Written by James Fohl

When the popular television recording service known as Tivo was originally released in the year 1997, it met a lot of popularity a few years down the line due to the fact that it was a new technology and had no direct competitor. I mean, you could record your programs onto a VHS tape with your VCR, but you still had to program your VCR, and we all know how hard it is to program a VCR. Not only that, but the Tivo software allows you to pause live television, and even records programs that it thinks you might enjoy.

Even though the Tivo units were expensive, and they carried along with them a monthly charge, the device had a lot of people interested in it, mainly because of the fact that Tivo really had no direct competition.

Then a few years ago, cable companies, as well as satellite television companies started giving users free PVR units. PVR stands for personal video recorder, and pretty much did everything that Tivo did, but much cheaper. With the new competition of PVR (personal video recorders) and DVD recorders, Business started crumbling, and Tivo removed the device from the United Kingdom in 2002. From 2002 on, Tivo saw itself go from having a large fan base to a much smaller fan base.

Then in 2005, almost near the brink of defeat, Tivo decided that it was time to get back in to the market and make itself a popular brand again. The first thing Tivo did was the company made deals with several cable television providers such as Comcast, in which the cable companies would use the Tivo hardware instead of some other brand of personal video recorder.

With this, Tivo made a lot of new customers, but they still needed to appeal to users of other personal video recorders. Therefore, Tivo started releasing a bunch of new features on their service. The biggest of which was the ability to put recorded material on a DVD, or transfer the video directly to your laptop computer. Another great feature Tivo put into their service was the ability to log onto the Tivo website from anywhere in the world, and tell your specific Tivo unit what to record.

The list of new features, and the long list of new customers helped out, but Tivo wanted more market share. Therefore, as component prices dropped, Tivo started manufacturing new Tivo units for much less than what they used to cost. Instead of paying several hundred dollars for a Tivo unit, an interested customer can now purchase one for a mere fifty dollars, after a mail in rebate, and a commitment to one year of service.

So, Tivo a company that flourished in the late nineteen nineties and almost went belly up in the early part of this decade is back with more features, better pricing, and with the main intent of getting its market share back. If you have yet to ever hear of these wonderful things, and Tivo keeps going with its business strategies, then chances are you will be hearing about Tivo, and you might even be getting a Tivo soon enough.

You know last holiday season, one toy that everyone, from kids to adults seemed
to want were these little joysticks that plugged into television sets and allowed the user to play some favorite little arcade games from the early 1980's.


The company that made the video games so dang popular in the United States was a company by the name of Jakks Pacific. Jakks first released a joystick with popular Namco games such as Pac-Man and Galaxian, and within a few short months the company was making all sorts of money from various joystick based games.

A lot of companies took interest in these products, and started releasing cheaper imitations of the joystick in time for the Christmas season. Jakks had the rights to Atari, Activistion, Namco, as well as their own games so they really had an edge on the competition. Competitors were making joysticks with games from pretty much every old console / computer from the 1980's.

There were Commodore 64 units, Colecovision, as well as Intellivision ones. Pretty much all of them were 8-bit chips, however a few 16-bit systems were also released. The flood of these systems came just in time for the holiday season, however only one company had really produced a profit. That was Jakks, not only because they
had the coolest games, but also because their units were high quality.

The joysticks actually looked like the joysticks from Atari, and they actually felt like they were durable. The systems ran on four double A (AA) batteries, and
connected through the television using RCA cables.

When you plugged one in, and turned it on, you were greeted with a little menu that allowed you to select which game you wished to play. Once you selected the game,
you were greeted with a reprogrammed version of the game.

I really enjoyed the Namco unit. It offered some really fun games, all in a portable package for a mere twenty dollars. Gamers that actually played these games during the 80's however are bound to discover that although they resemble the original arcade games, they do have some limitations and are not exactly the same as the arcade versions of the games.

Although Jakks still markets the units, they have really cut down production over the past year. Last year's units can be found on clearance racks for under ten
dollars, while the new promised units (more games, better graphics, ect) are nowhere to be found. The other companies that brought clone units onto the market are also steadily disappearing.

So if you remember having a blast playing old Atari games, and really do not want to mess with thirty year hardware, then I suggest picking one of these great gaming units up. For less than the price of a game on the new video game systems, you get a whole retro gaming setup, complete with games and easy setup. Just be sure to remember to purchase a lot of batteries. If you like playing these games, then
you will be swapping batteries in these systems every week or so.

Written by James Fohl

Back in the late seventies, a new revolution was beginning to present itself. Cable television was making a splash, and a lot of new and exciting television shows were propping up literally everywhere. Television viewers were looking for a way that they could save and record their television shows so that they could watch them over and over again, or just be able to record the shows that they would not be able to watch due to other circumstances.

While the VHS (video home system) and VCR systems were a few years away from making their big splash, one device existed that really looked like it was going to be going places. That device, or standard was known as Betamax and was first released in 1975, a year earlier than its rival VHS was set to be released, and was released by Sony.

The format was initially called BetaMax, however when companies other than Sony released recorders / players, the format became known simply as Beta. Beta referred to a video player / recorder that used tapes to play or record media. Beta tapes were similar to the VHS videos that are common today, however Beta tapes were smaller, and produced a much sharper image due to the fact that although the Beta tapes were smaller, they used a wider tape. However Beta tapes did not provide superior audio when compared with the VHS format, due to the fact that the tape inside Beta tapes moved at a much slower rate then the tape inside VHS tapes.

When VHS first arrived on the scene in 1976, a year after the Beta format, many people believed that the Beta format was going to win, and VHS would die off rather quickly. However, VCR units quickly pulled away sales from the BetaMax format, and although Beta reached its peak of popularity in the year 1983, it soon would unravel into a downstream by the year 1985.

Today, you can not go into a video store and find any new movies on the Beta format. You also can not go into a retail store and purchase a Beta video player / recorder. Truth to the matter, is that you really haven't been able to purchase both players or videos for almost twenty years now. Go ahead and ask any person under the age of twenty five if they even know what a Betamax player is. You'll most likely be greeted with a blank stare or some totally incorrect answer.

The VHS was the clear winner in the fight, and it managed to stick around for some twenty odd years. But now, new movies are hardly ever released onto the VHS format, as the DVD format has overtaken it. Now, there is a lot of debate on what will be the next format that will replace the DVD format, which is less then a decade old. While this debate on which formats will be used continues, filmmakers should really just look into the past and realize that although you can have a bunch of different video formats, only one will be the clear winner.

Written by James Fohl

The holiday season is quickly approaching, and a lot of people are trying anxiously to get into the holiday spirit before the holiday season is over. One way a lot of people try to get into that spirit is by watching a variety of holiday movies.

Tons and tons of holiday classics have been transferred over to the DVD format these last couple of years, so if you threw out your VCR whenever you bought a new DVD player, then don't worry about missing your favorite holiday movies. Pretty much all popular, and of course unpopular holiday classics have made the move to the DVD format.

Finding your favorite holiday classics however could pose a problem. While many retail outlets have aisles upon aisles of DVD movies, it is nearly impossible to go through every and every DVD rack trying to find your favorite holiday film.

You could of course ask a sales person at one of these stores for help, but then again they do not know every movie that their store carries, and in the end you will probably find yourself frustrated.

If you are looking for a rare title, then you should not even consider looking in local retail outlets, as you will probably pay an arm and a leg for those rare titles. Instead, I suggest you start looking on the internet early for all of your favorite holiday classic films on DVD.

Let's face it, the internet has everything. You could go further, and say that the internet is everything, but let's just stick with the fact that the internet has everything. More than likely, you will easily be able to find any and every holiday film you have ever wanted in within a short hour of searching.

Just remember that you should not buy the movies you find at the very first website you find. Remember, that the internet is huge and there are probably hundreds, if not thousands of people selling the same DVD. You could purchase the movie for twelve dollars from the first site you find, and later find the same movie for around six dollars from another site.

If you do not really care if the movie you are looking for is used, then you should probably check out online auction sites such as eBay for a listing of your movie(s). There are also a lot of other websites on the internet that dedicate themselves to selling used DVDs.

If you are going to pick up a copy of your favorite holiday movie on DVD this holiday season, just remember to think about your purchase. Once again, research and find the cheapest retailer for the specific DVD, and also pay very close attention to the shipping and handling charges. You might find a movie for three dollars, but then when shipping and handling charges accumulate to twelve dollars and ninety five cents the sense that you are getting a real deal quickly fades.

So if you are trying to get into the holiday season this year, why not try a couple holiday movies? Not only do most holiday movies provide viewers with an excellent story, but they also leave the warm fuzzy holiday feeling in viewers as well.

Written by James Fohl

If you have been paying attention to the advertisements concerning new video releases, then you have probably picked up to the fact that not only are a lot of new home video releases being released in the popular DVD format, but they are also being released on something called UMD format.

If you are anything like the average consumer, you probably didn't give a second thought about the whole UMD situation. After all, you have a DVD player, and can go out and buy DVDs for it, so you are quite happy with the format.

But some people are probably curious to what the whole UMD format is about. After all, there really wasn't any big announcement about it, and electronic stores such as Best Buy do not have any huge selections of UMD players.

To start off, UMD stands for Universal Media Disc and is the format of media used in the PSP (Playstation Portable). Currently, there are no other appliances that utilize the small encased discs.

The format was designed primarily for the PSP (Playstation Portable) so that it would allow game makers and other media producers the ability to store a large amount of data in a small, cheap piece of media. Although the UMDs (Universal Media Discs) look small, they still have the ability to hold an amazing 1.8 gigabytes of data. That is pretty amazing when you consider the size of the UMD compared to a regular CD-ROM, which holds six hundred and fifty to seven hundred megabytes.

Since Sony not only releases the Playstation Portable, but also a wide variety of home videos in the DVD format, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out why Sony is releasing their latest movies in both formats.

Currently, there are more movies available for the PSP (Playstation Portable) than there are actual games. This is because it is relatively easy to convert already released videos to the format read by the PSP (Playstation Portable). Unfortunately, even though there is large list of movie titles available for the system, they are not very cheap.

Especially when you compare them to their DVD cousins. Because of the limited storage ability of the UMD format, the movies have to be compressed, and the features commonly found in DVD versions of the same films are usually nowhere to be found. Price is another factor. While you can pick up a DVD version of your favorite Sony movie, such as Spiderman 2 for $12, the Sony PSP UMD version usually is twice as much.

There are a lot of movies available for the Sony PSP (Playstation Portable), however all of these movies are also available on the superior DVD format. If you have a Playstation Portable, and have run out of games to play, then you could always go out and purchase a couple expensive movies. If however you are an avid movie fan looking for a portable video player, then perhaps you should lean towards a portable DVD player. Not only will you be saving movie on the hardware, but you will also be saving a lot of money on the movies, as well as having a much larger selection.

Written by James Fohl

With the announcement of the new iPod with video playing capabilities, a lot of people have been discussing the fact that a new media revolution in going to occur. This media revolution refers to the fact that in the very near future we are going to be seeing a lot of people carrying around devices that allow them to watch their favorite television shows and movies.

Unfortunately, devices have existed for a long time, but the only people you had seen using such devices were nerds. I mean, pocket television sets have existed for quite some time now, but you still don't see everyone walking down the street carrying one and watching their favorite television shows.

Portable DVD players are another example. Although they are a little bigger, you still don't see a lot of people riding buses or on airplanes with these things. These things are pretty cheap too, and offer the user a library of thousands upon thousands of movies, cartoons, and television shows.

Lots and lots of other handheld media players have also existed, and pretty much failed. There were the Video Now players for children, and of course the new PSP handheld gaming unit by Sony that allows people to watch movies on the go.

Now all the sudden, people think that just because Apple, makers of the popular iPod music player have placed video playing capabilities into their product, the whole media world is going to be turned upside down.

While it sounds like a great business venture, it does not really have much of a chance at taking off. Music players are successful, because you do not have to devote one hundred percent of your attention to listen to the music. You can listen to the music in your car, while jogging, or even while shopping.


Portable video players have failed because well, you have to give them your full attention. You can not watch a movie while you are driving or going for a jog through the park unless you are extremely talented. Instead you have to sit down and devote your attention to the little tiny screen of the iPod.

If watching something on your iPod is going to require your complete attention, then why not give your complete attention to a television set? I mean, a TV screen is a lot bigger than a little three inch display of an iPod, and you will be able to actually see what is going on.

So really, will the new iPod video make a revolution in the media world? Probably not, considering that the iPod as a music player has been a revolution since it initially came out in 2001. People will purchase the new iPod for its music playing abilities, and probably will only ever use the video feature a couple of times to show their friends. In the end, its just a novelty feature that delivers more attention to Apple and their impressive line of digital music players; which is exactly what they want.