OK, here we go again. Yes, it ’tis the season for devices to break for unknown reasons. First my Tungsten E2 went south for no reason at all. Then just for good measure, my ReplayTV began to go on the fritz. Well, it seems that I will be ‘gifting myself’ here as I am sort of attached to both devices.

As for the Palm, forget it. I will tell you what alternative I am going with however, coming up tomorrow. Moving on to my DVR: Well, let’s just say that another ReplayTV unit is being sent rush delivery as I type this. Oh sure, it could happen again I suppose. And yet I just cannot blame this one on ReplayTV. In the back of my head, I believe that it was just bad luck. Having said this, if it happens again…well, then the you know what will fly. Besides, they offered to have it repaired on their bill, but I would still have to ship it initially.

It is interesting though. The first sign of trouble was the show I would be watching was freezing. Having seen this with TiVo before, I called it either bad data or a bad drive. Either way, totally repairable. Then I see that some shows are not recording thanks to no video signal. It was at this point that I figured that I need to take some sort of action. After consulting with ReplayTV, I opted to simply buy another unit. Oh in case you are wondering, you are not likely going to see them refurbish their stock anytime soon either. No, I fully expect that their decision to go software only (really bad choice, by the way) will encourage them to make this Chrismas the last time you will see a unit from them again.

Now, a few of you might be thinking that I should just go over to TiVo. And you know what, that is something that I seriously considered doing. Unfortunately, getting the thing networked takes an act of Congress and you still need a landline phone to set up for the first time. I am mobile only, so that won’t work. Besides, TiVo is so weird about their networking. Even if you manage to find one that will actually work, there are other challenges to consider besides that.

Anyway, all is well and I fully expect to have everything back up and running here very soon. See you all tomorrow.

[tags]palm,dvr,tivo,replaytv,tungsten e2[/tags]