Heron Fidelity

For more than two years, my TiVo Series3 HD Digital Media Recorder has faithfully captured my every televised whim.  About a year ago, I upgraded the Series3's 250GB hard drive to a relatively spacious 1TB model (thank you MFSLive!) and in no time my Season Pass list expanded to 50-some items - at any given moment there were approximately 200 standard- and high-definition recordings saved on the drive.  There is no way that I had time to watch all of that content, but it practically guaranteed that I would have something I wanted to watch available 24/7.

I've never been satisfied with my TiVo's network performance using the TiVo Wireless G Adapter - file transfers were inconsistent (i.e. slow, halting, or failed altogether) and I've yet to successfully view an HD stream from Netflix's Watch Instantly service (SD streaming was fine).  My PlayStation3 using the same wireless network from approximately the same location in the room has never had an issue streaming Netflix's HD content.  In a effort to diagnose my Series3's sluggish network performance, I've decided to start clean by "Clearing and deleting everything."  From there I plan to reinstall/retest the wireless adapter and compare the results to using a wired connection.  I'll post my findings as soon as possible.

I recently completed my latest HDTV buyers' guide for PCMag.com and it's chock full of information that will help guide shoppers toward finding an affordable TV that provides the best viewing experience for their particular room environment - how, where, and when you watch TV is often as much an influence on picture quality as is the performance and configuration of the TV.