Im close to cutting the cord, would like some advice

[gadgtfreek]

I record a bunch of crap, mainly because it's there and I have two DVR's. Most of the stuff I care about is off locals, and a few select national HD channels.

I have a TiVo Premier (on antenna), so I can record locals (except Fox) or download them as top notch 1080p/24 files from Amazon VOD.

I like Amazon, because the PQ is top notch. I now see that Hulu Plus us on the Premier, which would handle NBC for me. My missing link would be CBS, but I wonder if they arent HD on Apple TV? If not Antenna is always there

I also like Starz and HBO, Starz I can get in HD off Netflix, so Im wondering about HBO. Is it in HD off Apple Tv? If not, I can use Netflix discs for HBO original series.

Im thinking with a TiVo Premier and Apple TV, im set. Of course I miss sports, but I can go to Buffalo Wild Wings or Hooters for that.

 

[mike123abc]

I came close to dropping pay TV last year. I can pretty much get everything via OTA or amazon VOD. I did Dish annual with HBO instead. I dropped all the movies but HBO, but ended up with free platinum and Starz for a year. I really like HBOGO. That feature more than anything will probably keep HBO renewed. I use the logitech review for the HBOGO and to stream my epix content (and my iphone).

Buying series off of amazon VOD is surprisingly affordable. Yes it is $3/episode ($1 for OTA type) HD, but if you save $10-$20/month on your bill just because of 1 or 2 shows, buying all the episodes is cheaper. Especially since a season on cable is like 13 episodes. If you can drop all your pay TV for VOD you can buy a lot of episodes.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Thats where I'm at, just needed espn and this package allowed it. Ice been toting with amazon Vod for awhile, but now I'm getting serious. Will buy all tv passes and set them to download to the TiVo weekly when they are ready.

 

[mike123abc]

I had 4 passes this season set to auto download. It is not a big deal to wait until the next day to see the show. They usually come through in the morning.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Shoot, We stay about 3 weeks behind, so waiting a day is not an issue for me

 

[jayn_j]

I am following this with interest as I am in a similar quandry. However, I have several months left on a TWC contract, so probably won't curt until it is over.

Woot has the TIVO Premiere listed today for $69, but the monthly rate is the newer $20/1 yr and the lifetime is listed at $500. I need to look what I could get with the multi discount.

 

[gadgtfreek]

I like the premier XL so far. I had a couple of buggy issues with the HD interface, and since it did not matter to me, I put it back to the SD mode. Man it's fast, it's everything my HD XL was, but faster, I like it. It's hard to stress how good the Amazon 1080p/24 PQ is for the downloaded files, it's what I wish Directv and Dish programming actually looked like.

As stated, Im not moving to save money, just more bang for my buck.

 

[jayn_j]

I bought the Premiere on a woot deal last August for $70 and $12/mo. Regret not buying lifetime right away. I have since replaced the Hard Drive with a 2 TB WD unit, so I have more capacity than an XL at less cost. I use my Harmony remote so the fancy one wasn't much incentive. The THX cert would have been nice, but not really sure if it is real, or just a piece of paper.

 

[gadgtfreek]

It is real, but what it adds is debatable. The audio and video have to meet certain requirements, but they prob do that anyways. I love the smaller size too, nice unit.

One slot will be TiVo and Blu-ray player, other slot will be 211k and WD My Book AV

I figure the 211k might not generate as much heat as say the HR24, so I may put the BR player with it and give the TiVo a little more air. It runs about 43c right now.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Another issue is file size and bandwidth caps. My ATT non U-verse DSL is a capping to 150gigs. At 1.7 gigs for each Amazon HD tv episode, could be problematic.

 

[satjay]

Stupid question here, but does a TIVO premier work with Directv or are you guys just using it as a seperate unit

 

[gadgtfreek]

Seperate. It will work with Cable Co's and OTA, as well as all the streaming services it does. Im swapping to Dish because they have a super cheap plan with ESPN 1/2, Discovery and TLC (Disc and TLC offer Amazon VOD epi's but they are SD only). Im getting a ViP 211 which is a HD only rcvr, but I can convert it to a DVR with an EHD and a one time fee. Got this hint from some folks here, and thats super cool too.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Have watched a couple of Amazon 1080p/24 movie downloads on the TiVo (not streaming, it actually downloads the whole file like it does with a TV episode), and I think they look pretty damn good. They are encoded at 1080p/24 5mbps (probably the same thing that Directv Cinema uses) with 5.1 surround, and use about 4.8 gigs of space for a 120 min movie.

I may use this service for all my non 3D Blu movie watching, 3D discs I still have to buy of course.

 

[yaz96]

Have watched a couple of Amazon 1080p/24 movie downloads on the TiVo (not streaming, it actually downloads the whole file like it does with a TV episode), and I think they look pretty damn good. They are encoded at 1080p/24 5mbps (probably the same thing that Directv Cinema uses) with 5.1 surround, and use about 4.8 gigs of space for a 120 min movie.

I may use this service for all my non 3D Blu movie watching, 3D discs I still have to buy of course.

How much are those from Amazon?

 

[gadgtfreek]

They are $4.99 for HD. Def not cost effective when you measure against Netflix/BB. I watched another one yesterday, and saw some issues with compression in a few spots, so it's in no way a Blu replacement for me, but I deem it a very good rainy day solution if they have something you want to see.