General 24 Jul 2004 07:16 pm

[Off Topic] To Tivo or not to Tivo?

I try to avoid off-topic stuff on this blog, but it’s Saturday and I’ve already posted a bunch of Flash-related stuff today, so…

My Tivo has done me well for many years now. I often tell people that it has been the best electronics purchase that I have ever made. However, my first generation Sony SVR-2000 and it’s puny 30GB HD has lead me to search for a replacement (*sniff*). My archive of “The Simpsons” episodes has grown so large that I have no space left. Deciding which episodes to part with is more difficult than doing my taxes, so I am instead going to seek out a Tivo-to-DVD solution. I’m going to try the Canopus ADVC-100 Analog/DV Converter to get the video off of my Tivo and on to my Mac for easy archiving. Once I have protected my episodes, I will seek out a replacement.

So I’m looking for suggestions on a replacement. Tivo has been great for me, and the new Series 2 Tivo’s remote access feature sounds really useful (if it works). However, I recently read in Wired that long-time second-placer ReplayTV has a good offering now.

I’m really looking for HD recording, but it looks like the market hasn’t quite caught up yet. DirecTV is offering the DirecTV HD DVR, which seems to be selling for $999 in most places (ouch!). The 250GB HD sounds great, but I’m curious to see what kind of space an HD recording actually takes up. Plus, it seems that I could build a PC and make my own HD DVR for less than $999.

Anyone care to make a suggestion?

16 Responses to “[Off Topic] To Tivo or not to Tivo?”

  1. on 24 Jul 2004 at 8:45 pm 1.Brian said …

    I use a 5040 ReplayTV hooked wirelessly to my home network and can record something and transfer it to my PC using DVArchive (open source) and burn it straight to DVD. It rocks. I can also use any number of media servers on my network and stream shows that I have archived from those servers and watch them on the ReplayTV. Very sweet… I would def reccommend a new replayTV over a TIVO if you’re wanting to use it as a digitizer. BTW, I also use mine to convert old VHS tapes to DVD… great a->d converter…

    -Brian

  2. on 24 Jul 2004 at 11:34 pm 2.Greg Burch said …

    Hey Mike,

    I use DirecTV and have considered going to the new HDTV for my main system. I currently have the tivo in the bedroom to avoid killing the quality on my nice tv. When I had poked around for the new HDTV tivo it was basically hard to find, but a lot of places were taking “pre-orders” for a little less than 999. If you can wait I would wait maybe 1-2 months to see what the market does.

  3. on 25 Jul 2004 at 2:13 pm 3.John Dowdell said …

    I could be wrong, but from what I currently understand you might have to move soon on this… there’s some type of law coming up for the US market which would prohibit certain recording paths soon.
    http://www.eff.org/broadcastflag/

    For reviews, then have you gotten into the online discussion on this subject yet? These sites contain more links:
    http://www.byopvr.com/
    http://pvrblog.com/
    http://www.lostremote.com/

  4. on 25 Jul 2004 at 8:06 pm 4.Roger Benningfield said …

    Mike: Pioneer makes TiVos with built-in DVD+RW… your can schedule recordings and burn them to disc with the same box.

    They’re not cheap, though… starting at $899 last I checked. Fantastic hardware, though.

  5. on 25 Jul 2004 at 8:34 pm 5.btn said …

    • All of The Simpsons episodes will eventually be out on DVD :) • Canopus recently released the ADVC-110 although the only difference appears to be that it can be powered off of a FireWire 400 connection. i.e. No separate power supply needed.
    • The DIRECTV HD TiVo can store 30 hours max HD content or 200 hours max standard def. If you don’t care about HD, you can get the standard DIRECTV TiVo that lets you record 2 channels simultaneously in “perfect” quality (the raw MPEG sat signal). The standard DIRECTV TiVo stores 35 hours, but you can buy a few of them for the price of the HD version. You may even be able to upgrade its HDD via some unofficial hack although Gerry hasn’t hacked his so it may be impossible. ;) • The Pioneer DVR-810H and DVR-57H TiVo’s seem to be the ultimate in turn-key TiVo to DVD-R. I am personally waiting for TiVo To Go:
    http://www.tivo.com/5.3.1.1.asp?article=196
    • BTW, last chance to get a 40-hour refurb TiVo for only $50:
    http://www.tivo.com/2.0.1.asp

  6. on 26 Jul 2004 at 5:37 am 6.Halans said …

    I’m quite pleased with my Philips HDRW720 HD-DVD recorder. It will be available on the US market too, with a 120Gb HD (instead of our 80Gb in Europe) It’s very easy to burn a DVD, much easier and less painful than burning on a PC (which I also used to do).
    http://www.philips.nl/Assets/Downloadablefile/HDRW720_HE-brochure-3230.pdf

  7. on 26 Jul 2004 at 10:28 am 7.Jim Holbrook said …

    I use tystudio to move video from my tivo to the pc and then burn the mpg files to dvd. There is a new tyFTP out but I have not installed it yet.

    The link below is to download tystudio:

    http://dvd-create.sourceforge.net/tystudio/index.shtml

  8. on 26 Jul 2004 at 9:04 pm 8.Gerry said …

    Hey Mike,

    Gerry here. If you are interested in the DirecTivo HD DVR, some people say you can get DirecTV to drop the price up to $200 if you are persistent enough with the customer service reps:

    http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=168928

    I think Comcrap — I mean Comcast — has some sort of HD DVR available. But from what I hear it kinda sucks. A 3rd option is to build one yourself from standard PC components. Personally, I consider that too much work considering there’s already an awesome (but expensive) out-of-the box tivo solution….

    If you’re not totally set on HD, the standard DirecTivo (DirecTV DVR) is the best deal you can get now ($99 for the base 35 hour unit, + $5.00/month on your DirecTV bill). Besides the dual tuners (no more scheduling conflicts), you get perfect picture quality (it records the encrypted MPEG stream directly from the satellite). Also, it will record and output the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track for shows that have it. Plus you can get 3rd party upgrade kits (no hacking required, just install the new drive) to boost it up to 120 hours for around $80-$160 depending on size.

  9. on 04 Sep 2004 at 8:08 am 9.Tarrant said …

    I’m using the Philips HDRW720 in the US. It has a few problems. Namely, it takes a long time, and sometimes even loses, TV Guide On Screen programming data. Also, it has trouble reading DVD+R and DVD+RW media containing DVD-video burned on a PC.

    I wonder if we can hack the DVD drive that comes with the unit. Basically pull out the crap drive that comes with the unit, and replace it with say, a Plextor PX-712A.

  10. on 26 Oct 2004 at 6:36 pm 10.D Wills said …

    I just recently purchased an EyeTV 200 unit. It attaches to my Mac via Firewire.
    No monthly service fees.
    I have not yet burned any DVDs, but says it can

    good luck.

  11. on 13 Nov 2005 at 1:51 pm 11.google左侧排å?? said …

    the unit. Basically pull out the crap drive that comes with the unit, and replace it with say, a Plextor PX-712A.

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  13. on 15 Aug 2007 at 8:16 am 13.Daniel said …

    I couldn’t understand some parts of this article [Off Topic] To Tivo or not to Tivo?, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.

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