DVR solutions

[shane]

I have had Time Warner digital cable and DVR service for years and I'm getting a little sick of paying for it. 90% of what my wife and I watch is on network TV so paying for cable is kind of stupid. What else is out there for recording and viewing HD content without paying for digital cable service? Even if I have to manually set my recordings every day. I'm just getting sick of paying $60 for the service and $8 for the dvr service and $2 for the remote and all the other additional fees that raise my cable/phone/internet bill to the $170/month area. Is anyone else using another service or device that satisfies this? Thanks.

Shane

[therockman]

I like Dish Network, the 500 gig DVR is awesome and it has a port to hook up a 1 terabyte DVR.

[Ryan]

^^ HD Tivo is what I'd buy if I were buying today.

[HGN2001]

Can Tivos be set for a particular time like a VCR? Or do they go strictly by an Electronic Program Guide?

I ask that because of the number of times that shows start late or run late, and I hear a lot of people saying that their Tivo cut off the last few minutes of LOST, etc.

I currently am an over-the-air guy, getting all of my HD content free from an antenna on my roof. I've had a Hard-Drive/DVD Recorder that's strictly standard def, and have been using that for off-air time-shifting. The best part of that is that I can sacn through the recording on the hard disk and zap out the commercial breaks. My wife and I then later sit down to watch the shows uninterrupted, which is a real treat - so much so that we don't even mind that it's just standard def.

In recent weeks, I've hooked that unit up to one of the new tuners that are designed to be used with older TV's come next year when analog TV goes away. So now, my recorder is getting a converted digital signal that's much cleaner than the analog, and is widescreen to boot. I have to zoom it on the HDTV, but it's still a better picture than the old 4:3 analog picture was.

High Def is definitely a treat to watch, but with our schedule, much of later prime-time has to be recorded and watched later. With our TV looking pretty good with standard def material, I really don't mind all that much. The big inconvenience with the converter tuner is that I'm stuck on just one channel and can't have the unit record another channel later.

So hopefully, when this all shakes out, the industry will realize that people can't timeshift the way they used to and will accomodate with at least SD recorder units with ATSC tuners that you can program.

Harry

[Ryan]

Yes, it's called "padding". You record a few minutes early and stop a few minutes late. And with newer TIVOs sporting dual tuners, overlap with other shows is not really a problem.

[HGN2001]

Thanks.

Another question: can a Tivo record more than one show at a time?

Harry

[chargrove]

I just subscribed to AT&T U-verse TV and I got a free DVR. I have never had one of these before and I really like it. No monthly charge. Unlike my refurbished Directv equipment, I got all new Motorola equipment. And, their prices currently destroy anything on cable or even satellite. Check it out if it's available to you. :thumbsup:

[Anthology123]

I have Elgato EyeTV and an HDTV tuner attached to USB. It uses TitanTV, which is a free programming guide. I attach a regular antenna to it and get clear HDTV broadcast network channels.
http://elgato.com/elgato/na/mainmenu/products/hybrid/product1.en.html

You just need to attach it to a computer. Internet is not needed, but helps.