Need some Tivo advice

[chainmaile]

I'm looking to get a PVR, Tivo or some other system, and need some advice. I don't want to have to pay the monthly fee to Tivo, so I'm planning on manaully setting recording times, unless there in some other legal way (alternate servers, etc

Comments

[bafmodads]

Not to be an ass... but...

are you really too cheap to pay 12 bucks a month for Tivo to update your shows and record stuff for you? If you're going to spend the money on the box, then what's the big deal with spending the money on the service? 12 bucks a month is a bargain.

Given what you want to do, maybe buying a standalone DVR isn't the best choice, since it looks like most of your needs deal with ripping and burning TV shows. I'd suggest that you set up one of infamous PC DVR setups (check Slashdot... there are tons of posts relating to stuff like MythTV, etc) that so many people use, but the cost in hardware to do everything you want adequitely would probably end up being too much for you, as it will probably cost more than 12 dollars.

As it stands, Tivo has the "home media option" for free with it's service now, which lets you network your audio and pictures through the Tivo. Also, recently they started up the Tivo 2 Go option which lets you take files from your Tivo and put them on your computer. They're DRM'ed of course, but that's to be expected.

[chainmaile]

Thanks for the response. Actually, I'm not too cheap to pay the monthly fee, I just don't like the idea of the reoccuring bill. I'm still thinking of picking up a Tivo with a lifetime subscription for the extra $300. I'm actually ready to finish setting up the HTPC here (I might be picking up 512M of Ram today) but I'm still looking for a tuner card that will allow you to record HDTV from a cable source, versus OTA sources.