D* or E* for my parents?

[kbohip]

My parent's are finally tired enough of looking at crappy analog (and expensive) cable to consider getting satellite. They have 2 tv's, one HD and one 10 year old tv that my mom uses. My Dad has had Tivo for over 4 years now and worships it. My mom doesn't seem to care to much about it. I've looked into DVR's from both D* and E* and so far D* seems to have the better deal, not to mention the real Tivo that my 72 year old dad could be happy using.

My question is this. Are the D* Tivo's as good as the standalone Tivos? I'm thinking for only $4.95 a month the D* Tivo service is watered down. It especially concerns me that they don't charge anything extra for additional Tivo dvr's. I could just be paranoid because of all the silly fees I'm used to paying with my E* dvr though . To think I'm paying stupid E* $4.98 a month for their dvr "service", plus another $4.98 for each additional dvr. As you might have already guessed I'm probably leaving E* when my contract expires in November.

 

[jsegura]

go w/D*

I don't have a standalone Tivo but have D*Tivo and love it. If I'm missing features, I wouldn't know. As far as HD is concerned, I would give up universal HD in a heartbeat to get TNT-HD that E* offers. But it may be coming soon... hopefully.

 

[dishrich]

Unless your dad is using the HMO features on his standalone, he will actually be thrilled with a D-Tivo, since remember each one has TWO tuners in 1 box. (which the standalone does NOT have, of course) It will almost be like have 2 standalone boxes at 1/4 the monthly price. ($20 f/2 standalones vs $5 for ALL D-Tivo's - no brainer here) On the contrary, if your Dad "worships" his Tivo now, he will NOT be happy with the 2nd rate E* DVR's - GUARANTEE IT!!

 

[LonghornXP]

Now to start I'm a tivo fan but I won't give judgement until I work with a product so take this as info and right now the Tivo is better until this new setup proves otherwise. Now D* will be rolling out around midyear a new multroom home media server that they will lease and here are the benefits. To start because your parents have only one HDTV they will be set with this and after around three months after this systems release if they get another HDTV set D* will have an HD client box out so they would still be covered. Right now this box is from NDS and will have middleware from Ucentric. Here is what it can do below and again how well it does it remains to be seen but I'm hearing from some of my friends who are Tivo people that with a little more bug testing they will have to think very hard about staying with a DTivo if they aren't updated and because I know these people that is something they wouldn't just say if they didn't believe it.

Hardware features. One server can provide upto 3 clients with live TV viewing without live TV control (pause FF RW) but TV control could be added as a software update later. Anything recorded on the server can be playback in all 4 rooms (HMO feature) with full pause, FF and RW control and when I mean anything on the server I mean anything.

The server will have two OTA ATSC tuners built-in. It can record upto 4 live shows at the sametime while also allowing the three other client boxes access to live TV. The server will have either a 350 or 400GB hard drive. This box can record and playback HDTV shows and non HD client boxes can playback HD recorded shows but they will be downconverted of course. Also this box will be offered as a lease along with an option to buy it.

Software side has the following features.
Season pass type option that will record by keyword and can be setup to record all, repeats, repeats and duplicates or new episodes only. I'm hearing it will have a two week program guide with a picture in picture windows showing the current channels video and audio. The guide will be very very fast and will support finding movies and shows by actor, keyword, title, director, whether the show has 5.1 sound, whether its shown in HDTV and all other kinds of things.

Also if your parents are in the top 12 markets listed by D* they will have HD locals around mid year and if they are in the top 35 they will have them very shortly after the first 12 get them if the satellite launch goes well. Also this box will support MPEG4 which will be required to get HD LIL channels and all future new national HD channels.

I've been sent a video of the software interface and right now with a ways to go it works better than any dish and cable DVR I've seen and in some ways is better than Tivo but in others needs work but can if done right beat Tivo. I'm telling everyone from what I've seen if D* does this right their DVR will be better than a Tivo SA box in everyway and I can't believe I'm actually saying this but what I've seen at such an early stage of work is just amazing considering again its an alpha release.

Also towards the end of the year expect to here more specific plans about VOD offerings via spaceway assuming they don't change their mind.

 

[kbohip]

I visited the Tivocommunity forums and now the choice is obvious. I like the fact that the Directivos can still be upgraded with larger hard drives. If it wasn't for this fact, my dad's 4 year old SVR 2000 would have been dead over a year ago. It was great being able to put a 120gb drive in it. Now it's constantly tuned to TCM .

I think I'll just tell him to get one of the 40 hour units. I've already got my eye on a nice $69.95 250gb Hitachi drive from CompUSA.

 

[DTV TiVo Dealer]

If you decide to go with DIRECTV please call us to get the SatelliteGuys forum deal. If you decide on Dish Networks The Dish Store is the recommended dealer.

-Robert

 

[dishrich]

I think I'll just tell him to get one of the 40 hour units.

If you end up with the R10, you get a 70 hours unit standard.