Well, I finally did it.

[ncted]

Tivo has a monthly fee, DVR+ does not

Not if you buy lifetime, which everyone over at TivoCommunity.com seems to think is the best choice. The DVR+ seems fairly buggy from my reading of the thread over at avsforum.com, and there is the usual Rovi guide data issue. So, the decision seems to be between cost and reliability.

 

[empiretc]

Not if you buy lifetime, which everyone over at TivoCommunity.com seems to think is the best choice. The DVR+ seems fairly buggy from my reading of the thread over at avsforum.com, and there is the usual Rovi guide data issue. So, the decision seems to be between cost and reliability.

this. not to mention, tivo is a far superior dvr with a lot more options and features.

back in the day, the sony dhg-hdd250/500 was a sweet unit.

 

[Mochuf]

Tivo has a monthly fee, DVR+ does not

Why do people keep saying/thinking that this is the only option? Tivo offers a lifetime plan for all of it's products. You can buy a 4-tuner Roamio off of Amazon for $180 and, using a $100 off code floating around, $400 for a lifetime subscription. While it is more expensive to start with, in the long-run it's a better system. And like empiretic mentioned, you can get great deals on used units w/lifetime. In the last two years I bought three used Tivos (Series 2 (80gb), Series 3HD (1tb) and Premiere (320gb) all for the grand total of $425!

Remember, the DVR+ is depending on Rovi for guide data. Just ask anyone with TVGOS enabled equipment how that's working out for them. And PSIP just sucks for scheduling.

 

[navychop]

Premieres have poor OTA tuners, or so I read.


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[osu1991]

That thread on avs is full of just a few that keep griping about the same thing over and over. For the most part the dvr+ is working well. It does have a few bugs that are affecting a few but not the majority. Tivo is fine for those that like it, but personally it just never has appealed to me.

$300 for a used Tivo HD or Premiere with lifetime sub that is already 4 or 5 years old isn't what I would call comparable, but it is an option none the less. They all have their pluses and minuses, everyone just has to figure out what works best for themselves.

 

[Mochuf]

Premieres have poor OTA tuners, or so I read.


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I've heard that too, but my Premiere picks up everything my Tivo HD does. Now people have said that it doesn't handle multi-path interference as well as the Series 3 units though.

 

[comfortably_numb]

if you can catch their promotional deals, you can get a new one for that price. those a few and far in between, however.


otherwise, that is the average used price.

Cheapest one I see on Ebay (buy it now) is 389.99 plus 25 for shipping and that is for a used box.

 

[ncted]

I've heard that too, but my Premiere picks up everything my Tivo HD does. Now people have said that it doesn't handle multi-path interference as well as the Series 3 units though.

This was certainly my experience. The error correction silicon on the Premiers is inferior to the TivoHD and apparently the Roamio. For OTA, HD or Roamio are the way to go.

-Ted

 

[king3pj]

Or you can forget the expensive Tivo fees and turn a PC with Windows Media Center built in into a whole home DVR with 14 day guide and no monthly fees. When I cut the cord all it cost me was the price of 2 $75 HDHomerun dual networked OTA tuners and the price of an outdoor antenna.

I don't have anything negative to say about Tivo equipment but getting them setup with lifetime subscriptions costs a pretty big chunk of change for someone looking to save money by cutting the cord. I priced out a 4 tuner Roamio and a Tivo Mini for the bedroom with lifetime subscriptions on both from amazon because that was my original plan. It would have cost me $909 to cut the cord and go that route.

Windows Media Center is no slouch as a DVR and it gave me a similar setup for $231 including the 2 dual tuners, outdoor antenna, and preamp. I would say the hopper is a little better as a DVR but WMC is definitely better than any cable DVR I have ever used.

 

[Mochuf]

Cheapest one I see on Ebay (buy it now) is 389.99 plus 25 for shipping and that is for a used box.

You should check your local craigslist and also the "for sale" section on the Tivo Community Forums. You should be able to get a Premiere w/lifetime for $300.

 

[Mochuf]

Or you can forget the expensive Tivo fees and turn a PC with Windows Media Center built in into a whole home DVR with 14 day guide and no monthly fees. When I cut the cord all it cost me was the price of 2 $75 HDHomerun dual networked OTA tuners and the price of an outdoor antenna.

I don't have anything negative to say about Tivo equipment but getting them setup with lifetime subscriptions costs a pretty big chunk of change for someone looking to save money by cutting the cord. I priced out a 4 tuner Roamio and a Tivo Mini for the bedroom with lifetime subscriptions on both from amazon because that was my original plan. It would have cost me $909 to cut the cord and go that route.

Windows Media Center is no slouch as a DVR and it gave me a similar setup for $231 including the 2 dual tuners, outdoor antenna, and preamp. I would say the hopper is a little better as a DVR but WMC is definitely better than any cable DVR I have ever used.

Yep, I have a HTPC w/3-tuners running WMC too. I love it and am currently using it for ota broadcasts while I use my Tivo's for cable. The guide issue during the last week had me worried though.

 

[navychop]

Hasn't WMC been dropped from Windows? Any EOL published?

But yeah, I've had good luck with it.




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[empiretc]

You should check your local craigslist and also the "for sale" section on the Tivo Community Forums. You should be able to get a Premiere w/lifetime for $300.

for sure. there will probably be some on craigslists trying to make big $, too. that ebayer is delusional.

 

[king3pj]

Hasn't WMC been dropped from Windows? Any EOL published?

But yeah, I've had good luck with it.




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Not that I know of. I know some people were upset that it wasn't included in the basic version of Windows 8 but it's still available with Windows 8 Pro. I just helped a friend setup a HTPC a couple weeks ago. He had the base version of Windows 8 and we had to pay the $100 professional upgrade fee to get him WMC. Windows 7 had it built into the home version.

 

[navychop]

It may have been cheaper to put him on W7.


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[comfortably_numb]

for sure. there will probably be some on craigslists trying to make big $, too. that ebayer is delusional.

They only go up from there. The next cheapest auction was for 475

 

[king3pj]

It may have been cheaper to put him on W7.


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I'm sure it would have if we went with Windows 7 from the start. He already had the PC running Windows 8 though. I think it would to cost us about $100 to go to Windows 7 home or $100 to upgrade to Windows 8 pro. We decided just to go with the Windows 8 Pro upgrade instead of doing a fresh install of Windows 7 home.

 

[empiretc]

They only go up from there. The next cheapest auction was for 475

no......

 

[osu1991]

Hasn't WMC been dropped from Windows? Any EOL published?

But yeah, I've had good luck with it.
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It is an addon in Windows 8, you have to upgrade to 8 Pro to get WMC.

I just installed K Lite 10 codec pack to get the drivers Microsoft omits without WMC and installed NextPvr and used a guide plugin (which took a little detective work to make it work) that now gives my 14 days of guide listings. I have 2 HDHomerun Duals on the network and the NextPvr runs on the Win8.1 desktop. I have it record a .ts file to a network shared folder and then anything on the network can access the recordings. The other devices just use the HDHomerun Tuner software to access the tuners for live tv. I could have also used WMC in my Win 7 laptop too.

This along with my Paldvrs give me plenty of options for viewing and recording local OTA. My wdtv live and live hubs can access the network shared folder and play the .ts files and give me access to Hulu+, Netflix, VUDU, MLB etc.. and play my own media files off my NAS. Sports (college football and nascar) are the only things that keep me with Dish. The programming on cable channels has gotten to the point of being so much junk and repeats that I really have no interest in it anymore.

 

[navychop]

Anyone hear of a Linux DVR program?



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