VCR grumble

[cellio]

Last week, although the VCR made all the right noises and light-blinks, we did not get West Wing. It did its thing for an hour but the search backward for the beginning took seconds and produced only a brief bit of new material before cutting out. I borrowed a tape from a coworker and recorded the episode onto that tape, so the media itself did not seem to be at fault. Since then I recorded another show using that VCR (different tape), so the VCR is not exhibiting a general problem. The programming is just fine.

It happened again this week. WTF?

So I'll see if I can borrow a tape again (sigh), and I'll retire the current tape even though a VCR-to-VCR copy onto it worked fine. (Tape's cheap, but this spoils my sense of orderliness.) And I just had an idea and have programmed another VCR to also record the show, lest it happen a third time.

But I really don't understand the failure mode.

Comments

[tsjafo.livejournal.com]

I've seen TV cards you can get that will let you watch TV on your computer. You can even record shows as .mp3s and replay them on your DVD player if you have on that is compatable.

[cellio]

I've heard of that too. And I've heard people talk about downloading current TV shows, though I don't know from where. I assume it's some sort of peer-to-peer thing that I'm just not hooked into. But if anyone reading this could throw some hints (URLs, Google fodder, or whatever) my way so I could get this missed episode, that'd be wonderful.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Torrents (http://www.torrentreactor.net/sections.php?id=170).

[tsjafo.livejournal.com]

I don't know about down loading or peer-to-peer networks, but this is the type of card I have.
http://www.hauppauge.com/

[cafemusique.livejournal.com]

Best way is to use a BitTorrent client (I've recently switched to Azureus, which I like better than the "official" BitTorrent client).

For links to TV shows, the site I use these days (they tend to have a short life) is http://www.tvtorrent.info/ Each episode usually appears within a few hours (by the next morning at the latest) of broadcast.

I'll be heading there, because I was at a concert tonight. And, actually, I can't remember if I watched last week's show. Oh, wait...was that the one that was centred around Vinick? I know I started it...don't know if I finished it...think so...hmm...

[jducoeur]

I assume it's some sort of peer-to-peer thing that I'm just not hooked into.

The quickie summary from my layman's understanding: BitTorrent is based on the observation that most people have very fast download capability, but relatively slow upload, plus the desire to farm out the work due to both legal and speed considerations.

So basically, it slices a show into a whole lot of little pieces, and distributes them around the network. When you ask for the show, a variety of Torrent servers work together to feed it to you as fast as your pipe can handle it. And as part of this, you're supposed to run the software yourself, to help others. (The client and server are closely linked.) Very elegant and effective architecture, even if the primary application is somewhat legally questionable.

Separately from that: get a DVR. Since getting ours (a rather nice Panasonic that doesn't require any sort of monthly service fee), we've started to understand just how annoying dealing with the VCR is. DVRs are much more elegant, and a DVR that *also* writes DVDs is a wonderfully useful tool...