Chicago1871
02 Nov 2005, 12:37 PM
This is a technology I haven't had much time to explore, but I'm guessing that more than a few of my fellow TE&M forummates have. I was just reading this (http://reviews.cnet.com/4521-6531_7-6373038-1.html?tag=cnetfd.sd) CNET review and I realized that I wasn't sure exactly what I might eventually need/be interested in.
Anyone want to weigh in on good experiences, bad experiences, good technology, what's cool, what's top end, what's basic?
Yea, that's a lot of info, but chime in with what you want to.
Foosinho
02 Nov 2005, 01:04 PM
I have an "old-skool" Series 1 DirecTiVo - so my software is waaaaaaaaaay out of date with the current state-of-the-art TiVo software. So keep that in mind.
I love it. It's hackable (I've added a 2nd hard drive, a network card, and RAM to cache the database in) and rock-solid reliable. The software interface is slick and easy to use. In fact, there are no features of the DVR aspect that I feel are missing.
All that said, there are general features I wish I had, and some things that have changed in newer software as I understand it.
1) I had to add software to let me digitally extract shows, and even then transcoding is required to get the files in a format for burning. On the flip side, the quality (since it's the direct satellite stream) is top shelf.
2) More tuners (I have two) would be nice - my wife loves the network sitcoms, which means that sometimes there are more shows on than tuners. Items on cable - like HBO dramas - are rebroadcast often enough that two tuners usually suffices, but occasionally not. This is an especially bad problem during basketball season, when Ohio State plays on a weeknight. Ugh.
3) The ability to have multiple units cooperate - so that they can move recordings around, and schedule tuners more effectively.
A lot of these issues would be helped by a sophisticated MythTV install, which I plan to do.
The DVD recording feature is interesting, not least of which is because it removes your computer from the archival loop. As blank DVD media drops in price, that capability becomes more and more attractive.