Man, I am just totally screwed, aren’t I? I should probably just give up watching TV altogether. Jon Stewart, I will miss you.
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]
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
You can still buy VCR’s. $67.00 at WalMart. Throw in a pack of videocassettes for $9.88 and you’re all set.
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.
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, and I’m willing to bet their lawyers staked out a lot of IP that is now present in MC.