Sorry, I should have used tape
The simple plan would have been the old, tried and true VHS recording, but I had a better idea. Why not jump straight to digital format, and record the requested program using my laptop. It had worked before. Famous last words in the technical world.
Last year, we purchased a little dongle that allows recording cable TV directly to the computer hard drive. The locally available device was the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 950Q which Future Shop just happened to have on sale. It even worked. With the software available on the laptops that see regular use, anyone who wanted a solo TV session just had to jack in an enjoy. Recordings were acceptable, and the whole point was that it was easy enough to be useful.
Until tonight. I’m in that widescreen world known as Vista, where surprises are part of the package. This evening, given that other family members were out, I agreed to tape Infoman. Now, I’ve “got some ‘splainin’ to do”. The program simply wouldn’t run. I did a simple reinstallation, got the correct channel up on the screen, hit record and walked away to do something else. When I came back, the realization that absolutely nothing had been recorded brought home the sad reality – technology isn’t here for us.
Stubborn to a fault, I completely removed all traces of the software and drivers and began again. After a good session in patience therapy, my next attempt to “tune” left me worse off than in the beginning. I’ve lost all configuration files, and the tuner doesn’t even see the cable feed. My PVR is back to “a future implementation”. But why?
The only thing that changed recently was the installation of a program for one of the MP3 players that we have around the house. Lacking empirical evidence, I still think that the new kid on the portable simply overwrote some important detail involving digital video, and my mission will be to test what happened. Useful; not. Reliable; not. Part of the real life technical experience; for sure.
