a/k/a PVR.
My Primary recording VCRis crinkling tapes (it is ~15 years old), and I’m thinking about replacing it with a DVR. I know people LOVE TiVo BUT
I refuse to pay a montly fee (or the lifetime fee)
I don’t want TiVo to know what I watch / tape
I don’t have cable, so the guide feaures are less usefull to me.
(broadcast TV - ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, PBS and UPN)
My TV isn’t very near a phone jack anyway.
I know some TiVos (old ones?) could work in “basic mode” if they are not hooked up to a phone line - is this still true?
There is also replayTv, tho I noticed newer ones don’t have commercial skip.
If you’re merely replacing an old VHS machine, just get a DVD recorder. It will do everything the tape machine did, but cheaper and better, and play DVDs and CDs as well.
In spite of your misgivings about Tivo, I still recommend it.
Specifically, I recommend DirectTV satellite service with Tivo. That way, you’ll have the ability to record two shows at once, while watching a third. The cost is a lot cheaper…Tivo with DirectTV is only a $5 / month add-on, as opposed to the $12 / month subscription fee you’d otherwise pay. More importantly, the satellite based Tivo picture quality is far superior, because it copies the MPEG stream directly to the hard drive. Other PVRs perform on-the-fly compression which causes occasional artifacting, especially when there is faster-than-average motion in the picture. I have DirectTV with Tivo, and the quality is stunning.
Oh, and the information sent to Tivo is only kept in aggregate form. So, although Tivo knew that 3 quadrillion people rewatched the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction, they can’t look back and see that YOU did.
The ability to set up a “season pass” so the Tivo will record every episode of your favorite shows (with or without repeats) is absolutely invaluable. I never miss an episode of “Survivor”–even when they randomly change it to Wednesday nights. You can limit the number of episodes it stores if you wish. I set up a season pass to “The Brady Bunch” for my kids, with a limit of 1 kept episode. So, there’s always a fresh episode waiting for them when they get home from school, without filling the hard drive–the old ones are automatically deleted.
Better still…actor “Wish Lists”. Any time a Charlie Chaplin or Laurel & Hardy movie is shown on ANY channel, the Tivo knows to record it for me. I don’t need to know the time or channel…it will just show up in the “Now Playing” list for me.
Trust me…you’ll look back on it three months later as “a life changing experience”.
If you’re going to build yourself a PVR, do pay particular attention to noise. PCs are loud. There’s Linux PVR software called MythTV. Looks are also important. I believe you can get some nifty cases around mini-ITX motherboards, but don’t have a suitable US link.
I’ve not built one myself, but I am a PC technician.
You’ll have three main sources of noise: CPU fan, PSU fan, and the HDD. You may also have a fan on the card.
To quieten the CPU, you’ll need to get either a large heatsink (IIRC Dell P3-500s were fanless, they had honking huge heatsinks) or get a cool-running CPU like a VIA C3.
For a quiet PSU, go here for suitable products. The UK side of the site is much more helpful than the US.
For a quiet HDD, choose a slow-speed HDD (5400 RPM) and go here if that isn’t quiet enough. You might also consider laptop-sized HDDs.
What is it about the DVR that is drawing your interest? With only broadcast TV to choose from, and your desire to avoid using the subscription guide, all you’re getting is a VCR that uses a hard drive instead of tape. I think you would be missing out (intentionally) on the very features that make DVRs so desirable.
If I were in your shoes, I’d probably just get a VCR or DVD recorder (re-writable) and forget the DVR entirely.
Thats a very good question. About the only thing I can think of is the near infinite reuse. Right now with the VCR I keep very little and reuse tapes until they wear out.
How many times can one reuse a DVD*RW disc?
I may just get a new VCR (tho it seems so last millenium)
The + standard seems to be the way they’re all going these days. I’ve used both. I have a Panasonic recorder (cost $500 about 4 years ago!) and it uses the - format. It will not play a finalized + disc, although other players will.
Stick with an established brand. If you’ve never heard of the maker, you should probably avoid it (as always, there’s always exceptions).