Adrian's Photoblog

I'm going to change my approach to blog a bit as I'm finding Flickr better for photos due to it's easier upload, and organising capability.

So for starters, here are a few thoughts on our move to digital entertainment... This splendidly sleek gadget is a PVR (Personal Video Recorder) which has a twin digital tuner so we can record 2 programmes at the same time, or watch one and record another, it has 160Gb storage so we can store about 100 hours of TV, and the programming guide means it's dead easy to schedule your recordings. You can also pause and rewind live TV (it has a 2 hour buffer), and playback is simple too, just list the files you've recorded and hit play. When you don't want it anymore, simply hit delete. You may all know this stuff and have one - but's it's been a real jaw-dropper for me.

I'm really bowled over by how simple and flexible this PVR is....no more: having to find gaps on your video tapes, having to take the tape out before someone records over it, limitations of tape legth and space, storage space for tapes, wanting to watch a video whilst you want to tape something, setting the timer only to find someone has switched it off to watch a video and forgotten to put the timer back on ..!!.

..and of course I get all the digital channels - and I'm finding BBC4 and UKTV History to have a lot that I like.

The net effect..after a couple of weeks is that I now record stuff, where I'd felt it wasn't worth the hassle before...This week I have recorded all the Leeds Piano competition - just sheduled them all up, and have watched them later at night...and it has been enthralling. Perhaps the word 'hassle' is key, sometimes I buy things and they make life more complex, other things like this are really positive at giving you the control.

It cost £200 pounds... but looks like money well spent in my opinion...and thanks to Rob Phippen for his unflinching recommendation of this technology.