Favorite DVR solution?

[MarkXIX]

My wife's Toshiba SD-H400 TiVo died yesterday after a power outage. It no longer recognizes an incoming signal on any of the inputs. The cable box can be plugged directly into the television and works fine, same cables and all. She loved the box because it was a TiVo AND a DVD player and we never paid for the TiVo service because it comes with TiVo basic for life.

Anyway, I have been thinking of getting a Ceton quad CableCard tuner and replacing all my set top boxes with Xbox 360s as extenders. She doesn't like this idea at all, so I looked at getting an HD TiVo on their website today. Are they crazy for wanting $700 (box plus lifetime subscription) for a 40 hour TiVo?

What do you use for DVR in your place? I have Cox Cable as my provider, but don't want to pay for their DVR service.

 

[zerocool84]

I use a FiOS HD-DVR. I use a PS3 to stream media to tv and Netflix.

 

[BornStar]

I use a Ceton InfiniTV 4 and a Hauppauge 2250 and a 360 for the extender to the bedroom. My wife has no problems with it although her mother does.

 

[MarkXIX]

I'm worried about how loud the Xbox will be in the bedroom though. My wife MUST fall asleep with the TV on.

I have heard the new Xbox is a lot quieter, but how quiet?

 

[BornStar]

I've heard it's a lot quieter too and I believe it but I've never used one myself so I couldn't say for sure.

 

[nageov3t]

tivo.

I used a PC dvr for a few years awhile back but, despite it's versatility, I still prefer my tivo. the chief problem with the pc dvr for me was the noise factor -- even on standby it's significantly louder than a stand-alone dvr and if you're using it to record shows, you've basically got to have it running 24/7/365

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

HTPC with 7MC and BD-ROM. Gave up DirecTV and went with Netflix, OTA, and Hulu. It's virtually silent. You have to put your ear right up against it to hear anything and 7MC will wake from sleep to record shows, if necessary.

I won't go back to any other device. If I do go with cable it'll be with a Ceton tuner because you simply can't beat the flexibility of an HTPC. Having everything in a single form factor is great. Screw having the cluster of a cable/sat box, a DVD player, a PS3 and/or XBOX just to enjoy the various forms of media entertainment.

 

[BornStar]

tivo.

I used a PC dvr for a few years awhile back but, despite it's versatility, I still prefer my tivo. the chief problem with the pc dvr for me was the noise factor -- even on standby it's significantly louder than a stand-alone dvr and if you're using it to record shows, you've basically got to have it running 24/7/365

That's strange. When any of my PCs are in standby they're entirely silent because absolutely nothing's moving. The HTPC is a little louder than I'd like but that's fixable if you're willing to pay for it. I'd love to replace my 7200RPM OS drive with a SSD but that's not really in the budget right now (I know, $400 tuner card but won't pay $80 for a SSD) because I think that would get me down to silent. Incidentally, the Comcast Motorola DVR was just as loud as my HTPC is and it actually ran 24/7 as opposed to my HTPC which I can standby whenever I'm not using and will wake up to record shows without any interaction from me.

I've gone through the major DVR options (TiVo SD, cable DVR, HTPC) and from the perspective of never needing to change an input to do anything I'd like, the HTPC is top of the heap. The best part of the HTPC is if there's something it doesn't do or doesn't do the way you'd like, it's fixable with either some hardware or a software adjustment. I ditched my TiVos because they only recorded SD and at the time I bought my HDTV they didn't support HD recording. I ditched the cable company DVR because I didn't really like it and I could get more function out of a HTPC (6 channels at a time with my setup as opposed to 2 with the DVR) and I didn't have to pay any monthly fees for it.

 

[ViviTheMage]

7MC + 4tunerCETON card + big ol array = win

oh, and a 360 to stream the media center/TV to.

 

[ViviTheMage]

I'm worried about how loud the Xbox will be in the bedroom though. My wife MUST fall asleep with the TV on.

I have heard the new Xbox is a lot quieter, but how quiet?

insanely quiter...I had the origonal 360, thing was a little jet.

I have 2 360 slims now, deadly quiet in comparison to the fat brother ... I can play halo/watch TV for hours, and the thing is pretty much silent, outside of one little fan in the power brick.

EDIT : We had a Dish + ViP 722 DVR set up that worked GREAT, but this is turning out to be a lot better ... LOTS more space, cheaper monthly (big discount on comcast TV), cable>dish, versitile, FOUR tuners, you can have up to FIVE extenders playing from one source (how much more amazing can you get with that).

I would like to see the extender market expand though, pretty much dead, outside of the 360.

 

[JoPh]

i just use the one from comcast. $5 a month

 

[mrCide]

HTPC here -- fairly quiet system in a 'receiver' style case in my entertainment center. Windows 7 media center with comcast for DVR/guide (I have basic cable) and ability to play any media/downloads or stream them from another computer where I actually download stuff.

 

[acheron]

So is it worthwhile/possible to build a HTPC that does DVR for pay-TV (not just OTA)? I was looking into it awhile ago and it didn't seem like it (you always had to have a box from your provider anyway, which defeats the purpose). Is this only for cable or does it work with satellite or FIOS too?

 

[Homerboy]

I swear there is a forum for this...

 

[mrCide]

So is it worthwhile/possible to build a HTPC that does DVR for pay-TV (not just OTA)? I was looking into it awhile ago and it didn't seem like it (you always had to have a box from your provider anyway, which defeats the purpose). Is this only for cable or does it work with satellite or FIOS too?

Personally I just had a TV card, now I have a free analog/digital converter i have to use with comcast. Beyond that my big thing was watching stuff I download, netflix, and hulu (which have addons for media center).

If I actually had a full fledge box from comcast I'd probably do something different, but since I already have it built and setup it's used as a BD player and I'd use it for streaming and downloaded media still if it wasn't hooked up to a cable box.

 

[Koing]

Sky HD, works a f0cking treat.

Only 160GB for personal recordings and 160GB for anytime content that the box downloads over night...but I can hack it and upgrade it to 1TB.

Koing

 

[BornStar]

So is it worthwhile/possible to build a HTPC that does DVR for pay-TV (not just OTA)? I was looking into it awhile ago and it didn't seem like it (you always had to have a box from your provider anyway, which defeats the purpose). Is this only for cable or does it work with satellite or FIOS too?

You can get CableCARDs from Verizon for FIOS so the Ceton InfiniTV 4 would work for that. Currently Ceton has the only card on the market but they're having trouble getting some parts so they haven't fulfilled all of the pre-orders yet. If you have a cable company that uses SDV then you would need a tuning adapter from your cable company but you can just hide it somewhere, it only has to be connected to the coax and the HTPC through USB, it doesn't need line of sight for a remote. I can't say for certain who uses SDV but some of them will depend on the market (Comcast has rolled out SDV in three markets for testing but that's it). I believe some cable companies will charge a monthly fee for the tuning adapter(s).

 

[purbeast0]

ng's

 

[TeeJay1952]

www.moxi.com

 

[TwiceOver]

TiVo. I don't know where you are getting your prices though.

 

[Patranus]

TiVo.
Nothing else in even in the ballpark.

If you are use to a TiVo you are going to be vastly disappointed with anything else.

 

[ViviTheMage]

TiVo.
Nothing else in even in the ballpark.

If you are use to a TiVo you are going to be vastly disappointed with anything else.

TivO sucks if you want all recorded shows on more then 1 TV. 4 tuner ceton card + MCE!

 

[Ryland]

I have BeyondTV on my computer with an HVR-2250 dual hybrid tuner. I then remove unwanted content via VideoReDo and save the resulting file to a NAS box. Video is watched via a bluray player over my wired network.

 

[Kanalua]

Scientific America 8300HD (on Oceanic Time-Warner in Hawaii)...don't really have any other options at this point. Other than EZTV/torrents.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

i'll pick up a ceton card when i can stomach the $400 price. for now i'm using a hauppauge 2250 with OTA and an SD cable box. i've found win7 mc to be the best software.