New Gadget

Alas, it is mid-year reporting season at school, so I seem to have endless work to do.  Sock knitting barely gets a look in.  But I got a new gadget on Friday afternoon - a digital set top box with hard disk recorder, so now I can record television programs on both the VCR and the PVR ("personal video recorder").  Just don't ask me when I'll supposedly watch the stuff I record...

So far I can only watch ABC and ABC2 on the digital box.  SBS is supposed to be broadcasting digital TV here, but I can't get a signal, even with manual tuning to the supposed frequency, and I can't find anyone locally who has a digital box and has managed to tune into SBS.  (Unless I can find someone who has actually tuned into SBS, I can't start blaming the aerial or other possible problems.)  The remaining channels (NBN, Prime and Southern Cross) aren't due to begin broadcasting digital TV here until October-December this year.

I'm really happy with the digital TV because the reception quality is substantially better than analog.  I mostly watch ABC and SBS so if I could get SBS I'd be really happy.  And yes, I have the set top box connected to the television through my VCR, as is my DVD player (I'm glad the VCR has enough sets of inputs!).  I will replace the 'family heirloom' 1978 colour television eventually, but it is still going strong with relatively good picture quality.  I've been waiting five and a half years for the picture tube to suddenly and catastrophically fail, and it hasn't happened yet.