New toy!

Freecom DVB-T USB Stick

Just bought a new toy, the Freecom DVB-t USB Stick. It's a tiny, USB digital TV receiver. Worked brilliantly at work yesterday (sixth floor, Windows 2000) so now to try and get it going at home (ground floor, Linux). Nice piece of kit, and finally this kind of thing is becoming reasonably priced!

I bought this because, while there's plenty of good stuff on British TV, the schedulers all seem to be smoking crack. At the prime times, when I'm likely to be watching telly, they run terrible reality and lifestyle programmes. Movies all seem to kick off after 10pm, meaning you're up after midnight to watch it. And the best stuff, targetting at the yoof market, is all on Friday and Saturday nights; times, one would think, when the yoof are all out and about, no?

So with this piece of kit, I'll be able to record it and watch it at leisure. Homechoice does timeshifting of some programmes, but it's mostly soaps and crap. Worst of all, they timeshift BBC TV news (lousy and very dumbed-down) but not Channel 4 (excellent and informative, with the wonderful Jon Snow). So I'll be timeshifting that.

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