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Which is better? Hacking Tivo, or Windows Media Center?

C

Coldkilla

Diamond Member
I was looking into getting some of my favorite shows one way or another to my PC so I could edit them/burn them onto DVD's. I was wondering which method would be easier yet, more convenient in the long run. Thanks.

Also:
-With Media Center, how exactly would that connect to the TV?
-With Tivo, does that void warrenty if you open the box?

I'll get back to this thread later tomarrow.

Thanks.
 
Another thing to consider:

TiVo - you have to pay either $12.95/mo or $299 lifetime fees.
MCE with TV tuner card - $0 monthly fees
 
Originally posted by: RossMAN
Another thing to consider:

TiVo - you have to pay either $12.95/mo or $299 lifetime fees.
MCE with TV tuner card - $0 monthly fees
Click to expand...

Unless you get DirecTv w/ TiVo $5/month, which is way better than a standalone unit.

Yes it voids your warranty if you open the box. Hmm now that I think about it, I just checked my DVR40 and their isn't a seal that would be broken if I open it.
It's been hacked for a couple years now, so I double checked with my roommates unhacked DVR40 and his doesn't have any sort of seal either.

 
The newly-announced Series3 box supports SATA including an external port(!)... should make storage upgrades quite painless.

It's no small secret to TiVo that users mod the box. In fact, TiVo has in the past offered critical info to the community to make some of it possible. To them, it's good business, and a lure to get people to buy one and subscribe (the only way they really make money). Hell, it made me get an 80hr Series2 w/lifetime sub, now with extra 120gb added. Back in '02 or '03 though, so it's paid for itself and then some.

:beer:
 
Originally posted by: Coldkilla
I was looking into getting some of my favorite shows one way or another to my PC so I could edit them/burn them onto DVD's. I was wondering which method would be easier yet, more convenient in the long run. Thanks.

Also:
-With Media Center, how exactly would that connect to the TV?
-With Tivo, does that void warrenty if you open the box?

I'll get back to this thread later tomarrow.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I would say the tivo would be the easiest. I have only had mine for a short time but it's as easy as downloading the tivotogo software and transferring it.
Of course you have to buy a wireless (or wired) network adapter for the tivo. Then after you get the video to the pc there are a couple of different softwares that will automatically delete the commercials. Then you have to burn it.

Not knocking the htpc because I'm sure once you get it set up it would be easy as well. Just saying that from scratch the tivo would be easier.
 
I'd say it depends on who you have service through.

If it is through a cable company then a tuner card with Windows MCE or another front-end would probably be easier. The exception to that would be if it was Comcast digital/HDTV with a Motorola box and then you could just transfer the shows over via Firewire.

If it is through DirecTV, get a DirecTivo box (not one of the new DirecTV DVRs) and hack it and you can transfer shows straight off.
 
Originally posted by: Coldkilla
I was looking into getting some of my favorite shows one way or another to my PC so I could edit them/burn them onto DVD's. I was wondering which method would be easier yet, more convenient in the long run. Thanks.

Also:
-With Media Center, how exactly would that connect to the TV?
-With Tivo, does that void warrenty if you open the box?

I'll get back to this thread later tomarrow.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

WMCE rocks.. it requires a TV tuner card so you just hook the cable right into the PC..
then it becomes a big free TIVO
 
Heh, just download them.

Recording them, editing the commercials, re-coding them to Divx/Xvid... Takes a lot of time.

I'm recording 2 shows right now with my SageTV box. Alias and Charmed.

I record them in MPEG-2 Max Quality which gives me a 5+gig file for each 1 hr show. Then I go through and edit out the commercials and get down to just under a 4 gig file which takes about 15 minutes per episode. Then I use AutoGK to convert them to Xvid which takes 2-3 hours per episode.

Alias is on every day, Charmed is on 2-3 times every day. This fills up my hard drive pretty quickly so I can only go a couple days without doing everything.

I could have downloaded all the episodes in a week and be done with it but I'm just a glutten for punishment I guess....
 
Does a TV Tuner take a lot out of system resources? I mean I like the idea of the tuner. The thing is, I dont want to sacrifice any game time or any programs that I use that use a lot of resorces to slow down. Idc about the hdd space. I'll look into the tuner instead
 
Originally posted by: Coldkilla
Does a TV Tuner take a lot out of system resources? I mean I like the idea of the tuner. The thing is, I dont want to sacrifice any game time or any programs that I use that use a lot of resorces to slow down. Idc about the hdd space. I'll look into the tuner instead
Click to expand...

Depends on the tuner you get, if you are concerned with using resources then I'd grab the PVR-250 because it has a hardware encoder. The PVR-350 has a hardware encoder and decoder.

I do have some questions for you though.

1.) I'm assuming you are using standard cable signals?
2.) How many shows do you want to record at once?
3.) Plan to record OTA HD anytime soon?
4.) What are your current system specs, detail your hard drive setup,etc
5.) How much time per day/week do you want to spend editing shows, etc to produce a final product that would be placed on HDD, DVD,etc?
6.) How many TV's do you want to watch your recorded shows on?
7.) Budget?
 
Originally posted by: Coldkilla
Does a TV Tuner take a lot out of system resources? I mean I like the idea of the tuner. The thing is, I dont want to sacrifice any game time or any programs that I use that use a lot of resorces to slow down. Idc about the hdd space. I'll look into the tuner instead
Click to expand...

No it doesn't if you get a good HARDWARE encoding tuner like Hauppauge.
 
Originally posted by: AStar617
The newly-announced Series3 box supports SATA including an external port(!)... should make storage upgrades quite painless.

It's no small secret to TiVo that users mod the box. In fact, TiVo has in the past offered critical info to the community to make some of it possible. To them, it's good business, and a lure to get people to buy one and subscribe (the only way they really make money). Hell, it made me get an 80hr Series2 w/lifetime sub, now with extra 120gb added. Back in '02 or '03 though, so it's paid for itself and then some.

:beer:
Click to expand...

I just watched that video of the Series 3, and I do like some of the features but here is my take on it.

Pros:
Dual HD tuners
Front LED display
E-SATA port

Cons:
Price
E-SATA port
The Guide

Now I'm sure you are going to wonder why I put the E-SATA as both a pro and a con.
Sure it would be awesome to just be able to connect a drive to get more storage space.
Especially since it looks like it might ship with the ability to only record 30hrs of HD programming. So the ability to upgrade the space is the plus side, the negative side is be damn sure that TiVo will be using their own FS and you can gurantee that they will be using a very strong type of DRM to prevent widespread distribution of any recorded content.

As far as the price goes, even at $400-800 as the article states that is just down right hard to swallow. Even on the low end after you lifetime subscription you are looking at $700 for a dual HD tuner TiVo. And considering that DTV is giving away HD-250's for so cheap now. It seems hard to justify the upgrade cost just for the front panel LED display and the option to expand your hard drive externally. And to boot it seems that the external hard drives will only be available from TiVo. [sarcasm]I bet that will be cheap!
[/sarcasm]

And the guide is the same type and format of what is currently available on DirecTiVo's. It looked identical, so no real upgrade there.

 
My Series2 shows no signs of stopping anytime soon, and I show no signs of having an HD signal in my house anytime soon 🙂 Given that, by the time I'm ready to upgrade, the price should have come down and major inroads should have been made towards DRM circumvention.

Or so I hope.
 
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