Anyone have DVR ( Digital Video Recorder)?

[Living-In-Clip]

I ordered a ReplayTV off DigitalNetwork\'s site (they had a 40 hour unit for $70 bucks!). Of course it isn\'t here yet (should ship Wensday and get here Friday or so I hope!).  So the question is, do any of you all have any DVR\'s and if so what brand do you have? Tivo? ReplayTV? DishDVR? Etc? Experiences?

I personally picked the ReplayTV due to a couple reasons.

(1) I can easily add another hard-drive and boost my recordin\' time.

(2) Ethernet connection. The fact that with DvArchive I can stream from and to my PC, move files to my PC , move files from my PC. This means when I do manage to finish my computer I will be able to record shows, send them to the PC and burn them on DVD.

(3) I hate DirecTV and anything related to DirecTV, which we all know Tivo is.

(4) It was friggin\' $70 bucks.

[videoholic]

I have an Ultimate TV which is now Logan\'s.  He has about 25 hours of kid stuff on it.

I also have an HD-Tivo.  It holds 200 hours of standard def or 30 hours of Hi Def.

It can also add another HD, but I doubt if I will.  You have to get pretty far behind on tv to load up that much.


ANd TiVo doesn\'t have the deal with Direct TV any more.


So far I like the TiVo, but I can\'t wait for the freaking update.  THe fact that they don\'t keep like shows in folders is beyond me.  Hopefully the next update will do that.

Also when you go to list shows there is no reason why you need to go away from what you were watching before.  THey should put it in a window like in Ultimate TV.

Also, why don\'t they have freaking picture in picture?

I have the DVR provided by Dish Network. I like it a lot. It totally changes how you watch TV.

I just wish it grouped shows together instead of just putting them in a chronological list.

[Living-In-Clip]

The main problem\'s I have with TiVo is the fact you can\'t really modify it or interact it with your computer. Take for example, I love cartoons and I am eagerly  awaiting all of this season\'s \'Justice League: Unlimited\' and I know at sometime, I will want to put them on DVD-R\'s / VCD\'s. With TiVo, I would be shit out of luck, but with ReplayTV and Dvarchive, I will be able to move them over with ease.

How do you like your HD-TiVo?  
Vid, what happened with the deal of DirecTV and TiVo? I know at one time they was bonded together.

Originally posted by Black Samurai
I have the DVR provided by Dish Network. I like it a lot. It totally changes how you watch TV.

I just wish it grouped shows together instead of just putting them in a chronological list.

I have heard about Dish\'s, but I don\'t know much about it. How much does it hold? Etc?

[videoholic]

Direct TV dropped them a month or two ago.  I don\'t really remember why.  I think it has something to do with Murdoch and what a big cock he is.  I think they are going to start doing their own thing.  Not too sure.  There were several threads on it though on AVS.

HDTivo is pretty freaking awesome.  My old HD receiver didn\'t integrate HD and SD, so I would have to push quite a few buttons to make the switch.  Now I just change the channel.  Plus I ended up not watching a lot of shows in HD because I just can\'t stand commercials and I\'d rather watch it recorded.

It\'s impossible to explain to people how much a DVR will change the way they watch tv until they get one.

I never watch a show until 7 minutes into it any more for a half hour show and 18 for a full hour show.  That way I have no freaking commercials to deal with.

Many people hack their TiVos to get the raw stream copied over to their harddrives, not sure how complicated it is.

If you want better PC integration you should look at the Hauppauge PVR-350 + SageTV combo.  Link

You sure you can\'t wait for the DVDs?

[Living-In-Clip]

I don\'t really watch a lot of TV series, due to the fact I work the night shift. This causes me to miss a lot of shows I do love  such as \'The Dead Zone\', so I am hopin\' with this I\'ll be able to catch up on those shows I love and be able to archive some of those cartoons I may never see on DVD (Tiny Toon Adventure\'s!).

Originally posted by Living-In-Clip
I have heard about Dish\'s, but I don\'t know much about it. How much does it hold? Etc?

It holds a little under 100 hours.

[Paul2]

Can we say storage please?

As in GBytes.  40 hours mean nothing without bandwidth.

If something say 200 hours, it have to compress a lot which most now uses MPEG-2 as its standard.  If something compress too much, it gets blocky...
so what i mean 200 hours is just a marketing term.

Lets take 200 hours for example,

200 hours in crappy quality, 40 hours in best quality...hey, it could happen.  Just enjoy the 720 x 480 resolution with less compression.

For High Def, the bandwidth needs to be 19 Mbits or higher in MPEG-2 compression.  The good thing about high defintion is they just stream the data with no degration and store it in the harddrive as it is and no further compression.

If what LIC said is true,

it seems like Replay TV is more flexible than TiVo.

I wonder if TiVo have a High Definition unit with built in tuner and harddisk drive?

[Kurt Angle]

They have only just come out over here and are about £300 :eek:

[videoholic]

DIrect TV Tivos don\'t have quality variations.  They record the stream straight up.  You can\'t tell at all whether you are watching off HD or Live.  It\'s got a 250 gig HD in it.

Matter of fact, every time they launch a new satelite and increase the quality of the channels my freaking storage goes down.  heh.

[Paul2]

How about Replay TV?

[videoholic]

I think replay tv and tivo for cable work like you mentioned.  I have no experience with them.

I got the Tivo/Direct TV thing too. Kicks major ass, especially during sports or movies. When you come back you dont have to ask what happened, just play it and skip through commercials.

[Living-In-Clip]

I got mine today and had nothing but problems out of it. Spent four hours trying to download the channel guide, only to do a search on AVS and find out that there is a problem with the 5.0 software and the modem.. Ended up hookin\' it up via ethernet to and dialup on my Apple. Seems to be workin\' fine now, but it\'s unreal that they would ship units with such a massive problem...