Can I use TIVO recorder without TIVO system, or where do I find a hard drive video recorder?

Factual Questions
1

I don’t want to pay Verizon/FIOS a monthly fee to rent their DVR. Before cable companies started scrambling all their signals I used to run television through Windows Media Center on my PC and was able to record on the computer’s hard drive.

But now only the OTA channels come through unencrypted. Given the relatively low cost of HDDs you’d think someone would make a TIVO device that doesn’t require TIVO subscription.

2

You can build your own, Google “MythTV”. I have also seen DVD Recorders that have a hard drive built in as well. By the way, even if you buy a DVR outright, you will need to pay for the program guide data to make it useful.

I finally gave up and rent a HD DVR from my cable company for $9.00 a month.

3

I’m quite suprised by this in the UK, Hard Drive recorders are cheap, widely available and don’t require subscriptions.

Perhaps it’s to do with encryption?

4

in the USA

Magnavox has two models that record to DVD (+/-R, +/-RW) and to HD. Records SDTV and has tuners for broadcast and unencrypted cable. Model 513 has 320G HD for 66-398 hours (depends on resolution selected). Model 515 has 500G HD for 103-620 hours (depends on resolution selected). Has inputs for Coax, YWR Composite, S-Vid, DV.

You can use newspaper or online sources to see a no cost TV schedule.

http://www.zap2it.com/ is a good one.

5

Thanks johnpost – I see it’s available at WalMart. (I’ve walked thru there many times and never seen it on display – must not be a best selling item).

6

What about your cable company? Here in Montreal, you can simply buy a DVR from the cable company or even from someone else. They are not cheap. Mine cost $500 for a box that records “up to 200 hours” (which seems to mean about 135 hours), but there are no fees for use. The cable company provides the program info free and that is that. The cable company has now made it possible to program it through the internet. This is important to me because they do not allow programming more than 2 weeks in advance and I will be away for three weeks in February wanting to record a curling tournament that takes place during the third of those weeks.

On the other hand, someone mentioned $9 a month rental fee. That’s $108 a year and I rather doubt I will have the same box four years from now (I’ve had it for a year). Had they had such an arrangement, I would have taken it.

7

i don’t think it is always/ever a shelf item. it can be ordered and shipped free to store for pickup.

8

The situation with cable/satellite DVRs is much the same in both countries - you generally use the DVR supplied by the cable company, and that’s that. In the case of over-the-air digital TV, the UK has a standardised, reliable form of programme guide data that is broadcast with the programmes. You need that metadata to have a usable DVR, so DVR manufacturers can design to the standard.
AIUI, over-the-air digital TV in the US does not have much metadata - maybe a couple of days programme guide data, and you can’t really rely on it. Free-to-air digital TV is a smaller part of the market there. So DVRs for free-to-air telly are not as viable.