why do hardware dvr's that aren't tivo exist?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
N

nageov3t

Lifer
Feb 18, 2004
42,808
83
91
I've been using tivo for a long time... I was an early adopter back in the series 1 days, since I went to college in PA and the cable network in my college town didn't get UPN or WB (so I'd tivo Buffy the Vampire Slayer, my favorite show ever, and have a bunch of episodes waiting for me to watch when I got home for breaks... this was before the days of tv shows being out on torrents within 15 minutes of their original broadcast). I've been using tivo ever since, and it was especially valuable when I used to work nights.

a couple weeks ago, my phillips series 2 finally kicked the bucket (it's probably repairable with a drive replacement, but why bother with a unit that's only got a single tuner that's not even HD-capable?), so I decided to go with my cable company's dvr (optimum gave me their HD, dual-tuner dvr free for a year, so the price was the big selling point as opposed to having to put down the cash for a series 3).

it got hooked up yesterday afternoon, and let me just say... it's wtfawful compared to tivo. the interface is slow and clunky (and not even wide-screen) and you can't even search for shows by name to schedule recordings for, which really bites me in the butt since I don't know when half the shows I watch are even on (as far as I'm concerned, they just magically appear on my tivo... I had my series 2 for like 4 years, so some of my season passes were pretty old).

I can see the point of pc-dvr's (I have one myself, and this optimum box is sucking to the point where I'm pretty tempted to invest in 2-3 new hd tuners for it... my big concern is just the sheer power usage from having a computer on 24/7, not to mention the noise), it just made me wonder, why do cable companies even bother trying to develop their own dvr's if they're going to fail so epically? would it be that hard to just repackage tivo's and rent them out?
 
B

BigJ

Lifer
Nov 18, 2001
21,330
1
81
Probably $.

Doesn't it cost a couple hundred for the DVR + a monthly fee for TiVo?
 
Ns1

Ns1

No Lifer
Jun 17, 2001
55,420
1,600
126
i had 3 comcast dvr's and they were wonderful

record 2 programs at once, HD, etc. cheaper (for me) then the huge capital outlay of tivo.
 
M

Mxylplyx

Diamond Member
Mar 21, 2007
4,197
101
106
I like the fact that the one provided by my cable company is owned by my cable company, so I'm not left holding the ball if the hard drive fails. I also dont have a home phone line that I believe TIVO requires.
 
nakedfrog

nakedfrog

No Lifer
Apr 3, 2001
61,775
17,494
136
I'm not sure if the Dish 622 has a search function or not. Other than that, though, it seems to work pretty well.
 
B

blackdogdeek

Lifer
Mar 14, 2003
14,453
10
81
tivo has the best UI. but the cable companies have a captive audience. users don't need to buy a new unit, their cable box is just replaced by the dvr box, they only pay an extra $5/month over what they pay now and they don't have to set anything up.

and the cable companies don't need to build a better UI because no one is really complaining. well some people are complaining but for the most part everyone just accepts the awful UI either because they don't know something better exists or it's just not worth it to complain.

imho.
 
MrChad

MrChad

Lifer
Aug 22, 2001
13,507
3
81
I have used Time Warner's DVR, Comcast's DVR and Tivo (Series 2). Tivo's UI is nice, but I cannot justify paying $300+ for similar functionality when I can rent the equipment from the cable company for under $10 / month.
 
MrChad

MrChad

Lifer
Aug 22, 2001
13,507
3
81
Originally posted by: blackdogdeek
tivo has the best UI. but the cable companies have a captive audience. users don't need to buy a new unit, their cable box is just replaced by the dvr box, they only pay an extra $5/month over what they pay now and they don't have to set anything up.

and the cable companies don't need to build a better UI because no one is really complaining. well some people are complaining but for the most part everyone just accepts the awful UI either because they don't know something better exists or it's just not worth it to complain.

imho.
Click to expand...

Comcast licensed Tivo's UI for their DVRs a year or two ago and there are rumors that they are bringing it to test markets soon.
 
UNCjigga

UNCjigga

Lifer
Dec 12, 2000
25,386
9,956
136
Supposedly Comcast is eventually going to update their Motorola 3422/6422 HD DVR boxes with DVR software licensed from Tivo, but they've been talking about this for 2 years and so far only a few thousand people in one market can use it. I don't know why it's taking so long.
 
TangoJuliet

TangoJuliet

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2006
5,595
1
76
If you have optimum then you porbably have the SA8300HD DVR. I also had a tivo back in college and when I moved into my house I got the Cablevision DVR because it was free. I have to say its a big steaming POS compared to the tivo interface.

For example, my wife likes Michael Buble and he's on the tonight show this week. It probably took me about 30 mins to find out what day he was performing using the cablevision dvr while im sure it would have taken only a few mintues with the tivo.

The biggest problem tivo has is that the cable companies can subsidize the boxes so that they can get you on the service. If tivo can ever come up with a similar strategy....say buy a HD Tivo with 3 years service and the box is free I'm sure more people would buy it. But I cant see myself plopping down $299 + tivo monthly fee when I can get something similar from the cable company for free.
 
T

torpid

Lifer
Sep 14, 2003
11,631
11
76
Originally posted by: Mxylplyx
I like the fact that the one provided by my cable company is owned by my cable company, so I'm not left holding the ball if the hard drive fails. I also dont have a home phone line that I believe TIVO requires.
Click to expand...

Tivo requires a phone line only if you don't want to purchase a USB network card. And the newer ones come with built-in networking support (at least, my series 3 does). You can even hack networking support into old series 1 tivos.
 
B

blackdogdeek

Lifer
Mar 14, 2003
14,453
10
81
Originally posted by: MrChad

Comcast licensed Tivo's UI for their DVRs a year or two ago and there are rumors that they are bringing it to test markets soon.
Click to expand...

oh thank goodness i hope so.
 
N

nageov3t

Lifer
Feb 18, 2004
42,808
83
91
Originally posted by: torpid
Originally posted by: Mxylplyx
I like the fact that the one provided by my cable company is owned by my cable company, so I'm not left holding the ball if the hard drive fails. I also dont have a home phone line that I believe TIVO requires.
Click to expand...

Tivo requires a phone line only if you don't want to purchase a USB network card. And the newer ones come with built-in networking support (at least, my series 3 does). You can even hack networking support into old series 1 tivos.
Click to expand...

I used a cheap 802.11b usb thing on my old tivo and it seemed to work well enough.
 
GregGreen

GregGreen

Golden Member
Dec 5, 2000
1,682
3
81
Originally posted by: alkohoLiK
If you have optimum then you porbably have the SA8300HD DVR. I also had a tivo back in college and when I moved into my house I got the Cablevision DVR because it was free. I have to say its a big steaming POS compared to the tivo interface.

For example, my wife likes Michael Buble and he's on the tonight show this week. It probably took me about 30 mins to find out what day he was performing using the cablevision dvr while im sure it would have taken only a few mintues with the tivo.
Click to expand...

Dude, how could it take you that long? I have the 8300HDC with TW and it took me about 1 minute to do this...
 
TangoJuliet

TangoJuliet

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2006
5,595
1
76
Originally posted by: GregGreen
Originally posted by: alkohoLiK
If you have optimum then you porbably have the SA8300HD DVR. I also had a tivo back in college and when I moved into my house I got the Cablevision DVR because it was free. I have to say its a big steaming POS compared to the tivo interface.

For example, my wife likes Michael Buble and he's on the tonight show this week. It probably took me about 30 mins to find out what day he was performing using the cablevision dvr while im sure it would have taken only a few mintues with the tivo.
Click to expand...

Dude, how could it take you that long? I have the 8300HDC with TW and it took me about 1 minute to do this...
Click to expand...

I had to open up the guide then search for shows under "T". Once I found the Tonight Show I had to go look at who was performing. Once I found out it was Thursday night it was easy but it took forver to scroll through all the T's and whatnot.
 
S

syee

Senior member
Oct 6, 2001
827
0
76
Originally posted by: loki8481
Originally posted by: amdskip
Check out BeyondTV: http://www.snapstream.com
Click to expand...

I <3 BTV too... but how do they interface with a cable box?
Click to expand...

It's been a while since I looked at Beyond TV, but if I remember correctly, it interfaced with the cable box via RS 232 cable. (Mind you, the last time I tried to do this was 3-4 years ago so I'm sure things have changed)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom