Current Crop Of HDTV Recorders Compared

rbrander links to this "nice review of all the HDTV Recorders from the Washington Post: DirecTV's based on the TiVo wins for best interface, but Dish Network's gets a few nods. There's also a nice swipe ('...spectacularly stupid decision') at JVC's for allowing only (copy-protected) Firewire input to the one HDTV tape recorder on the market."

DirecTV really needs to get with it.

[ARRRLovin]

The current crop of Standalone Tivo's blow the DirecTiVo away performance wise. The features of the DirecTiVo's can't be beat, but those that are used to the standard Series2 TiVo (or even the Series1) are growing tired of the dismal menu performance of the DirecTivo. All of this can be solved quite easily.......in software. Update those TiVo's DirecTV!

is anyone really surprised at this format war?

[CheechBG]

I have never seen D-VHS, but I can only imagine that since it is tape, that it has the same fundamental flaws as VHS, the magnetic tape. I don't care if it is digital, if I put my copy of Fear and Loathing in there and play it over and over I can only surmise that it's going to degrade as the heads go over and over the tape. IMHO, Blu-ray is a much more reliable (in comparison, I know) format.

FireWire products

[daveschroeder]

I forgot to mention...there ARE quite a few products that do contain FireWire: HDTVs, set top boxes, DVD players, digital VCRs, A/V receivers, etc:

http://www.1394ta.org/About/products/consumer_prod ucts.html [1394ta.org]

Additionally, the FCC is mandating that as of July 1, 2005, all digital cable set top boxes MUST include a functional FireWire port [fcc.gov], and as of April 1, 2004, must provide a set top box with a working FireWire port on customer request. Of course, this doesn't help if content providers choose to encrypt the content.

Here's hoping we can fight the Broadcast Flag [eff.org]. Unfortunately, I can see a future where our kids think that the only way they can watch what they want to watch, when they want to watch it, and on the device they wish to watch it on, is by illegally downloading it from a P2P network, instead of being able to legally record it and move it around THEMSELVES with equipment THEY BOUGHT from a service THEY PAY FOR in their OWN HOMES.

I am...

[Anonymous Coward]

I am yelling at the pirates. But that's not the point: no matter what the industry does, the pirates will still pirate. They'll break every encryption, work around every roadblock, and will still do everything they do now, and have always done.

The only people really affected by things like the Broadcast Flag and encryption of content are the ordinary, paying, law-abiding consumers. The pirates still pirate, and we can do less and less with the things that we OWN - or rather, we can only do what the media moguls' whims let us do.

Re:Copy-right is copy-wrong.

[GoRK]

So that I can record some TV to watch later... So that I can watch a DVD... So that I can continue to use my TV to watch TV without having to worry that the next time I rent a movie it will completely disable my television. Contrary to what you may believe, people like me are not all P2P crazed file swapping junkies. I purchase DVD's. I buy my digital music, and I pay my cable bill. I don't have time to rip and share every movie under the sun.

Have you actually read anything about how the C5 copy control [dtcp.com] is implemented? The 'analog hole' argument does not hold a lot of ground when re-digitizing the content or othewise storing it is prohibitively expensive, and as far as encryption not interefering with storage -- well I guess it shouldn't but it does, unfortunately. Have you tried to play a Divx (Circuit-city's version, not the codec) recently? You can be content storing an encrypted version all you want, but unless there is a 100% effective way to recover the original data, you are lost. The problem is not the crypto itself, but the copy control and how licenses are granted. The industry will happily grant a cable box manufacturer a device key after they can demonstrate their unit capable of respecting the copy control rules; however, they will never grant MythTV such a key even if the software becomes capable of respecting their copy control provisions. The reasoning, I guess, is that it would be easier to circumvent copy control in some open source software than it would be on a cable box.