TV is controlling my life - I need a Tivo/DVR/PVR...whatever

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Crono
So instead of having the TV control your life, you want to move up to Tivo controlling your life? In the end, if I'm old and on my death bed, I'm definitely going to be saying to myself, "Thank God I watched all those episodes of Stargate and Smallville before I die [especially not Smallville...can't believe I liked that show... horrible writing]!". Man, have I watched too much TV during my life. Not watching TV at all will save you a lot of money, too Not to mention time, which =money. But if it's essential, go with tuner + SageTV, if it's an option for you. Cheaper in the long run, and it's legit.

Summary: TV is a drug :Q

Says the guy with 1500+ posts on AT It's not always about just wasting time...for me it's a good way to spend time with my wife after work when we're both exhausted and don't want to do anything else. But yeah, you're right, it can be a drug lol. Curse the last MASH marathon!

 

[cKGunslinger]

Originally posted by: RossMAN
If you can find it on eBay or Craigslist search for the Toshiba SD-H400 which offers FREE basic tivo.

Go ahead and ask, what's the difference between basic and tivo plus?
http://customersupport.tivo.com/knowbase/root/public/tv1199.htm

Review

Tivo is essentially useless without Season Passes, IMO.

 

[thirdeye]

Perhaps the problem isn't a lack of DVR?

 

[fustercluck]

Kinda getting into the specifics here but with a Dish DVR could i record one show while watching another or record two shows at the same time? What size HD to they come with? Could i upgrade to an HD receiver/DVR easily in the future if i needed to?

I probably wouldn't need to record two shows simultaneously, but it'd be good to know all that stuff. Thanks for the info.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Contact Dish

 

[cKGunslinger]

Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo
Contact Dish

Indeed - for information, at least.

But don't expect a great deal. My wife called to inquire about getting a 3rd receivier for our 5-year-old Dish service, and instead of offering a free one + new service contract, the offered a $150 one + new contract. After some haggling and threats to quit, they lowered it to $70. :roll:


I think we'll be going with DTV in the upcoming weeks. The same amount of money Dish wants, but get 4 receivers, one with DVR. Yeah, no contest.

 

[DaShen]

Originally posted by: Adaman
TV is controlling my life, I've been living around TV schedules for too long. I really could use a good Tivo or DVR. We have Dish network, our receiver is pretty old (model 500 or something like that i think).

What you really need is to stay away from TV for about 2-3 weeks. Seriously. Cut out TV, movies... as much as possible, and go out and hang out with friends. Read a book, play sports, play poker...

After the 2-3 are up, you will find you miss TV a lot less than you thought you would have. Getting a TiVo would only compound the underlying issue.

 

[fustercluck]

I actually don't watch much TV, but the stuff I do watch I sometimes have to race home for or put off other things i have to do. To say it's controlling my life is a big exaggeration i guess. It is to some degree, but it's not like i'm watching more than 2 hours of TV a day.

Anyhow, thanks for the help.

 

[fustercluck]

I finally got around to calling them. It didn't sound like too bad of a deal. They would give me a dual tuner standard DVR for $70, then it'd be $5 a month to lease it...or something like that. There would be no additional receiver fee because it would replace my current receiver (some old one), and i could connect that to the living room TV and the TV in my room. I've been a Dish customer for 6 or 7 years, so it'd be nice if they just gave me the receiver for free. If I threaten to quit they might do that, but i dunno if i'll do that or not

Is there a dual tuner DVR i can buy for Dish that doesn't cost as much and/or have no subscription fees? Would it be stupid to get a DVR that has a subscription fee? Thanks for the help, i know this stuff is kind of confusing.

 

[Special K]

I just use newsgroups. You can find pretty much any show on there, and the quality ranges from divx all the way to HD.

 

[Eos]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: Crono
So instead of having the TV control your life, you want to move up to Tivo controlling your life? In the end, if I'm old and on my death bed, I'm definitely going to be saying to myself, "Thank God I watched all those episodes of Stargate and Smallville before I die [especially not Smallville...can't believe I liked that show... horrible writing]!". Man, have I watched too much TV during my life. Not watching TV at all will save you a lot of money, too Not to mention time, which =money. But if it's essential, go with tuner + SageTV, if it's an option for you. Cheaper in the long run, and it's legit.

Summary: TV is a drug :Q

Says the guy with 1500+ posts on AT It's not always about just wasting time...for me it's a good way to spend time with my wife after work when we're both exhausted and don't want to do anything else. But yeah, you're right, it can be a drug lol. Curse the last MASH marathon!

I recently saw the entire MASH and MacGyver series' up for download. Like 45gb each...

 

[Staples]

Originally posted by: cKGunslinger

Originally posted by: RossMAN
If you can find it on eBay or Craigslist search for the Toshiba SD-H400 which offers FREE basic tivo.

Go ahead and ask, what's the difference between basic and tivo plus?
http://customersupport.tivo.com/knowbase/root/public/tv1199.htm

Review

Tivo is essentially useless without Season Passes, IMO.

It is fine without the Season pass, but it is worthless if you have digital cable.

 

[RossMAN]

Originally posted by: Staples

Originally posted by: cKGunslinger

Originally posted by: RossMAN
If you can find it on eBay or Craigslist search for the Toshiba SD-H400 which offers FREE basic tivo.

Go ahead and ask, what's the difference between basic and tivo plus?
http://customersupport.tivo.com/knowbase/root/public/tv1199.htm

Review

Tivo is essentially useless without Season Passes, IMO.

It is fine without the Season pass, but it is worthless if you have digital cable.

Agreed. I have no problems manually recording shows every 3 days if it means saving $12.95/mo.

 

[Eos]

Originally posted by: RossMAN

Originally posted by: Staples

Originally posted by: cKGunslinger

Originally posted by: RossMAN
If you can find it on eBay or Craigslist search for the Toshiba SD-H400 which offers FREE basic tivo.

Go ahead and ask, what's the difference between basic and tivo plus?
http://customersupport.tivo.com/knowbase/root/public/tv1199.htm

Review

Tivo is essentially useless without Season Passes, IMO.

It is fine without the Season pass, but it is worthless if you have digital cable.

Agreed. I have no problems manually recording shows every 3 days if it means saving $12.95/mo.

I wouldn't have a problem doing that either, but my local analog cable feed is atrocious. Ghosting, just overall a horrible picture and sound.

 

[MrBond]

Originally posted by: Adaman

Is there a dual tuner DVR i can buy for Dish that doesn't cost as much and/or have no subscription fees? Would it be stupid to get a DVR that has a subscription fee? Thanks for the help, i know this stuff is kind of confusing.

The only subscription-less DVR out there is either a Tivo with Tivo Basic (like RossMAN linked earlier) or a home built media center PC.

Standalone DVRs work with Dish Network, they just don't work that well. You have to use an IR transmitter to change channels, and the Tivo has an inherent delay in switching channels. Satallite has a delay too, so you can't blast through the channels normally. Not only that, Tivo, since it's always recording, is on a fraction of a second delay from real time (this is really obvious if you have two TV's tuned to the same channel - the Tivo'ed TV will be slightly behind). This is really annoying because when you hit a button on the satallite remote, nothing happens, so you hit it again, then the first command registers and you end up going up two channels instead of one. This is only really an issue if you use the satallite remote a lot.

My Mom and Dad have a Tivo hooked to their Dish Network system, and as much as I love my Tivo on regular cable, I'd just get the Dish Network DVR if I ever moved to satallite. When I go to their house, 9 times out of 10 I switch the TV to the coax input channel 4 and just watch satallite that way.

The point of all this rambling is while other options exist, Dish Network's will be the easiest option.

 

[Kelemvor]

Just thought I'd update this since I'm not using my PVR any more.

If you are looking for currently running shows and don't mind watching them a day late, and don't want to have to ao ANY work, here's what to do.

1) Download and install uTorrent (or some other BT client if you don't like uTorrent
2) Download and install TED
3) Setup whatever shows you want to have a copy of in TED and configure it to launch the BT client or dump in a folder your BT client monitors
4) That's it, you're done

You configure TED with RSS feeds from various torrent monitoring sites. THen any time someoe uploads the latest episode of a show you are watching, TED goes and downloads the torrent automaticlaly and uses it to launch your BT program or saves it in a folder your BT program monitors. Then the BT program just starts downloading. 12 hours later (or whatever depending on the connection) you have the show and didn't have to do any work.

Plus all the shows uploaded have the comercials cut out, they are usually captures from an HD feed so they look pretty good, and they only take up 350 megs in general.

Good Luck.

 

[Staples]

Originally posted by: eos

Originally posted by: RossMAN

Originally posted by: Staples

It is fine without the Season pass, but it is worthless if you have digital cable.

Agreed. I have no problems manually recording shows every 3 days if it means saving $12.95/mo.

I wouldn't have a problem doing that either, but my local analog cable feed is atrocious. Ghosting, just overall a horrible picture and sound.

Do you have a HDTV? Both my HDTVs had a terrible analog tuner in them. Some channels looked terrible however the analog tuner in my TIVO worked very well and I have never had a problem because I watch the TIVO feed.

About not having the season pass, I only watch a few shows and they come on every week at the same time. I just set a repeat recording job at the same time every week and I don't have to fumble with recording times very often.