YESS DVB-T9900HD

So I decided to get a Freeview decoder, and I ended getting a HD (== terrestrial not satellite) decoder even though I don't yet have a HD TV. I got this YESS DVB-T9900HD is a single tuner unit with a HDMI port and the promise of PVR functionality via the USB port.

It looks a little ghetto with a USB port at the front, but I care not for asthetics anyway. Anyone who remembers my milk crate constructions can attest to that...

The freeview signal is super strong where I am in west AK, and it gets a glitchy signal with no aerial at all. My UHF aerial is well aligned so it gives 100% signal, and the programme guide comes through fine.

was skeptical that the PVR functionality of the unit would work via the USB port, but it does. Unfortunately, the PVR integration is basic and lacks in a number of areas. But its ok; you can pause and rewind TV, schedule and record TV as advertised.

I'm real happy for the price of the unit, but here is the laundry list of what is a bit shit about this unit for anyone else looking for an uber cheap PVR:

• No integration between freeview EPG listings and the recording feature! I hope other units can do this? Scheduling a recording is like setting a VHS; this channel from then till then, click.
• Single tuner means it can only buffer the channel you are watching. This is obvious, but a good PVR needs 2+ tuners.
• I haven't checked, but I expect that the recording is in standard definition irrespective of the HD-ness. I haven't confirmed this one, anyone want to give me a HD screen? Actually I havent even checked the HD signal is HD when "realtime"!
• Seems to use the disk regularly, not a great buffering technique. For this reason, I don't leave the PVR live buffering 24/7. Use of flash or solid state might dodge that bullet.
• Seems to not like playing too close to realtime, needs 5+ second buffer, else it glitches and drops audio.

So the PVR is basically like a VHS, except you can do poor-mans timeshifting: start watching the recording before its finished.

The problem of evil:

Reading a great essay on: The problem of Evil. Here is a quote from it:

Assumption (1): God exists.
Assumption (1a): God is all-knowing.
Assumption (1b): God is all-powerful.
Assumption (1c): God is perfectly loving.
Assumption (1d): Any being that did not possess all three of the above properties would not be God.
Premise (2): Evil exists.
Premise (3): An all-knowing being would be aware of the existence of evil.
Premise (4): An all-powerful being would be able to eliminate evil.
Premise (5): A perfectly loving being would desire to eliminate evil.
Conclusion (6): Evil does not exist. (from (1),(3),(4),(5))
Contradiction: But evil does exist. (from (2))
Conclusion (7): There is no being that is all-knowing, all-powerful, and perfectly loving. (from (2),(3),(4),(5))
Conclusion (8): God does not exist. (from (7),(1d))

The argument's logic is ironclad, and its simple but far-reaching conclusion is that the existence of evil in the world disproves the existence of an omniscient, omnipotent, perfectly loving god. The only way to refute the problem of evil without surrendering the assumption that such a god exists is to deny one of its premises.

I like this argument as it doesn't completely deny God; but it relegates him to (in my view):

• A God that isn't Perfectly Loving; or
  
• A God that doesn't desire to eliminate evil.

To remove any of the other attributes of God is unacceptable (all-knowing, all-powerful), so he must either not exist, or be a bit of a bastard. So lets talk about your beliefs in bastard Gods only - the benevolent ones seem unlikely.