Highlights from "Oct 2007 Win a Free HAVA Drawing"

Our thanks to everyone who participated in the October 2007 Win a Free HAVA Drawing. All entries were interesting. They creatively described how you would use or have used HAVA TV placeshifters to improve your infotainment life in amazing places. Our congratulations to the two lucky winners, Adrian S. and Tony R., and our appreciations to the efforts that went into all entries.

Here are some highlights of the entries:

I’ve been waiting for this for 32 years

Adrian S. Williamstown, Mass.

I’ve been waiting for this for 32 years. You may not consider my living room to be the most amazing place to use the HAVA HD but believe me, it is.

Back in my college days I met this good looking American girl who was over as part of a student exchange program. Before I knew it we were married and I was 3,500 miles from home. Yes, we are still married 32 years later but at the time it meant leaving my entire family back in England. Apparently they were not sufficiently dedicated to me to justify selling everything and following me West to the New World. Probably just as well since the folks at Immigration and Naturalization didn’t seem to be too enthusiastic about accepting just one of us, let alone the entire clan.

In actuality it’s not as sad as it sounds. I don’t get caught to go round and fix my mother’s washing machine when it breaks down. My younger brother gets caught for that, along with the blame for the mess he makes doing the job and for being so slow in getting round to doing it. Meanwhile, so long as I call regularly, I am a paragon of virtue in my mother’s eyes. In addition, my family has a great place to go on vacation that offers free room and board, guided tours and airport pick-up and delivery. We get the same treatment anytime we go back to England although they are nowhere near as good as we are at the guided tour bit.

Okay – enough of the background setting.

My younger brother and I are big Formula 1 motor racing fans and love to watch the races together. The only snag is that most of the time the Atlantic Ocean is between us. Thanks to voice over ip we can now talk to each other all we want on the phone but the races take place all over the world and are often shown at different times in England and the US. Add to that the time differences around the world mean that, for example, the Chinese Grand Prix is broadcast live starting at 2am in the United States and 7am in England. Dedicated fan that I am, there is no way that I’d stay awake through that race, even if I did catch the pre-race show. For those races I let Tivo record the show and I watch it later after several hours of much needed beauty sleep and at least two cups of strong coffee.

This is where we get to the beauty of the HAVA HD. With this marvelous little gizmo, my TiVo will record the Formula 1 practice sessions (not shown in England much to my brother’s frustration – soon to be turned to joy), the qualifying and the actual races. From there the HAVA HD allows me to watch all the action right here while my brother tunes in to the HAVA HD back in England and finally we can watch the whole thing together. Best of all we can watch at a time that’s convenient to both of us. There you have it. Intercontinental bliss!

Wait in the hope of winning the drawing? Heck no, I ordered one right off the bat. Hopefully it will be here before the last race of the year in Brazil but now I’m thinking it would be great to have in school (I teach high school). We’d be able to multicast over our network – say a daily news bulletin from the video studio and, because we don’t have an auditorium large enough to fit all the students in at one time, the principal could address the entire student body easily. All without putting TV’s in, or running cable to, every classroom – we already have computers in every room.

Not only that, if there were an English version, we could attach one to my brother’s TV in England and I can get the soccer games they don’t show over here…………


No More Slingbox

Tony R.

My wife and I travel in our motorhome. More and more campgrounds are going wireless. So I invested in a Slingbox. At first, I loved it. Place shifting is amazing. I can see all of my local channels whereever there's an internet connection.

But, now I've discovered Hava...and I think Hava Platinum is just the ticket!

Why?

Well, with it I'll be able to connect not only my cable from home, but my DirectTV, too. With the Hava box, I won't have to have a hard wire connection to my router in the other room. With my Hava, I'll be able to get HD.

And I won't have to be watching when my favorite team is playing...because unlike Slingbox, I can record for later viewing!!!!

But more importantly, my wife and I will each be able to watch our 'laptop TVs' at the same time. Slingbox allows only one connection at a time.

If I win a Hava, it'll save my marriage.


Hello again

Eddie D.

Hello again, I entered last month’s contest and lost so I thought I would try one more time before I give up. I guess taking on the Pharmaceutical companies is bad so this month I will take on “infomercials”. They don’t have the money behind them to fight off any bad publicity like Glaxo & Physer do. Infomercials have become very popular on late night TV though I do not for the life of me understand why. Are there no re-runs of I love Lucy on at that time? I would rather watch the “I shove bamboo shoots up my fingernails” show then so sit through a never ending commercial. These marketing genius’ are so bad they make Wayne & Garth look they belong to Mensa.

How is it possible that all of these Marketing Rocket Scientists think anyone in the general public would want to watch a commercial that goes on for half an hour? I can barely sit through a 30 second one without reaching for the remote control. And exactly how many of these do we need to see in a 24 hour period you might ask. That would be 42.5 hours per day. How would I know this you ask? I am so determined to win a Hava Wireless that I actually counted them on my Satellite TV guide during a 24 hour period.

Now let us discuss the amazing products on offer at this time. We have multiple weight loss products that promise to make you go from 390 lbs down to 85 in a matter of 3 weeks while eating everything & anything you can get your greedy paws on.

Take for example the “Ab Energizer”, to lose all those unwanted pounds & turn your paunchy beer belly into a 6 pack (the irony of this is the fact that I got the beer belly from a 6 pack in the first place) so I guess it is poetic justice that I electrocute myself to rid myself of it. If such diets really existed why does Ruben Studdard look like he swallowed Snow White & All seven dwarfs? The same goes for Kirstie Alley, that woman has never met a buffet she didn’t like. Its pretty sad that they are now hiding her behind cars, purses etc to hide the fact that OMG the diet DOESN‘T work. And yet they play it over & over again, & I like a fool am forced to watch it.

They also have an amazing product for you pup. A porthole so your doggy can look out the window... Uh is it just me but why not just let the dog look out the window instead of paying 50 bucks for a piece of plastic that I will now have to cut a hole into my sheetrock to install? That is just the stupidest thing I’ve seen to date. Maybe its just me... But I doubt it.

Can you please save me from this never-ending trauma? Please please send me a Hava so I can stop the insanity. My son will thank you, My wife will thank you, I will thank you. Hell... even my dog will thank you.

Thank you for your time once again.


The most Amazing place I would use my HAVA is in myKitchen/Deck

John A.

Being a Avid cook, I've been endlessly searching for the past year for a way to watch both the Yankees & Rangers in HD while. Also being able to record CNBC Mad & Fast Money to my pc as well. All of this so I can stay updated on the scores and Finance while I make nice Italian meals in my Kitchen and sweet barbeques for my family on the deck. The Hava is great tool for the hard working Dad. Just think of all the benifts it can provide. Put the game on the laptop in the Kitchen with the HAVA. Put the Game on in the Living room on the HDTV. Need a new Beer. No Problem. Go and get it. The game is on in the kicthen. Open My beer. I don't miss a play!!! No Rush to get back to the living room. I Could Prepair my snacks and not miss the game. If I need a burger. Again No Problem Bring the game outside using the Hava!! Kids take over the HDTV in the living room. Again no problem, Use the HAVA.

So the Bottom line is the Hava will bring your family closer together by not fighting over the TV and having dinner done on time. All of this will also make for a much happier Mom.


Ever been to Timbuktu?

Ousmane S.

Well, Timbuktu is not really the end of the world; it's a small town in the Republic of Mali, in West Africa. It is located right at the border of the Sahara desert. The town got its reputation as the end of the world during the 12th after the King Mansa Musa traveled to Mecca with so much gold that the price of gold fell and provoked a twenty-year inflation. The rush to find the source of this gold has cost the lives of many adventurers from both Arabia and Europe. The traverse of the desert was so arduous that rumors starts about Timbuktu being at the end of the World.

What does Timbuktu have to do with Hava? Well, I my case very simple. About 20 years ago, I worked in Timbuktu as a census taker. No doubt, the town has lots of attractions for tourists and archaeologists from different countries. It house one of the first University in the history of humankind. It's famous libraries stored some of histories most ancient writings, some still being copied and stored there today.

However, for someone living or working there, Timbuktu is the most desolate place on earth. With the drifting sands of the Sahara brought down the city by the hot winds of the Harmattan, Timbuktu is more like hell on earth. Whether indoor or out, the heat is unbearable. At night, you find yourself so dehydrated that all you want to do is sit down under your tent and watch TV. Watch what? TV in the middle of desert? There is not a single over the air channel that you can capture from here and cable is inexistent.

During my 45 days stay there, I use to dream about being in Bamako, the capital city of Mali. After diner, I used to watch TV until I fall asleep. But in Timbuktu, I felt like I was in the middle of nowhere. Had I had broadband Internet at home and Hava, I would not have felt so out of touch.

If I win a Hava and if I can afford a trip back to Timbuktu, I will go back as a tourist this time. After visiting the Sankore University (one of the first in the history of humankind) and other historical sites during the day, I would go back to my camp and enjoy watching "How It's Made" on the Science Channel on my laptop until I fall asleep.

On following days, I will go camel back riding. At noon, I will setup camp near an oasis. While everyone else will be busy discussing how hot and dry it is, I will be watching the Price is Right from an earlier recording. The next day, I may be able to catch the premiere of Shrek the Third.

The last day before I come back to civilization, I will tune to CNN International so as not to be so out of touch once again.

Gosssh! I can't wait.


Simple guy... Simple dreams...

David M.

I'm a simple guy. I love my TV. In fact, I have a baccalaureate degree in telecommunications because, I love TV so much! I aced broadcast programming and absolutely adore TiVo. There is ALWAYS something good to watch! I even love infomercials!!!!

So, to me, the most amazing place in the world to be watching my Hava programs would be in my doctoral program lecture courses. Picture it... My campus is one of the most wired for wireless campuses anywhere. So whatever class we are in, we have access to internet, if we have a log in and a laptop! After the past 10 years of higher education (up to my masters degree) with potentially another 10 to go, it would be awesome to be sitting in class with my laptop and my word processor for note taking open in one window, and my favorite television program playing in the other, with a small, non-descript blue tooth earphone in one ear so that I can listen to my favorite home improvement programs while taking notes on Effective Leadership In Higher Education. I know... it's silly but I'd love it.

I'd also love being able to be on the treadmill at the gym and watching my favorite Sundance channel or IFC programs on a portable wireless receiving phone while losing my couch-potato physique. That would be awesome..

It would also be incredible to figure out some way to project the programming from one of my home computers with a dlp projector on to the ceiling of my bedroom so I could just lay there and watch, pausing only for uh... :) that other bedroom activity that doesn't involve a REM cycle.

Of course if I can get all my favorite programs while I am road-tripping in the family's bus-sized RV traveling across the Canadian Countryside...or driving the Pan-American Highway through Latin America well that would be wonderful as well. Really, I'm a simple guy.


Free Hava

Hien N.

As both Slingbox A/V owner and Locationfree, I would like to own and use the HAVA because unlike the Slingbox (I will only compare Slingbox to HAVA as described on the official website) -

the HAVA can do more than Slingbox could! I will list examples.

The HAVA has the ablity to

  1. stream stimulateously on multiple PC's (unlike LocationFree, Slingbox can allow multiple PC's to have Slingplayer installed but can not be watched at same time. HAVA does better than that!)
  2. encode in MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 format
  3. bypass the Slingbox's maxmium of speed up to only 5MB in contrast to HAVA's 8MB
  4. connect to more than 1 device, up to 3 devices
  5. work wirelessly (only LocationFree LF-B20 can do this, none of Slingboxes has this feature!)

If I use the HAVA and like it, I would have recommended this product to all of my friends. I know bunch of guys who own TIVO and wouldn't miss it but sometimes once in a while, they would have made business trips to distant cities or even states... surely they wouldn't like to miss their favorite sport games. They both do have laptops, I could advise them to get the HAVA because if I have experienced and liked it, they would have liked it too!

If I won the HAVA from the random drawing, I would be very happy but of course which is quite a SLIM chance since I bet you that there are hundreds of people would actually have submitted an entry to participate in the drawing contest as well! Two winners out of hundreds to thousands is quite a small ratio!

I'm not crazy about shows, movies, for any of that matter but I do enjoy watching them. I have a laptop with an excellent video graphic card. I would like my laptop to be something useful for a purpose or more. So far I have found my laptop that significance to my keeping pictures, videos, and documents I have created over the years. Though I know that a laptop, old or new, could have crashed down anytime... that's why I carry USB flash and SanDisk memory card to store everything incase my computer went down or information being corruptive badly, I would easily format this and copy everything from my USB flash and SanDisk memory card back onto my computer like it was before it crashed down.

You see I really like my laptop to be useful, so I thought the HAVA would be an excellent additional housing to my laptop!

Also because as a fanatic traveler, (when I have money, when I can afford, aha) I enjoy traveling... doing what I love to do in my times... I would always take my laptop with me anywhere I go. Sometimes in some states or countries, their TV would be different... I would absolutely use the HAVA as my center TV on my laptop as I'm away from home!

I like the fact that the HAVA does feature the support of MCE, stands for Media Center Edition.

Recording videos in DVD quality?! I hope it's TRUE! Because if it is, I would defintely "love" it instead of "like". If everything works out as I would have wanted it that way for me, I would be surely a happy owner! If the HAVA doesn't disappoint me, then it shouldn't disappoint other Slingbox and Locationfree owners.


HAVA Great Day!

Alex W.

Being from the UK and living in California I miss all of the UK programming, I would love to be able to set up a HAVA so I could keep up to date with all the latest UK shows and sports. I missing most of the the rugby world cup at the moment becuase it's not so easy to watch it here, and I don't want to miss the Rugby Six Nations in February.

But mostly I'd just like to be able to watch TV at work, and in the true style of the great Peter Gibbons from the Office Space movie, if I were asked what I were doing, the conversation would go something like...

  • Bob Slydell: You see, what we're actually trying to do here is, we're trying to get a feel for how people spend their day at work... so, if you would, would you walk us through a typical day, for you?
  • Peter Gibbons: Yeah.
  • Bob Slydell: Great.
  • Peter Gibbons: Well, I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late, ah, I use the side door - that way Lumbergh can't see me, heh heh - and, uh, after that I just sorta space out for about an hour.
  • Bob Porter: Da-uh? Space out?
  • Peter Gibbons: Yeah, I just stare at my HAVA; but it looks like I'm working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch, too. I'd say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work.

I was once human

Jon W.

I was once human but I am now mostly machine. I am a cyborg. The R and D folks at some megopoly, which later merged so many times it has by now forgotten itself, built me in the year 2010. I was built with unlimited funding to serve in a war that had been going on forever, but then it ceased to exist only days after I was born. They pulled the plug on the war, and that pulled the plug on me. It is only fitting, I guess, that the same bad luck and the same lack of purpose that landed me in the lab, also booted me out of it.

I am embarrased to say I weigh 500 pounds because of all my internal hardware and the titanium and kevelar reinforcements that wrap my body and limbs, but I am built to the pinnacle of biophysical perfection. I can spin a full 360 degrees on one leg as many times and for as long as I want without fear of falling. In fact, I can jump 500 feet high. With my built in wingfin resistors, I can glide through the air for 15 minutes, navigating the airspace with the bouyancy of a feather.

I am equipped with state of the art technology that even now befuddles the scientists and brokers with whom I work, when I can. I have an 80 terabyte harddrive that shares half the space where my brain would be, and there, in that confluance of my former human experience and present technological being, I record everything I see and experience through high powered lenses appropriately installed behind my eyes. With a device called HAVA, I am able remotely to stream my video and audio data in real time or space shifting, at any other time, to anyone who hires me.

Today, I am in the Sudan. There was a war there that no one was really paying attention to, but now that the other one is over, I am here to see what is left to fight. The people who hired me this time are a covert agency of several nations, and I am streaming by HAVA what I see to various PDAs, laptops, and desktops, in three different countries at the same time.

They can see they are too late. They can see my employment here will not last long. I switch internally to watch the recording of beach volleyball I made last weekend, while they watch the destruction. I love beach volleyball. It is good to be alive – kind of.




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HAVA Wireless HD
$249.99

HAVA Wireless HD provides a premium home theater experience allowing you to watch and control HD digital cable, satellite, or DVR programs wirelessly on any WiFi enabled Microsoft MCE PC or mobile phone. 

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