Over the course of 7 years I have built what I consider to be one of the finest home cinema systems available but thats not to say that there isn't room for improvement. I already have a comprehensive wishlist of planned upgrades for the future but what makes someone like me want to try and improve something thats already great?
The answer has to be, What if?
I have recently been dabbling in the field of home automation and looking at the benefits of systems like X10. Anybody not familiar with X10 should check out the website Lets automate found in my links section. It looks fantastic, Immagine walking around your house and not having to switch on a light, its all done automatically as you leave one room the light goes out, as you enter the next the light goes on. You could also remote control the kettle on whilst watching TV however you would still have to get up in order to pour it out. It is also possible to remote control any electrical appliance On or Off at the touch of a button anywhere in or out of the house. The system I am going to try will automatically activate the upstairs lights whenever someone approaches the house giving the impression of someone being home. Take a look for yourself at lets automate.
TIVO My latest addition
The most recent addition to my System has to be my Thomson Tivo. Tivo is a hard drive recorder designed to organise and make sense of the many programmes we can receive with multichannel programming. Tivo records in almost DVD quality MPEG2 and has the option of variable recording qualities ranging from bad to great, the second to highest works best and offers 19.5 hours recording capacity. Tivo works by allowing the user to scroll through upto 2 weeks programming lists and select programmes to record at the touch of a button. Programme data is kept up to date by making a daily call to Tivo's servers at 0800 rate and time changes of programmes are rescheduled automatically. Tivo also allows the user to Pause live TV during interuptions for up to 30 minutes allowing you to timeshift your programming for instance if the phone rang. I have been using the Tivo service for about 3 months and have to say that it has changed the way I watch TV. I am no longer slave to the television, If the phone rings I can pause the TV. When I get home at night I just press the Tivo button on the remote, this brings up the main screen. From the main screen I select the option "Now Playing" and a list of all my recorded programmes appear, I can then select any programme and wach intsantaneously without having to search. The only thing Tivo is unable to do is record 2 channels at once however it is able to record a programme whilst I watch something it has recorded which is fantastic. I can set season passes for soaps and 3+ part episodes and never miss a showing again. I would recommend Tivo to anyone with a multichannel package, its independant so you can use it with Sky, ITV Digital, Cable TV, Analogue terrestrial unlike Sky +
The Tivo Recorder costs �299 and the subscription is �10 per month for service updates etc
there is also the option to purchase a lifetime subscription for �200 which is what I have done.
Those users waiting for DVD recorders might find tivo an even better alternative as it does so much more and is so much cheaper. Tivo can even be hacked to accept larger drives to extend capacity and they even direct you from their site to forums on how to do this. A five star rated gadget.
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