Tivo or DVD recorder?

[skijay]

I know there are some A/V people here and remember reading in this forum about some of you who have Tivo. I sort of know what it is, but a little confused on if I should buy one or a DVD recorder.

Here is the background. I have a HDTV ready Tv/monitor that will have a set top box (Samsung) for off air HDTV signals. The Tivo will replace a VCR & DVD Player for that TV. I do not have cable but a Dish Network (pointed to the 61.5 degree satellite), C/Ku satellite dish and an attic mounted HDTV antenna. My Dish network / C/ku receiver have multiple outputs (VCR, monitor, stereo, etc). The antenna is coaxial.
My main use of a Tivo / DVD-R will be to tape TV shows and no “pausing live TV”, etc, I am just not wanting to buy another VCR and I hate having a stack of electronics, I am trying to consolidate.

If a DVD recorder uses a hard drive, 40gb or 80gb and gives you the option to record / playback from the hard drive and NOT burn a DVD, what is the advantage of the Tivo.
Why is there a monthly fee for the Tivo and why do you need a phone line connection?

I want a digital recorder but for about $200 more than a Tivo, I can get a DVD recorder instead. Am I missing something? For those of you who have Tivo, how many input sources does it allow?

 

[Greg]

Join the TIVO-lution!

Seriously though. TiVo rocks. We've had one for over two years now and we'd be lost without it. It's really difficult to explain how useful they are to somebody that's never experienced it. I guess it's like broadband in that sense - once you get it you could never imagine going back to dial-up.

Let me cut right to the recommendation first and then I'll address your other questions. Take a look at these options:

• Toshiba Progressive-Scan DVD Recorder with Built-In TiVo® DVR
• Humax TiVo® Series2™ DVR/DVD-R/RW Recorder Combo

Those two options are the best of both worlds - TiVo and DVD-RW! Personally, I would opt for the Toshiba because of the 50% more HDD space. I've also never heard of "Humax"... You're looking at $500 after the rebate. Now to your questions:

If a DVD recorder uses a hard drive, 40gb or 80gb and gives you the option to record / playback from the hard drive and NOT burn a DVD, what is the advantage of the Tivo.

I've never used a DVD recorder, but TiVo makes scheduling recordings amazingly simple. It downloads your channel lineup periodically and you can set up "season passes" for your favorite shows and it automatically records them. There's no fumbling around with setting the record date/time/channel, etc. With TiVo you can even select whether or not to record repeats.

I'm not sure if this is also possible with a DVD recorder or other DVRs, but with TiVo you can start a show part way through it and "catch up" to the live recording by skipping commercials. We find this feature extrememly useful, especially with an almost 2 year old running around. If she goes to bed at say 8:30 and there's a show from 8-9 PM that's recording that we want to watch, we can start it at 8:30 and watch it from the beginning while the last half hour continues to record! You're not locked down to showtimes at all!

With TiVo, you can watch a stored show while another show is recording. Again, maybe you can do that with other DVRs or a DVD recorder. We rarely use the LiveTV feature.

Finally, with TiVo, after it "learns" the types of shows you like to watch, it will start to randomly record shows that it thinks you might like. Much of this is junk but from time-to-time it records a cool show, especially things on channels like Discovery or History that are on at 3 AM. Additionally, you can also search for shows, or set up season passes based on keywords, e.g. "Mount Washington" or "Angelina Jolie"...

Why is there a monthly fee for the Tivo and why do you need a phone line connection?

See above. TiVo needs to download your channel/show schedule so you can program it to record. You can also put your TiVo on a Ethernet home network and then allow multiple TiVos in your home to share recordings. You can also program your TiVo remotely online to record a show.

I want a digital recorder but for about $200 more than a Tivo, I can get a DVD recorder instead. Am I missing something?

See recommendations above.

IFor those of you who have Tivo, how many input sources does it allow?

Coax, RCA, S-video. I think that's it, and I think you can only use one source at a time. Hope this helps Tim and let me know if you have any other questions!

 

[smitty77]

Yeah, what Greg said. :blink:

I bought a DVR w/ TIVO from Circuit City at the beginning of July so that I could record all of the Tour de France coverage and not miss a second of Lance's 6th victory. :beer:

A note on the "pause live tv" feature: I don't know how I lived without it! Like Greg, I too have a 2 year old tearing around the house and it always seems he picks the worst times to up-end a plant, chase the cat, want a drink, etc. I know I can walk away from whatever I'm watching because I can just rewind when I come back. The Samsung model I have automatically saves a half hour of programming in memory as long as you don't change the channel.

FYI, as a fellow dish user let me tell you that you will likely need two separate inputs from the dish if you want to watch live tv while recording a different show. The tech support at DirecTV told me I could do it with the one input I have in the wall, but I would need a signal amplifier/splitter which they said sells for about $80. It may be out there cheaper, but I haven't looked. They said putting a standard splitter on the coax would weaken the signal strength too much. I haven't tried, so I don't know if this is really true.

Smitty

 

[skijay]

Thanks for the information. I think I will lean towards a DVD recorder with a sizeable HDD after Christmas.

 

[Joshua B]

As a poor cable subscriber with tall trees blocking wonderful satellite reception, I've decided to go with Comcast's DVR unit that replaces the digital cable box with a digital cable box / digital video recorder. It gets delivered tomorrow morning. I report back with my thoughts, but my inital thought is that I like the idea of a combination cable box / DVR because there is no extra equipment to pass through and degrade the signal. With a TV, the video source has to pass through the Tivo, then continue on to the TV.

 

[skijay]

Trees. The leaves do block reception somewhat, but the DBS satellites broadcast with high power and the signal is digital, so you either get a signal 70% or higher and get a picture or 69% or below and no picture.

The killer is wet leaves, it affects reception on my C/Ku system more so than on the DBS. I think it is 20 watts of power on a C-band satellite versus 120 watts on DBS.