Personal Video Recorders Get With the Program

Microsoft has given up its quest to sell millions of set-top boxes that connect TVs to the Internet.

Its new goal is to sell millions of set-top boxes that can digitally record two channels simultaneously, pause and rewind a show as it’s being broadcast, instantly replay any scene, provide an interactive program guide . . . and incidentally, connect a TV to the Internet.

Those are the features of UltimateTV, a new line of Microsoft products the company hopes will have the same primacy in home entertainment that its software enjoys in home computing. The first is shipping to retailers after several months’ delay, taking the form of an RCA satellite TV receiver for DirecTV.

The product is better than Microsoft’s previous effort at a combined satellite receiver and digital video recorder, the DishPlayer 500 for DishNetwork. But it faces strong competition from the Philips and Sony DirecTV receivers with the TiVo service, which offers far more help in finding and recording shows than the RCA box does.

All three devices sell for about $400, not including the satellite dish. And in either case, users have to pay $10 per month to activate the recording features, in addition to the $22 to $88 per month they pay for programming.

A side-by-side comparison between the RCA UltimateTV receiver (model DWD490RE) and the Philips DirecTV-TiVo unit (model DSR6000) found the two models indistinguishable on such basic issues as picture quality and recording capacity. But the differences in other key areas gave each receiver a distinct and significant advantage over the other.

For UltimateTV, the killer feature is two built-in satellite tuners that make it possible to watch one live broadcast while recording another. TiVo counters with a far superior programming service, better remote control and a more user-friendly approach.

In other words, the RCA unit has better hardware, the Philips receiver better software. That’s not surprising, given TiVo’s long head start over Microsoft in the TV-recording business.

Consumers can expect Microsoft and TiVo to improve their software and deliver upgrades electronically, but the hardware won’t change.

By summer, owners of the Philips box might be able to record one channel while watching a live broadcast on another, thanks to new software being developed by TiVo. But those consumers won’t be able to watch two channels simultaneously or do other picture-in-picture functions. That would require new hardware.

Basics and Setup

UltimateTV and TiVo are two of the three leading brands in the emerging field of personal video recorders, which store programs on built-in hard disk drives instead of removable video cassettes. The other is Replay, which was excluded from this comparison because it’s not available yet in a satellite or cable TV receiver.

Their ability to record and play back simultaneously make these devices an improvement on VCRs in several important ways. You can pause a show in mid-broadcast, run off for as long as 30 minutes, then pick up where it left off. Can’t make out a line of dialogue or disagree with an umpire’s call? Instantly replay it.

Playing back a recorded program is much easier than with a VCR. For one thing, you don’t have to wait for the recording to finish before watching a program from the beginning. For another, there’s no rewinding or scanning through tapes to find the start of a show--an index makes each of the recordings available with a few taps on the remote.

Once the satellite dish is installed, both units set up easily with the help of on-screen guides. The main challenge is connecting the many wires needed to take full advantage of the receivers.

Aside from the time spent stringing the wires, the RCA receiver takes only a few minutes to get up and running. The Philips, however, has to go through a lengthy downloading ritual to prepare TiVo’s program guide.

Watching TV

The RCA and Philips units each store about 35 hours of programming, recording shows digitally with no appreciable degradation of picture quality. Pictures can be sharp and rich in detail, but they also can be blotchy, depending on the amount of compression applied by DirecTV.

One difference between the two is that Philips is always recording whatever channel it’s tuned to, while the RCA box records only when instructed. The Philips feature comes in handy when you turn on the TV and discover an interesting program already in progress. You can either skip back to the beginning and watch from there, or hit the record button and save the program in its entirety.

The RCA box, however, has a picture-in-picture feature that lets you see the video from one channel or recorded program while watching and listening to another. The PIP window is small and cannot be moved from its position in the lower right corner, but it’s easy to make the programs in the two windows swap places.

The two tuners in the RCA box also let you record two channels simultaneously, something no single VCR or personal video recorder can do. With a tool like that, you no longer have to choose between “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” and “Mystery.” It’s a perfect response to network executives who make popular programs compete in the same time slot.

The Philips receiver has but one satellite tuner, so it can’t record or display two live channels at the same time. However, you can watch a stored program while recording a live one.

The RCA receiver also provides speedier rewinds and fast-forwards when playing recordings, and it can jump ahead in 30-second increments--ideal for skipping through commercial breaks. With the Philips box, viewers have to fast-forward through a slide show of commercials.

Finding and Recording

The feature that really differentiates the Philips receiver from RCA’s is the amount of help TiVo provides in finding programs.

Both boxes provide a basic program guide, an electronic version of the grid in the newspaper. The Philips box superimposes the grid onto the show you’re watching, while the RCA shrinks the picture into a small window and displays it at the top of the grid.

With both boxes, you can search for programs by date, channel, genre or keyword. In Philips’ case, you also can search for programs by keywords within a particular genre, making it easier to find what you’re looking for.

That’s pretty much it for the search tools offered by UltimateTV, but TiVo goes much further. On its central menu are more than 30 sets of programming suggestions compiled by TiVo, individual networks and the receiver’s software, all due to be broadcast in the next week or two.

The TiVo service also suggests and automatically records programs based on what the user tells it about his or her tastes and favorite channels. That’s done by pressing a “thumbs up” key or a “thumbs down” key on the remote one to three times.

It’s hardly precise--giving “Law and Order” three thumbs up, for example, can prompt the receiver to record a bunch of crime docudramas off of Court TV--but it’s more entertaining than annoying. And occasionally it’s quite useful. For example, if you give three thumbs up to the first part of a miniseries, chances are good that the box will record the rest even if you forget to program it.

Finally, TiVo enables users to create recording “wish lists” based on a word that might appear in the description of a program. For example, you can create a “Sophia Loren” wish list to record every appearance by that actress.

Both boxes offer to record every episode in a series if a viewer wishes. But the TiVo service can follow a show to a new time slot; UltimateTV does not.

The RCA box also is hampered by an oversized remote control whose buttons often take seconds to elicit a response. This is particularly true when trying to call up the home, guide or search pages. RCA officials say it’s a software problem that they hope to fix soon.

Interactivity

Included in the fee for UltimateTV is three hours of online service, which can be used to send and receive e-mails from the RCA receiver, browse the Web or try out interactive TV. This is a version of Microsoft’s WebTV service.

The amount of interactive programming available to UltimateTV users is extremely limited, with only 15 programs and two 24-hour networks--the Weather Channel and MSNBC--listed in the guide. Be forewarned, the built-in dial-up modem can take several minutes to connect.

As more programming becomes available, the interactive side of UltimateTV might become more compelling. The dial-up modem will always be a problem, however.

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Times staff writer Jon Healey covers the digital living room.

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The Skinny

DirecTV receiver with UltimateTV

Price: $400, or $450 with satellite dish, plus $10 per month

Manufacturer: RCA

The good: Displays or records two channels simultaneously, skips easily through commercial breaks when playing back recordings

The bad: Unresponsive and oversized remote control, users can’t automatically record favorite shows when they air in different time slots

Bottom line: A moderately priced, high-capacity digital recorder that adds one exceptional feature to the standard roster

*

DirecTV receiver with TiVo service

Price: $400 without the satellite dish, plus $10 per month, or $200 lifetime

Manufacturer: Philips (with a similar model by Sony, not reviewed)

The good: Extensive programming recommendations, automatic recording of shows based on the viewer’s likes and dislikes

The bad: Can’t watch a live program while recording on another channel, can’t get picture-in-picture

Bottom line: A polished programming service that makes it easy to explore the far recesses of the 500-channel universe