Public Address | Cafe | Radiation: On the PVR

Ben Austin

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 02:47:28 +1200

I actually watched some tv this last month and also got foolishly trapped into watching one of those dammed "it got cancelled before the story arc was finished tv series but we still purchased it 6 months later for you to get attached to then hjave to read the wikipedia…

Amy Gale

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 02:11:36 +1200

Sadly, Drive has already been cancelled (don't you HATE HATE HATE the way NZ stations buy and screen shows they already know have been eliminated?). It had Melanie Lynskey in it, too.

matthewbuchanan

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 17:23:48 +1300

Right, I'd only seen the 7-episode set here, thanks for the info.

Graeme Edgeler

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 17:16:51 +1300

The Region 4 DVD set is just the 7 episodes too.

No. R4 got the original version and the 3-disc 10-ep "special edition", with its bonus features.

Both were released the same day, but for some reason (in Wellington at least) the special edition was available from ?Sounds? only for…

matthewbuchanan

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 15:41:45 +1300

TV One screened the series as originally made available.

Hmm, that makes sense. The Region 4 DVD set is just the 7 episodes too.

Graeme Edgeler

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 11:53:09 +1300

not the edited 7 eps that screened on TV One a while back...

That's a little unfair. TV One screened the series as originally made available. The ten episode version is basically a director's cut they produced when the show was well-received.

I note that according to their website, however,…

Russell Brown

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 11:30:53 +1300

And we seem to be getting the full 10-episode deal, not the edited 7 eps that screened on TV One a while back? At least, I think that's the case, I'm sure there's footage this time round I don't recall seeing last time. Very compelling.

Yes, it's the 10-part version.…

Span .

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 10:09:42 +1300

Keith, I wonder if the recent spate of comic book movies have softened the mainstream audience's attitude to sci-fi.

I enjoyed Heroes too, but I'm wondering what they will do once they solve the first crisis...

Keith Ng

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 01:13:56 +1300

(Slightly late in the thread, but hey:) Heroes is awesome! It's the first show since Lost that's been able to pull off this degree of intrigue, and on an unashamedly sci-fi premise. Has there ever been a sci-fi show that's this mainstream?

And speaking of PVRs, has anyone had experience…

Graeme Edgeler

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 11:13:51 +1300

there really has been absolutely nothing on the telly

Um... Terry Jones' Medieval Lives (replacing Midday when there wasn't tennis), 'though I'm not sure what episode they're planning for today, because they've gotten through the whole series...

Only-been-on-twice-before episodes of The Simpsons (replacing CLive).

Dickens in America ('though maybe this…

matthewbuchanan

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 11:01:27 +1300

Like Long Way Round, the one where Ewan MacGregor ... and his mate Charley Boorman travel across Kazakhstan, Russia, Mongolia etc. Bloody fantastic.

And we seem to be getting the full 10-episode deal, not the edited 7 eps that screened on TV One a while back? At least, I think…

Fiona Rae

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 10:30:33 +1300

Fee, did you mean Carly Flynn?

Probably I did; the bland, cheerful one. Call me old-fashioned, but all these girls changing their names when they get married seems odd to me. Unless you had a really dorky name and your new name is cool or something.

12%??? I dream of…

James Griffin

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 20:58:30 +1300

12%??? I dream of 12%! When you get to the Sophie's Choice situation where the infernal machine tells you 'if you want to record the Ugly Betty pilot then you must sacrifice that episode of Lost you're sure will make sense of everything' then you truly know you have a…

yossarian

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 15:15:43 +1300

As one of Matt's friends who is doing this I'll answer some of the Tivo related questions

Matthew, do the people running TiVos locally have to manually switch Sky channels on their boxes in order to record the different shows? That's the most frustrating thought of buying a PVR -…

Gary Hutchings

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 14:41:28 +1300

do the people running TiVos locally have to manually switch Sky channels on their boxes in order to record the different shows? That's the most frustrating thought of buying a PVR – oh and the EPG problem.

Short answer, yes, longer answer, not necessarily if you are determined

You can…

matthewbuchanan

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 13:35:16 +1300

Matthew, do the people running TiVos locally have to manually switch Sky channels on their boxes in order to record the different shows?

Yep, what Russell said :-)

Rachel Cunliffe

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 12:48:25 +1300

Thanks Russell, hadn't heard of the infra-red solution, will look into that.

Russell Brown

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 12:37:24 +1300

Matthew, do the people running TiVos locally have to manually switch Sky channels on their boxes in order to record the different shows? That's the most frustrating thought of buying a PVR

I've seen a TiVo running locally that has a little infra-red device that sits over the IR window…

Rachel Cunliffe

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 12:16:02 +1300

Thanks Fiona for the link up.

Matthew, do the people running TiVos locally have to manually switch Sky channels on their boxes in order to record the different shows? That's the most frustrating thought of buying a PVR – oh and the EPG problem.

matthewbuchanan

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 11:58:41 +1300

in accessable format (which I'm assuming the sky pvr and Tivos generally don't have)

I have several friends running TiVos locally, and yes they are able to grab shows off them – they're just big Linux boxes really. The Sky PVR has no such capability though, the only accessible output…

matthewbuchanan

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 11:51:38 +1300

Fee, did you mean Carly Flynn? Our PVR lives its life at 12%!

Rob Stowell

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 11:38:45 +1300

Can you get dvd HD recorders that accept g-code? Could be the way to go.... I like the possibility of moving stuff I might want to keep- (or rip to Xvid or something) off a HD in accessable format (which I'm assuming the sky pvr and Tivos generally don't have).…

Danielle

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 11:37:20 +1300

12% free? I call that 'heaps of space'. We constantly hover around the 2-5% mark. What I really need to do is quit my stupid job and spend my entire life watching reruns of The Amazing Race. (Damn mortgage.)

Jeremy Andrew

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 11:07:41 +1300

Now if only someone could come up with a solution to the EPG access problem, then us Skyless ones could get our own PVRs to play with.

I'm not geeky (or skilled) enough to do what one guy I know did and import a UK spec Tivo and hack together…

Craig Ranapia

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 10:23:14 +1300

And Jane Espenson – curse her talented little typing fingers – also has a fascinating blog, even if you've zero interest in writing for television, as well as co-writing another epsidoe for BSG set to air next month (available here when the season three DVD box comes out, I guess).…

Craig Ranapia

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 10:11:43 +1300

I'm not quite sure what to think about Heroes – I agree the pompous opening narration has to go, but it's just hiitting all the X-Men cliches a little too neatly (teen angst, unhappy families, the lawman whose abilities see him suspected of a horrible crime, the eerily smart kid,…

Russell Brown

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 09:52:54 +1300

Good news, fanboys and girls: Nathan Fillion has a new show; and the lovely Jane Espenson has penned an episode of Battlestar Galactica.

What about the Firefly MMOG? Will it really suck as much as people say?

Public Address

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 09:52:54 +1300

Discussion from blog post.