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Remember The 80s' When No One Could Program Their VCR?
One of my my major gripes about my RCA DVD-Recorder is that it will sometimes not start at the right time and not quit recording at the right time. This ends up happening if I have the turned off and it will sometimes cut off the end of a show or not get the beginning. The worst instance of this is when I record the TV show Alias for my girlfriend and the last big episode cliff hangers will get cut off and she is absolutely inconsolable. I end up padding each show with five minutes before and after a show so I end up getting it all. So I thought I would take a look at the various Personal Video Recorder options on the market.
1. Get a new DVD-Recorder. This would be around 200 bucks and I would not prefer it because I just want the one that I have to work right and record at the right damn time.
2. Get a Tivo. This would be $ 200 for the actual unit and then $12 a month to already use the unit that you already paid for. I know that TV listings are good but there is no way in hell that they are worth 170 a year for TV listings. I could hook up the Tivo to my DVD recorder and archive the shows I wanted but there is no way to get the shows onto my Macintosh iBook without having to burn a DVD. It is the monthly fee that is keeping me from getting a Tivo. I know there is a life time pass for a couple hundred bucks but that goes out the window if the Tivo company goes under. Just look at Replay TV and Microsoft Ultimate TV the are about as useful as a Betamax player right about now.
3. Get my PC laptop from my girlfriends place and get an external USB 2.0 Video capture device like the one from ATI. This would suck because my girlfriend could not use the laptop at her place. The laptop also would get hot and noisy. I would not want to leave it on 24 hours a day 7 days a month. However I could use my external USB 2 hard drive to transfer files over to my iBook or i could network the two via Wifi. One thing that is really cool about the ATI TV Wonder USB system is that they provide TV listings for free with some minor banner ads. This would be about $150
4. Get an El Gato TV Wonder for my iBook. This would let me let me record shows my Mac then I could burn the TV shows I wanted with the Superdrive and iDVD. The problem is that I would have to have my iBook in my apartment almost all the time and it is just a shame to keep a laptop cooped up like that. It would be about $150 and the TV scheduling would be about the same as the ATI based system. It is pretty cool that El Gato used ATI's hardware but made a really good Mac OSX software package for it.
5. Get a $2000 Microsoft Media Center PC. Nah this does not seem that cost effective for just wanting to digitally record a TV show. Besides I just smoking the Microsoft pipe cold turkey and I could not feel better.
6. Get a $500 Mac Mini and an El Gato TV Wonder. While it would be cool to use a Mac Mini as a PVR Media PC it would be a little out of my price range. My LCD TV can hook up any standard VGA source and use it as a monitor. If I did not get a notebook I would have gotten a Mac Mini and added a USB video capture device to use it as a PVR.
7. Get a regular PC and install something like Myth TV on it. This would surely be the most nerdly option but I want something that would be cheaper and not that costly on the pocket book. Setting up a custom Linux based PVR system would earn me the most nerd cred but it would not be an out of the box overnight fix. I could be wrong. Are there any Myth TV users out there reading this?
It really sucks that there is no real commercial competitor for Tivo and Windows Media Center. It would be great if Apple would come out with a set top video PVR system.
Here is a wish list of what I would want from a next generation PVR that is not currently in existence.
1.An easy to use menu based interface that had some serious user testing.
2.A big 100 Gig hard drive with a USB port so you could an an external USB hard drive. To transfer recorded shows and expand recording time.
3.Real time MPEG-4 Recording. These would be DRM free non-proprietary files that could be taken into any video editing program or transferred onto any PC or Mac.
4.30-Second skip with no banner ads. For the pause that refreshes.
5.Ethernet and Wifi Networking. So you could access and view recorded shows from a PC or Mac via a local network.
6. Remote control software from a PC, Mac or Web based interface.
7. Totally free show listings that is paid for by small banner ads or renting anon customer viewing habits.
Giving the options my cheapest option would be to get a DVD-recorder with a better timer function. But the thing is that would be a real pisser. I would consider that if I could sell my existing one on eBay or in the paper. In the mean time I am just going to set it to start recording early and stop recording a bit late. If I get sick of that I'll try to sell my DVD-recorder and get a more reliable one.
I am not sure if I am into TV that much to invest that much time and money into it. But then again Father's day is coming up and if I gave my current DVD-Recorder to my step dad who has a Tivo then I could upgrade mine relativity guilt free. Oh damn you cutting edge. I am sure that things will be much better in a couple years when PVR devices are more cut and dry when everyone has them.
Jake at May 16, 2005 
Rants
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Comments
for the tivo, the subscription includes much more than tv listings. actually, i think the tv listings are free. it's the recording features and functionality that you're paying for.
Posted by: jon at May 16, 2005 2:32 AM
I think you should get Tivo and the lifetime contract. Pay once and forget about it. Besides this is cheaper than buying a mini mac and the extra hardware and software you'll need. Not to mention, Tivo user interface is still the best IMO. You are not going to be as happy with a make-shift recorder on a PC or mac. It's time for a geek like you to move beyond recording shows manually. You need to get into season passes and wishlists and then you will see why people love their Tivos.
Posted by: alnyden at May 16, 2005 8:16 AM
You see that is the problem I don't want to have to pay a monthly fee for a feature on a system that I allready paid for in full. What if you had to cut a check each month to Sony or your PS2 would stop working?
Posted by: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com at May 16, 2005 8:22 AM
I've been padding my recordings for years now.
If you're considering MythTV, check Slashdot every now and then for some decent articles ( http://linux.slashdot.org/linux/05/05/13/1546247.shtml?tid=186&tid=106&tid=137 ).
Or X-Box and Bittorrent are your friends.
Posted by: Matt at May 16, 2005 1:30 PM
I don't know where in the Seattle area you are, but if you have Comcast cable they have a DVR now. It does cost $9 a month but you don't have to pay for the box (it's also your cable box.) In most ways it's the same as Tivo. In a few small ways it's worse. In two big ways it's better: you can record HDTV and you can record two shows at once. Or watch one show and record another.
It might be worth checking out if you have Comcast.
Posted by: Rob at May 16, 2005 4:09 PM
Go for MythTV. I use it personally and it's great. Its a bit of a chore to set it up, and you need to make sure that you compile your kernel correctly and everything.
If you want to check it out briefly before you take the plunge, check out KnoppMyth, a distro based on Knoppix with MythTV support built in. It will boot directly from the CD and auto-configures most hardware for MythTV.
Posted by: Matthew Clawson at May 21, 2005 8:38 AM
