TiVo

[scharmer05]

I need a DVR...I am not home during the primetime TV hours and would love to still keep up with a few of the shows that are on. Getting a DVR from my cable provider isn't a possibility because that would mean I would have to move up to digital cable. Meaning that I would owe the the cable company about 40 bucks more a month after box rental and all the jazz. Not worth it just for the DVR because I would only watch maybe one or two of the extra channels.

My only answers would maybe be moving to DirecTV with a DVR for like 25 bucks more a month (a lot more channels and a little better quality) or I could simply get a TiVo at $13 a month if I commited to a 3 year contract. The commitment is not the problem as I will probably never go back to not having a DVR once I have one.

Here is the question...anyone have TiVo?

[loki]

you could look into a MYTH tv box. linux distro + a tv card = cheap DVR that's not locked by default and such

[Nick]

I have FiOS DVR...

It is FTW.

But, clearly, that is not what you are looking for.

[Hudson]

I got my TiVo in late 2000 and it took only a few weeks to wonder what life was like before it. Back then, however, they had a lifetime subscription package that cost about as much as a 2-year committment. Seven years later, it's free for me.

If you get a TiVo, there's a great source at www.weaknees.com that provides TiVo upgrades and such.

After about six years of use, my TiVo started acting up. The sound would drop out. It got so bad that the closed captioning had to be left on just so dialog could be read! I didn't want to get a new TiVo because that would cost $13 a month (the lifetime subscription is the lifetime of your TiVo, not you). But Weaknees offered a pre-configured 80hr harddrive (up from the 13 hour drive that came in my original Tivo) for less than a year's subscription. It works great!

[Cadillacfan]

I got a Pioneer DVD player/burner with built-in Tivo about two to three years ago. It was amazing. However, shortly after, our television started to get f-ed up and we had to purchase a new one. Went with HDTV and the series 2 Tivo can't record in HD so we had to get a DVR from Time Warner Cable and it SUCKS sooo bad. Awful interface, crappy remote, not as many options and the specific box we have tends to break up larger programs into sections without warning. Wanted to get the series three tivo with HD but it's $800 dollars and that's not worth that much in my opinion. Can't wait to get the cheaper HD Tivo.

[scharmer05]

I got my TiVo in late 2000 and it took only a few weeks to wonder what life was like before it. Back then, however, they had a lifetime subscription package that cost about as much as a 2-year committment. Seven years later, it's free for me.

If you get a TiVo, there's a great source at www.weaknees.com that provides TiVo upgrades and such.

After about six years of use, my TiVo started acting up. The sound would drop out. It got so bad that the closed captioning had to be left on just so dialog could be read! I didn't want to get a new TiVo because that would cost $13 a month (the lifetime subscription is the lifetime of your TiVo, not you). But Weaknees offered a pre-configured 80hr harddrive (up from the 13 hour drive that came in my original Tivo) for less than a year's subscription. It works great!

Is your new 80 hour big enough for you? I'm sure it seems like a lot after the 13 hr, but do you ever fill it up? I was looking on weaknees and they offer a 180 hour for 200, but I'm not sure I need all of that. I also heard that when a DVR gets closer to full, it tends to act sluggish when you are rewinding and such. I figure a bigger hard drive would solve that, but maybe that isn't an issue.

[scharmer05]

I got a Pioneer DVD player/burner with built-in Tivo about two to three years ago. It was amazing. However, shortly after, our television started to get f-ed up and we had to purchase a new one. Went with HDTV and the series 2 Tivo can't record in HD so we had to get a DVR from Time Warner Cable and it SUCKS sooo bad. Awful interface, crappy remote, not as many options and the specific box we have tends to break up larger programs into sections without warning. Wanted to get the series three tivo with HD but it's $800 dollars and that's not worth that much in my opinion. Can't wait to get the cheaper HD Tivo.

So you were a lot happier with the way Tivo worked then? A easy to use interface would be enough to make me want to simply get a Tivo and not switch to something else with a DVR.

[Drew Dowdell]

If you're even a slight Haxor I recommend looking at MythTV and building your own. One of the best Mythboxes I've seen is LinuxMCE.

[Robert Hall]

I've been using tiVos for about 6 years now, been very happy with it...easy to use interface, works great... I upgraded from a 13hr one to an 80 hr one (Series 2), which I keep filling up... ultimately, I'm going to want an HD one with a lot more capacity...I may try a homebrew setup at somepoint...a friend of mine has a mythTV setup with 5TB of storage.

[Hudson]

Is your new 80 hour big enough for you? I'm sure it seems like a lot after the 13 hr, but do you ever fill it up? I was looking on weaknees and they offer a 180 hour for 200, but I'm not sure I need all of that. I also heard that when a DVR gets closer to full, it tends to act sluggish when you are rewinding and such. I figure a bigger hard drive would solve that, but maybe that isn't an issue.

It depends on what you want to do with it. I keep shows for a week or so, watch them, then get rid of them. If you need to keep lots of shows on file, then you'll want more.

With the 13-hour box, I learned to live with it...and it wasn't difficult. A show or two would get erased when the two or three-day time limit was up. The new hard drive allows for more shows to remain in memory longer.

I haven't noticed any problems when the machine gets full. But as I've been told on a few occasions, whatever size you THINK you need, get the next size up.

[scharmer05]

If you're even a slight Haxor I recommend looking at MythTV and building your own. One of the best Mythboxes I've seen is LinuxMCE.

I'm not.....but what is the advantage of a Myth? Would it be worth seeking out someone to help me out with it?

[scharmer05]

I haven't noticed any problems when the machine gets full. But as I've been told on a few occasions, whatever size you THINK you need, get the next size up.

That makes a lot of sense. I would really hate to have it for a while and THEN wish I had a larger HD.

[loki]

I'm not.....but what is the advantage of a Myth? Would it be worth seeking out someone to help me out with it?

the best thing with MYTH is it can be quite cheap to put together. something like a pentium 3 or better should be able to handle recording shows well. but for HDD ease to record lots, something like a P4 or Athalon xp would allow multitasking. seeking help on it should be very easy.

http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-3.html#ss3.1 for hardware needs/recommendations

http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/fcmyth.php#hw scroll down some for a "how-to"

it's no pull it out of a box and you're ready, but you may be happier with it...?

[Drew Dowdell]

Watch the install and features video for LinuxMCE on GoogleVideo. He does a complete walk through of the installation and setup. The LinuxMCE version of MythTV is much much more than just a Tivo replacement.

[frogger]

I have the Rogers cable "equivalent" DVR made my Scientiific Atlanta and I have to say its pretty kludgy. The quality of the recordings (HD) are great and I don't really watch non-hd programming except for Family Guy at this point, but the interface leaves a lot to be desired. Beats the alternative of analog recordings though.