The Ipod and DVR: Product Reviews

By Keith Boykin, in pop culture
Wednesday, January 7 2004, 1:48AM

In the past two months, I've gotten two new pieces of technology that have literally changed my life: an Ipod and a DVR. The Ipod has changed the way I listen to music, while the DVR has changed the way I watch television.

40 GB Ipod

I bought the Ipod in November at the new multi-million dollar Mac store in Soho. After asking the salesman if there were any new models coming out soon, I put aside my fears of buyer's remorse and purchased the top of the line 40 Gigabyte hard drive Ipod.

I had no idea Apple was planning to release a new mini-Ipod, which was just unveiled this week. The mini will hold 1,000 songs on a 4 GB hard drive at a cost of $249.

The 40 GB Ipod holds 10,000 songs, far more than I had on my computer at the time, but I figured why not pay a few extra bucks for a product that will last that much longer before it becomes obsolete. I would still recommend the 40 GB Ipod over the mini Ipod. You get 10 times the power for only $150 more.

I purchased a rubber protective "skin" from CompUSA that helps protect the Ipod from damage. I recommend also buying a clear protective plastic sheet to cover the LCD screen.

Once at home, I realized I needed to install Firewire onto my computer in order to transfer music rapidly between my computer and my Ipod. I bought Firewire at CompUSA in Columbus Circle and took it home and installed it myself. You have to remove the cover from the computer CPU to install it. Incidentally, my computer is a Dell with Windows XP operating system. Ipod and ITunes work on PCs and Macs.

With Firewire installed, I was finally ready to start transferring music from my computer to the Ipod. It worked surprisingly quickly, transferring all of my music to the Ipod in just minutes. Unfortunately, some of my old MP2 music files do not work on Ipod, so I had to find and copy the original CDs to my computer in MP3 format.

I've also lost a few CDs over the years, so I decided to replenish my music collection using Apple's own music store, ITunes. That was a big mistake for me and a big win for Apple. Two hundred sixteen songs later, I realize I need to get control over my ITunes spending. It's very simple and addictive. You search for the music you want, listen to it, click a button and it's yours. The music automatically transfers to your computer and your Ipod at the meager cost of 99 cents a song. And the best part is it's all legal.

One drawback to ITunes is that there are apparently some listening restrictions to the music that's purchased online. I haven't run into any problems yet, but I understand you can only transfer or copy the music a certain number of times.

Despite the drawbacks, I still love ITunes. I have to resist the temptation to buy new music every time I go to the site, but it's a great way to collect individual songs from albums you would never buy. I bought several of my favorite show tunes, a few one hit wonders, and, in the spirit of Christmas, "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch," by Boris Karloff. I also bought the old Jackson 5 hits, some James Brown, B.B. King, Village People, Moby, Elton John, Grace Jones and Marlena Shaw's classic "Go Away Little Boy."

ITunes doesn't have everything. I couldn't find Bad Bad Leroy Brown (Jim Croce), Nature Boy (Nat King Cole), America (Neil Diamond), Kung Fu Fighting (Carl Douglas), Jack and Dianne (John Cougar Mellencamp), Ain't No Stopping Us Now (McFadden & Whitehead) or anything by Ledisi. I also couldn't get American Pie by Don McLean without buying his entire album, which I didn't want.

But I did buy 216 other songs that make me happy.

As for the Ipod itself, I have only minor complaints. The headphones are not great, the LCD screen is too easily scratched and some users have complained about the 8-hour rechargeable battery life. So far, my battery seems to work well, able to last for hours of use in play or to last for days if not played.

The Ipod allows you to create an unlimited number of playlists that you generate on your computer and then transfer to the portable device. I have 66 playlists now, including 70s music, 80s music, 1-hit wonders, beach music, bedtime music, show tunes, love songs, exercise music, Latin music, divas, jazz, opera, classical, hip hop, country and R&B. I even have a playlist of 25 "gay songs" including Elton John, George Michael, Meshell Ndegeocello, Prince, the Village People, Right Said Fred, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Queen and Sylvester.

After a few months of adding music to the device, I now have 4,317 songs on my IPod (my entire music collection). That's 12.9 days of continuous music and it only takes up 16 GB of space. In other words, even after dumping all my music into the Ipod, it's still not even half full.

The 40 GB Ipod retails for $499. Ipod is manufactured by Apple Computer but works on Windows or Mac.

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Digital Video Recorder

I have long coveted Tivo but I knew I would never spend that kind of money for a fancy video recorder. The idea of taping multiple shows or pausing live television appealed to me because I don't like to watch television that much. Whenever I do turn on the TV, there's not much on. I would like to control the options so I only have to watch what I want to watch.

Enter DVR. DVR stands for digital video recorder, a box that can literally record anything you want to watch on TV. It's pretty much the same as Tivo, but I gather it's less expensive. Throw away those extra blank videotapes. You don't need to have them with a DVR unless you want to save something permanently.

With DVR, you simply use your remote to select the programs you want to record and the DVR does the rest. You don't have to figure out all the times the program comes on. If you put in the name of the program, you can tell the DVR to record only first-run shows or to record repeats as well. You can record an entire series or a single episode. You can even record a show if it appears out of its time slot. DVR will find it for you and record it if you want.

Of course, one of the big selling points with DVR is the ability to pause and replay live TV. I used that feature several times when I first got it, but now I don't need it as much. Seems like it would be a great feature for big sports fans though.

Here's a likely scenario where DVR comes in handy for others. You're watching your favorite television show when the phone rings and your boyfriend calls. Do you (a) ignore your boyfriend and continue watching the show, (b) answer the phone call and mask your resentment that your boyfriend is making you miss the best part, or (c) answer the call but continue watching the show instead of paying full attention to your boyfriend?

With DVR, the answer is simple. You press the record button on the remote, turn off the TV and talk to your boyfriend. When you finish your phone call, you go right back to the show. You don't have to find a tape to put in the VCR. The DVR is always ready to record.

One of the reasons I chose to get DVR was because I don't want to miss the few TV shows I like just because I have a life outside of the house. Of course, a normal VCR could have sufficed but my VCR never worked with my cable service. I actually think it was a clever plot by Time Warner to make their cable service incompatible with standard VCRs in order to drive customers to the DVR service instead.

In any event, DVR is dangerous for much the same reason that Ipod is. It's not the cost that concerns me; it's the addiction. In the first two days after I got the box, I had recorded something like 20 hours of television, which is more than I would normally watch in a week. (The DVR box holds up to 35 hours of television programming in its memory.)

With the power of DVR at my fingertips, I started taping shows I don't even watch just in case something might come on that I like. I taped the Today Show, The Tonight Show, The Ellen Show, The Oprah Show, The Daily Show, The NBC Nightly News, professional wrestling and a few of the programs I actually do watch regularly. It was way too much TV. More than I could ever watch.

After overdosing on DVR for a few days, I settled into a more manageable routine where I taped my favorite programs that I normally don't get to watch. I taped The Simpsons, South Park, Frasier, Seinfeld reruns, Saturday Night Live, Mad TV, The West Wing, Law and Order and 60 Minutes.

That's still way too much TV for me, but I discovered the beauty of DVR is that I don't actually have to watch TV. Just knowing that I can watch anything I want at anytime is joy enough for me. And I don't feel obligated to watch the whole show either. I fast forward past all commercials (I'm sure the advertisers hate that feature) and I stop when I don't want to watch any more. When I go back to the show later on, the program resumes where I left off. You can't beat that.

The Time Warner Cable DVR box costs $8.95 a month and requires digital cable service.

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