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[Alex]

I don't really partake in much television, nor do I have much media to burn so I am flat clueless on this jazz. But a friend of mine is looking to buy one, and before he pisses away a mighty sum of cash (much like he did with his car, his TV, ect), I figured I'd hit you guys up for a bit of info if you have the time to spare.

Anyhow. He was looking at some Toshiba DVD-Recording/Tivo unit to tape shit while he is gone, burn shows to DVD, ect. I guess he's just sick of VCR's in general.

Are these generally worth it, and what are the good brands/models/prices? The one he was looking at was 299.99. And claims to record up to 80 hours, and has a free basic subscription or whatever with it.

If you need any more info, feel free to ask.

 

[DaCocoBrova]

If he's somewhat computer literate I'd suggest a TV card for his PC. Save a fortune and maintain the functionality.

 

[element]

quality of TV Cards are all over the place, not to mention getting them to work with Digital Cable is a bitch, if you can even get it to work.

 

[Alex]

That's what I figured, but his PC is almost literally an out of the box relic, it makes mine look by a monster by compare, I don't even think he uses it for anything except for to play a mildly chugging (that bad) Diablo 2 occasionally. I think he just wants something simple to stick under the TV.

 

[Saint Cornelius]

He was looking at some Toshiba DVD-Recording/Tivo unit to tape shit while he is gone, burn shows to DVD, ect. I guess he's just sick of VCR's in general.

Do you know what model that is, Alex? I would love to get one of those.

 

[element]

Tivo is also going to have Tivo2Go later this year, allowing Tivo Series 2 owners to backup shows to DVD, if you have a DVD-R/RW

the streams are encrypted though.

 

[Alex]

Ah, the circular he handed me doesn't say.

I went to the online site for the store, and this is all I could find

"Remote control. Records your favorite TV shows on DVD. Progressive scan. Free TiVo basic service with purchase.

Experience TiVo for yourself

• TiVo capabilities built-in
• Free subscription for life of the unit
• Digitally record up to 80 hours of TV programming
• Control live TV: pause, rewind and slow motion"

"See package for details."

I tip my hat to you, useless ad.

 

[Minotauro]

While we're on the subject of Tivo, I have a question as well. Does anyone know how a Tivo unit would work in tandem with a cable box? I mean, if I need my cable box to get all premium channels, would I hook the Tivo up between the box and the TV? Or, is there some special way to do it?

 

[Saint Cornelius]

The only thing I could find was the Toshiba DVR-810HS, but it's going for $620 at Amazon!

 

[DaCocoBrova]

I've missed the whole TiVo revolution. Partly because I don't like 90% of what I see on TV. Actually, that's the main reason. Besides sports, TLC, Discovery and the occasional History channel visit... There's nothing I really want to watch, let alone record.

2 questions tho:

1. I see that TiVo boxes have USB ports. Will plugging the box up to a PC have it come up as a removeable drive? Can I view/copy content over like that?

2. What is the IQ (image quality) like? I hear it's not that great, but better than VHS (what isn't).

 

[element]

While we're on the subject of Tivo, I have a question as well. Does anyone know how a Tivo unit would work in tandem with a cable box? I mean, if I need my cable box to get all premium channels, would I hook the Tivo up between the box and the TV? Or, is there some special way to do it?

I have Digital Cable and a Tivo Series 2. There are two ways to hook it up.

1. Via IR Control. You get these two little IR Blasters that sit in front of your Cable Box. Turn the channel on the Tivo and it sends a siginal to the Cable Box via the IR blasters. Looks kinda funny, and works alright. You have to keep the IR blasters aligned.

2. Serial Connection. This is how I have my Tivo and cable box hooked up. Most of the Motorola cable box have a serial port in the back. Just hook the serial cable to the back of the cable box, then hook the other end to the Tivo. Press some buttons and you are off. Comcast can sometime turn off the serial port via software updates, so it can sometimes turn off. But all you have to do is call Comcast up and bitch them out. This might be more of a problem in the future, since Motorola's new HDTV cable box don't have serial ports.

1. I see that TiVo boxes have USB ports. Will plugging the box up to a PC have it come up as a removeable drive? Can I view/copy content over like that?

No it won't. The USB slots are for software keys (possible for TivoToGo) and for USB Wireless Adapter. So you don't have to use your phone line to get updates and schdule changes.

2. What is the IQ (image quality) like? I hear it's not that great, but better than VHS (what isn't).

For watching TV I think image quality is fine. If you are used to watching HDTV content, then you will probably complain. On the other hand, if you are used to watching high quality Divx/Xvid movies, then you probably won't care. I record mostly everything in 'High Quality', which gives a very nice playback.

 

[Marty Chinn]

I've missed the whole TiVo revolution. Partly because I don't like 90% of what I see on TV. Actually, that's the main reason. Besides sports, TLC, Discovery and the occasional History channel visit... There's nothing I really want to watch, let alone record.

2 questions tho:

1. I see that TiVo boxes have USB ports. Will plugging the box up to a PC have it come up as a removeable drive? Can I view/copy content over like that?

2. What is the IQ (image quality) like? I hear it's not that great, but better than VHS (what isn't).

1.) No

2.) Well it depends on which type of box you have and what you set the settings to. If you have a standalone tivo, you can have four different levels of quality: Best, High, Medium, and Low. Medium is just fine for the most part. However, the best way to record is by having DirecTV and a combo unit because then there aren't any quality settings because it doesn't recompress the video. It just records the satellite stream directly which means there's no additional degredation of video quality.

 

[DaCocoBrova]

So how do you view the content on something other than the TV your TiVo os connected to?

 

[SKluck]

Ah, the circular he handed me doesn't say.

I went to the online site for the store, and this is all I could find

"Remote control. Records your favorite TV shows on DVD. Progressive scan. Free TiVo basic service with purchase.

Experience TiVo for yourself

• TiVo capabilities built-in
• Free subscription for life of the unit
• Digitally record up to 80 hours of TV programming
• Control live TV: pause, rewind and slow motion"

"See package for details."

I tip my hat to you, useless ad.

Sorry, but the SD-H400 is only a dvd player. You can find them as low as $200 at some places. I believe BB recently had 2 $100 rebates for it, should've gotten one.

For a DVD recorder/tivo unit you will be spending $500 MINIMUM. Probably $700.

 

[element]

So how do you view the content on something other than the TV your TiVo os connected to?

Currently you can't watch Tivo content on anything but a TV. Tivo is coming out with TivoToGo later this year that would allow you to burn recorded shows to DVD. But you can't watch them on your PC, due to encryption.

 

[isamu]

Ah, the circular he handed me doesn't say.

I went to the online site for the store, and this is all I could find

"Remote control. Records your favorite TV shows on DVD. Progressive scan. Free TiVo basic service with purchase.

Experience TiVo for yourself

• TiVo capabilities built-in
• Free subscription for life of the unit
• Digitally record up to 80 hours of TV programming
• Control live TV: pause, rewind and slow motion"

"See package for details."

I tip my hat to you, useless ad.

These are already out gentlemen. I've seen them at the Good Guys.

Cocoa...I have a Motorola High Def digital cable/DV-R cable box. The quality of the picture is O.K.. Movies on premium channels like HBO, Showtime, etc are not that clear and are too dark. The whole image is kinda on the fuzzy side. I mostly watch G4 TechTv and CN so I'm not trippin. But I might check into DirecTV later on. Marty Chinn is alledgedly the new CEO of DirecTV and is supposed to announce some new features soon.

 

[seismologist]

I couldn't live without Tivo.

I've had it for about 2 years now and its just so convinient. I never miss anything I want to see. Plus I cant fathom watching sports games and not being able to do your own instant replay. I've got the DirectTV Tivo so you dont lose any picture quality.

I do wish there was a way to record because I've lost some key stuff that I would like to have due to lack of space.

 

[RedDwarf]

If he has Comcast, there's their DVR, as talked about here.

 

[Cooper]

I do wish there was a way to record because I've lost some key stuff that I would like to have due to lack of space.

Record = archive to external media? Don't you have the "Dump to VCR" option somewhere?

 

[seismologist]

yeah but I dont own a VCR

 

[isamu]

If he has Comcast, there's their DVR, as talked about here.

Yeah, that's the one I have. It does work great. Recording and keeping track of shows you've recorded as well as being able to restart the program from the beginning is such a big step up from a VCR. I love it.

The only thing I'm worried about is hard drive space consumption. What happends when you run out of room? Are the hard drives in the DVR boxes easily removable?

Another thing is, I wish I could tape something on a particular channel while watching another one.

Plus, I'd also like to be able to jump to a certain portion of the program. Like say I just got through watching the matrix and I wanna jump to the lobby shootout scene. I can't do that with this DV-R box...can I?

 

[Marty Chinn]

Tivo's are well documented and easy to upgrade the hdd to. I just put two 160 gig hdds into one of my units which gives me over 250 hours. Never really need to archive anything with that much space.

 

[element]

I added a 200 GB HD into my Tivo. Very easy to upgrade. Just had to get the HDD and the kit.

 

[isamu]

I found something you guys might be interested in....

http://www.weaknees.com/

 

[element]

I found something you guys might be interested in....

http://www.weaknees.com/

weakness just sells modified Tivos with larger hard drives and kits to add larger hard drives yourself.

 

[isamu]

weakness just sells modified Tivos with larger hard drives and kits to add larger hard drives yourself.

and that is a bad thing....how?

 

[element]

and that is a bad thing....how?

cheaper to buy a 40 hour tivo at best buy, a 200 GB harddrive and the weakness kit and do it yourself.

 

[Mashing]

I'm going to be pick up a high definition tivo receiver next month... they run about 1 grand though...