@ Ricker:

I appreciate the explanation, but I seriously think you need to learn to self-edit. The wording of the article really does not lead one to think "tongue-in-cheek."

Even so, there are some things that are simply off-limits, and this is one of them. You'd never call a black a n*gg*r, just as you'd never say anything made the Holocaust look cool, but you sure as hell say what you said. Self-reflection is in order to discover what you find within bounds and without, and why.

This generation has boundary issues. You need to learn the rules of respect much better than you have. The device itself is interesting, but your article describing it is offensive.

@ Roadrunner :

Ok, then suggest this hilarity to the people you know who lost limbs in farming accidents - that they had fun doing so.

Logically, then, Ricker's idea makes IEDs in Iraq cool, too, right? Because soldiers lost limbs? I dare you to go to your local VA hospital and suggest this. Let's see if you make it out the door. Oh, but I forgot - you only dwell on the internet, not real life.

You guys are breathtakingly, irresponsibly cruel.

Oh, and another thing - it's not "neurological." That would be nerves. Idiot.

Ricker, you are a fucking idiot. To even suggest that one can lose a limb and it be cool, that's cold and stupid. As one whose grandfather lost a leg in a combine accident, and was so poor he had to make his own prosthesis (not kidding), I find your thoughts on the matter a load of it.

I know you're kidding, but young "sophisticates" like you really make me ill with how out of touch with reality you really are.

i love the slingbox, but i really need to see a way for it to be a PVR. This just doesn't sound like a reasonable solution.

Sling could eat Tivo's lunch; I wonder if they know that?

I've had 2 Pinnacle USB sticks over the past year and both were terrible. The last caused Vista media Center to stutter and record shows that couldn't be viewed, I assume because it required the use of Pinnacle's special software encoder in order to allow it to tune in VMC. It was horrible.

The other USB stick was just as bad, but different. QAM could only be tuned using Pinnacle's software, which I didn't like.

I replaced it with an Avermedia tuner and that works fine.

Yes, it's also renamed the DOLT.

They totally screwed the exterior. What I was considering as a purchase, now not a chance. EV is good, but ugly is ugly. I won't buy a Prius, either, for the same reason. No amount of green can make these dogs better. Paint it brown like the pooper it is.

Maybe GM deserves to die, making decisions like this.

@ Mark: You don't need a keyboard. VMC can be controlled fully by a standard Media Center remote. My Toshiba laptop came with an NTSC tuner and the MC remote, and it works well.

So, I'm already using a laptop as HTPC. Works almost great. The laptop has a DVI output instead of HDMI, so the audio has to be connected separately, The worst problem is the video card - being relatively slow, it's the weakest link in the system, so I can only run it at 1080X720 without stuttering. Still, using both the NTSC tuner provided by Toshiba, and an HDHomeRun on the network, the laptop tunes NTSC and HD, can record 3 channels simultaneously (2 of them HD), and displays it all wonderfully.

HDMI is now more or less standard on laptops, so what's needed is a laptop that can do all of this AND use a CableCard (or tru2way) for tuning all the HD stations via the cable company's set top box. i think Centrino2 will also add a lot to this capability.

aside from not watching international political events like the olympics, pinnacle is JUNK. If you want a lot of problems all the way around, from installation to daily use, Pinncale is your choice. Otherwise, I use AverMedia with no probs at all.

I've lost faith in Usb stick tuners - they rely on software encoding which is usually not good - either poor quality video or stuttering playback, or both.

If it says "Pinnacle" on it, it's junk. I had two of them (silly me), and neither could make a decent recording even using its own software (also junk). pinnacle really sucks. Don't be fooled by their QAM claims - to use that you need updates from their website and their own software. And to use these in Win Media center, you need to download a special media center encoder for the Pinnacle stick. "Stick" is right!

I have 2 AverMedia boxes (not sticks, but they *are* USB) that have hardware encoding in them and they work great. One of them does QAM, but only through Avermedia's software.

On Mac, the Elgato stuff works well via USB. I have the USB stick tuner and it's fine.