View Full Version : To DIY or Not
My TiVo stopped working today. I'm saddened by its loss; not having the Incredibles at my finger tips; and not having backed up all 9 episodes of Norm building a kitchen. Now I need to decide between buying/building a MythTV box or buying a new Tivo. :(
My TiVo stopped working today. I'm saddened by its loss; not having the Incredibles at my finger tips; and not having backed up all 9 episodes of Norm building a kitchen. Now I need to decide between buying/building a MythTV box or buying a new Tivo. :(
Tivo has just come to Australia so could you tell me the pros and cons as I was thinking of getting one.
Tony
Tivo has just come to Australia so could you tell me the pros and cons as I was thinking of getting one.
Tony
If I could only pick two pieces of electronic equipment in the world it would be my Tivo and a TV. If Tivo had a TV built in, I would pick just the Tivo. There was no question of getting a replacement for DVR when Tivo broke
The pros of a Tivo are it will totally transform the way you watch television. You never need to worry about what time a show is on, you just say I want to watch "Holmes on Homes", "Survivor", "House", "The New Yankee Workshop" and it gets all of the episodes (and you pick the priority so it resolves conflicts). You can also record individual shows too; but we usually just record "season passes" of our favorites. Then when you sit down to watch television you have something like 60 hours of your favorite shows to choose from.
You get to pause, rewind, and skip commercials when you are watching. It makes a big difference to just be able to watch your 1 hour show in 44 minutes (the standard length after you subtract commercials here).
It also records things that it thinks you'll like based on pressing thumbs up and thumbs down. We used to use this a lot as well, but now our Tivo is mostly full of the things we purposely recorded; so we don't use it so much.
The new Tivos also have dual tuners, so they can record two things at once (or you can watch one live and record another).
Basically, you always have something to watch; and don't spend time channel surfing.
Also, it is pretty easy to setup (if you can hookup a VCR you can hook up a Tivo).
The cons: there is a monthly service charge of $12.95 and you are locked in for a year (there is a 30 day trial, but you have a useless box w/o the service). When you add a lifetime service ($399) into the high end Tivo it comes out to $1000. Even for the low-end DVR ($149) that increases the price to ($550).
The other con, for me, is that unlike Mythtv Tivo can not rip a DVD to the hard disk. I really would like to do this, because we have about 20 cartoons; and the quality on every one of them is getting degraded by my kids handling them. Having them at the touch of a button would make me feel much better about spending $30 on the DVD in the first place. (MythTV on the other hand has a reputation of being really difficult to set up).
Gene Bickford
09-23-2008, 05:42 PM
Never heard of mythtv CPW, Thanks.
I don't have Tivo but I do have a DVR. The only thing I can say is, read what CPW said;) as I agree 100%
If I could only pick two pieces of electronic equipment in the world it would be my Tivo and a TV. If Tivo had a TV built in, I would pick just the Tivo. There was no question of getting a replacement for DVR when Tivo broke
The pros of a Tivo are it will totally transform the way you watch television. You never need to worry about what time a show is on, you just say I want to watch "Holmes on Homes", "Survivor", "House", "The New Yankee Workshop" and it gets all of the episodes (and you pick the priority so it resolves conflicts). You can also record individual shows too; but we usually just record "season passes" of our favorites. Then when you sit down to watch television you have something like 60 hours of your favorite shows to choose from.
You get to pause, rewind, and skip commercials when you are watching. It makes a big difference to just be able to watch your 1 hour show in 44 minutes (the standard length after you subtract commercials here).
It also records things that it thinks you'll like based on pressing thumbs up and thumbs down. We used to use this a lot as well, but now our Tivo is mostly full of the things we purposely recorded; so we don't use it so much.
The new Tivos also have dual tuners, so they can record two things at once (or you can watch one live and record another).
Basically, you always have something to watch; and don't spend time channel surfing.
Also, it is pretty easy to setup (if you can hookup a VCR you can hook up a Tivo).
The cons: there is a monthly service charge of $12.95 and you are locked in for a year (there is a 30 day trial, but you have a useless box w/o the service). When you add a lifetime service ($399) into the high end Tivo it comes out to $1000. Even for the low-end DVR ($149) that increases the price to ($550).
The other con, for me, is that unlike Mythtv Tivo can not rip a DVD to the hard disk. I really would like to do this, because we have about 20 cartoons; and the quality on every one of them is getting degraded by my kids handling them. Having them at the touch of a button would make me feel much better about spending $30 on the DVD in the first place. (MythTV on the other hand has a reputation of being really difficult to set up).
Thanks CPW for the pros and cons I have been reading about Tivo and your lucky in the U.S. to be able edit out adds but here in Aus that function had been disabled.
Tony
darius
09-24-2008, 12:33 PM
Have you considered Media Portal (http://www.team-mediaportal.com/)?
It allows you to have a TV server and then to watch TV from any computer in the house.
BobOso
09-24-2008, 01:08 PM
My TiVo stopped working today. I'm saddened by its loss; not having the Incredibles at my finger tips; and not having backed up all 9 episodes of Norm building a kitchen. Now I need to decide between buying/building a MythTV box or buying a new Tivo. :(
I have a media center pc, it will record from a cable box, sat, or regular tv just like a tivo.
as for Norms kitchen videos you can get them here
http://cleanwatch.org/newyankee/
darius
09-24-2008, 01:12 PM
There one major issue with Microsoft MC - it won't let you watch, let alone record, some of the broadcast. It will show a message to the effect that the copyright owner of this movie/program does not allow you to watch it on this computer.
tchads
10-16-2008, 09:16 PM
Is Mythtv a kit or a build your own instruction?
jtravnick
10-17-2008, 07:29 AM
Mythtv is basically a computer with a couple of video receivers installed hooked up to your tv. Its more complicated than that but that is the easy description for it. I'm not sure if you can run it with windows I know a lot of Linux useres have built there own systems for this but I havnt realy looked into it that much.
Jim
darius
10-19-2008, 09:29 AM
Here's a good overview (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_PVR_software_packages)of PVR packages.
PlumbingSkool
12-02-2008, 01:56 PM
So what did you decide, now that it's three months later :)
I am curious and after all a forum is a place for conversation :) :eek:
I pulled a spare Tivo out of the closet and set that up with a 1 year subscription; which has bought me time to think about it. I think that I am going to try doing MythTV, but getting all the components is expensive and it takes a bunch of time. Trying to do it rushed was a bad idea, and I have been very busy at work. Also depends on if there are any performance bonuses this year.
PlumbingSkool
12-03-2008, 02:20 AM
I pulled a spare Tivo out of the closet and set that up with a 1 year subscription; which has bought me time to think about it. I think that I am going to try doing MythTV, but getting all the components is expensive and it takes a bunch of time. Trying to do it rushed was a bad idea, and I have been very busy at work. Also depends on if there are any performance bonuses this year.
It seems that your choice months ago was a very educated one, the fact that this thread is like 4 months old and the economy is in the crapper...
I always like to hear how others decided, because I learn a lot that way, so thanks for sharing that :)
I have to check out that MythTV :)
:smack-head:So I took the plunge and ordered a bunch of stuff. I haven't built a computer in like 9 years. The case is shipping from CA, and won't arrive until Wednesday, but the CPU, motherboard, memory, and power supply (along with HD and DVD) arrived today. I say, what the hell, I can put it together anyway without the case; just to see if I ordered the right stuff. Get it all put together, plug it in. Turn on the power supply. Only to remember, that without the case, I don't have a frigging power button to turn it on for real. DOH! :smack-head:
Now to wait until the UPS man comes on Wednesday. I think I might take the day off from work (I've got 4 vacation days I need to use by December 31).
Bob D.
12-08-2008, 08:32 PM
Tivo has just come to Australia so could you tell me the pros and cons as I was thinking of getting one.
Tony
I know this is late but in a nutshell:
Pros: GET ONE or be sorry
Cons: Not having one
Turn on the power supply. Only to remember, that without the case, I don't have a frigging power button to turn it on for real. DOH! :smack-head:
Now to wait until the UPS man comes on Wednesday. I think I might take the day off from work (I've got 4 vacation days I need to use by December 31).
The UPS man came at 4. By 5:30, I had a working computer. Now to get some software on it tonight! :D
I know this is late but in a nutshell:
Pros: GET ONE or be sorry
Cons: Not having one
I am hoing and humming whether it is worth it as it has to be connected to my cable internet and then through my TV and a price of $700.00 in Aus and you carn`t delete the adds as I heard you can in the U.S. and with the hundreds of DVD`s I have and all the cable and free to air channels I don`t have any time to watch any more after argueing with members on the Ridgid Forum.
Tony:D
So I've had a working DVD juke box for the last couple of weeks and today for the first time I've seen TV on the system using a Firewire connection to my cable box. Some budget overages and lessons learned:
1) You need a keyboard for a computer to be useful. For your living room wireless is much better. Budget overage: $50
2) A remote is much friendlier than a keyboard. Microsoft makes both excellent keyboards and remotes: Budget overage: $30.
2) Buy a Zalman CPU fan, you'll want something quiet. Budget Overage: $50.
3) The DVI interface on my Panasonic 36" Tube TV isn't very good. Solution a VGA to HDTV converter. Budget Overage: $72
4) A Firewire card is a cheaper alternative to a capture card, at least for playing around. Budget overage: $26. UPS actually made just as much as Newegg on this. $10 card, $7 shipping. Darnit. Forgot the cable, $3 + $7 shipping. Still less than 1/2 the price of a local store.
5) There was a buzzing underneath all the sound. $15 better quality mini-> RCA cable makes no difference. $66 for a USB sound card corrects it; but now the mute button on the remote doesn't work.
This gets added to the cost of $410 for the basic system; and works out to $704. The only costs I would like to have done without are $20 for the original CPU fan, $10 for extra SATA cables I didn't need, and $15 for the RCA converter cable. I also would have liked to be more efficient with my shipping charges, but I ended up basically solving the most pressing problem as I ran into it.
The budget for the system was $700, so I didn't do too bad. :) That budget did include a capture card though, which is about another $100; which I can do later.
SlimTim
12-28-2008, 11:08 PM
My TiVo started acting up (pausing and unpausing on its own) a couple of weeks ago. It is downstairs and my wife only had a receiver in her upstairs sanctuary (we have Directv.) So, I call Direct as I had already been considering an upgrade to 100 recordable hours and hdtv on the downstairs and get one for my wife as well.
After explaining to the customer service they say "Sir, you have been a customer for a long time (6 yrs) so you are eligible to receive a free upgrade for both units.:D And guess what, it really was free, except for the $40 I paid the tech to run the 2nd cable upstairs since both units have the dual function. They only asked that I keep the service for another year (as if I was going to change.) No problem there, buddy.
The charge per month is only $5 for both units. Same as I was already paying.
And you've got someone to call if it breaks. :)
I think the biggest motivator for the roll-my-own solution is storing my kid's DVDs on the hard disk. After about 6-12 months, most of them become unplayable due to handling by little hands. This way, there are no physical disks to handle and get damaged.
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