DVR Possibilities

May 10, 2005 10:17 PM

Help me choose a Tivo successor.

I was an early adopter of Tivo, acquiring two early 14-hour units shortly after they debuted. I upgraded one with a 120GB HDD, and left the other alone. They worked flawlessly forever, but I am starting to have a few problems.

In a nutshell, the 14 hour model is having a problem dialing in each night. I use Vonage and have scoured the Vonage forums and found many suggestions for solving the problem. None have worked yet, but I still have to call Vonage and hopefully get them to make some changes in my service that might help. All of these difficulties, however, have me wondering if I should begin to look at alternatives.

I considered upgrading to another Tivo, but I can't stand the idea of paying for another lifetime service agreement (I already did that on both current Tivos). I have thought about MythTV, or some other Linux solution, but while I am competent with computers and, to an extent, Linux, I am unsure if I want to put the effort in for this. The MCE edition of Windows is tempting, but only because of ease of installation.

Ideally, this would be an easier installation that has a low price-point. I already have a large capacity Tivo that is working fine, so this is just something for the second TV and to record things that conflict on the first Tivo. Any suggestions? Should I go the MythTV route, stay with Tivo, or use Windows Media Center? I realize that this is a highly personal decision, but I am particularly frustrated with this second Tivo unit right now and ready to consider some kind of change/upgrade.

posted by xorowo to Technology (15 answers total)

I don't have any great suggestions, but is that true that a new Tivo box leads to another lifetime agreement? It's not transferable? Wow, I had no idea.
posted by fionab at 10:25 PM on May 10, 2005

i had trouble with my double 120gb upgraded tivo with a variety of things including dialing in.

turned out after a year of (over)use, one of the drives had gone bad. since then i have upgraded to one 200gb hard drive and all is well.

tivo does everything i want it to do other than send media to my computer. maybe someone can show you and i how to do that.
posted by tsarfan at 10:30 PM on May 10, 2005

I don't have a Tivo, but isn't there a code you can add to the phone number that will cause the Vonage line to not compress the call as much?
posted by bh at 10:46 PM on May 10, 2005

Yeah, there's a code for getting the TiVo to drop down to 9600 bps and another for getting Vonage to think it's a fax call, and you need both, but xorowo has almost certainly already tried those, since he said he's already scoured the forums. Likely he has also already tried the DSL filter and changing the dialup number. (Since there's no difference between local and long distance calls with Vonage, a lot of people have simply changed the number their TiVo dials up until they find one that works reliably.)

(Slowing down the modem on a standalone TiVo is frustrating because the standalones download the program guide over the phone line. The dial-in for a DirecTV TiVo is mostly a formality because it gets the program guide from the satellite.)

My DirecTiVo works fine with Vonage so I can't really help you there. Well, it can't make the DirecTV call (a DirecTV TiVo makes two calls, one to TiVo and one to DirecTV, and the TiVo modem settings are not used for the latter) but that only affects your ability to order pay-per-view, which you can do on the Web site anyway.
posted by kindall at 1:40 AM on May 11, 2005

Ok,

I have a Tivo, and have a different suggestion. Mine is a series two, and I'm using a wireless USB network connection with mine. However, since yours is a series one, I'm not sure if you can do this.

You might also try the weaknees route and get a new hard drive, format/reinstall, and give that a try.

Also, someone mentioned you can't share media. That's only true of the series one Tivos. I routinely play my MP3 collection on my Tivo, and also export shows to my laptop over my wireless connection.

If you're really serious about upgrading, I'd recommend MythTV. It's sweet. The only drawback is cost. You'll need (probably) a TV Capture card, preferably one with dual tuners. Unfortunately, that'll cost a little more than a Tivo, assuming you have all the other hardware.

Setup with MythTV is great, and all of the features seem to work for me. The only things I miss about Tivo are the suggestions feature and the Wishlist. Very nice. If MythTV can ever figure those out, look out.

KFJ
posted by kungfujoe at 4:41 AM on May 11, 2005

your local cable company might also provide DVR services. I have a DVR with Comcast (in Maryland) that adds just $10 a month onto my bill. The DVR is built into the cable box and in itself cost me nothing extra
posted by poppo at 5:10 AM on May 11, 2005

As a Tivo alternative I use Snapstream BeyondTV Windows software to provide Tivo-like functionality, it is an easy install and pretty well featured. I'm happy with it, but haven't ever used a Tivo so can't say how they compare. The cost can add up though, I use a dedicated desktop with a Hauppauge PVR-250 TV tuner card and a video card with a TV out.

One of the clear benefits of this set up over Tivo is that there are no recurring fees to get the listings, you pay for the software ($70) and get access to the free listing service that Snapstream provide. Another feature of interest to me is that the Snapstream system records non-DRM MPEG2 files, so you can use them however/wherever you want. Also, as it's a PC based system, you can just drop in another standard hard drive if you need more capacity. One feature I can think of off the top of my head that the Tivo has but this doesn't is the 'shows I might like' system.
posted by pasd at 7:04 AM on May 11, 2005

I second what Poppo said. Time Warner cable also offers DVR service for about $10/month, and I have been nothing but thoroughly pleased with the service.
posted by dersins at 8:08 AM on May 11, 2005

Can you add an ethernet card to a series 1 TiVo? Then you could connect via that instead of dialing in at all. It's very easy to do with a Series 2 but I could have sworn people were doing internetty things (posting show listings on websites, logging in remotely, etc) long before the Series 2 was even released.
posted by bcwinters at 10:51 AM on May 11, 2005

I'll second the recommendation for using a PC with a TV tuner card and running BeyondTV. I've never actually had a Tivo, but I love this approach for the same reasons that pasd mentioned above. I never have to delete stuff because I can just drop another ridiculously inexpensive harddrive in there, or burn stuff off to DVD. Using WMV compression, a 160 GB drive can easily hold about 250 hours of TV with no apparent loss of quality. One other thing I'd recommend with going this route is to use the Firefly remote control, also from Snapstream. In addition to controlling BeyondTV, it makes a decent mouse replacement and gives you a fair measure of control over the PC allowing you to use it as more of an entertainment center than just a DVR.
posted by shinji_ikari at 11:24 AM on May 11, 2005

I built my own. I use Snapstream. I love it.
posted by adampsyche at 12:09 PM on May 11, 2005

I'll throw in a plug for SageTV on a Windows XP stack. I liked Sage's integration of a music and video player into its interface, which BeyondTV doesn't have.

I use the PC as a PVR, surrogate set-top DVD player, music jukebox and as library for torrented fan-subbed anime, all from within one contiguous interface without the need to alt-tab between different programs.

I tried the MythTV path, but ran into issues with IvyTV driver support for my Hauppauge tuner card. Driver issues aside though, there's a host of informative and helpful documentation on the MythTV sourceforge site, and using automation tools like Debian APT will save you from the dependency hell that usually thwarts most Linux newbies.
posted by bl1nk at 12:59 PM on May 11, 2005

Knoppmyth is the easy way to get MythTV going.
posted by QIbHom at 3:08 PM on May 11, 2005

I've only ever used TiVo, and if you're in the same boat I think you may be disappointed by anything else. We have a tivo and a comcast box, and I hate having to use the comcast box (for HD and premium channels). It's not that it's bad, it just isn't TiVo. Little things like poor button placement, non-jump-back fast forward, difficult menu navigation, etc. just make it a drag to use when you are accustomed to TiVo. Also, if you don't want to pay lifetime, the monthly ain't bad for a TiVo under the Multi-Service Discount which you would qualify for since you have the other lifetime subscriptions. I also think there is a way to transfer a lifetime subscription for like $100-$150, but I can't find that now.
posted by rorycberger at 3:52 PM on May 11, 2005

ive been using windows media center 2004 for about a year now... i think it's quite cool. hooking it up to my older tv was a little tricky (had to get a 15 pin -> component vid dongle) but now i like being able to sit here and write replies to askme on my widescreen tv from across the room. the actual mce interface works pretty flawlessly, the guide data is free (for now microsoft and snap2it arent charging a dime), it handles all my other media nicely too (dvds, music, pictures) via the same interface. the whole deal was certainly more expensive than a tivo, but i've got a fairly nice video-recording, digital music system, for the cost of a nice computer...

and did i mention that i can write askme responses on my tv from across the room?
posted by RockyChrysler at 5:27 PM on May 11, 2005