Friday, November 28, 2003

I dropped by Radio Shack on Tuesday evening. I had my mind made up on getting a digital video recorder. I saw a “Now Hiring” sign by the door and wondered if I had what it took to work there.

There was a young employee I had not seen before. When asked where a certain product was, he answered annoyed, hinting out that he had already answered that question. When asked about the cell phone deals, he said something like, “It’s all there,” suggesting to the customer that he should read the pamphlet for details. Then when I asked if they had DVRs of a certain capacity, he seemed not to know what I was talking about. Nice.

Radio Shack had outdated versions of the ReplayTV I sought, so I went to Circuit City. At Circuit City, I grabbed the product I needed, and when an employee came to me, I asked her where the ethernet cables were. She asked another employee where they were, and he took us to the USB2 cables. When told that was something else, he next pointed to the serial cables. No, he didn’t know what we were looking for. Again, nice.

Finally we had them. The original employee who came to my help said she needed to do something. My business was left in the guy’s hands. He took me to a cashier, and initiated the process of checking out. Looking at the price of the item, he asked, “So what is that thing anyway?” I explained to him that it was so and so, and it does such and such. Aren’t these people supposed to know what products they offer?!

He wasn’t done processing my order when the first employee showed up, and said, “Wait a minute, I was going to check out his items.” The man stepped aside, and she took over, re-initiating the whole process. He stood behind her, shocked at how rude she had been. Heh, the evil of commissions.

So yeah, I bought myself a digital video recorder. It’s the ReplayTV 5504. Why?

On weekdays when I don’t have to go to CSUN, I spend the day looking forward to being home, resting, and watching “Chespirito” at 8pm. Then when 8pm comes, I’m either adding an entry to my blog, talking to Nicole, doing homework, or about to fall asleep! I end up missing the show.

Then there are the many soccer games that I can’t watch because they may take place while I’m at work, at CSUN, or at the park. Because I don’t want to deal with VCRs, I’m forced to wait for the news in order to see video-clips of a particular game.

Then there are those Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays when the stuff on TV is not of my interest. Instead of being forced to watch “Paid Programming,” I could watch a pre-recorded show on my DVR. If while watching the pre-recorded show I get sleepy, I turn it off knowing that when I turn it on again it’ll be exactly where I left it. In addition, I could skip through minutes of commercials in seconds.

The only thing I don’t like is that for some reason, closed-caption is not handed well. Even though a show may support CC, the text may not show up, or it may show up garbled. It does work sometimes, though. The lack of full-support for CC is the only reason why I’m considering returning my DVR. I have trouble understanding what’s being said on TV, no matter how loud it may be — unless it’s in Spanish. More than anything, I’m paranoid of missing a word that may be the heart of a punch-line.

I can see people disagreeing with my reasoning for having bought a DVR. But see, these people spend hundreds of dollars on cell phone bills, movie-going, or eating at fancy places. I’ve lived without any of those things for a long time. So what if my spoilage comes through the purchase of things most people wouldn’t care to buy?

K, it’s time to go jog at the park. When I return, I’ll play a Cantinflas movie that I recorded yesterday. 🙂 And when I’m done, there’s Seinfeld, Three’s Company, The Simpsons…

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