I have been totally hooked on Tour de France this year. Unfortunately our VCR bit the dust - we’re pretty sure it died in its sleep. Instead of buying a new VCR, it gave me the excuse I needed to buy a PVR card for my computer. I bought the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 150 personal video recorder.

It connects to regular coaxial cable output from your local cable provider and installs easily into a standard PCI slot. It comes with software for viewing, recording and scheduling recording of TV programs. The programs are a little shoddy. The video quality is not great, to be fair, my VCR wasn’t all that hot either… It also comes with a remote control that I haven’t used yet as my office is so small it is easier to reach for the wireless mouse bother with a[nother] remote.

I rate it 2.5 out of 5. It got the extra .5 because it’s affordable at less than $100.00.

The main thing is, I can schedule it to record Lance on his quest for 7 each day.

Other techies out there also appreciate the sport. 37Signals has a great post about the history of the yellow jersey. And of course, some people have been mapping the tour with google earth.