2. In Use

I experienced the typical lag that occurs as the tuner starts up, which is CPU-dependent. Even after that, however, there was a two-second delay when switching channels, and a slight distortion in picture. For those who love to channel surf instead of using the guide, this is incredibly annoying. I thought that it might be a bottleneck on the computer, but on an AMD 2000 XP, CPU utilization was just 50%, and only 38 MB of RAM was in use.

I don't see why extra RAM and CPU could not be utilized to apply filters to improve the picture or make channel changing smoother. I will acknowledge that I am using a tuner card that is not listed as supported, despite being instantly recognized, and this might explain the channel changing delays. The picture quality you get depends a lot on the signal from your cable provider. At my dorm - where the lowest bidder connected my cable - it was incredibly fuzzy, but at my home a clear picture came through.

The TV can be paused by hitting the pause key on the keyboard, while hitting the insert key lets you control the volume through a menu. Although these controls are great for a keyboard, a dedicated volume button for a remote would be a plus.

The recording feature enabled me to very easily record what was on, with the typical padding around it. The standard video quality defaults at 1.8 GB for a one-hour show with padding. I find this a little large. I'd suggest 1.2 GB for a show, especially since the resolution that is recorded is not so much greater than what a typical TV displays as well, and the fact that the signal is neither sharpened nor improved.

The resulting recorded file type was DVR-MS, a format that is typical for Windows MCE. I am accustomed to receiving standard MPEG II from GBPVR, however. I wondered why the differing formats were used, and discovered that DVR-MS can easily be set up to employ DRM if the signal being recorded implements it. The DRM would prevent the file from being played back on any device except for the one that recorded it.

The reason that there are no screenshots of Yahoo Go in this article is that it uses a custom renderer that prevents the signal from being recorded in any form. I tried so hard to capture a still of the video that I wondered if I would be breaking the law if I pulled it off! In the meantime, the DVR-MS file is not encrypted and this is not a problem, but in the future I'm sure this too will rear its ugly head.

The most interesting flaw in this whole program by far is the fact that when you set up the tuner to record, even when the program is closed there is a constant 5% draw on the CPU. If nothing is being recorded there should be no CPU usage. This could be a bug, or maybe Yahoo is trying to collect data from users, or Yahoo is simply tryingto prevent any other program from accessing the tuner.

As a result, don't expect Yahoo Go for TV to play nicely with any other HTPC tuner software. In fact, this sounds like a very clever way to eliminate competition, simply by preventing them from using your hardware. This would be like Microsoft disabling your keyboard every time you go to type in Google. I'm hoping this is not on purpose. I also managed somehow to hit a button combination that gave me an invalid tuner ID. I was unable to repeat this, and still don't know what the error means.