I've been very impulsive lately.

As I mentioned last night, my HD DVD player lost it's ability to upconvert standard DVDs.  This morning I received a sign from a higher power that I could not refuse.  Walmart is offering a $100 gift card with the purchase of a PS3.  Now, the sale ad makes you think that the gift card must be used to purchase Blu-ray disks, but at least in our case, we just got a standard walmart gift card which we can use on anything, including the diapers we would buy from walmart anyway - so for us, it was very close to getting a PS3 for $299.  Not a bad deal at all.

I was very pleasantly suprised to see that the PS3 has built-in WiFi.  I'm downloading the latest firmware right now.  Not having to buy yet another standalone wireless dohicky was a huge win.

The other positive suprise was blockbuster.com's ability to up-convert my entire queue to blu-ray with a few clicks.  I guess they are gearing up for more people to take the plunge.  They certainly didn't have a similar option when I first got my HD DVD player.

Ok - I admit that I chose the wrong side in the HD DVD vs. Blu-ray war.  That's the risk you take when you are an early adopter.  I'm cool with all that.

Now, the one thing I could take solace in was the fact that my Toshiba A20 was still a reasonable upconverting DVD player.  Sure, it takes longer to boot the damn thing than all of my computers combined, but once it is running, it does a good job - until today.  It seems that it has lost the ability to spit out audio on the HDMI line.  Of course, I need HDMI to upconvert.  With the component connection, I get great audio - but a 480p picture.  Grr.

It appears that the blu-ray player may need to be purchased sooner than expected.  I'm not about to buy a standalone upconverting DVD player.

This evening, I was talking to Nate on Twitter about TiVos.  I thought it would be a good excuse to document some of my thoughts and experiences.

First of all - I have tried the Cable Company DVRs - last summer I was on a waiting list for 3 months for a unit to become available and once it arrived, I ran it for approximately 3 days before unplugging it.  I've tried software DVRs - Media Center as well as Beyond TV.  Simply said, nothing touches TiVo.  Not even close.  I've missed a total of two shows over the past 5 years due to glitches - another couple before I got the hang of adding an hour to recordings on Sunday evenings on the station that carries the NFL games.  With the volume of TV I watch, that isn't bad at all.  I get very very few duplicates, thanks to TiVos smarts of not recording an episode that has been recorded during the past 28 days.

I recently added a 2nd TiVo to the house - a nice Series 3 that I got a good deal on as a refurb unit.  I was skeptical of purchasing a refurb unit and with good reason - the first unit that they sent had a faulty OLED display and had to be sent back.  TiVos customer service was incredibly professional and helpful.  They gave me the option of cross shipping, which I chose and got a very speedy refund when they received my exchange unit.  Getting the CableCARDs working was a bit of a challenge.  The first two truck rolls to my house resulted in only 1 functioning tuner, after which the local office refused to send anyone else.  I finally had to write a letter to the designated FCC complaint contact for Time Warner, which got the problem resolved in about a weeks time.  Since then, Time Warner has made several courtesy calls to make sure that I was still happy.

Here's the facts that you need to know if you're going to consider buying a TiVo.

• It will be more expensive.  You obviously have to purchase the unit, but you also have to pay a monthly fee of $12.95.  Your cable company will charge you a couple bucks a month for each CableCARD too.
• You may not get every channel you would get if you had cable company hardware.  Specifically, you need to watch out for HD channels on Switched Digital Video (SDV). This depends on the area - I've never run into it, but supposedly it is going to be more common as cable companies roll out more HD.  There is a hardware solution in the works in the form of a dongle, but it is not reality yet.
• On demand or PPV is not an option yet.  It may be in the future with the dongle, but dont hold your breath.  If this is important, you can always get a cable box for this purpose.
• Reasonably sized cable companies are required by the federal government to help you get CableCARDs.  You will read horror stories on the internet.  Be persistent.  Know your rights.  Do your homework and don't be fooled by the FUD and you will be fine.
• Check out Tivoblog and tivocommunity for all the information you could ever want.

So, I'm sitting down this evening to get a couple of things done, one of which is subscribing to a magazine that I'll need when I finally finish the basement remodel.  The subscription price is a very reasonable $12.97.  I fill out the form and when I get to the credit card information, I realize my wallet is across the room.  Now - I usually don't fall for the "bill me later" option when subscribing to a magazine.  If I don't pay for it now, I'm pretty sure that the invoice will get lost amongts all of the "we know you just subscribed, but this is your REALLY REALLY ABSOLUTELY FINAL OFFER TO RENEW AT THE GUARENTEED LOWEST PRICE IN THE HISTORY OF LOWEST PRICES" post cards.  The invoice will go unpaid and I'll be a bad periodical reading citizen.  But this time I decided to be a lazy shit, throw caution to the wind, and check the "bill me later" box.  Submit.

I'm greeted with a "WAIT!!!! You selected Bill Me Later" screen.  Ahh, catch time right?  They want me to pay extra for the bill me later option, right?  Nope.

They offer me an even lower price to pay with a credit card right now.  The $12.97 subscription is now offered for $10.97.  Now that got me off of my ass to get my wallet.

Sometimes being lazy pays off.  Time to go work out.