Free TV and HP Windows XP Media Center Edition

Published by: anonym 2010-03-19

I did a search for cheap personal video recorders and found the site http://www.Free.TV Is this site for real? They have a verisign seal, but do not accept credit credit cards ( I guess cuz they are FREE) - Do they use Windows XP Media Center Edition on the HP or Linux like the video disk recorder at http://www.cadsoft.de/vdr/? I guess my real question is the viability of these entertainment products. My buddy had a Tivo, but heard a rumor their business is shaky and they chage monthy service fees. The new HP with Windows XP Media Center Edition looks great but EXPENSIVE! www.Free.TV looks like a great deal, but I do not know anything about this company. I found

Media Center has room for improvement - Daily Breeze ::
Microsoft's ambitious Windows XP Media Center Edition shows promise in combining living Microsoft, HP show future of TV, computing with Media Center PC.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P2-15685825.htmlHOME

There were some things at the free.tv site that might give one pause. http://free.tv/signup/how_does_free_tv_work.asp "You even get to exercise your patriotic duty and vote how much you like each ad, so that the bad ones are shown less!" I don't believe it is anyone's patriotic duty to vote on advertising. While one might consider it a patriotic duty to vote in elections for public officials, it does not follow that it is a duty to vote for beauty pageant particpants, American Idol contestants, dog show winners, M&M colors, advertising, or anything else. This raises concern because a company that is willing to make that rhetorical leap may be willing to take other liberties with their offering. It may be the case that the item is "free" in terms of dollar cost, but what about non-dollar costs? Just be careful that you aren't giving up anything important to you, like your privacy or your time. You also ask, are products like Tivo or Windows XP Media Center Edition viable. I think it is clear that people want to record shows, and apparently find short-term recording easier with Tivo or other Digital Video Recorder than with a VCR. It is likely that DVRs will continue to develop and decrease in price over time. The Windows XP Media Center is a little different, in that it is offers DVR features and regular computing. The product manager for Windows XP Media Center says that subsequent releases of the software may not require the purchase of a particular computer, meaning you could install it on an existing computer provided you have the minimum hardware requirements. That might bring down the cost substantially. You can add similar DVR features to your computer now by purchasing an ATI Radeon All-In-Wonder video card. They range in price. The All-In-Wonder have "Video In" and "Video Out". Make note of this since other models have "video out", but you need "video in" for DVR functions. All in Wonder Radeon Base Model, around $80: http://mirror.ati.com/products/pc/aiwradeon/index.html All in Wonder Radeon 9700 Pro, around $360+: http://mirror.ati.com/products/pc/aiw9700pro/index.html Check prices at http://www.pricewatch.com/

zackthom... FreeTV is for real. They do not, as yet, seem to be very popular. They are using the same concept which worked (for some) to provide free internet access via a free Internet Service Provider - that is, it is paid for by advertising. The FreeTV general terms, below, elaborate on the ways to satisfy these advertisers, including viewing, voting on, and answering questions about the ads while watching TV, and ads which will appear in your internet browser. Free.TV Terms 1. These terms are subject to change and modification 2. These terms are not legal qualifications. They written in general language for better understanding, and are not meant to be legally binding for you or Free.TV. When you sign up for the Free.TV service we will send you complete marketing package with more specific terms 3. No part of the Free.TV web site or marketing literature is meant to be a promise of services or products, and does not obligate Free.TV in any way 4. We will work to provide Free.TV to everyone, however the Free.TV service may not be available in all areas, due to regional laws and regulations, or due to technical concerns. 5. The Free.TV computer (set top box) must be purchased (see our products). We will refund the purchase price upon successful completion of the terms. If the terms are only partially met, then only a percentage may be refunded. 6. The full range of services is based on the deluxe Free.TV set top box. Other set top boxes may offer limited abilities. 7. You have to watch a certain average number of commercials a day. There are different levels of achieving the required average: a. Just viewing the entire ad and not changing the channel b. Vote on the commercial using your remote control c. Answer a few questions on the commercial 8. Free.TV only pays the regional average for basic television services. If you want premium channels or live in an area where cable / satellite service is more expensive, you have to make up the difference. However, because of so many people are signing up for Free.TV, we have special packages available at a lower cost 9. Whenever you use Free.TV Internet service, we will display special ads just for Free.TV customers. The Free.TV internet store will become your new home page, where you are guaranteed to find the lowest prices. 10. The video games and other software are free on a trial basis for a limited time, after which they may be purchased for continued use 11. We do make certain summarized reports available to our partners, but we will never sell your personal information on an individual basis. We value you as a customer and as a person. The following are the set top boxes available, but note that only the Deluxe model comes with all the features, as noted above. Bargain ftv01-2000a-bgn01 Easy to use $350 Standard ftv01-2000a-std01 Great Value $675 Deluxe ftv01-2000a-dlx01 All the features + the best deal $999 Additionally, you must pay for the unit up front, and will be rebated only upon competion of terms: "Free.TV give you a rebate upon successful completion of the terms" These specific terms are not published on the website, but are mailed with an information package which is sent after you sign up on the website. Based on similar types of discounts, offered by Qwest, e.g., you can expect to be required to commit to the system for a period of (guessing) AT LEAST 2 years before receiving your rebate, with a pro-rated rebate for less than the complete term. I was unable to find any satisfied customers of the service by searching for comments in Google Groups. Also, if you click on the VeriSign logo on their page, you will see that their status with VeriSign is 'Expired': https://digitalid.verisign.com/cgi-bin/Xquery.exe?Template=authCertByIssuer&form_file=../fdf/authCertByIssuer.fdf&issuerSerial=8f33b8502f6b48b5fce6c3c16536ff64 Summarizing, I would say this type of service is not for everyone. You would have to have an astonishing tolerance for commercials, and $999 up front to invest for a couple of years. I suspect there are other inconveniences which would be revealed upon reading their mailer materials. It is also highly unlikely that you would have access to the contents of the built-in hard drive for the sake of archiving recordings you had made, but that's just an educated guess. And they don't seem to be doing well enough to update their Verisign status, which isn't a good sign. Searches done, via Google: service site:www.free.tv ://www.google.com/search?num=50&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=service+site%3Awww.free.tv via Google Groups: free.tv http://groups.google.com/groups?num=50&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=free.tv&sa=N&tab=wg If you need further assistance, please feel free to post a request for clarification BEFORE rating this answer. sublime1-ga