Mossberg Reviews Beyond TV in today's WSJ

[jglev]

... and it wasn't pretty!

http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/solution-20040414.html

[stanger89]

Because this bundled product is really two products that are only loosely integrated, we had to endure multiple tedious installation processes -- one for the Hauppauge tuner, one for the most recent tuner hardware updates, and a third installation of the Beyond TV 3 software itself.

I don't know, last time I tried BTV it wasn't an harder than any other software I tried. It almost sounds like they were trying MythTV as opposed to BTV. Kind of makes you wonder with statements like this:

Though we are very experienced at setting up and using computer products, we each had to make multiple calls to the company for help.

[Hercules]

That review is total crap; I really believe the man to be an idiot if he can't figure out a few kinks in software.

That, and he didn't even take the time to mention alternate softwares (ie, SageTV) that make this software concept look good, instead of as bad as BTV does.

[mlbdude]

PC PVR is not for the average mom and pop user. It is still a techie only thing. I think that is the most important lesson from the review.

Something to remeber when mom comes and asks for a Tivo and you suggest SageTV . Of course mom has you for that 24x7 phone support.......

Mom got a Tivo.

[Brett]

Yeah the review is a bunch of crap and completely installation bias. But you summed it up pretty well mlbdude its not for the average mom and pop user .

-Brett

[stuartambient]

seems in line with most of the reviews of pc based pvr'ing I've seen lately. In particular, 3 from PC Magazine over the last few months. The reviews though are weak and only serve the perception that computers don't make good pvr's.
One good step, if there are any software developers listening is to do exactly what Tivo and Moxi and all the other weird boxes that are popping up now - proprietary / modified OS with the pvr, music extensions as a layer on top of it. Of course compatibility is still an issue for the hardware side.
So! another thing that I'd like to see - Now that motherboards have gone from basic cpu / chipset , etc to onboard audio, lan, video out, why not add some mpeg2 / tuner capture chips.
Alright end of rant.

Stuart

[salsbst]

In the end, his is a target audience composed of people who are very impatient with technology and just want it to work. People who take technology seriously usually don't read his columns because we aren't in his target audience.

Sometimes he says things that just make me mad. At one point, he advised people to avoid Windows 2000 and stick with Win98! I blew my top and wrote an angry email to him. He responded with something that basically said, "People who can configure Windows 2000 properly are not in my target audience." I think that someone who cannot install Windows 2000 definitely shouldn't mess with an HTPC.

[Cayars]

I wonder how they actually got through to them multiple times. The average person can't get through to them 1 time on the phone.