PVR Options

[Woofer]

I own a Panasonic DMR-E80H PVR that I'm quite fond of. It's not fancy in any High-Def kinda' way but its ability to record anything that comes down the coax to a hard drive and then burn it to DVD after I've edited out commercials is brilliant, to me anyway.

It's getting on in age and its tiny 80 jiggawatt drive is close to failure. I've looked for new models but the story I get is that Tivo or whatever industry giant didn't like the competition and leaned hard. One option is to replace the drive and I most likely will, but I gather there can be proprietary code on the boot sector that is difficult if not impossible to duplicate. The other is a computer. I'm a Mac user and am wondering if anyone is using a Mac Mini with success? This kind of AV interfacing is not my bag, so I'll hit the InterTubes as well in hopes of enlightenment.

Thx.

 

[bandphan]

Series3 hd tivos are pretty nice

 

[10010011]

Series3 hd tivos are pretty nice

Agreed, I would not give up my HD-Tivo for love or money.

 

[Adam]

Hey Woofer, my brother has used a Mac Mini for such things. I suggest that you ask over at the macrumors.com forum - I'll bet that a number of people over there have done it.

 

[Woofer]

Series3 hd tivos are pretty nice

I'll be honest with you, I have a bad opinion of all things Tivo. This may be unfairly so since I passed that judgment years ago and have ignored the service ever since. I've always associated it with a satellite dish, which required a land line (haven't had one in ages) and a subscription (would rather not). On top of that, though the picture may suffer by comparison, I like the reliability of cable and can manage to record things on my own. For the record, I also won't buy bottled water or pay for radio. I'm not old but apparently I am a fart .

 

[bandphan]

I'll be honest with you, I have a bad opinion of all things Tivo. This may be unfairly so since I passed that judgment years ago and have ignored the service ever since. I've always associated it with a satellite dish, which required a land line (haven't had one in ages) and a subscription (would rather not). On top of that, though the picture may suffer by comparison, I like the reliability of cable and can manage to record things on my own. For the record, I also won't buy bottled water or pay for radio. I'm not old but apparently I am a fart .

cable cards, networking, and good output

 

[Woofer]

So you're saying you feed the output of the Tivo to another Black Box to burn it to DVD? Can you edit commercials? I like to record F1 races and only after you drop the commercials will they fit on a DVD. I'm also hoping for a one-box solution.

 

[bandphan]

So you're saying you feed the output of the Tivo to another Black Box to burn it to DVD? Can you edit commercials? I like to record F1 races and only after you drop the commercials will they fit on a DVD. I'm also hoping for a one-box solution.

I burn from my pc Although I do not burn much to DVD, (other than the occasional Scooby Doo) Tivo desktop is getting better with each revison and to be able to network the player(and additional hard drive) expands distribution possibilities. Moving files to one player or another is easy, ie my phone, laptop, or physical media.
IMO tivo has the best pvr in terms of features and benefits.

 

[westcott]

I like my PVR with DN. It works well. The video quality can be very good and it is easy to select and record programs of interest. Fast Forward and Reverse, with time jump are habit forming. It holds more programming than I really use (we watch a lot more DVD's via NetFlix) and it is very convenient. I hope that DN will eventually activate the USB port for downloading of your recorded programs.

 

[BMXTRIX]

While not totally familiar with all of them, I have briefly used a Panasonic DVD recorder with integrated hard drive. I would look for a replacement model, as they are available some places online. eBay can always work...

http://cgi.ebay.com/Panasonic-DMR-E85H-120Gb-hard-drive-DVD-Recorder_W0QQitemZ130249552799QQihZ003QQcategoryZ11725QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I typically don't call stand alone black boxes PVRs but DVRs. I always think of the PVR as something like the Archos (www.archos.com) which is truly a PERSONAL video recorder and is a good deal smaller than your typical 'black box', like the Panasonic DVD-R with HDD.

 

[gus6464]

A Mac Mini with an El Gato EyeTV Hybrid would be perfect for you since you are a mac user. It can record Clear QAM (unencrypted digital cable), analog cable, OTA TV and OTA HD. Add external firewire drives for pretty much unlimited storage capacity.

http://www.elgato.com/elgato/na/mainmenu/products/hybrid/product1.en.html

 

[10010011]

A Mac Mini with an El Gato EyeTV Hybrid would be perfect for you since you are a mac user. It can record Clear QAM (unencrypted digital cable), analog cable, OTA TV and OTA HD. Add external firewire drives for pretty much unlimited storage capacity.

Only draw back with this and other DVR systems (stand alone, PC or MAC based) lacking Cable Card compatibility, is it lacks cable card compatibility.

Not much worth recording is sent clear QAM, at least not on my local Comcast cable system. Local networks, (ABC, FOX, NBC) and a hand full of shopping channels, that's about it.

The cable companies are using the broadcast TV digital conversion as a reason to remove analog channels from the cable system too. Something to think about as this coming February is the deadline.

Take another look at Tivo, it's worth it. Watch for special deals around the holidays and you can get a new Tivo with lifetime subscription for a pretty good price.

 

[gus6464]

Only draw back with this and other DVR systems (stand alone, PC or MAC based) lacking Cable Card compatibility, is it lacks cable card compatibility.

Not much worth recording is sent clear QAM, at least not on my local Comcast cable system. Local networks, (ABC, FOX, NBC) and a hand full of shopping channels, that's about it.

The cable companies are using the broadcast TV digital conversion as a reason to remove analog channels from the cable system too. Something to think about as this coming February is the deadline.

Take another look at Tivo, it's worth it. Watch for special deals around the holidays and you can get a new Tivo with lifetime subscription for a pretty good price.

The OP already said that he uses the analog connection from the wall directly to the DVR to record. Also with the new switch I know Timer Warner is switching to digital broadcast over normal coax without any box.

 

[bandphan]

Only draw back with this and other DVR systems (stand alone, PC or MAC based) lacking Cable Card compatibility, is it lacks cable card compatibility.

You can get pc based CC systems

 

[10010011]

You can get pc based CC systems

Far I know there is only one tuner card available with a cable card slot.

The only way to get it is to buy it in a complete system from HP or Gateway (I think), and it is not a cheap system specially when you can get an HD-Tivo with lifetime subscription for $500.

 

[bandphan]

ATI has one external. They supply internal card for oem to a couple of manufactures. All that said, I still would go with Tivo

 

[Woofer]

I burn from my pc Although I do not burn much to DVD, (other than the occasional Scooby Doo) Tivo desktop is getting better with each revison and to be able to network the player(and additional hard drive) expands distribution possibilities. Moving files to one player or another is easy, ie my phone, laptop, or physical media.
IMO tivo has the best pvr in terms of features and benefits.

Ahhhhh... a lover of the Classics I see! More of a Looney Tunes man myself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEzyNNhOeBw

So is this the Tivo box you're all referring to?

https://www3.tivo.com/store/boxdetails.do?boxName=300hourseries3hd&boxsku=R64825

I obviously hafta' research this whole Tivo thing again in detail - I had no idea you could use 'em with cable. Not certain of the need of a land line yet. Seems kinda' pricey when you start adding additional expansion modules/functionality. I'm leery of falling in line with industry hardware since they can ultimately control how you view and use content ('flags'?). I don't know what 'Clear QAM' is (yet) and this cable card thing is a curiosity to me. My SA Explorer 8300HD has a slot but it's empty, for now at least. Not sure what the industry has in mind going forward but I'll wager it's a tighter leash vs. loser.

The Mac Mini still intrigues me but it seems a work in progress still. If I can bolt Tivo parts together and make use of Firewire/USB2 ports (dead on my 8300HD) to edit/offload whatever I want I just may do it.

 

[bandphan]

So is this the Tivo box you're all referring to?

https://www3.tivo.com/store/boxdetails.do?boxName=300hourseries3hd&boxsku=R64825

I obviously hafta' research this whole Tivo thing again in detail - I had no idea you could use 'em with cable. Not certain of the need of a land line yet. Seems kinda' pricey when you start adding additional expansion modules/functionality.

Yes thats the one. As for a land line, the player can be tied into your home network instead of using a phone line. The price after rebates is 399. As for expansion modules, buy your own hard drives, GBs are cheap these days.

 

[10010011]

I have this one https://www3.tivo.com/store/boxdetails.do?boxName=180hourtivohd&boxsku=R65216

Far as I know Tivo's have always worked with cable, in reality the new ones DO NOT work with satellite.

You can attach them to your broadband internet service thought their ehternet jack or use a USB wireless adapter.

You can expand the internal hard drive yourself if you do not fear warranty issues.

Or you can plug in just about any external SATA hard drive, like the Mybook DVR edition.

 

[Woofer]

If I replace my cable box with a Tivo and cable cards, do the cards a) have a purchase fee? b) have a monthly fee?