Monday, July 10, 2006
17:37 by FoxTwo
2 years on, the DVD drive on this appliance failed. It would no longer be able to read any DVD disks, even the commercial, LEGAL ones. It keeps telling me the disks are "non-standard". So I call up the service centres, described the problem in detail, and since my unit is already out of warranty, asked them for an estimate of the repair costs including labour and parts.
The reply - $380.00. Yes indeed, it is an estimate. The reason given was that "the drive unit alone costs $300.00".
Aw man who the heck are you trying to kid? That drive is a previous generation DVD burner. The maximum speed it burns at is 2x! For $380 I may as well get a brand new unit altogether!
Then I started to wonder - what's missing? Yes, I am just missing the ability to burn whatever shows I have recorded off the TV onto a DVD. So, if I get a TV Tuner/Capture card for my PC, wouldn't it work the same way? After all, the tuner card would receive the TV programmes. I could record them onto the PC's harddisk (250GBs). If I wanted to edit out the commercials, easily done with any of the available video editing tools out there, or use the ones that mgiht come bundled with the tuner card.
And, burning the shows I recorded to a DVD from my PC is a snap.
Cost of a TV Tuner card? $80.00 on average. I might even splurge and get a TV Tuner card that can do High Def TV, and that will only run me about $150.00 to $200.00.
So, somehow I think I won't be getting the unit fixed. Nor even get a new unit to replace this one.
17:37 by FoxTwo
Incredulous Service Rates... *pengz*
2 years on, the DVD drive on this appliance failed. It would no longer be able to read any DVD disks, even the commercial, LEGAL ones. It keeps telling me the disks are "non-standard". So I call up the service centres, described the problem in detail, and since my unit is already out of warranty, asked them for an estimate of the repair costs including labour and parts.
The reply - $380.00. Yes indeed, it is an estimate. The reason given was that "the drive unit alone costs $300.00".
Aw man who the heck are you trying to kid? That drive is a previous generation DVD burner. The maximum speed it burns at is 2x! For $380 I may as well get a brand new unit altogether!
Then I started to wonder - what's missing? Yes, I am just missing the ability to burn whatever shows I have recorded off the TV onto a DVD. So, if I get a TV Tuner/Capture card for my PC, wouldn't it work the same way? After all, the tuner card would receive the TV programmes. I could record them onto the PC's harddisk (250GBs). If I wanted to edit out the commercials, easily done with any of the available video editing tools out there, or use the ones that mgiht come bundled with the tuner card.
And, burning the shows I recorded to a DVD from my PC is a snap.
Cost of a TV Tuner card? $80.00 on average. I might even splurge and get a TV Tuner card that can do High Def TV, and that will only run me about $150.00 to $200.00.
So, somehow I think I won't be getting the unit fixed. Nor even get a new unit to replace this one.
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