Old article, still relevant - Tivo > all

[bobdole369]

http://sarre9.blogspot.com/2008/03/dvr-shoot-out-uverse-vs-arrogant.html

This guy lays it out more eloquently than I've ever been able to manage. I always hear folks at my job or friends talking about tivoing stuff, but they really mean the retarded comcast stupid DVR that sucks.

Read on for how you can change your world.

 

[sivart]

TiVO is a waste of money when all you have is an over the air antenna and record about 3 shows a week. I'll deal with the not as friendly Dish Network DTVPal HD DVR. $250 one time fee (purchase price) and no recurring monthly fees for programming information...or even for a TV service. I figure it saves me at least $840 a year.

 

[techs]

I'm currently going thru Comcast DVR hell.
My old Explorer 8300hdc went to heaven and they gave me a new Cisco RNG200 (RNG='s Really Not Good). The first one wouldn't display channels 2-499 thru hdmi. Second one did show those channels, but could not accurately "chase playback". As you were playing back something that was still recording the green bar would not keep up. It would show like 50 percent of the show recorded when in fact the show was 80 percent over. And when you caught up to "live" it jumped to where live really was, 80 percent, not the 50 percent the green bar was at. Result is you jumped forward 30 percent of the show. And if you didn't catch it fast enough you would see the near ending.

So after talking with a supervisor I got another 8300HD which they were loathe to give out anymore. This on has a visual and auditory glitch on playback every 2-3 minutes, though not on live playback.

So Comcast is going to come out this week. The complete idiots think it might be my line. Apparently the part where it plays perfectly live and only has problems playing back recorded stuff escapes them.
I'm guessing its just a bad box and hopefully they will bring me another 8300 instead of a rng200.

 

[nsafreak]

http://sarre9.blogspot.com/2008/03/dvr-shoot-out-uverse-vs-arrogant.html

This guy lays it out more eloquently than I've ever been able to manage. I always hear folks at my job or friends talking about tivoing stuff, but they really mean the retarded comcast stupid DVR that sucks.

Read on for how you can change your world.

Sorry I far prefer my Dish 722k HD DVR even if it was an option to record my Dish Network programming. Tivo's interface doesn't even come close to how clean & quick the Dish interface is. If I had to get another DVR for cable I'd go with one of the new Moxi boxes, although now that it's easier to get a CableCARD tuner for a PC even they wouldn't be necessary.

 

[bobdole369]

Tivo's interface doesn't even come close to how clean & quick the Dish interface is.

Interesting, I've not seen this point of view, nor have I experienced the Dish DVR interface. More research is needed here. Or maybe more folks with Dish.

I think the bees knees might be WinMCE with a cablecard, but since MS still hasn't really even been seen to reliably do QAM - I think its still kinda far off, Maybe Win7 has more luck there.

 

[Via]

Tivo is one of the best investments I ever made.

I bought a 60 GB model (with a lifetime contract) in 2003. The HD crapped out in 2005 and I sent it to Tivo for service. Evidently they didn't have any 60 GB models left; they sent me an 80 GB as a replacement for the $149 I paid them.

So - A total investment of

$300 for the 60 GB
$199 for lifetime service (I think that's what it was abck then)
$149 for replacement
------------------------
$648

got me a service that has allowed me to fully utilize the outrageous cable fees I pay monthly for almost 7 years.



And every month my Tivo still lives is free service.

 

[erwos]

I think the bees knees might be WinMCE with a cablecard, but since MS still hasn't really even been seen to reliably do QAM - I think its still kinda far off, Maybe Win7 has more luck there.

My WMC box (hint: MCE = media center edition, it's not the term in use anymore) used to do clear QAM just fine. The problem that people initially had was that it wasn't supported on anything but cablecard tuners. When the Vista TV pack got released, that should have fixed the issue.

Performance, interface, and almost everything-else-wise, WMC kicks the living hell out of TiVo. I'm totally going to back to WMC once the cablecard update gets released, unless TiVo finally gets off its collective ass and releases a series 4 that's actually competitive.

 

[sivart]

Tivo is one of the best investments I ever made.

I bought a 60 GB model (with a lifetime contract) in 2003. The HD crapped out in 2005 and I sent it to Tivo for service. Evidently they didn't have any 60 GB models left; they sent me an 80 GB as a replacement for the $149 I paid them.

So - A total investment of

$300 for the 60 GB
$199 for lifetime service (I think that's what it was abck then)
$149 for replacement
------------------------
$648

got me a service that has allowed me to fully utilize the outrageous cable fees I pay monthly for almost 7 years.



And every month my Tivo still lives is free service.

$650 and still no HD...I'll take my $250 HD Box with no other fees, anytime.

 

[Via]

They didn't make HD Tivos back then.

As I said - as long as it works, it's a free service.