MDs on techno's cutting edge are crazy about their digital video recorders. Just like a VCR? Hardly. One of these babies could change your life

By Lucas Rosa

Doctors like to keep up with developments in the electronic world as much as anyone. Given the bewildering variety of devices out there from digital cameras to PDAs, it can certainly be a daunting task. As soon as you become familiar with one technology, another replaces it.

TiVo is something you've likely heard about and dismissed as some kind of new-fangled VCR. It might be time to reconsider. Listen to what an Ottawa Ob/Gyn has to say about his family's device. "We got one last December and it's literally changed our lives. Except for a hockey game here and there I never watched television. Now we sit down as a family four or five times a week � that's more time than we've spent together since we stopped changing diapers � and watch shows we all really want to see. And guess what? No commercials."

Combined with a satellite dish or cable or even an antenna, the digital devices allow users to easily record TV shows for later viewing. Because a digital video recorder puts programs on a hard disk, users can access whatever part of a program they wish. You can even program them to automatically search out and record shows by title or even an actor's name.

Does this sound suspiciously like a VCR to you? "It's not the same at all," says the Ottawa specialist. "I'll give you one example, you can record a whole season of shows with one click of the button. You watch whatever you want, whenever you want."

A Halifax nurse and her husband who run their own information technology consultancy couldn't agree more. They jumped on the bandwagon early. The devices first came out in 1999; they installed one in conjunction with their satellite receiver in April 2000. She says, "I've recorded every episode of Sex in the City since. I work shifts and I can watch them anytime I like. How great is that?" Her husband, a big football fan, adds that he generally watches the CFL season during the winter. "I'm not crazy about hockey and the fall is my busiest time so I record them all, erase the games I don't want to see and watch the ones I do, fast-forwarding the boring stuff. I recommend it to everyone."

Indeed, word of mouth is the way most new devices are sold. Despite the fact that converts are messianic about digital video recorders, they're still relatively rare even in the US where only 3.5 million households out of 108 million with a television set have the devices. That's somewhat surprising considering that they're inexpensive in the pricy world of electronics. A base unit TiVo goes for just over $200 with a monthly fee of $20 or less depending on the signal supplier. Some cable companies lease recorders as part of the boxes. If you're a real tekkie, you can use your computer as a digital recorder. Windows XP Media Center can do the job. One word of caution � TV shows eat up a lot of computing power and disk space.

WIRELESS TELEVISION
TiVo is here and now, something that's about to debut in the world of television sets is Sharp's new Aquos LC-15LIU. It's a 15-inch, liquid crystal display set that's wireless.

At almost five kilos, it isn't exactly light but that's because of the batteries and the technology it packs in so you can, for example, watch videos and be connected to your cable or satellite as you wander about the house. The price isn't light either, at about $2,200, or about $1,400 more than a 15-inch LCD TV with a plug. Still, those who've tried them say there's a certain delight in moving from bath to bedroom viewing the latest DVD beamed up from a silver box from your living room. Wireless is the hottest seller in electronics right now and some predict that TVs without cords will be the next big thing.