With a year to go until analog TV broadcasts give way to digital, the federal government on Tuesday started mailing $40 discount coupons for digital converter boxes to consumers who requested them.

Do you need one? And if so, do you really need one now?

Only consumers with older analog TVs who get their programming solely over the air — not through cable or satellite service — will need to plug their rooftop antenna or pair of rabbit ears into a converter box.

If you use an antenna to watch television, your older set won’t work after Feb. 17, 2009. One year from now all over-the-air TV broadcasts will be strictly digital.

Analog TV is going away and your old television can’t receive the new digital TV signal. So, if you use an antenna to watch TV, you’ll need to buy a digital converter box for your older TV.
As a side note if you use satellite or cable, you aren’t affected.

Converter boxes will sell for $50 to $70 and the government will even help you buy one.

They will send households two coupons to buy converter boxes good for $40.

It’s not too often the government offers you $80 to watch TV! To request a coupon, consumers can apply online at www.dtv2009.gov. The government also has set up a 24-hour hotline to take requests, 1-888-DTV-2009 (1-888-388-2009).

The coupons will start arriving in mailboxes late this month. You’ll have your choice of at least 15 different brands.

You could decide to just buy cable or an HD capable TV but, don’t forget about those extra TV sets you have in your bedrooms and kitchen. If they’re not digital or hooked up to cable or satellite you’re going to have to get boxes for them.

Here is a list of eligible boxes.

The NTIA will maintain a list of approved CECBs to distribute to consumers and participating retailers.

The following is the list of approved CECBs.

*The manufacturer has indicated that these models are capable of passing analog signals through to the TV set.

We have had a TiVo S3 for about a year and it was working great. Then one day it started tiling and pixelating on certain channels. We run Cox Cable, Phoenix area, and have the HD package also. The tiling was on the lower channels 62 on down.

This started about the middle of last December, they could not fix it until now. Basically it took them 2 months to get it fixed. We had about 10 repair visits, supervisor inspections, billing problems, new cable runs and all kinds of other stuff done.

Just check out everything they did.

1. Came out, decided the powered signal booster was too high. Removed it. No fix
2. Came out, decided they needed to replace all the splitters and recheck all cables, No fix
3. Came out, decided they needed a power booster, no fix and other TV’s now no longer worked.
4. Came out, decided they needed a new dedicated cable ran directly to the TiVo without sharing the source. No fix, but they billed us for a new cable run.
5. Came out, decided the last guy didn’t hook up the other splitters right, rearranged, no fix.
6. Came out, decided to replace the two single source SA cards with one Multi card. No Fix and now we can’t use the dual tuner function.
7. Came out, decided the “levels” were to high, reduced them to the TiVo S3, no Fix
8. Came out, looked at the system, decided they needed to call a supervisor to discuss. Never got a call back.
9. Came out, tried attenuators, to reduce the levels, tried a 3, 6 and 9 reducer. All kinds of combinations. No fix.
10. Came out. Decided to replace both cards, with multi stream cards. Guess what? Fixed it!!!

It has only been a few days since it has been fixed, but we have also not have the black TV channels like some others report. So hopefully all is good!

We want to that Kirt at Cox for figuring it out and not stopping until it is is working! We will definitely recommend him to all TiVo S3 owners in the Phoenix area!

If you are having a problem, and yes, after all of this, we have heard there are tons of people having TiVo S3 problems with Cox Cable. Have them check your cards, and replace them with multi channel cards before wasting a ton of your time!

Yahoo has struck a deal to send its existing subscription customers to Rhapsody music service from RealNetworks.

The shift will occur sometime in “the first half” of 2008 and leave Yahoo Music Unlimited’s payment plans and music libraries in tact for customers “for a limited time.” Eventually, Yahoo’s legacy customers will be required to sign up at Rhapsody’s relatively higher rates of $12.99 per month (Yahoo charged $8.99 per month or as little as $5.99 per month for a year paid in full).

To be clear, Yahoo Music will continue to offer streaming audio, music videos, web radio and other advertising-supported music offerings while integrating Rhapsody into its online portal. Only the subscription service is being shut down.

But I have been told.

“After you migrate to Rhapsody, the wireless Yahoo! features on your Sansa Connect device will no longer work. You will still be able to upload Rhapsody subscription tracks onto the device using the Rhapsody Music Software when you connect the player to your PC. “

This is very disheartening news, and furthermore, it destroys the very reason Sansa Connect users bought the players. I’ve asked for more details on this decision, but in the mean time, is it possible it’s time to ask Sandisk for refunds? Is a class-action lawsuit possible?

So, do you still think that the subscription model is a good thing? Just wait, the shake-out has only begun.

NEC, the Japanese electronics manufacturer, recently unveiled a new concept phone that uses fuel cell as power.

The handset is apparently named NEC Flask Phone and, at a first glance, it looks like a giant lighter that Bigfoot might really love (if he exists and if he smokes). At a second glance, things seem a bit more serious, as this device is said to pack some sort of a touchscreen that also has the role of a keypad. The phone has a transparent case that allows users to see how much fuel is consumed, thus knowing when to recharge, and it’s intended to be a device that perfectly integrates advanced technology and simple but elegant design.

There are no technical details regarding the Flask Phone concept, so we don’t know much about the nature of the fuel powering it or about the features the phone has to offer.

Although it seems a concept meant to be only a concept, the NEC Flask Phone might be ready to hit the market before the end of 2008, as the Japanese company is confident that such a phone can be created. Of course, there is no info on how much it would cost, nor about the countries that can get it, but if we are good fellas, this year’s Christmas Santa might come with a mobile liquid surprise for us. And, why not, for Bigfoot too.

SanDisk has a new Sansa View 32 GB Video MP3 Player coming out soon. I am told this will be released on March 15, 2008!

This new Sansa View comes with 32 GB of built-in memory. That’s about 8,000 MP3 files or 48 two-hour movies. The device also boasts a MicroSD/SDHC card slot, which supports cards of 4 GB or higher, so you can swap in an endless amount of media.

The Sansa will give you up to 35 hours of music (or 7 hours of video) on a single charge, and is conveniently charged via the same USB 2.0 connection. So you can use this to transfer files to the device from your PC.

You can also use Windows Media Player to manage your files.

The new device supports MP3, MPEG4, WMA, WAV, and non-DRM AAC audio formats, as well as MPEG4, WMV, and H.264 video formats, so you can feed it all kinds of media.

It will also be compatible with the 35,000-plus audio book titles available at Audible.com.

The Sansa View features a built-in microphone for voice recording. You can use it to capture notes, meetings, lectures, or any other application you might need.
It also will record from the built-in FM radio, which features a digital tuner with 20 user presets.
The Sansa View will also display JPEG photo files up to 16 megapixels. Take your favorite images with you anywhere to share with others.

This is some sweet stuff! Can’t wait to try it out!

How about you? Going to wait for this to be released?

An innovative plug-in for BitTorrent that boosts your download speed

BitTorrent Acceleration Patch is an innovative plug-in for BitTorrent. Architecture of the program is designed to permit you downloads of MP3s, and other desired files at highest speed.

Bandwidth of your Internet connection is managed as efficiently as possible and BitTorrent Acceleration Patch will help you find more sources to download.BitTorrent Acceleration Patch is a BitTorrent plug-in that allows you to download MP3s and movies.

Here are some key features of “BitTorrent Acceleration Patch”:

· Automatically resumes paused downloads;
· Configuration from last run is saved and auto loads on start-up;
· Clean and free, without any adware or spyware;
· Finished and wrong files are cleaned automatically;
· Finds more sources at user-specified intervals;
· Interface is easy to use and good-looking;
· Interface is easy operable by a system tray icon.

Requirements:

· BitTorrent installed;
· Internet connection.

This is the free standard version of the program which can be upgraded to the feature-rich version by pressing the Buy now button.

Limitations:

· nag screen

What’s New in This Release:

· Performance enhancements and some bug fixes…. [ read full changelog ]

Download BitTorrent Acceleration Patch

If you’ve been following my high-def disc news (here, here, and here), you’ll notice that I’ve been busy.

After more research, I found out that there are now three “profiles” for BD players; more info here.

Since the standalone player I had was a 1.0 unit and had no way to update to the new profile, I returned the Sony BD player and got the safest one—the PS3. Of course, not only is it a great BD player, it is also a good media center and can be loaded with Linux and used as a computer. Software updates for the PS3 are a click away.
Oh, and it plays games, of course.

I get this question a lot, especially from Ipod users. If you are deciding on what to buy in a MP3 and video player, check this out.

The Sansa® View is a video MP3 player with a vast array of features and generous capacity, and has a great price. It’s available in 8* and 16* gigabyte capacities, and has the finest MP3 player attributes with full-motion video support (typically found in larger portable media players (PMPs)), a larger screen, long battery life and generous capacity—all in a thin, easy-to-carry package.

An MP3 player at its core, the Sansa View comes equipped with all the soup-to-nuts features typically found in the Sansa audio line. The backlit scroll wheel and vibrant 2.4″ widescreen display make it easy to navigate to: a music library; video collection; digital photos; digital FM radio with 20 pre-sets; an integrated microphone and voice recording, and Audible audiobooks.

This thing is loaded with all kinds of stuff.

Check out the video!

Click here to see all the Sansa news