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    Tech At Home

  • Contributing editor Michael Desmond goes feet-up on the coffee table to tell you what you need to know about the latest in home electronics.
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Tech at Home: High-Def Recording Hassles

Michael Desmond

Mike's Rants and Raves

Illustration: Zach Trenholm
Do-It-All DVD Recorder The Malata DIVA-2 crams a DVD-ROM player and an all-formats DVD±RW recorder into a single chassis. It won't let you copy DVDs directly; I checked. But you can connect the S-Video out to the S-Video in with a cable and make sneaky dubs of DVDs that way.

You can even stream videos and TV shows from the Internet (served up by Malata's own service) to your PC using the DIVA-2.

I Want My HDTV! Here in Burlington, Vermont, Adelphia Cable offers about five channels of HD programming for an extra ten spot each month. But the lack of over-the-air HD channels here means I'll have to jump to DirecTV to get its exclusive NFL Sunday Ticket package.

DirecTV costs more than Adelphia, offers fewer HD channels, and saddles me with an annual contract and more than $300 in setup costs. Time was, you could order Sunday Ticket á la carte, but no more--it's all package deals.

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