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Blu-Ray DVD integration with existing Bose Lifestyle 25 (1 Viewer)

CB750

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Michael,

I am one of the few on this forum that will stick up for one at least one Bose product. I have owed a set of Bose 901 Series II which I purchased new in 1974 for $400 and still use them for stereo music listening. As far as I am concerned the 901's and the 800 PA speakers were the only Bose products that were any good. The problem with the 901's were that many rooms in the average home did not have the proper reflective surfaces required by their design and they had to be set up very precisely within that room to perform correctly. Many wife's disliked the fact that the speakers had taken over layout of their family or living room. As a result of management change and bowing to the wishes of wife's and interior designers Bose developed the first of their cube systems which could easily be hidden in just about every room. They marketed their product in with specially produced audio tracks that sounded great in the store but were not the same audio products available to the public.
I have noticed that Bose cubes are about the only product that people feel free to complain about even white van specials tend to get more respect. This is due to the fact that the cost of the Bose Cubes are way out of whack with the quality of the product.
One thing people tend to forget is speakers are very subjective in evaluation. Your Bose Cubes will work with all of your new equipment but you are not going to get the benefits in audio quality from your new Blu-ray and HD cable. But it will be no worse than what you are currently experiencing. Down the road you might want to check out what you are missing and see if it is worth it to you upgrade.
 

Joseph DeMartino

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I am one of the few on this forum that will stick up for one at least one Bose product. I have owed a set of Bose 901 Series II which I purchased new in 1974 for $400 and still use them for stereo music listening.
Actually, I find very little bashing on the 301s, 901s or other non-HT speakers from Bose, here or elsewhere. The disrespect is almost entirely limited to their mini-cube HT Lifestyle and similar systems. Which is one reason why I specifically excluded speakers like the 901s from my comments above:


the Bose HT systems (we're not talking about Bose direct/reflecting stereo speakers, here) are a triumph of marketing over reality.
(Emphasis added.)

So it isn't so much that you're one of the few who will defend the 901s, it is that they are not what most people are thinking about when the name "Bose" comes up, and they are almost never relevant to the discussions in which it does - which are pretty much always about their overpriced, underperforming, glorified "home theater in a box" systems. Why defend the 901s when nobody is attacking them?

Regards,

Joe
 

I looked into Tivo (thanks, David!), but I'm not sure they have a product that will work with Comcast Houston. I think I'm stuck with the Scientific American DVR that Comcast offers.
As for Bose, I guess I started that, but I don't see the sense in spending good money for something I already have. I'm aware there are improvements out there, but I already *own* the Lifestyle 25. I've had it since '97. It works fine and the sound quality is decent, an improvement over the built-in sound from the TVs. From my point of view, my Lifestyle 25 is *free* and it's already installed. Any new surround sound system better come with free foot massagers and an ice cream dispenser for me to spend money to upgrade.

I came looking for a Blu-Ray solution; I was unaware there were no Blu-Ray players that also record until yesterday. I like the Tivo solution if it worked with Comcast (the local Best Buy says they do not sell a DVR that works with Comcast; if true, the Tivo probably won't work). Right now I'm leaning toward just keeping the DVD-R so my wife can archive old TCM movies if there's not a better option.

Insert any additional Bose bashing into this little box: [ ]
 

Joseph DeMartino

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(the local Best Buy says they do not sell a DVR that works with Comcast; if true, the Tivo probably won't work).

I would take any technical advice that you get from a Best Buy employee with about a pound of salt. I can't think of any reason why an HD TiVo would not work with Comcast. I have Comcast here in Florida and my old SD Series 2 and Series 3 TiVos worked just fine, thank you. Moving up to an HD TiVo plus the service isn't in the cards for me for budget reasons (partly because most of my cable cost is now covered in my condo association fee thanks to a new bulk-buying agreement), but if money were no object I'd do it in a heartbeat. What the Blue Shirt was probably thinking was that Comcast's interactive services won't work with a TiVo if you just run the cable from the wall and plug it into the back of the unit - which is perfectly true. That's why there are cable cards. You get two of these from Comcast for a two-tuner HD TiVo (and insist that since both are going into a single DVR to provide access to their services you should only be charged for one) and you should be good to do with ordering pay-per-view and other On Demand stuff with your remote. (Or, if that isn't a big issue with you, save a couple of bucks, skip the cable cards and order pay-per-view by phone instead. The rest of your HD cable service should work just fine. There is no such thing as a DVR that flat-out "won't work" with a given cable company that I know of, at least not in the U.S.)

Regards,

Joe
 

Robert_J

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Most cable companies are idiots about this as well. If you have trouble activating your TiVo, they will work with the cable company to get you set up.

Yes, it is more expensive to use TiVo but the benefits are worth it to most people. I still run my DirecTiVo (a combination DirecTV TiVo box) as well as my DirecTV built DVR's. DirecTV has equivalent features of the DirecTiVo but can't compete with the stand alone TiVo models in features.
 

David Willow

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Actually, you only need one card now (the Premiere only has one slot). All current cable cards are now "M Cards" that allow multiple streams (tuners). Comcast gives you the first one for free. If you want more, I believe they are $2.99 per month.

The Tivo will work with Comcast in Houston. They will have to set you up with a cable card (they may do it or allow you to do it). Either way, you can record your shows and save them to your computer (the exception to this are protected shows - usually only pay channels like HBO).

Oh, and I agree.. Most cable companies are idiots
 

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