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Technology Stocks : C-Cube -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DiViT who wrote (43379)	7/27/1999 1:59:00 PM
From: Black-Scholes	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

General consensus is the digital VCR won't be ready for market for another year or so. But, aren't "DVR's" by TiVO and REPLAY essentially digital VCR's? What's the difference functionally - besides being able to record onto a DVD disk and remove it from the device.

To: DiViT who wrote (43379)	7/27/1999 4:59:00 PM
From: Black-Scholes	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

I actually agree with Mr. "Slugman" over on the Yahoo thread about the trading action of CUBE. I think it's fair to say we have survived the "buy the rumor, sell the news" balderdash and from this point forward CUBE should begin a steady climb to $50 by October. CUBE is hitting on all cylinders now. The erudite Mr. "Slugman" wrote: "could this be a signal that we've hit the end of the "drop after earnings" is over? If so, that's one of the smallest drops on the highest price for CUBE I've seen in a looooong time. Anyone care to comment?"

To: DiViT who wrote (43379)	8/4/1999 11:03:00 AM
From: BillyG	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 50808

Another article--same issue of Fortune. The VCR's days are numbered...... library.northernlight.com BOXES THAT CHANGE THE WAY YOU WATCH TV A new generation of digital video recorders is hitting the market with the promise that everything your old VCR can do, they can do better. Using computer technology and an easy-to- understand interface, the devices record and play back TV shows far more easily than your VCR ever did. The big caveat is that they can't play prerecorded videotapes; if you rent movies from the local video store, you can't yet throw out your VCR. But if there's room on your shelf for yet one more electronic device, DVRs (to coin an acronym) will change the way you watch TV. Two Silicon Valley companies offer DVRs. Both boxes are about the same size and shape as a VCR except that they're missing the slot for the tape cassette. DVRs convert programs to a digital format and store them on a hard drive like the one in your PC. Playback quality is as good as or better than what your VCR delivers (the DVRs let you choose the level of quality). Both companies pitch the idea of "personal" TV viewing, as in personal computing. That's mostly hype, but the machines do make the process of recording shows a lot easier. The first system, ReplayTV from Replay Networks in Mountain View, Calif., will retail under the Panasonic brand at $699 for ten hours of recording capacity and $899 for 14 hours. The second, TiVo Personal TV from TiVo in Sunnyvale, Calif., will be marketed by Philips at $499 for ten hours and $999 for 30 hours. To keep the hard drive from running out of room, both systems automatically delete shows after a preset number of days and let you offload saved programs to a VCR. Still, if you can afford to, go for the highest storage capacity. While Replay's and TiVo's machines are similar in function, the companies have divergent marketing strategies. Replay provides free access to TV listings that make it easy to select shows to watch and record. TiVo charges for listings--about $10 a month or $199 lifetime. TiVo also has a feature that lets you vote thumbs-up or thumbs-down on programs; the company tracks your votes and eventually begins suggesting programs you might enjoy. How well do the DVRs work? I was able to connect both in less than an hour. The makers include large setup diagrams with the boxes to help you sort out the cables and connectors. There is one difference from setting up a VCR: The DVRs need a phone line to download program listings and occasional software upgrades; both units come with long phone cords in case your phone jack is across the room from your TV. Once I had the ReplayTV box hooked up, it dialed a toll-free number and downloaded the listings. Onscreen, they look similar to the listings from WebTV or a satellite system; they're in a very readable grid, and you can scroll through them without waiting for the slow crawl of most cable listings. The listings serve as your control center. To record a program, you simply select it using your remote, hit the record button, and a gold token appears next to the program's name; that's it. No more frustrating VCR programming! If you hit the record button twice, two tokens appear, meaning that the program will be recorded every week until you tell the DVR to stop. On both systems, you can search the listings for particular programs or actors and automatically record all programs that match your key words. With both systems I was able to easily record and view TV shows on standard broadcast channels. However, ReplayTV needed to control my cable box to record scrambled programs. I tried more than 50 cable-box codes from the ReplayTV manual but never found the right one. My only problem with TiVo occurred during the setup. I had to call tech support to get help picking a zip code the system would recognize so that it could supply local listings (my own zip code didn't work). Once I had the right code, the TiVo took more than an hour to download and index the listings. I had no difficulty getting it to control my cable box, however. There was an onscreen list of cable boxes; I quickly found my brand and hit the correct control code on the second try. How do the two DVRs stack up? While TiVo works hard to simplify technical concepts for the user, the result often leans dangerously close to cute. To record a program regularly, for instance, you choose a Season Pass. The thumbs-up-thumbs-down option, which I did not have time to try, suggests more monitoring of my viewing habits than I care for. I also found TiVo's program listings harder to understand than ReplayTV's. Both systems offer more benefits than drawbacks. Because the boxes are digital and plenty fast, a TV show is actually being recorded and replayed as you watch it. This means that if the phone rings during your favorite show, you can pause the action and resume watching after you hang up. I was also most happy that both systems set their clocks each time they dialed in for listings. No more flashing "12:00" to remind you of your technical incompetence. So which DVR to buy? It's a tossup. Replay's unit is slimmer; TiVo's categories make it easier to find shows. I'd look for the best price. Copyright © 1999, Time Inc., all rights reserved.