas or cable TV cables. These units display listings for the local over-the-air or cable channels in the EPG grid along with the various satellite channels. They allow the viewer to program reminders or VCR recording for all available channels (satellite and local) through a single, simple user interface. The DISHPlayer takes a giant step backward from this integration. It has the RF input alright, but its EPG does not list the local stations. If one wants to program a VCR to record a show on a local station, he would have to do it the old fashioned way—which for many means "not at all." Even then he would have to keep one eye on the DISHPlayer’s TV Planner to make sure he doesn’t set the VCR to record a local show when the DISHPlayer will signal it to record a satellite show.

Worse yet, the viewer must turn the unit off and switch his TV set to its low-quality antenna input to view local stations at all. This technical bias against the local stations seems either an unresolved WebTV Plus engineering problem (that EchoStar had resolved in its previous tuners) or a ploy for forcing broadcasters to allow Dish to deliver their local signals via satellite.

Second: enable complex searches in the keyword search engine. Instead of limiting the viewer to one search at a time, this would enable a single search for any of a number of words; e.g. Kubrick OR Kurosawa OR Fellini. Also, make it possible to save such search strings to be run again at will. With this, one could create a kind of search engine macro, say, for all one's favorite directors, and run it weekly to pick up all the next week's matches at once—or let the unit automatically run it weekly.

Of course, when they arrive late this year, the features of Personal Television Service might obviate the need for such macros, substituting, perhaps, the ability to learn user preferences and automatically record to hard disk any program that seems to match.

Finally, allow the player to retain a few functions even while recording a program. In its current rendition, the only function available while recording a program to a VCR is "stop recording." At very least the viewer needs to be able to pull up the datascreen for the show being recorded so he can make an on-the-fly decision as to whether to continue recording or not. The ES5000, for example, allows the viewer even to continue surfing through overlays of listings even while recording. That would be even better.

The WebTV Network Plus Service
For viewers who choose to subscribe to the WebTV Network Plus service the DISHPlayer provides Web surfing, e-mail and enhanced television capabilities.

Contrary to its treatment of local stations, the player achieves an integration of television and Web content on a couple of interesting fronts. When one calls up program information from the EPG or the remote’s "Info" button, an icon of the letter "i" (for "interactive") will appear in the information screen if the program has a companion Web page. Clicking on this "i" will launch the WebTV browser, pull up the companion page and place the television program in a PIP over the Web page.

Similarly, in the course of certain programs a translucent "i" logo will appear in the upper right corner of the TV program frame itself. This indicates that the program itself has "interactive content" or program data enhancements. Clicking on this "i" will pull up a different view of the TV program: typically one that wraps or overlays the TV picture with hyperlinked printed information. It must be said that even those few networks making use of this technology are not making great use of it. For example, MSNBC which uses it in practically every program, typically uses it to wrap the screen with a number of current hyperlinked news headlines. This display is not so much an "enhancement" to the story on the TV screen as a distraction from it. One would expect, rather, deeper reporting of the same story. Be patient, however: enhanced TV is only in its infancy. Soon the networks will use it to deliver pertinent stats during the game and to take our pizza orders during half-time.

When the viewer clicks "Web Home", he is taken to Web TV Network’s home page. This provides links to a number of Web sites which have been designed specifically for television viewers, and Web sites related directly to television content.

Further, the e-mail program is made for TV. The front panel of the player holds jacks for camcorder video and audio inputs. With cam plugged in, you can snap a still picture and record an audio greeting straight to any e-mail message. Or, you can snap a still frame from any TV program and e-mail that.

Late this year, Dish plans to offer its Dish 500 offerings to users of the DISHPlayer. These will include access to local broadcast channels in many areas of the country and more data services. The Dish 500 service will require the installation of a wider-than-usual dish which can pick up signals from two of EchoStar’s satellites simultaneously.

WebTV Networks Plus: Improvements Needed
Dear EchoStar, please make the PIP moveable: it seems always to land on the part of the Web page I need to read. Currently, the PIP over Web pages can be closed, but not moved.

Dear WebTV: often the "companion" Web pages for programs give little more information than already given in the EPG. The WebTV Network has elected to automatically link many movies to their listings on a movie listing site. Again, these listings add little to the EPG information. WebTV Network site developers and the editors establishing its links should drill a little deeper.

Though WebTV Plus technology does support streaming audio (though not video), we were unable to get the DISHPlayer to play streaming audio files. Certainly the engineers are working on this, for the most compelling content on the Web for the TV viewer consists of moving pictures and sound. We suspect, however, that this capability might come at the cost of another hardware upgrade.

Personal Television Service
At this writing, the DISHPlayer sports only the first of a bundle of Personal Television Service (PTS) features. This is "TV Pause," a feature that allows you to pause a program for up to 30 minutes while it is being broadcast. Return from your bathroom break and, voilá, you haven’t missed a thing. The unit has recorded onto its hard drive the segment you would have missed, and it now plays it back as it continues to record the rest of the show ahead of you. DISH is scheduled to add rewind, fast forward, the ability to record hours of programming to the hard drive, and instant localized news and weather; all this by software update, late this year. Like the WebTV Network Plus service the Personal Television Service comes with an additional monthly subscription fee. A guess: perhaps this player, or its successor, will also come to remember and predict viewer preferences in features such as those developed by TiVo and RePlay.

Small Details
The DISHPlayer provides on-screen caller ID for those who subscribe to this telephone service. If your phone rings while you’re watching TV, your screen tells you who is calling.

You can hook any of a number of printers to the unit to print e-mail messages and Web pages.

The unit also comes with a small wireless keyboard and remote. You can program the latter to control your television and audio amplifier. Unlike other remotes in EchoStar’s line, however, these communicate via infrared (IR), not radio frequencies. This means they can’t control the unit through walls or closed stereo cabinets.

Summary
With the DISHPlayer, EchoStar/DISH has added WebTV functionality to its satellite service, and has simultaneously begun to join its competitor, DIRECTV, in offering personal television features.

Its major design flaw is the lack of integration of local stations in its EPG; after that its lack of data delivery while recording a program. Hopefully, these can be corrected—and my other wishes realized--for this model by software update only.

One big wish for the successor to this unit: an integrated DVD player.

The DISHPlayer is one of a new generation of products that deliver a television experience far richer than has been possible until now.

-- Stephen Muratore

Tech Specs: Model 7100 Satellite Receiver

Suggested Retail Price for the DISHplayer $199

WebTV Plus Service: $24.95/month, $14.95 if using your own ISP (OpenISP Option. Can't use AOL, CompuServe or MSN.)
Television Programming Packages: $15.00/month and up
Personal Television Services: $5.00/month for WebTV Plus subscribers, $9.95/month for non-subscribers
Components: Phone Modem (Kbps): 56 Kbps v.90 capable; Memory (RAM, ROM, Flash): 16MB, 4MB, 2MB; Processor: 167Mhz QED 5230; IDT 3041; Hard Drive: 8.6GB; Caching: Yes; Call Waiting Support; Universal Remote Control; Wireless Keyboard: Included; Mic Input; Printer Port: Printing Support for Select Hewlett Packard and Canon Printers; IR Flood: for VCR control; Dolby Digital Output