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Since I bought my PVR (Personal Video Recorder, as in TiVo or ReplayTV) I've become quite addicted to being able to watch what I want when I want, and especially addicted to have a one-button 7-second instant replay.
As a commuter I spend a lot of time listening to NPR (public radio) and I often
wish I could back up 7 seconds to hear what I missed while I was concentrating on merging onto the freeway. Plus I would like to be able to listen to a radio show that started at 6:30pm even though I didn't leave work until 7:30pm.
The only problems I see right now are drivers even more distracted than they are already, and the music recording industry. However, while PVRs are growing in popularity, only PVR fans are likely to appreciate the usefulness of a TiVo Car Radio.
With a good audio compression algorithm, you could store plenty of audio in EEPROM (no moving parts). Or combine features for a snazzy MP3-playing, radio tuning, CD playing, TiVo-like car radio!
Gotuit Audio
http://www.gotuit.com/
This company was trying to do this in 2002, but couldn't get to market. They do have a bunch of patents in the area. [nhyatt, Jan 04 2002, last modified Jun 25 2005]
Pogo Products "Radio Yourway"
http://www.pogoprod.../radio_yourway.html
Looks like this is coming out at the end of May (2003). Although I'd rather have a car-stereo form-factor, this looks pretty cool. [e090, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]
A Pocket-Sized Tivo Radio
http://www.nytimes....ircuits/15radi.html
(You need to register to see the article, but registration is free.) [DrCurry, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]
[link]
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Dunno if EEPROM is fast enough for use as audio, but some of the faster varities of plain RAM now should be. And since it picks it up from radio, no need for expensive flash RAM that keeps itself going without power. |
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[The gotuit.com link was dead for me] |
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This of course requires a reliable schedule for radio shows
like TiVo has for TV. I wonder why the satellite radio
services don't do this? |
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The closest I can easily get to this is to subscribe to
Science Friday on Audible, and burn it to CD for car
listening. With a networked MP3 player in the car, the
subscription could be pushed automatically, which would
be just as good as recording from radio assuming you
frequently "dock" the car. |
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I've been thinking about almost exactly this; indeed, I've been looking for one to buy; but I want a few extra features, viz.: |
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1. A CD-RW drive that can handle MP3s. |
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2. A PCMCIA type II slot; then you can install an adaptor for flash memory (smartmedia, SD, whatever), a microdrive or an 802.11 card. |
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3. A large, resilient hard drive - maybe 2 Gb. |
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4. A keyboard with an IR link. |
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i've seen hard disks with a capacity of several Gb which have a diameter comparable to a coin. So as far as recording capacity goes this idea should have no problem. |
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TiVo and Sky+ use a listings sytem to know when to record the programs you want - i dunno if radio can be adjusted to do the same - maybe with digital radio. in any case you could manually set record times. |
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Sky+ has a new trick of automatically recording upto an hour of the channel you are curently viewing,(restarts every time you change channel) if you miss something you simply hit rewind- could use similar thing here. |
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best put a patent on RiVo ASAP... |
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