Bah.

[cellio]

Two identical VCRs, two shows to record. One records Enterprise just fine. The other records less than one minute of West Wing and then stops. Naturally, the one that failed couldn't have been the one picking up the show with a rerun later this week. Bah.

No idea what happened. It's not a programming glitch, and there's no obvious physical problem with the tape.

Last time this happened (cable outage, not hardware failure) one of my west-coast friends came to the rescue (because we were within the three-hour window caused by prime-time airing), but I'd feel awfully sheepish about asking again.

Comments

[kayre]

As it happens, we got West Wing but not Enterprise, thanks to a power outage.

Not sure how clear the West Wing tape is, though; got it off a Kalamazoo station because the nearer station was apparently affected by the power outage.

[cellio]

I assume you can pick up Enterprise on the Saturday rerun? (I think it's UPN rather than the local station that does that.)

Wish we had a power outage

[patsmor.livejournal.com]

Then the replay of the stupid debate from 7 pm might not be showing instead of West Wing!!!

[anisodragnfly.livejournal.com]

hey, i can probably download you a copy of West Wing from my Tivo, or if space crunch requires me to delete it before i can do that, i can lend you the tape.

you didn't do the idiotic thing i sometimes do when setting my timer and tape from 8:59 to 9:01, did you? i hate that.

it might have been a tape glitch. i've had faulty tapes that stop the VCR before.

anyway, i can have Jake drop the tape off for you at work either Friday or Monday depending on whether you're getting a fresh or used one.

[cafemusique.livejournal.com]

I managed to get in the door at 9:01 PM, but my VCR was running. (Which was good, because given the evening I'd had it wouldn't have surprised me if I wanted to just go to sleep.)

But a good episode. I don't like the storyline...but that will be over with soon enough, and we'll just have the aftermath to deal with.

Re: Wish we had a power outage

[cellio]

They pre-empted the season premier of West Wing for a rerun of the debate? I could understand initial broadcast, but... sheesh.

Do you have someone local you can get a tape from?

[cellio]

Thanks!

you didn't do the idiotic thing i sometimes do when setting my timer and tape from 8:59 to 9:01, did you? i hate that.

I feared that possibility, but I checked an that wasn't it. 8:59 to 10:02, just as I thought. I'm going to do some testing with this VCR (it's only a year old, for crying out loud), but I'm currently guessing it's a tape glitch. I'll see if I can record something else onto that tape. (In fact, that's the first place I'll try to copy the tape I borrow. :-) )

Wish we had a power outage

[patsmor.livejournal.com]

Aldric will have Tivo'd it. As will, probably, one or two other friends. So, I'm OK.

[murmur311.livejournal.com]

i, too, didn't get west wing on tape because i completely forgot to set it. :( i was heading home from class (which ends at 9) and realized that i forgot to... and got home at 9:30. i watched the last half hour, but i had no clue as to what was going on. i'm hoping my mom taped it...

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

I'm nearly positive we have both Enterprise and West Wing on Tape (the same tape actually). I'm sure we can mail the tape out to you if you have the need. I can probably put it into FedEx from work tomorrow (I get a corporate discount on FedEx that makes it about the same as post office prices) so you'd have it Saturday or Monday at the latest.

That is, if Seth's done with the tape. Otherwise, I'd have to put it in on Monday, and you'd get it Tuesday.

[rectangularcat]

It would have been no problem except that my PC is off most of the time due to same annoying virii and so I just read this entry. Our router and thus firewall has broken down and every time I connect to the internet, I am unprotected. So I tend to leave the PC off.

Reading the comments though, I think you are in good hands!

I tend to have the same problems with the VCR - I think it may be due to the fact that it automatically sets its clock to the PBS channel and sometimes, the PBS feed comes from another timezone... Silly new technology. My old VCR never did that!

[cellio]

anisodragnfly is local to me, but thanks for the offer! (Ironic that I was offering you (well, Seth) taping services this week before your cable came back... good thing you didn't rely on me. :-) )

[cellio]

Looks like I'm taken care of, yes. Thanks anyway!

You might want to install a personal firewall until you can fix/replace the router. I haven't stayed current on what's out there, but I suspect there's something cheap that would at least give you some protection.

I think my VCRs have the ability to automatically set its clock to the cable signal, but that's only relevant if you have the fancy cable and we don't. So when there's a power outage that exceeds the battery backup, I have to manually reset the clocks. Due to some undocumented quirk, the VCRs retain their programming for a longer period of time -- that is, the clock will be flashing 12:00, but it'll still know to record West Wing on Wednesday, once I tell it when Wednesday is. I would have expected it to lose all data at the same time.

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

heh heh. well, fortunately, our cable did come back. I'm glad you'll be able to watch WW. Let me know what you think of it... I have my opinions but I'll keep them to myself for the moment (no guarantees about what will happen in MY journal though)

[zare-k.livejournal.com]

[I haven't stayed current on what's out there, but I suspect there's something cheap that would at least give you some protection.]

I use the free edition of ZoneAlarm... seems to be reasonably effective.

[cellio]

As it happens, we got West Wing but not Enterprise, thanks to a power outage.

You won. Stop while you're ahead. Really. I haven't even seen West Wing, but I have complete confidence in this.

I just finished watching Enterprise. Words... fail me. Not only was it astonishingly bad, but they have written themselves a blank check on science and consistency for the entire season. And next week's episode looks insipid from the trailer. Ugh.

You know things are bad when you find yourself desperately hoping for "and then they all woke up".

[goljerp]

(mild spoilers here)

Isn't it convenient that every time they run into something that affects humanoids, the Vulcan is immune? Especially in this episode, where it's made clear that it effects all humanoids.

What about the way that they're able to solve, in about 24 hours, a problem which another space-faring race has been working on for years?

The way they expressed no curiosity about who this other space-faring race actually is, and what they know.

(more major spoilers in white font)
A race willing to spend the time to send a couple of ships out to a "quarantined" planet and not keep one lousy satellite in orbit broadcasting "warning, infectious virus: use airtight suits and complete sterilization procedures".

Ah, I so wish that Crusade hadn't been cancelled. Wait, before I use up that wish, let me specify: I wish that Crusade, without TNT's medddling had been able to continue. Or that LOTR got beyond the pilot.

[cellio]

All that was problematic, of course, but what really did it for me was when someone said something like "well, we already know the laws of physics don't work in this place, so it's not surprising that laws of biology don't either". They're outright telling us that they don't give a hoot about science, with a flimsy, bogus excuse. Bah. Back when Trek did technobabble and pseudo-science it was often wrong, but at least they made the pretense. Now they're not even doing that.

I completely agree on your (modified) Crusade wish.