Community Newsletter: Q&A: Advice needed for an all-in-one DVR that can burn DVDs
- 3/10/08 5:01 PM
Advice needed for an all-in-one DVR that can burn DVDs
by Lee Koo (ADMIN) - 3/10/08 5:01 PM
Question:
Many would say I'm just a dinosaur when it comes to entertainment equipment. While it may be that I'm somewhat "technology challenged," the fact is that there's just too much other stuff going on in my life for me to stay on top of entertainment electronics developments. I also don't want to be on the "bleeding edge" like many others do. However, with VCRs gone, I need a DVR. One desirable feature might be having the ability to record some old VHS tapes to DVD. I'd prefer one with dual tuners so we could watch one program and tape another. My wife doesn't want to have to subscribe to TiVo's schedule service. What other DVR's are out there that I should consider? What brands and features should I consider? Are there any to stay away from? Thanks very much for the input.
--Submitted by Jim W.
If you have any advice or recommendations for Jim, please click on the reply link and post away. Please be as detailed as possible when providing an explanation. Thanks!
DVRs, Tivos, DVD Recorders Oh My!
by TVDonDada - 2/29/08 7:29 PM In reply to: Advice needed for an all-in-one DVR that can burn DVDs by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I don't want to throw a curve at you but when it comes to DVRs, they pretty much work best when they are paired to a good Satellite or Digital cable system, preferrably HD. I've had Tivo from Direct TV since back in 2001. But its only standard definition. A few years back I got the HD direct TV but not with an HD DVR (I think they've dropped the Tivo name also). But without HD DVD capabilities Im not even watching as much TV now a days as I did back in my Tivo days. I either watch it live, or miss it and don't care to watch it.
My point is lost but Ill try to get it back...
If you have a programming package with HD, get an HD Tivo or DVR.
If you have over the air HD, possibly look for a HDPC box that can record in HD and play back on your HD TV.
If you dont have HD or and programming package, then pick up a plain Tivo and I think they still have the one time pay option, or otherwise just use it like a VCR where you manually set the times. You will loose alot of the cool features though.
Id recommended just about any DVR setup, from Dish, DirecTV or Digital cable. Ive seen them all and they all work great.
TIVO is best
by scacountor - 2/29/08 7:56 PM In reply to: Advice needed for an all-in-one DVR that can burn DVDs by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I like you shuddered at the thought of bucking up $12.95 a month for a TIVO membership, but after 5 years of sampling other devices I am actually doing it. About 5 years ago, I bought an WinHD 180 Video Card and Beyond TV. BeyondTV was great for the most part. You have ready access to the file rips as they are stored on your local drive and are not encrypted, so you can create highlight reels and even rip content to discs (I ripped the SuperBowl on a disc for a friend of mine who was a Colts fan after they won the Superbowl). However, the problem with BeyondTV is capturing HD is done OTA and I had huge problems capturing quality OTA feeds consistently and there is nothing worse than realizing halfway through a recording that your antenna was positioned wrongly: nonstop program studdering and the same person who told you not to pay a monthly fee will be frowning on your ability to provide quality recordings! There are tuners which can capture HD content via component, but they are priced near $1k making them a nonoption for me at least. The other thing to consider is BTV is a system hog. Unless you have at least a dual core CPU, BTV will monopolize your system cpu during recordings. Total Cost(this is back 5 years ago so it has probably changed) is around $70 BTV + $25 OTA antenna + $80 HD tuner +25 BTV disc burning software=$200.
About a year ago, I switched from DirectTV to cable (boohoo!....I moved to Manhattan!) and probably the only good thing about my cable company is that they supplied an HD DVR at no cost and I must rank it above BTV. It is free, a whole lot more convenient and alot less can go wrong. However, the drive is small (20 hours I think) and it is a bit on the dumb DVR side (ie it will record the same episode multiple times even if I tell it "First Run Only").
So now after 5 years, I am getting ready to join the TIVO community and recommend the same for you...you probably will jump over to the TIVO side anyway after a couple of years so I will save you time and money. What I am looking forward to from TIVO (I'm in the middle of moving again) is larger hard drive capability, much smarter recording options, and a whole TIVO community filled with plenty of people who can provide nifty tips for maximizing my DVR experience.
All in all, I would say buck up for the monthly fee and buy yourself a regular video card to burn your vhs tapes to dvd. I just used BTV to convert my VHS to disc, but pretty much all tuners come with software to do recording with. If you absolutely refuse to give TIVO a shot, I would recommend a DVR from a cable company. If you have satellite and not cable, then I would say go with Beyond TV: just make sure your cpu is at least dual core and do some research on a good OTA antenna...because a bad one (I had 2 different ones) can be a pain in the butt!
Tivo is best at one thing
by ferd farnsworth - 3/7/08 8:51 PM In reply to: TIVO is best by scacountorIt really is the undisputed that Tivo is the best DVR but it sure lacks on a lot of other fronts (expandable storage, multiple tuners, content sharing, not to mention a DVD drive). BeyondTV is a terrific package and can do all those things if you are savy enough and interested enough to put together one of those systems. This is not a job for Jim W. who describes themselves as technologically challenged. Media Center PCs may be the right choice if you are good at Windows, but these tend to be large, noisy and not ideal for the TV cabinet. Linux solutions are the best for stability and power - it's what all the geeks choose, but most of these (MythTV, FreeVo) are strictly DIY. I bough an Interact-TV Telly which really does everything on this wish list and more. And, I set it up completely from the remote!
well said
by chrisemcleod - 3/8/08 7:15 AM In reply to: Tivo is best at one thing by ferd farnsworthgreat post!
Re: TIVO Multiple tuners
by Pascal33 - 3/9/08 3:19 AM In reply to: Tivo is best at one thing by ferd farnsworthJust a correction to the previous post;
TiVo DOES make Dual-Tuner DVR's. I've had one for the past 2 years now and love it. I can record programs on two different channels at the same time while watching a previously saved pregram. I hate watching tv without the Tivo box, the programming is so easy. I've heard that there are some good DVR's from some of the cable companies, but I've yet to try them.
Wrong about TIVO
by l.simms - 3/17/08 2:42 PM In reply to: Tivo is best at one thing by ferd farnsworthIt's true that Tivo lacks DVD play/burn capability; in all other respects, the new & affordable HD box leads the pack. I recently upgraded from generic DVRs to a pair of TIVOs. A single multi-stream cable card [for each box] gives me dual tuner capability in high def. The card costs $1.50/month, where I was paying $13 for the cable box/DVR. And not only is there much more storage, but I can simply plug in an eSATA drive for unlimited [say, another terabyte] storage, all managed through the TIVO interface. I don't think there's an easier solution. The facts that the TIVOs talk to each other--& to my PC--with a self-configuring $30 network card, & that I can freely move programming between them or watch remotely, is a nice bonus. At a street price of $250, with the indisputed best user interface, it's a steal.
Tivo with USB for use with external disk drives???
by anna3333 - 3/18/08 3:52 PM In reply to: Wrong about TIVO by l.simmsMy biggest complaint with TIVO, besides the $13 monthly fee, is not being able to easily expand the storage. Mine has just a fourth of the storage (for normal TV) that they told me it had when they sold it to me (the only way to get the capacity they claim for the unit is to watch TV at much lower quailty than normal - they didn't mention that). For all practical purposes, they flat-out lied to me about the capacity. I think they should be required to tell you what the capacity is for watching the SAME quality TV you now watch - whatever the quality of your cable/TV is, but that you can get "extra" capacity by watching inferior quality, if you wish.
Are you saying there is a TIVO unit (not attached to a computer in any way - just to the TV) that accepts a USB drive to expand storage capacity? "And that you don't have to pay the $13 per month to Tivo, just $1.50 per month, per set for a "card"?
Half Right
by l.simms - 3/18/08 4:54 PM In reply to: Tivo with USB for use with external disk drives??? by anna3333Capacity: absolutely--the Tivo HD has an eSATA port on the back. Plug in your drive & manage the expanded storage seamlessly via usual Tivo interface [I haven't done this yet but have seen screenshots; apparently you can't even tell there's a separate drive...you're just able to store more stuff.]
Monthly fee: The $13 fee I eliminated is the cable co charge for decoder box with DVR; the cable card to serve the Tivo's 2 tuners is $1.50. I still pay 1 monthly Tivo fee [I was able to convert my lifetime subscription on the other], but it's just $7 because it's my 2nd box & because I pay per year. Net cost is less than i was paying cable co, & both features & performance far superior.
eSata?
by anna3333 - 3/20/08 8:02 AM In reply to: Half Right by l.simmsIs this HDTV and what is eSATA? All my drives are IDE ATA. What is the fee for your first box? What is the extra $150 for the tuners? My Tivo came with dual tuners. Thanks.
Yes--it's HD...
by l.simms - 3/20/08 8:20 AM In reply to: eSata? by anna3333Yes--Tivo HD means HDTV. eSATA is, I believe, the newest & best format for hard drives. No monthly charge for service on the 1st box because it's a "legacy" lifetime account. You slipped 2 decimals on the tuner question--it's 1 dollar & 50 cents per month for a multi-stream cable card, which is how the Tivo's twin tuners get supplied with HD signal from the cable co.
RE: eSata?
by dcalhoun38581 - 3/20/08 9:18 AM In reply to: eSata? by anna3333eSATA is the External version of SATA. SATA is an interface for drives that is much faster than conventional IDE (or more accurately, EIDE). An even newer version of Sata that is even faster is SATA II or SATA 300. As for what the whole eSATA acronym stands for, it's External Serial Advanced Technology Attachment.
Two of the major advantages of SATA and eSATA are high speed and low cost. SATA hard drives are much faster than IDE drives and nearly as fast as SCSI drives, but their cost is comparible to IDE drives and much lower than SCSI drives.
Dennis C.
TiVo Software Maintenance is third-rate
by wrishel - 3/8/08 8:23 AM In reply to: TIVO is best by scacountorI have used TiVo for many years, through several models. I find it works well. I hae always bought the fixed-price subscription for program info and found it to be well worth it. Some of my favorite programs are switched among time slots weekly and it tracks these changes almost flawlessly. I have found the TiVo software that engages your PC over a LAN to burn DVDs to be very unreliable and take a really long time, so I wouldn't recommend it.
I have the impression that the quality of testing that TiVo does on its software has gone steadily down hill. About once every nine months a new release comes via the subscription service and it usually significanly improves the usefullness of the product. However for the last several updates each has come with a flaw that constitutes a major annoyance and I know now from experience that it does no good for the community to complain. TiVo won't fix it until the next software release.
The annoyance in the most recent release is that when the TiVo has to switch Cable box to a new channel the new show goes through about a minute or two of freezes and starts before it settles down to play the show.
TIVO scheduling
by anna3333 - 3/20/08 8:13 AM In reply to: TiVo Software Maintenance is third-rate by wrishelTIVO recorded The Amazing Race at the wrong time for an entire season. I had to set it to record then add an hour. The Amazing Race was in the second hour.
Also, if there is a scheduling conflict, TIVO decides which of your programs to clip/drop - I does not offer you a choice of clipping the other program, of clipping it - even by 1/2 hour - instead of dropping it. You can't ask a particular program to START LATE or STOP a minute or two EARLY , so you can manipulate the schedule the way you wish. You can ONLY start early or stop late. This is a really big peeve for me. Often the end is just 3 minutes of trailer & commercial, but you can't cut it, you have to clip the beginning of (or drop) a show that may begin immediately on time.
Toshiba DVR
by jmj947 - 2/29/08 7:56 PM In reply to: Advice needed for an all-in-one DVR that can burn DVDs by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I had a desire and a need to record my old home video VHS tapes to DVDs before they faded away completely. I did quite a bit of searching to get what information I could on the EASIEST way to do this, since I have a ton of home movies to convert. I found a Toshiba D-R400 on sale for $100 (it's now about $120+) and snatched it up right away. Best investment I've made in a looooong time. Now, 4 weeks later, all of my movies are safely stored on DVD, plus very episode of "In Treatment" from HBO is recorded for sharing with my HBO-less friends. The Toshiba D-R400 doesn;t have a lot of bells and whistles, but for the prioce and the ease of transfer, you just can't beat it.
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