Any satisfied DVR owners out there?

[WonderBrick]

I am thinking about buying a TiVo.  Everywhere I read, reviews say the interface for TiVo is far better then that of Replay.  Does anyone here have any experience with Replay machines?

I like the networking aspects of the TiVo Series 2 machines, but it still appears I cannot easily pull the media off the TiVo for storage/viewing/burning on my PC.  The only two methods that I see to get media off TiVo is 1) install video capture card and capture the content played off the TiVo, or 2) get a TiVo 3rd-party unit that has built in DVD burning capabilities(and a big price hike).  And the DVD recorder units seem to make no mention if it is a straight DVD-R burn, or if there is some sort of copy protection added to each disc(more on this next).

There is a TiVo2Go option that TiVo is going to start offering soon, that allow people to play media off TiVos, on their PCs, but this will require a special version of WinDVD and burning software to add copy protection to the DVD and playback in the special versions of the DVD playback software.  Not cool.

At this point, I am looking at getting a video capture card(I already have a PC DVD-R burner).  I can use the capture card for other, non-TiVo purposes, but it is still a pain in the ass to manually record everything from the TiVo.  I am still eyeballing TiVo players with DVD burning options, to see if I can find out more about their burning process(copy protection) and to see if I can get one cheap.

Any input any of you have to offer is appreciated.  Thanks

[Ardent]

I have TiVo and I love it. It sounds like you've done your research so I won't go into all the supremely cool things it can do, but it's worth it.

I haven't watched a single commercial since I bought it. I still watch the same amount of shows that I used to, but I spend far less actual time watching TV. I can tape a football game and just watch it a bit later than normal, and I can plow through a 3 hour game in about an hour and a half, without missing any of the good stuff. When I go over to people's houses that don't have it and I'm forced to watch commercials, I'm reminded of how awful life used to be before TiVo.

As for transferring media, right now that is a problem. You can hook up a VCR (yuck, analog!) and deliver media that way, I haven't really experimented at all with hooking it up to my PC.

[UD_Delt]

I have DVR service through Cox cable. I'm not really sure what the difference between that and TiVo is but I am very happy with.

It is integrated with the digital guide and you can record based on program, time slot, new episode, etc... The interface is incredibly easy to use and I have never had a problem figuring out how to do anything.

It does have an option to dump to VCR but I don't know if that would dump to DVD as well...

I do notice a slight loss of video quality when playing back off of the DVR vs. playing the live digital stream. If I had a better TV it would probably be more pronounced. I don't know if that holds true for TiVo as well or not though....

[WayAbvPar]

If you want DVR, go with TiVo. The off brand DVRs that cable and satellite companies are now giving away are vastly inferior in many ways, most glaringly in the interface and ease of use. TiVo also records things on your behalf that it thinks you will like (if it has room and you aren't recording anything else), it is easy to set up recordings by time, keyword, Season Pass, etc. If you have never used a DVR before, TiVo will absolutely change the way you use television. I can't recommend highly enough.

Check here for some of your networking info; I haven't bothered including TiVo on my home network yet, but I can guarantee you someone there has (and has probably already posted it).

[WonderBrick]

Many thanks for the feedback(keep it coming).

I am looking at some of the third-party, TiVo-supported machines, that range from bigger names like Toshiba, Panasonic, and Adaptec, to smaller brands I have never heard of before.  I am looking at these for several reasons:  harddrive size, DVD-R burning support, etc.  If anyone has any insight into any third-party, TiVo-supported brands, good or bad, please share your experience.

Many thanks

[Mr_PeaCH]

Wait.  Satanic DVRs or satanic owners?

Oops, wrong thread.

:/

[Viin]

I love my TiVo.

However, just a couple of caveats to be aware of:

a) if you get a Tivo 2 it does come with the networking stuff but requires that you place the Tivo on top of your cable box and use a crappy IR dongle to have the Tivo change the channel on your cable box

b) if you don't get a Tivo 2 (a Tivo 1) it requires a phone line in order to get programming information and still uses the crappy IR dongle thingies

c) If you get the DirecTV TiVo (which is only Tivo 1) it only requires a phone line for initial setup and it IS the cable box but doesn't have any networking capabilities

If you are really gung-ho I would recommend building yourself a little Linux box and use one of these software packages for your own hotdoggin' DVR:

 MythTV
 Freevo

There's others but I don't feel like finding the links...

[personman]

I detested my TiVo - I returned it within the two weeks I'd bought it.

But that's because I had already owned a ReplayTV.  I prefer the replay interface much more, though the tivo had some nice features like an elapsed play slider.

Replay's are also sweet for the auto-commercial skip and the ability to send files to other replays over your home lan.  Supposedly that last feature works over wans but I've never tried it.  I have a java utility that lets me put & pull files from the unit as well.

Though these days I'm watching Microsoft for my future purchase.  I like the idea of a completely integrated unit.  I'm sick of the five remotes boogie.

[Ardent]

a) if you get a Tivo 2 it does come with the networking stuff but requires that you place the Tivo on top of your cable box and use a crappy IR dongle to have the Tivo change the channel on your cable box

Depends on your cable box. For example, certain brands of Motorola cable boxes accept a serial connection straight from the TiVo rather than the silly IR thingie.

[schild]

Though these days I'm watching Microsoft for my future purchase.  I like the idea of a completely integrated unit.  I'm sick of the five remotes boogie.

I have one of these:


They rock. Too bad I don't really need it atm.

[sidereal]

If you're committed to buying a box that does it all for you, get a TiVo.  Loved on mine for years.

On the other hand, if you don't mind doing a little work and you're not interested in paying a monthly subscription for TV listings (which is all you're paying for) you can get free all over the place, you can build your own.  Especially if you're already fine with buying a tuner card.  That's the hardest part.

So get yourself a Hauppauge PVR-150 (these just came out last week. . same features as the 250 but half the price), a big hard drive, and pay for either Snapstream BeyondTV or SageTV.

Or if you don't want to pay for the software at all, and can handle managing Linux, install MythTV for free.  There are also a free Windows setup. . GBRTV.  No experience with that.  

Upside of DIY is no subscription fee and you get the files sitting on your hard drive as an MPG.  Downside is you have to do a little work and you need TV Out on your video card to move the display back to the TV.  Not hard.

[MahrinSkel]

I've been happy with TiVo, and supposedly sharing shows between TiVo's is fairly simple as long as they are on the same network (and presumably this would work over VPN if you had enough bandwidth).  I'm planning on buying one of the TiVo/DVD-R combos as soon as I can afford it ($750-900 with the lifetime service plan), which will take care of the archiving and portability issue (burn to DVD, then use the DMCA violation of your choice to make copies).

ReplayTV does have some nice features, but the interface was such a pain after having gotten used to TiVo I can't seriously consider getting one.  The only thing I dislike is the way that some stations/networks (screw you, NBC) have started messing with their show start schedules to throw off the TiVo (scheduling 1 minute early to keep you from recording both CSI and ER, and such).

--Dave

[WonderBrick]

One large deciding factor is if I can get the media off the machine fairly easily.  It is interesting that Replay evidently has a method(the Java utility mentioned above), and yet TiVo Series 2 does not yet appear to have a method(other then integrated DVD burner or video capture card in PC).

Is Microsoft planning on releasing their own brand of DVR?

[sidereal]

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/default.mspx">Yes

But you buy the tuner card yourself

[SirBruce]

I like my TiVo, but I think I'd much rather have a cable company's own integrated DVR unit.  TiVo's stupid IR interface unit is nearly enough to through the whole thing out the window by itself.  Nearly.

Bruce

[WonderBrick]

Interesting.  It looks like there will be future Media Center support with the XBox.  That really opens up alot of possibilities for future consoles.  But at the same time, isn't it odd that some reports are that XBox 2 might not ship with a harddrive?

[Righ]

I have an integrated Motorola 6208 HD cable decoder and DVR. It's early days for this, and the software is still a little shite. Half the hardware in the unit isn't even enabled in firmware at this stage (such as the integrated DOCSIS modem and the DVI output). It is all likely to be useless in July 2005 when Broadcast Flag is mandated.

[Joe]

You all have me very intrigued. Between this and my teetering toward XFM, I might be dangerously close to joining some sort of anti-commercial fringe group. What's the average buy-in for a TiVo? I know so little about them, but if it's $50 for a box and then $10/month afterward, I'd be very intrigued.

[Merusk]

Cheap TiVo, from the TiVo guys themselves will be $99 and $12.95 a month or $300 for "product" (as in the machine, not your) lifetime.  Can't find anything about how product lifetime is defined. It could be "as long as it works" or it could be "as long as the warranty."  Either way $300 is a hell of a deal compared to $13 a month.

TiVo also puts out their own (non 3rd party) DVR/DVD-R box.  I saw it advertised a weekend or two ago and was considering buying-in to the TiVo thing myself.  It's $400 for it and it supports DVD-R and DVD-RW formats.

[Riggswolfe]

Cox cable does offer both DVRS and HD/DVRS. The big difference between them and TiVo is that from my understanding TiVo ties up a phoneline whereas a Cox DVR doesn't.

[Sky]

Check out avsforum.com , a decent site about a/v stuff. Huge readership and some actually knowledgable folks.

I've been meaning to take the plunge into setting up a high-def dvr in my pc, but after tweaking this dumb new server all day the last thing I want to do is go home and tweak my computer. At the forum I mentioned, there's guides to most popular a/v pc hardware and software in the HTPC forum. There's also a gaming forum where you can proclaim how much consoles suck ;)

[Bunk]

I'm currently using a Motorola DCT6208 from the cable company.  The fucker cost me $800 Cdn, but it was worth it. Its a combo HDTV tuner/DVR.

It integrates directly with the cable company's onscreen guide, so its easy to use.  Its expensive, but there is no extra subscription associated, you just pay for the box.

[Hanzii]

Heh.

I've just bought a Philips HDRW720 for $666 in Germany, which is still half price for what it cost here. Before that I tried the Sony HX1000 (250 gigs and does both -R/+R and -RW/+RW) and the new KISS DP558, which has ethernet and thus an epg, which the others lack - unfortunately this works like if a mmorpg company built DVRs, so that was out.

The Sony was pricy, so the Philips won - it is also a very easy thing to use. The wife, who doesn't like all the crap I bring home (I often test hardware) was using it within a half day under the tv.

I envy you guys the prices, the access to EPGs and TiVo and like services and I envy you HDTV - I do however like the crystal clear image on my Philips and like how easy it is to burn a DVD for the stuff you want to keep.

On the KISS I could watch my torrented DivX Lost episodes directly from my PCs harddisc, unfortunately everything else was broken...

[hectorvictorious]

The cable company I work for is going to start using these, which is pretty cool.  Really hoping to beta test one.  Digital cable converter/DVR/cable modem all wrapped into one surely very expensive package.

[Righ]

The Moxi software does look good. The Motorola DCT6208 which are already out there (Comcast are actually deploying it under regular rental agreements in many areas) have buggy and incomplete software. The Moxi platform is based on the newer Motorola BMC9012, and future BMC9022. However, I still wonder how much use any of this stuff is going to be once stations (rather than rebroadcasters such as the cable companies) start to implement broadcast flag on every bit of content they can.

[Merusk]

The Moxi software does look good. The Motorola DCT6208 which are already out there (Comcast are actually deploying it under regular rental agreements in many areas) have buggy and incomplete software. The Moxi platform is based on the newer Motorola BMC9012, and future BMC9022. However, I still wonder how much use any of this stuff is going to be once stations (rather than rebroadcasters such as the cable companies) start to implement broadcast flag on every bit of content they can.

Eiither earlier in this thread or in a thread elsewhere someone posted a link regarding that. It was to some freedom of information group, and explained that Hardware bought prior to.. June(?) of next year isn't required to recognize broadcast flags.  Nor will they be allowed to implement a flag that renders these legacy units as worthless.

SOo, buy before that deadline and you're golden.

EDIT:

Found the group that was linked. The Electronic Frontier Foundation
Yeah, anything after July 1, 2005 will have to recognize the broadcast flag. Nothing before that will. Here's a Wired article about it and  a brief bit about the EFF's fight vs the FCC on the ruling.

[Righ]

I still have a record player too. However, my records are owned, not broadcast. Your 2004 content recorder may not cope with next years' QAM encryption.

[WonderBrick]

Someone sent me this interesting, albiet scary, link.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2026&e=1&u=/latimests/tivowillnolongerskippastadvertisers

[Abagadro]

My Dish Network DVR doesn't automatically skip commercials, but they go by real fast when you can forward through them at 300x speed.

[Pineapple]

My Dish Network DVR doesn't automatically skip commercials, but they go by real fast when you can forward through them at 300x speed.

LA Times article "TiVo will no longer skip past advertisers".

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-et-tivo17nov17,0,927837.story?coll=la-home-headline

Sounds like it still will allow fast forwarding, but have some sort of wierd pop up ad thing.

[Shockeye]

My Dish Network DVR doesn't automatically skip commercials, but they go by real fast when you can forward through them at 300x speed.

My Dish DVR skips them, sort of. I use the skip ahead button that goes 15 seconds ahead and there's also a repeat button that goes 5 seconds back.