I am ready to get Tivo, should I consider alternatives?

I think I'll go with $99 for a Series 2 receiver and $129 for the yearly plan but should I investigate or consider alternatives? I believe Comcast offers some DVR rental plan as well. The only thing that disappoints me about Tivo is the receiver only comes with an 80gig hard drive. For $30 more, they could probably put a $300 gig in there.

Comcast sucks, but TiVo's rental fees are exorbitant.

Even the free ($7.50/mo rental) DVR from Comcast we had 3 years ago had more than 80GB.

Plus, with the rental, if something goes wong or new tech comes out, you can get it much cheaper than if you own the box.

But I wonder about the Comcast vs. Tivo interface? Supposedly Tivo has a great and user friendly interface.

LukeA said:

Comcast sucks, but TiVo's rental fees are exorbitant.

Even the free ($7.50/mo rental) DVR from Comcast we had 3 years ago had more than 80GB.

Plus, with the rental, if something goes wong or new tech comes out, you can get it much cheaper than if you own the box.

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geepondy said:

But I wonder about the Comcast vs. Tivo interface? Supposedly Tivo has a great and user friendly interface.

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Tivo does have a great interface. I had Tivo for about a year before I moved, with comcast. When I moved I opted to go dishnetwork all the way. (had both at the old place). The Tivo has a nicer interface than the dishnet dvr's.

There are plenty of web pages that will show you how easy it is to ad a second HDD to the Tivo for expanded recording.

You could always build your own PVR/DVR. I built a computer and installed 3 HVR-1600 TV tuner cards and have 2 500G hard drives. The tuner cards each have one analog and one digital tuner. I can actually record 6 shows at once, although I've never tried that. I record digital OTA from the local networks. The cards come with an "IR-Blaster" so that they can change the channel on your cable box/satellite box when it needs to. If you have cable and can get un-encrypted QAM, they are capable of recording that way too. I use Beyond TV for my GUI. It looks a lot like the pics I've seen of TiVo. You can get a free trial DL of it at www.snapstream.com

Roger

I was lucky enough to buy a Panasonic DVR before they went away. It works pretty well, but I guess I'll have to build one next time with a PC.

We have ..... more than one tivo. We really like them. Been using one since before Y2K.

By all means look at all of the alternatives. You may find one has a "deal breaker" freature. For instance, I really like the cable cards that plug into the HD tivo, eliminating a cable box.

Daniel

geepondy said:

I think I'll go with $99 for a Series 2 receiver and $129 for the yearly plan but should I investigate or consider alternatives? I believe Comcast offers some DVR rental plan as well. The only thing that disappoints me about Tivo is the receiver only comes with an 80gig hard drive. For $30 more, they could probably put a $300 gig in there.

Click to expand...

Dish will give you a lot more for the same money compared to Comcast.
They have two or three DVR's and the entry level one has a ton of features.

I've got the Dish DVR and it's worked fine for the simple stuff I do. Had a problem with the first one after a month or so and had a replacement the next day.

We have Dish DVRs and really like them. Large HD capacity.

be warned; Tivo just decided to erase all payperview programs 24 hours after you record them! There goes sharing with friends..
That was slap in the face.
they should call it 'pay per glimpse' ..

Yeah that would suck. I rarely by a pay per view program but if I do, I don't want Tivo or any other service deciding on how I manage it, after I download it. I don't think it's any of their business.

They have or had just regular recordable DVD/hard drive set top recorders which I would consider but then you lose the Tivo interface capabilities of "search and record" and would have to set the recording options up manually just like you do a VCR. I think, anyways unless I'm wrong on that.

TedTheLed said:

be warned; Tivo just decided to erase all payperview programs 24 hours after you record them! There goes sharing with friends..
That was slap in the face.
they should call it 'pay per glimpse' ..

Click to expand...

Too bad you don't live closer, I have a spare series 2 with lifetime subscription that you could've tested out.

I have used tivo for about 5 years and more recently DirectTV's HD DVR. Tivo's just work, easily and intuitively. I was severely spoiled by tivo and if I could get HD on Direct with tivo as an option I would switch back in a second. By far the best interface I have used.