I'm thinking about getting a TiVo

[Isocene]

Topic says it all. TiVo's are cheap with this $100 rebate right now.

I was thinking about getting the 40 and throwing a bigger hd in there.

Any suggestions or comments?


Mike

 

[ErmanC]

Ever think about a HTPC instead? Not much more in cost and assuming you put in a DVD burner, you can actually archive your stuff. I just got in on the Haupage PVR150 TV Card deal over in the Hot Deals forum...

Just a thought...

 

[richardycc]

the rebate is expiring in 5mins...

 

[h8red]

Originally posted by: ErmanC
Ever think about a HTPC instead? Not much more in cost and assuming you put in a DVD burner, you can actually archive your stuff. I just got in on the Haupage PVR150 TV Card deal over in the Hot Deals forum...

Just a thought...

I second this idea, and this is coming from someone who owns a tivo. I like the ability to burn the shows to DVD and not paying a fee to do it (either $12.95 monthly or $299 lifetime). Although tivo is coming out with new functionality which will allow you to move your recorded shows to computers or other portable devices

 

[PhlashFoto]

I am thinking of doing a TiVo PC system. Exactly what do I need for it. I have a spare Dell 400SC system that soon will be unused.

What extra stuff do i need to buy and how do I configure the set up?? Any docs on a setup would be great. I know I could look, but I have no idea what to even look for.

 

[TallBill]

Originally posted by: ErmanC
Ever think about a HTPC instead? Not much more in cost and assuming you put in a DVD burner, you can actually archive your stuff. I just got in on the Haupage PVR150 TV Card deal over in the Hot Deals forum...

Just a thought...

Perhaps I'll go the HTPC route as well.. but that would mean that I'd have to pick up two dvd burners.

 

[brxndxn]

I just bought a Replay TV 4500 after I realized my 900mhz Athlon wasn't quite fast enough to make a reliable HTPC for MythTV.

I love it.. I got a program for it that allows you to emulate another Replay TV on your computer and you can transfer shows. They're standard mpegs.

I'd take Replay TV's menu over Tivo's menu any day. Replay TV doesn't record what it 'thinks' you will like and it doesn't record commercials that you can't delete either. Also, the Replay TV 4500 and 5000 units (can be had for $100-150 on Ebay) automatically skip commercials.

 

[MrBond]

Replay TV doesn't record what it 'thinks' you will like

I dunno - my Tivo is pretty good about picking things I like. This weekened, it recorded all the Winter X-Games, Sportscenter, and NFL Live for me. Season Passes are awesome too - mine records every MacGyver episode on TV for me.

The things I liked about Replay TV is the auto commercial skip in the older units, built in ethernet (Tivo supports it - but its hit or miss out of the box and sometimes you have to use a phone line for the initial setup), and the ability to copy programs onto your computer without too much trouble. The Tivo2Go functionality that they're sending to Tivo's now does this, but there's a couple catches. First, it's a special format, *.tivo, and you have to enter a password every time to play it. This also makes DVD burning a lengthy process (unless you pay $50 for MyDVD - and that's not perfect). Plus transfers move at USB 1.1 speeds, so they're sloooow. There's also an identifier in each video file that is tied to your Tivo.

 

[CalvinHobbes]

Two tuner TIVO is coming out next year (I think). Not sure how it will work with digital cable boxes and sat. receivers but for standard cable it'll be great.

 

[koolhand]

Got a friend TIVO over the holidays and he loves it.

 

[loup garou]

There's always something on the horizon when it comes to PVRs. 🙂

TiVo is definitely the best standalone PVR there is.

That said, my MCE box is a better all-in-one solution and has supplanted my TiVo in the living room. HOWEVER! The MCE box took a LOT of tweaking (god my gf was going to kill me if I spent another weekend working on it and she couldn't watch tv in the livingroom!) and cost probably $600-800 when all is said and done. With TiVo, you're out $400 (go with lifetime), you plug in a couple wires and you're a happy camper. Sort of like Mac vs PC, IMO.

 

[MrBond]

Also - if they renew the $100 rebate - Amazon had Tivo's for $180 shipped, I ordered on a Friday, shipped that Monday, had it Thursday of that week.

They also have Replays for something like $150 before rebate.

 

[Jzero]

Originally posted by: MrBond

Replay TV doesn't record what it 'thinks' you will like

I dunno - my Tivo is pretty good about picking things I like.

Besides, if you honestly don't like this feature, it takes all of 3 seconds to turn it off. I guess the geek in me loves to see how how it changes what it records as I rate various programs. It's pretty fun.

HTPC still seems like way too much work and expense right now.

 

[Qwest]

instead of starting a new thread....

what's the advantage/disadvantage of Tivo over an HD DVR from Cablevision for example? can't DVR record shows on schedule as well?

 

[torpid]

Most DVRs other than tivo and replay are just fancy VCRs. Maybe there are HTPC software packages out there that do actually offer the same features, but I haven't found it...

 

[TravisT]

I have the standard 40GB hard drive. I don't really see a need for anything bigger at the moment. For some reason, i'm still hooked on a handful of shows, including The Real World, American Hot Rod, and a couple of others. I watch every episode and have a season pass for all of them. I've also easily been able to record various movies/shows that I wanted to watch later.

On a side note, I really enjoy my tivo, but wouldn't pay the extra money for a larger hard drive. I just don't see how anyone could watch enough TV to need twice as much space. 🙂

 

[torpid]

Originally posted by: TravisT
I have the standard 40GB hard drive. I don't really see a need for anything bigger at the moment. For some reason, i'm still hooked on a handful of shows, including The Real World, American Hot Rod, and a couple of others. I watch every episode and have a season pass for all of them. I've also easily been able to record various movies/shows that I wanted to watch later.

On a side note, I really enjoy my tivo, but wouldn't pay the extra money for a larger hard drive. I just don't see how anyone could watch enough TV to need twice as much space. 🙂

with the standard tivos, I can. 40gb is only 37ish hours at the lowest quality setting. i upgraded my tivo in order to be able to record everything at maximum quality without running out of room. now i have directivo which only has one quality setting, and really does get about 1 hour per gb.

 

[ErmanC]

It really isn't that hard. All you really need is a TV card with hardware encoding, a decent size hard drive, and a basic DVD burner. I have the thing set up on a 1.3mhz box w/ 512mb ram and it's not bad. I have that Haupage PVR150 TV card and it's pretty cool. Only cost me $70. Getting it to work remote control is kind of a trick, but the basics using a keyboard and mouse aren't that hard. All the software you need is pretty much free...

Check out
DScaler - For basic viewing
WinTV2000 - Great for recording, comes with scheduler
TitanTV.com - Great website for schedules and one touch recording
DVD Shrink - Freeware program to make your shows fit on a single DVD
Media Portal - Nice and simple integrated interface for the dedicated box

 

[ErmanC]

Originally posted by: TallBill

Perhaps I'll go the HTPC route as well.. but that would mean that I'd have to pick up two dvd burners.

Just noticed your reply...Curious, why the two DVD burners?

 

[trmiv]

I just got Comcast's DVR. They gave me a Motorola 6412, which is a really nice unit. I was using a ReplayTV 5040 (which I'm now selling), but I like this Comcast unit. The best part of it for me, and what made me switch was dual tuners. Of course there is no way to transfer shows to a computer like with ReplayTV, but I never used that feature anyway.