I want to record TV shows

[Karen Lingel]

I want to arrange to record TV shows for playback when the traffic clears up enough for me to actually get home. In the Golden Olden days, I would use a magic box called a "VCR" to do this. I would insert a smaller magic box, called a "VHS Tape" into the VCR, then do some minor programming with a remote control, and my show would be recorded. The big magic box only cost about $40! And you could reuse the small magic box over and over.

They don't sell VCRs anymore! What tha? Options seem to be

Hope and pray that my shows are online somewhere. (They aren't).
Buy a TIVO for $200, then pay them monthly for the rest of my life
Buy at subscriptionless TIVO for $600.
What about a DVD recorder? Would this do what I want?
Never watch Big Bang Theory again


(Sorry, Opal)

Suggestions?

[Fried Dough Ho]

Hope and pray that my shows are online somewhere. (They aren't).



If you are referring to Big Bang Theory, they ARE online, just not on a legal site which we are not allowed to mention on the Dope.

[DCnDC]

Just use your computer.

There are dozens of different ways to do it. Just Google "computer as dvr" and find a method that's suitable to your hardware and budget.

[Oakminster]

If you have cable or satellite TV, your box may already have a DVR function built in. Otherwise, you might want to look into to buying one. I have DISH, and programming the thing is simple. Select a show on the program grid, highlight, choose to record it one time, new episodes only, or all episodes. The box will then search all channels and record the show in accordance with my instructions. Much easier and more reliable than any VCR I ever owned.

[Karen Lingel]

If you have cable or satellite TV, your box may already have a DVR function built in. Otherwise, you might want to look into to buying one. I have DISH, and programming the thing is simple. Select a show on the program grid, highlight, choose to record it one time, new episodes only, or all episodes. The box will then search all channels and record the show in accordance with my instructions. Much easier and more reliable than any VCR I ever owned.

I have to pay monthly to use this feature. I refuse.

[Markxxx]

Windows Media Center will do this easily. It works great.

[Thudlow Boink]

Check ebay for a VCR?

[johnpost]

dvd recorders work fine for time shifting, get one that does RW discs. Magnavox has a good model that records to HD/DVD, works with antenna or cable.

[Enderw24]

1) Get an intern in AV studies. Tell them they'll get college credit to record your shows.
2) Use computer to download speeches from Stephen Hawking. Learn about the real Big Bang Theory.
3) Get a job at Blockbuster. Suck up to the supervisor with DVD selection privileges.
4) For a complete transcript of tonight's episode send a self addressed stamped envelope and $10 to CBS Studios Address: 7800 Beverly Boulevard Los Angeles, CA. 90036

[Earl Snake-Hips Tucker]

You can find VCRs just about anywhere, but they're combo VCR/DVD player units. I was at Wal-Mart and Best Buy in just the past week and saw 'em.

DVD recorders are an option, but the VCR/DVD combo is cheaper. Also, the DVD recorders available at most big box outlets don't stand up to daily recordings. Expect about a year. If you're really lucky a year and a half. Then they start going bad.

Voice of experience: I'm currently on #5.

[Larry Mudd]

Just use your computer.I can't imagine going back to using the PC to record my shows according to a schedule. Pretty much the only reason I pay my cable subscription is a sense of moral correctness - if there's a show on that I follow I'm just going to grab a divx file.

[Mahaloth]

They don't sell VCR's anymore?

That is too bad. It's what I use to record things. Works fine.

[cochrane]

They don't sell VCR's anymore?

That is too bad. It's what I use to record things. Works fine.Um, as Earl Snake-Hips Tucker posted upthread, they still sell them. They're just not stand-alone units, they're combined with DVD players.

[StGermain]

You can probably buy a VCR for $5 at Goodwill.

That being said, my DVR that comes with my satellite service is the best thing ever. Really. In fact, if there's something that's on and I find out about it while I'm at work, I can go online and tell my DVR to record it. I don't even have to be home. Not just using your remote to schedule something, totally separate online programming.

StG

[sco3tt]

Windows Media Center will do this easily. It works great.

I second this. If you are running Windows 7 Home Premium or Ultimate (or similar versions of Vista for that matter) you've already paid for this, so don't let it go to waste. It is just as good as TiVo, and doesn't cost a cent in additional monthly fees.

Getting the TV signal to your PC is the tricky part. If the shows you are interested in are available over-the-air, you can find tons of $40 USB HDTV tuners that will do the trick, but I've found them finicky and poorly supported (not to mention it's kind of awkward having an antenna tethered to the PC).

The HD Homerun (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815327005&cm_re=hd_homerun-_-15-327-005-_-Product) is ideal for this scenario. It has two tuners, and you can put it anywhere (e.g. up in the attic, in a spare bedroom, etc.) as long as you have ethernet, power, and an antenna there. The driver installs on any PC on your network (or multiple PCs, although only one machine can access each tuner at a time), and the device shows up in Media Center just like any other TV tuner. All of this with no subscriptions required.

There are similar options available if you want to record content from your cable. The HD Homerun will work with cable (i.e. connecting the cable straight to its tuners rather than using an antenna), but you'll only get whatever unencrypted channels your provider transmits (typically the same local broadcast stations you can get OTA for free). The forthcoming Prime version (http://www.silicondust.com/products/hdhomerun/prime/) dispenses with the tuners and uses CableCards (as the HD TiVos do) to effectively replace your cable box entirely. Alternately, there are similar boxes such as Slingbox (http://www.slingmedia.com/go/hardware) (which I've never used) and Hava Monsoon (http://www.myhava.com/) (which I have) that will interconnect your cable box (via audio/video cables and IR blasters) and ethernet network to achieve the same result.

[Icerigger]

My brother just bought something I did not know existed a Blue-Ray/VCR combo, talk about high/tech-retro.

[Kinthalis]

I'll third using your PC as a hometheater/media streaming server.

HD Home run, or any of the newer Hauppauge tuners will connect to your existing cable or over the air antenna and allow you to watch/time shift/record TV programming.

Windows Media center features a much better and more responsive UI than anything found on some expensive rental cable box, or TiVO too.

If you absolutely need to have your full HD cable content, along with the upcoming HD Homerun built for that particular scenario, there is the Ceton Tuner. I have one of those and 1 device records up to 4 different channels simultaneously, full HD all of my cable content. Don't have to pay rental fees for the cable company's crappy DVR's.

[gaffa]

It is just as good as TiVo...
All the information in your post is correct, except this bit. No, it is NOT as good as TiVo for the simple reason that, between the two of them, TiVo and ReplayTV patented most of the good ideas and everyone who came later had to work around those patents. Any time you run across a particularly boneheaded design decision in your Windows Media Center or DirecTV DVR or Dish Network DVR or what have you, you are running into a workaround for a TiVo or ReplayTV patent. That's why DirecTV bought the corpse of ReplayTV (then drove a stake through it's heart) and why Dish networks had to change their DVR. Ask any DirecTV owner who was forced to accept the shitty DirecTV DVR replacement for their beloved DirecTiVo.

Spend a week with all of them and you'll understand. I have several ReplayTVs and several DirecTiVos and have used all the imitators, and none of them match the quality and ease of use of the real things.

[TBG]

You can find VCRs just about anywhere, but they're combo VCR/DVD player units. I was at Wal-Mart and Best Buy in just the past week and saw 'em.


Just a word of warning, around the time of the switch to all digital, they stopped putting any tuner at all into these things. If you plan to actually record, you're going to need to hook it up to a tuner box of some type (cable, sat, or over the air digital to analog convertor) and set that box to the channel you want to record, and hope no one changes the channel between when you set things up and your recording starts. Also, unless your tuner has some sort of function to change channels on its own, forget recording more than one channel while you're out.

Digital transition made everything so wonderful, didn't it? :rolleyes:

All that said, if you aren't planing to archive any of the shows, just time shifting, the easiest thing to do is just cough up the fee and pay your provider for their DVR box.

[RikWriter]

I have to pay monthly to use this feature. I refuse.

Your loss. It's worth the money.

[Karen Lingel]

Just a word of warning, around the time of the switch to all digital, they stopped putting any tuner at all into these things.

Man, I am just totally screwed, aren't I? I should probably just give up watching TV altogether. Jon Stewart, I will miss you.

[digs]

Without even noticing it, I gave up TV! Just got busy doing other things. Look at me now: I'm hanging out here instead of watching The Tube. And I'd argue i'm MUCH more entertained.

--Youse guys is lots more entertainin' than dat Idjit Box. [/my grampa]

[aceplace57]

Buy a dvd desktop recorder. works just the same as VCR except with shiny disks. They are rewritable too.

combo vcr/dvd recorder for $50
http://cgi.ebay.com/JVC-DR-MV1S-DVD-Recorder-VCR-Combo-/300482080929?pt=DVD_Players_Recorders&hash=item45f620b0a1

used Sony dvd recorder
http://cgi.ebay.com/Sony-RDR-GX7-DVD-Recorder-/290489077895?pt=DVD_Players_Recorders&hash=item43a27f9087

Sony dvd recorder refurbished $84
http://cgi.ebay.com/SEALED-SONY-RDR-GX360-DVD-PLAYER-RECORDER-HDMI-1080P-/290490680617?pt=DVD_Players_Recorders&hash=item43a2980529

[Little Nemo]

You can still buy VCR's. $67.00 at WalMart (http://www.walmart.com/ip/Magnavox-Dvd-Player-Vcr-Combo/9864612). Throw in a pack of videocassettes (http://www.walmart.com/ip/Maxell-Standard-Grade-VHS-Videocassette-Pack-of-4/10980689) for $9.88 and you're all set.

[Washoe]

If you’re ever in Simi Valley, just knock on my door and I will give you one of the innumerable VCRs which are collecting dust in my storage. Quite frankly, I don’t even know how many I have. I have about half a bazillion VHS tapes stashed somewhere, too. You are welcome to all of them. That said, why can’t we talk about bittorrent? Is there anything illegal and/or immoral about torrenting broadcast TV shows? I torrent everything—I don’t have cable or an antenna on the roof. I just finished watching tonight’s episode of BBT a few minutes ago.

[sco3tt]

All the information in your post is correct, except this bit. No, it is NOT as good as TiVo for the simple reason that, between the two of them, TiVo and ReplayTV patented most of the good ideas and everyone who came later had to work around those patents. Any time you run across a particularly boneheaded design decision in your Windows Media Center or DirecTV DVR or Dish Network DVR or what have you, you are running into a workaround for a TiVo or ReplayTV patent. That's why DirecTV bought the corpse of ReplayTV (then drove a stake through it's heart) and why Dish networks had to change their DVR. Ask any DirecTV owner who was forced to accept the shitty DirecTV DVR replacement for their beloved DirecTiVo.

Spend a week with all of them and you'll understand. I have several ReplayTVs and several DirecTiVos and have used all the imitators, and none of them match the quality and ease of use of the real things.

I realize this is a matter of taste, but I stand by what I said. I have plenty of experience with TiVo -- I got a Series 1 in 1999 (and hacked in an Ethernet board I bought from the guy who went on to build the HD Homerun, coincidentally), followed by three Series 2s and an HD unit, all with lifetime subs and several hard drive upgrades along the way. I know me some TiVo. I have also used Media Center since 2005 on XP MCE, Vista Ultimate, and now Windows 7 (as well as Sage, MythTV and BeyondTV over the years). I've logged enough hours on all the above to make an informed call on this, and there's a reason my TiVos are now all gathering dust.

I'm curious about the workarounds you mentioned. All of the DVR functionality of TiVo is present in MC, and the only real differences I can think of are found in which streaming sources each one includes (YouTube, Amazon, Netflix, etc., very little of which I find useful since I'm running a PC anyway). That, and TiVo's "Suggestions" (which never seemed to figure out my tastes).

I won't deny that TiVo smokes ReplayTV and any cable company's DVR, but for the OP's purposes Media Center is easily its equivalent.

Also, re: patents: Don't forget that Microsoft had an early hand in the PVR game too (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_TV#UltimateTV), and I'm willing to bet their lawyers staked out a lot of IP that is now present in MC.