Dave Mathews is constantly giving his opinion of hardware and innovative products or services. Spend some quality time here learning before you spend your hard earned money!

Hi Tech Toys for the Holidays - Network Broadcast:

TiVo - Personal Video Recorder (PVR) - Dave could not live without his TiVo. With its Linux operating system giving it the ability to find and record "types of shows" he can catch all of his boat and car shows without a TV guide! Tivo scours television, recording the programs he likes and plays them just like a DVD while blasting through commercials! Note that this unit has an RF input and output for the TV and cable tuner, plus Composite and S-Video inputs and outputs for capturing just about any signal!  Check Stand alone TiVo

Second Generation PVR - The idea of DirecTV satellite tuners converging with PVR's like the TiVo is awesome. These feature two tuners so you can record or watch multiple programs at the same time and even view a third recorded stream from the hard drive simultaneously! These save the DSS "digital bits" right as they come down from the satellite. This means the programming retains its previously compressed quality and even keeps the Dolby Digital signal if it is available! Note that these units have no RF or composite inputs - only outputs so they cannot record cable TV! Check DirecTV with TiVo

Portable MP3 Player - Dave's favorite portable MP3 player has 64MB built in memory and voice recorder! It uses SmartMedia, but he says do not worry about the format, they are all about the same in cost.  Check Creative Nomad IIc

Digital Still Camera - His favorite digital camera is the Nikon Coolpix 880 for its portablity, great battery life and fast USB downloads!  Check Nikon CoolPix 880

Digital Video Camera - A favorite personal digital video (DV) camera is the progressive scan Canon Optura 100MC with a VERY small size and 1.33 Megapixel digital camera with a real shutter. Photos are stored on an SD memory card!  Check Canon Optura 100MC or Buy it and Save!

Home DVD Player - The top pick DVD player for price and performance is the Pioneer 434 with Progressive scan, DTS and the ability to play home made DVD-Rs and CD-Rs which few players can do!  Check Pioneer DV-434

Wireless 11 Megabit Networking - If you have a laptop or two at home, forget cable networks and go with this 11 Megabit 802.11b/WiFi wireless setup!  Check ORiNOCO Wireless

Home Phone Networking - The cheapest way to setup a shared PC, printer and Internet network is with Home PNA, or Phone line Networking! At 10 Megabits and under $40 per PC!  Check Netgear phoneline 10X

Home Power Networking - You can also share PCs, printers and Internet over your power line with Home Plug 10 Megabit Networking! Check HomePlug Adopters

Favorite Unix Operating System - Dave has been playing with FreeBSD (this site is running on it) and Apple's OS-X which is his number one favorite!  Check www.freebsd.org and www.apple.com/macosx

Flatbed Scanner - The Canon 660U offers USB scanning, a single backlit negative slot and XP drivers. Check www.usa.canon.com

Laptop Low Tech Gadget - Don't leave home without the CoolPad!  A lazy-suzan for your laptop.  Check www.roadtools.com

PC Security - U.Are.U is a USB fingerprint reader to secure your PC and offer auto logon for XP.  Check www.digitalpersonal.com

Cheap Software - A great way for students to buy software.  Check www.journeyed.com