TiVo vs Microsoft vs HDTV Cable 293
Thomas Hawk writes "Technology writer Ed Bott is out today with a great comparison piece where he compares the various feature sets of his TiVo, his Microsoft Media Center PC and his current HDTV cable DVR. It seems like all three have various nice features but all three also have negatives that you have to suffer through. A great read and strong comparison piece for anyone interested in DVR technology. Would love to see Ed or someone else expand on this piece and incorporate the current HDTV DirecTV TiVo, Comcast's Foundation box being rolled out in a pilot program in Washington State and MythTV."
I still prefer to pay TiVo. (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't know if they were talking negatively about the lack of an option to delete if you bail out in the middle of playback or not but, honestly, it's not difficult to delete any recording from the main menu... For most of the shows I watch I have them setup to delete when space is needed. The shows that I absolutely MUST watch get watched or marked later with "do not delete until I say".
I would actually find it relatively annoying if I jumped out of playback in the middle of a show and it asked if I wanted to delete. That's an unnecessary step that I'd have to take.
That's my opinion though, YMMV, perhaps a more detailed configuration of these settings would help TiVo? "Do you want to be prompted to delete if aborting playback before the end?" (something less wordy but you get the idea).
Bottom line? Feature for feature, Windows XP Media Center Edition matches TiVo and even exceeds it in some measures.
Bottom line? You need to have a dedicated machine for the MCE and a TV in/out card plus you need something that's half-decent in speed. TiVo just works and it was cheap (for me). You also need to support Microsoft and personally, as much as I am not terribly happy w/TiVo's recent decisions, I'd prefer to pay them than MSFT.
Re:I still prefer to pay TiVo. (Score:4, Informative)
Generally, the main differences between the Dishnetwork 921/942 HD DVRs and the HD Tivo models is that the Tivo has better auto-recording features for picking stuff you want to set a timer for, while the Dish DVRs are much, much faster to use in terms of the program guide, etc...
What it really comes down to for most people is the exact HD content they can get from cable/Direc/Dish, etc... All the features in the world are useless without something to watch in HD.
I'm to the point where I rarely even look at non-HD channels in the channel guide, let alone want to watch them. On a 100" screen, it's just too painful to watch SD most of the time.
Re:I still prefer to pay TiVo. (Score:2)
Actually the difference is that Dish Network is a content provider and TiVo isn't. Content providers offer DVRs primarily to have control over your recordings. TiVo would love to allow you to record pay-per-view events and wat
Re:I still prefer to pay TiVo. (Score:4, Interesting)
I can sympathize heartily with this sentiment. I have a 65" HDTV and SD format is just "tolerable", especially with the horrible quality of some of the SD shows on TWC cable. (Sci Fi channel is ugly, and the new Battlestar Galactica is the only show I record in SD.)
I loved my TiVo, but it doesn't do HDTV. Hello, Scientific Atlanta 8000HD (Time Warner cable). It's a poor alternative to the TiVo interface, but it does HD. It's worth suffering through the poor interface for that, and it does HD recordings very well usually. I've already had to replace it once because of a failed hard drive (free, same-day replacement via TWC buttcrack thanks to someone else's cancellation). Plus it has two tuners, which has come in handy at times.
If an HD TiVo (standalone, not satellite) came out (yes I'm aware there was a demo unit, but no official announcement), I would look at it very hard before buying, however. The cost would be high for those 1st gen boxes.
Re:I still prefer to pay TiVo. (Score:2)
Personally, I briefly considered going with a hacked X-Box Media Center, and settled on the mini, which (for me) has huge advantages over both Tivo and the MPC.
Equipment:
Mac mini 1.42 w/802.11g and Bluetooth
1GB after-market RAM
EyeTV 500
Apple Wireless Keyboard
Kensington Wireless Mouse
Keyspan IR Remote
DVI cable
M-Audio USB-TOSLINK digital sound pass-through
Total cost: about $1500
Results: DV
Re:I still prefer to pay TiVo. (Score:2)
Re:I still prefer to pay TiVo. (Score:3, Informative)
Two years ago I wrote a review [davehitt.com] comparing my Tivo to the Time Warner's Scientific Atlanta DVR. After three weeks I told TW to remove it immediately. I was amazed that anyone could fit that much suck into such a small box.
Looks like things haven't changed much since then.
Re:I still prefer to pay TiVo. (Score:2)
I didn't RTFA, but I can say that if you're talking about the Explorer, I believe, 8100 boxes, they have changed. There's been quite a few firmware updates in recent years that have really made them better. Don't get me wrong, if I hadn't been on a free 4 month beta, I would have gotten rid of mine within the first day or two.
Pretty much most, if not all of the problems with scheduling and stability have gone away. Actually, stability hasn't been an
Re:Can not get TiVo (Score:2, Informative)
Not available maybe, but illegal? I'd be quite surprised.
An idea... (Score:5, Informative)
Myth TV [mythtv.org] anyone?
I use KnoppMyth (Score:2)
Re:I use KnoppMyth (Score:2)
WHAT PC graphics nowadays doesn't overheat in a tight beige box if left on 24x7?
Re:I use KnoppMyth (Score:2, Informative)
Regards,
cesman
Re:An idea... (Score:2)
Re:An idea... (Score:2)
Re:An idea... (Score:2)
Re:An idea... (Score:2)
Re:An idea... (Score:2)
Re:An idea... (Score:3, Informative)
Now they could still encrypt t
Re:An idea... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:An idea... (Score:2)
You mean the pcHDTV [pchdtv.com] card doesn't exist? Or do you mean that since they only offer full Linux support (Xine and all Linux drivers are included; they also provide unsupported Windows drivers; but they offer no Mac drivers as of right now) that it's still worthless to you?
By the way, this card (that doesn't exist) does NOT support the Broadcast Flag saying "you can't record this."
Disclaimer: I do not ev
Re:An idea... (Score:2)
Re:An idea... (Score:2)
Anyway, it's very good so far. Built on top of Gentoo. 0.17 seems stable enough - the front end is a bit flaky, but I'm sure they'll patch it up soon.
The TiVo functionality is excellent but I also NFS all my music down to it from my main box, as well as have support for DVD t
Re:An idea... (Score:2)
How Tivo can win... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:How Tivo can win... (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.tivo.com/4.3.hme.asp [tivo.com]
Re:How Tivo can win... (Score:2, Informative)
HME applications run on home PCís or remote servers hosted by TiVo. At this time, HME applications cannot control any of the TiVo DVRís scheduling, recording, or video playback capabilities.
That isn't an issue (Score:2)
That's spelled "geeks" (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:That's spelled "geeks" (Score:2)
Re:That's spelled "geeks" (Score:2)
Re:How Tivo can win... (Score:2)
HME Development Challenge [tivo.com]
I'm not sure about shell access, I know it was relatively easy on the series 1 Tivos but I'm not sure about the series 2 models...
~jeff
Re:How Tivo can win... (Score:5, Interesting)
I couldn't agree more. To add to that idea, one of the main reasons that I "hacked" my DirecTivo was because I needed to implement features in it that weren't at all available in the OOTB unit (specifically the network interface and a webserver).
Here's a pretty specific example of why it was good for me to be able to modify this device: I have an entertainment center with doors on it that are completely opaque (meaning that if the doors are closed I can't get IR to the components behind them). So, instead of modifying the layout of my media center, I wrote a script that will allow me to change the channel on the Tivo (and actually do just about everything the remote can do) using a web interface on my computer (which has its IR receiver extended into the outside of the entertainment center). The computer's remote and accompanying software can then translate its commands into web scripts that are then in turn fed directly to my hacked Tivo via its webserver. There is no way I could have done any of this on an OOTB unit.
I suppose I could have done this with a third-party IR repeater, but this was more fun, and more importantly, FREE.
I suggest that Tivo, MS, and other DVR manufacturers could still market their "closed" versions for the masses of people who are willing to sacrifice feature sets for simplicity, but they should also offer more powerful units to those that want to purchase them, maybe provided that the "power" units have less of a support expectation...
Re:How Tivo can win... (Score:2)
Re:How Tivo can win... (Score:2)
"introducing-the-challangers dept."? (Score:5, Funny)
I prefer my ReplayTV to my old Media Center PCs (Score:5, Insightful)
The Media Center PCs were of course the most powerfull units, but they had problems. It was a real pain to get everything working with my Toshiba HD set, as it was finicky about resolutions, and getting everything stable was a pain. I ended up selling both of my attempts at Media Pcs, and got a replay tv.
The replay is PERFECT. Everyone in the house can use it without issue, and everything is fluid. There is no need to spend hour after hour customizing and tweaking software to get everything work with something else, no crashes, nothing out of the ordinary.
The key components I miss from the HTPCs are the music playback, web browsing, and gaming on the big screen. However, I have a wireless media streamer that I use for music, and I prefer to play games in my office anyway, so the loss of functionality is minimal. I didn't use my HTPC to play pirated films, as I can't stand the look of divx/xvid at 57".
Re:I prefer my ReplayTV to my old Media Center PCs (Score:2)
Looks as though you've not personally owned a TiVo box, but have you used one on a semi-regular basis (friend or relative's house)? I'm trying to decide between a TiVo and a ReplayTV. The prices are essentially the same at this point and people who have owned either one always tell me the other guy sucks, but inveriably have never used it. Kind of like the Mac and Windows battle (:
So how about it? Have you use
Re:I prefer my ReplayTV to my old Media Center PCs (Score:2)
I have no trouble outputting from MCE2005 at 720x480 to my tube TV for DVDs and cable, and likewise the 720p and 1080i recordings look nice scaled down as well.
I *also* have no
Re:I prefer my ReplayTV to my old Media Center PCs (Score:2, Insightful)
OT- Is there Video surveillance SW for Linux? (Score:2)
What do you suggests?
Re:OT- Is there Video surveillance SW for Linux? (Score:2, Informative)
I've been using it for about a year and am very happy with it.
Tivo vs comcast (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Tivo vs comcast (Score:2)
I suspect someone ran into one of the "UI-freezing" issues, and it coincidentally happened during a commercial and they got whipped up about it. There are definitely times the UI becomes unresponsive, and obviously you're more likely to notice it when its a commercial than during the five minutes you're just watching the TV.
The freezing problem is annoying, if you want
Motorola 6xxx HDDVR is best (Score:5, Informative)
I've got one of these, and it does everything that the article mentions lacking in the products he used. I'm not sure if it goes weeks into the future with the guide, I've never tried. Oh, one thing it does not have is 30sec skip, but it has 3 or 4 levels of fast forward, and it accounts for human reaction time when hitting play. I always get exactly to the end of a commercial break, sometimes I get the last 5 or 10 secs of the commercial.
It has all of the Season Pass features of a Tivo, and all in all its a great device, plus its HD. Oh, it also has two tuners so I can watch and record a show at the same time. The equivalent media PC would cost much more than I pay for this device, and not be as good. A Tivo is close, but no HD. I was pleasantly surprised with this device.
30 skip is "hidden" Re:Motorola 6xxx HDDVR is best (Score:3, Informative)
Here's one source [digitalhomecanada.com]
Re:30 skip is "hidden" Re:Motorola 6xxx HDDVR is b (Score:2)
These hacks do not work with my particular model/firmware/remote or whatever. Believe me I tried.
"DVR technology" -1 Overrated (Score:2, Insightful)
I think "DVR Technology" is overrated...atleast to anyone who has a TV Tuner Card in the PC and a decent set of drivers and TV Tuner software (Hauppauge's WinTV for xawtv/bttv for Linux). I got a basic one for $20.00 and it does th
Re:"DVR technology" -1 Overrated (Score:2)
Amen.
My old tower is now my media center. I bought an external TV tuner that connects via firewire and has it's own remote control. The UI is not quite as nice as a TiVo, but it has a great many more features. There is no monthly fee, I can archive to DVD or VCD and shows or movies I wish to keep, it has a completely configurable set of controls including skipping ahead and back, adding more space is as easy as sticking another hard drive on it, it can do double duty by acting as my DVD player, mp3 playe
Re:"DVR technology" -1 Overrated (Score:2)
While I agree that having the powerful computer do the DVR functions allows for more flexibility when it comes to upgrades, I also have a computer with tuner cards and all of the related software to do exactly what you're doing (ti
Re:"DVR technology" -1 Overrated (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:"DVR technology" -1 Overrated (Score:2)
Yes....much better to buy/build a $800 computer than buy a $99 TiVo.
Re:"DVR technology" -1 Overrated (Score:2)
You can't just drop a tuner in the destkop you're using all the time and get a DVR. If you do, you're not going to be able to use it whenever it happens to be recording, especially if we're talking about HDTV.
HDTV Wonder (Score:2)
Re:"DVR technology" -1 Overrated (Score:3, Insightful)
It's better because it's built to be a PVR, and that's all it does.
As per my previous post, I disagree. I think it is worse because that's all it does. My computer with a tuner gives me options and features a Tivo never will. MP3 storage, easy upgrades, DVD and VCD playing and burning, games, etc. etc. Also, there is no monthly fee. My girlfriend figured out how to record shows, burn DVDs of those shows, watch shows (including fast forward, rewind, skip, pause, etc.), delete shows, search listings, an
Microsoft vs Tivo (Score:5, Informative)
ReplayTV (Score:3, Insightful)
I like MyReplayTV on the web, and I like the skip forward button.
Is Replay the Beta to Tivo's VHS? (figuratively speaking - where the alleged better technology doesn't always win). I admit that I've never owned a Tivo, but in the few times I did side-by-side them, I greatly preferred the Replay.
--
/. foreclosed on my sig.
Re:ReplayTV (Score:2)
No, they just went out of business. Makes it so you can't buy 'new' units so reviews like TFA don't bother with them.
Re:ReplayTV (Score:2)
I'm not trying to be a (overused phrase here) "fanboy", just trying to check your argument.
Re:ReplayTV (Score:2)
That's why products bought from failed companies are usually renamed, so that they don't have the stigma of their previous owners.
Re:ReplayTV (Score:2)
ReplayTV did this once before, at the end of 2000, but they did an about face and went on to produce the 4000 and 5000 series, but this time it looks like they're serious.
Source: http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050228/cgm065_1.html
Re:ReplayTV (Score:2)
comcast hd-dvr not as bad as expected (Score:3, Interesting)
Another that I appreciate is that it doesn't put ads on screen when you pause video, you can see exactly what you want to. It also doesn't assume what you are interested in and try recording shows it thinks you would like. Probably my biggest gripe is that it doesn't know what channels you don't get (which is probably Comcast's fault). It'll dispaly a bunch of channels while browsing the channels, but we don't get half of them. Not only does it take more time to scroll, but I have also tried recording shows that are on a channel we don't get. Since it doesn't know better, it silently tries to record it, yet nothing shows up. It would be nice if it could give us a warning. I have yet to see a show we weren't able to record (although, if it starts happening when the broadcast flag comes out, I'll have my parents return it).
Last Sunday I set it to record the Oscars, and then I fast forwarded through at super speed and just watched the good parts. That was very handy.
It also has firewire output, but I have yet to try transferring the shows to my PowerBook (using a utility that saves HD streams from firewire). I'd really like to do this so I can save all the IMAX movies on the INHD channels for a long period of time.
Andrew
Re:comcast hd-dvr not as bad as expected (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm sure it would be simple to filter those channels from the list, but my guess is that they leave them there by design. They want you to see what you're not getting in hopes that you'll sign up for a more expensive package.
fugetaboutit.... (Score:3, Interesting)
There's a little thing called 5C or HDCP protection that flags shows as "copy once", "copy never", or "copy always". Unless the show is "copy always", the set top box will refuse to unencrypt the show for your Mac. It will only send them to an "approved" recording device like a HD-DVR that will them store them as "copy never". Think there will ever be an "approved" recording program or card for a PC/Mac? Nope. Never.
The only channels that are usually copy
Propaganda (Score:5, Insightful)
Um...from reading the article (and I'd hope our submitter did, as he's the first feedback post praising the author)...you'll see how most of it defends the MS box on a point-by-point basis of what Tivo offers.
To me, it reads like 'We can do everything Tivo can do better...' It's a response to Pogue's praise of Tivo with praise of his own. A fair comparison, a blogger's thoughts on DVRs, and a waste of slashdot's frontpage.
Re:Propaganda (Score:2)
Microsoft Corporation. Bringing Technology to your Desktop, Laptop, and Living Room for over 20 years. Your Trusted Name in Technology.
Re:Propaganda (Score:2)
Cable cos are catching up fast (Score:2)
My box has the intelligent fast forward, and it amazingly gets me to the right place without going too far. Actually, that's not amazing, for I can envision exactly
Re:Cable cos are catching up fast (Score:2)
phone line (Score:3, Insightful)
My stance towards Tivo (Score:5, Insightful)
Here's my stance towards Tivo. I'd love to support that company - I like what they did originally and understand they have pressures these days so that things may be less than ideal.
But I always knew I'd be moving towards HD, so I didn't jump the bandwagon when it first came out. Now I have two options:
1. Buy a HD Tivo for more than $1000 and then pay a monthly fee of something like $13.00, or
2. Get Adelphia's HD DVR for (get this) free for 5 months, then $4.95 per month.
O.k. So Tivo might be better. But it isn't that better. And, as I never had one of the originals, (as most people ) I don't know the difference.
Tivo, in its current form, without liscencing from Cable Companies, is dead. It's only time.
Re:My stance towards Tivo (Score:2)
Yes and no. A DirecTV subscription is required for the HD TiVo and the additional DVR charge is only $5 for all the DVRs on your plan... on top of, of course, the monthly charge for DirecTV and additional $10 for their HD channels, should you choose to get them. There is no charge for TiVo beyond your DirecTV bill.
I patiently waited for the price to drop before I picked up the HD TiVo. When it didn't, I got it anyway.
Re:My stance towards Tivo (Score:2)
DirecTV + TiVo (Score:2)
Unfortunately it only has 35 hours of storage and last time I checked that was as big as they went (I'm not interested in putting in a larger hdd myself. I spend all day fixing/building/programming computers. When i watch TV i want a solution that just plugs in and works).
After playing with PVR's from dishnetwork, adelphia, and comc
Re:DirecTV + TiVo (Score:2)
I'm using MCE 2005 (Score:2)
Bittorrent... (Score:3, Funny)
(not my joke. repeating another
words, some people have heard of them (Score:3, Insightful)
What about DishNetworks offerings? (Score:2)
I prefer UltimateTV (Score:3, Interesting)
Unfortunately, nobody sells these units new anymore; apparently Microsoft decided to put its eggs in the MCE basket instead.
We looked at the HDTV version of the DirecTivo, and it was even worse than the basic DirecTivo.
We won't be able to use the UTV boxen with HDTV, but then we don't watch TV so much that it really bothers us, and besides we are too far from a major market to get over-the-air HDTV anyway.
Tivo is dying (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Tivo is dying (Score:3, Informative)
They have it. It's been available for about a year now through DirecTV and it supports OTA broadcast. They can't provide it for cable companies because TiVo would have to support their individual formats and they all want to introduce their proprietary boxes.
Lower the cost of subscription.
They did. Additional TiVo cost less than the original. Lifetime service is still available and pays for itself in a few years. Then, there's no monthly charge.
Innovate dammit!
They have
bottom line TCO (Score:3, Interesting)
cable box DVR is cheapest 5-10 a month, no up front
tivo is cheap in the short run. $100 up front plus 12.95 a month
MSFT media PC expensive $500+ up front. cheapest HP mcpc = $549 plus shipping, no ongoing cost for programming guide.
Myth TV sw no cost, hw expensive up front similar $500+ for computer, no ongoing fee.
My comparison (Score:2)
Re:My comparison (Score:2)
Sadly, TiVo will not be able to compete against this much longer, they need to come up with some things the cable companies cannot match, and QUICKLY.
It is really hard to compete against a monopoly. I mean do you really think the cable company can provide the hardware, service, support, software development, etc. for $5-$10 a month? Most likely they just roll most of their costs into everyone's cable bill (since they are a monopoly they don't have to worry about underselling the competition) and Tivo u
I shopped hard and then went with KISS (Score:4, Insightful)
And finally, I went and bought a "humble" Pioneer DVR-520, that's just a VCR except it burns DVDs and/or records to hard drive. No network access to TV schedules at all, you have to set it to record Channel X at Y o'clock on day Z.
TiVO might have won if they would just friggin' provide TV guide service to Canada, but they won't.
And all the solutions that are really a Linux or Windows PC in a smaller box had the same problem: they crash.
Most of them not often, but even once every few weeks is way too often. If it were just me, fine, but my wife was unequivocal: we don't NEED the thing, she's just wearily learning a new remote and whole new approach to TV just to get along with me..."But if it crashes like a PC in the middle of the Gilmore Girls, it's leaving the house through a closed window that you can pay for".
The Plain Ol' DVR is not from a computer company, but the long-experienced consumer electronics company that made the first LaserDisc machines. It just works, was working 5 minutes out of the box, and won't crash on her though it be a fairly sophisticated computer.
And frankly, I'm kind of glad to be talked into it as well. Upstairs, I geek out to my heart's content on a Linux box. Downstairs, watching TV, I'm generally beat, have a drink or so and supper inside me, and Just Want to Watch TV. Any technicalities deeper than picking my show off the playlist are unwelcome.
This box meets the 80/20 rule. Anything that can do "chasing playback", skip ads, avoids fussing with tapes, and can make a DVD of those few shows I want to save, meets at least 80% of what you want from the experience.
Setting it to catch all the shows we watch regularly took me about an hour. I guess another half hour per year will be needed to stop the recordings at the end of each season and start them again, often at new times, each fall. Avoiding that half-hour per year is not worth hundreds of dollars, and it ABSOLUTELY isn't worth managing another household computer through upgrades and patches and crashes.
Re:I shopped hard and then went with KISS (Score:2)
Could you expand on this a little more? My perception (from scanning the MythTV mailing list) was that Myth could be complex to set up, but that it was pretty stable after you were done. Maybe you just didn't have the patience to dink with it?
More on-topic: there is a lucid comparison between Tivo and MythTV on the Myth mailing list here [gossamer-threads.com].
Re:I shopped hard and then went with KISS (Score:2)
That's why you get a Series 1 Tivo and hack it [tivocanada.com].
Re:I shopped hard and then went with KISS (Score:3, Interesting)
It's not a fault to want something to just plug in and go after you spend a lot of money on it.
I 'dink with' a Linux box most evenings. I use MEPIS Linux, among the most plug-and-play distros ever developed. And the new version recently cost me most of a weekend with tedious, stupid stuff like not working with my new DVD writer and not being able to reco
Re:I shopped hard and then went with KISS (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, yes, the two aren't comparable. The MythTV box would have had a top-end burner, a 200GB hard drive, the Hauppage 350 top-end video capture, and a $150 sound card that did 7.1 digital sound.
But honestly? I wouldn't have used most of that functionality except on "Star Wars" type heavy-sound movies. And it all would have been obsolete in 3 y
You may not miss your TiVo now, but... (Score:2)
You will in the future when Microsoft forces you to buy a new box or else.
Whoa, put down the crack pipe dude. (Score:2, Flamebait)
So then his conclusion at the end:
Add
What the Frak is this Moron Going on About?? (Score:2, Informative)
"Multiple tuners. Again, TiVo gives you one tuner per box, unless you're willing to pony up for the pricey DirecTiVo solution."
My DirectTVTivo Box has 2 Tuners, paid $99 for it, for 70 hours of Programming, no extra costs at all. Just needed to run a co-axial like from the Dish.
Moronic indeed.
DirecTiVo HD (Score:3, Insightful)
Frankly, after using the ReplayTV for so long, I guess I got spoiled, because I HATE my TiVo! Extremely slow guide (actually comes up in chunks), no 30 second skip (gonna try the hack from the article tonight, though), and why can I only pause for 30 minutes? I used to pause my Replay at the beginning of a hockey game (not that I have that to worry about this year) and come back an hour later to start watching. Skip all the commercials and intermissions and still return to live with about 5 minutes left in the game. I could go on about no networking capability, ect. but you get my point.
Overall, the Tivo feels "Fisher Price" compared to the Replay. The menus look candy coated and dumbed down for the masses, and I really miss the pause countdown timer from my Replay. I hope like hell that Marantz (I think) realizes what they bought and runs with it! I'd ditch TiVo in a second.
Re:Can you really FFWD commercials? (Score:3, Informative)
I've always heard that TiVo can fast forward through adverts, but I don't see how - unless you pre-record everything.
That is pretty much what you do. I don't have a Tivo. I use another PVR. I don't have time to watch the shows I schedule it to record, let alone something else that is on. If I do, however, I just tune in 10-20 minutes after the show starts and watch it from the buffer. I start at the beginning, skip all the commercials, and it ends the same time as it normally would.
Re:Can you really FFWD commercials? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Does that mean... (Score:2)
It's OK - they get away with using second class USPS by posting in three million years before the order's placed.
Re:Cable Stays in my home, what about yours?? (Score:2)
A couple of years ago, I decided to take a machine my office that I wasn't using, throw an All-in-Wonder card in it, and turn it into an HTPC. Now, I've realized there's a considerably less expensive way to cover all of the bases.
For watching "legally obtained" materials (and for playing ROMs, which my HTPC also was capable of), I have a moded Xbox. I picked it up about a year and a half ago for less than a hundred bucks on eBay and modding it was simple. With the HDTV set of AV cables,
Re:TiVO is Doomed no matter what that article says (Score:2)