"Place Shifting TV Viewing..."

It's said that TIVO (and similar DVR boxes from cable and satellite TV offerings) allow you to "time shift" your TV watching.

Instead of watching the 5:30 p.m. national news at 5:30, you program your TIVO/DVR to record it and watch it at 7:00 p.m. when you arrive home. Or you record all the Oprah shows each weekday and watch them on the weekend.

And instead of it taking 60 minutes to watch "60 Minutes", you can skip the commercials and watch the show in 40 minutes when you're ready.

"Pause Live TV", "Replay something you just saw on TV."

That technology allows people to "TIME Shift TV Viewing." Watch what you want when YOU want, not when the network wants you to watch.

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What if you could "PLACE Shift TV Viewing"?

You've got the cable box with DVR, you've set it to record "Desperate Housewives" and while you are on a vacation, stuck at the airport for an hour layover, you turn on your laptop computer, find a WiFi connection and, using an on-screen 'remote control', you browse through the channels to see what is NOW showing back home on your TV.

Nothing interests you so you punch the "LIST" button and see what's recorded on your DVR at home. Ahh, "Desperate Housewives." You click the remote and watch the recorded episode on your laptop...

"Buck Rogers"?? Nope "Sling Box." Available now.

You buy a brick-sized 'Sling Box' for about $250, hook it up to your cable/satellite receiver (perfectly legal), load up the software that comes with it on your laptop and you enter the world of "Place Shifting" your TV Viewing.

You do NOT have to be home in the family room to watch. You could be on the porch using your own wireless router -- or you could be in India or anywhere there's a broadband connection.

You have complete control over the cable/satellite/TIVO/DVR in your home from anywhere in the world (username and password protected, of course.)

Here\'s the story from Sling Media .

My friend here is an 'early adapter' and gave me a demo today. Pretty impressive.

Warning: You are ACTUALLY controlling what is happening on your cable box back home in real time. Please tell your wife that she may see the channels changing. The box hasn't gone wild. It's not haunted. No need to call the cable company...

"It's only me, honey, with the ultimate remote control, changing the channels on our home TV from from the Atlanta airport during my layover. I just had to watch that Diamondbacks game and it wasn't being broadcast in the Atlanta market."

Wonder if the divorce rate will be going even higher?

John,

My son has one coming and is going to see how it works and if it works well we're going to send one to my daughter in korea so I don't have to record shows on DVD and mail them to her anymore.

Here a couple of other little facts about TIVO( which is the only way to go for me with TV these days. I have a DirecTV Tivo box -actually 2 of them both dual tuners.)

I almost never watch anything "live" anymore except for truly live events like football games, etc.

The companies have come up with a new thing that forces you to watch commercials- if you record a show and then zio through the commercials another commercial will pop up and fill your screen. It's only done by certain companies right now- GM and the WB network.

I also read recently that there is a way to program your Tivo box to not even rcord the commercials. I haven't gone looking for it yet but there are several owners sites that have all kinds of little tips for other like that one- in video games they are called Easter Eggs. I'm not sure what they're called with Tivo.

Dennis

We just got the Cablevision version of digital cable, including one DVR box. We're hooked, though it's kind of a pain that I can only watch DVR'd programmes in the one room, not, say, on my TV in my room or outside on the deck. I'd love to be able to use my laptop to tune to these.

Also, I've always had a "dream" of travelling around the world in the ultimate-expedition-equipped Land Rover. Two roadblocks have been a) internet connection (has to be high speed, anyplace in the world) and television (just in case). If the former was ready by the time I was to go on this trip, then the latter would be possible with this technology.

Plus, it would be nice to get a "touch of home" when away. For instance, when we're on the OBX, instead of watching VA Beach local news, we could tune into NYC's NBC station and see what's going on "on the homefront".

This is so cool....I want to try it!

Check with Cablevision. The cost upgrading from a digital box without DVR to a digital box with DVR at Cox/Phoenix is $5 a month. So having a second DVR box would add $60 a year. You can cover that from your allowance?

Of course Digital Cable is a jump up from "basic cable".

I've got a box in my room, but it is the regular box, not a recorder box. We have one in our family room with a DVR. However, the programmes recoreded on that can only be viewed on that TV.

Cablevision uses cards - like credit cards - to descramble the channels. These go in a slot on the box. Right now, all they do is descramble, but eventually, you will be able to use them to (somehow) view the DVR programming on all boxed TVs.

Call me an elitist snob, but while waiting in the airport lounge I prefer those small, commercial-free, random-access analog devices that have very low power requirements and are unfraught with the vicissitudes of network latency. Puts the moving pictures directly into my head without pixelation or time-domain jitter. Don't even have to disable 'em during take-off or landing. :->

...Those would be your eyes?

books, JC, books

I think my idea works too.

...small, low power, analog, puts moving pictures right in your mind, random access, etc...

AND they are built right into your body.

When needed you can even use your imagination to achieve " X-Ray Vision ."

(Oh, I guess you need those $1.25 glasses for that.)

What's the "De Luxe" model?

I guess it makes it easier to see the most (blushingly funny) amazing things!



You know that today, those would cost about $15, and do the same exact thing.