Does anyone use tivo?
 

Does anyone use tivo?

I think Phillip has TIVO.

TiVo is the BEST THING EVER. It will change the way you watch TV. It's awesome.

I'd reccomend the DirecTV unit (they have their own model with more features coming soon) because it is dual tuners and can record two shows at the same time. Any questions, ask away. I'm a TiVo preacher.

Well, I have digital cable so I can't get the DirecTV unit. I should be getting mine in the mail tomorrow. But my questions are:

1. Does the television have to be on in order to record a show, like while I'm at work or sleeping?
2. For the 40hr unit, what is the best qulity to use and what are the recording times for each mode?
3. Is yours hacked with an additional HD? I'm planning on doing that myself.
4. Is it easy to transfer the shows from tivo to the computer, or should I back them up from tivo to my vcr in SP mode? I don't have a standalone dvd recorder.

#4 is super voodoo, don't do it. TIVO MPEGs are -NOT- DVD compliant, not the same res or anything else. They are super hard to edit, and nearly impossible to author to DVD. You'd be smart to buy a ILO 04 DVD recorder for $98 from Walmart, and then hack it and use 3-hour mode. Or 2-hour unhacked.

Hack it how?

1. Does the television have to be on in order to record a show, like while I'm at work or sleeping?

Nope. Just like a VCR or whatever.

2. For the 40hr unit, what is the best qulity to use and what are the recording times for each mode?

Don't know this one. The DirecTV unit records the satellite stream, so settings cannot be chnaged. Just experiment and see.

3. Is yours hacked with an additional HD? I'm planning on doing that myself.

My original one was hacked. Added a 2nd hard drive after the warranty expired. Go to http://www.weaknees.com for good priced, pre-formatted upgrade kits.

4. Is it easy to transfer the shows from tivo to the computer, or should I back them up from tivo to my vcr in SP mode? I don't have a standalone dvd recorder.

Do like Smurf said, get a DVD recorder and run S-Video out to it. Perfect quality.

However, I think the bad points that smurf pointed out are applicable only to the DirecTV unit as well. You'd have to investigate more, but I know TiVo now has a service that let's you transfer files to the computer and then to DVD (without hacking). The DirecTV stream is an odd resolution, but I think the cable version would be fine. You could always try and see.

How to hack an ILO (Liteon clone) unit:
http://www.digitalfaq.com/dvdguides/...liteontips.htm

Works on ILO "04" units only. Not the "05" units (those are not liteon's)

I LOVE my TIVO, lol, you might find that 40 hours isn't enough and allabloutduncan is right, it will change the way you watch tv.

I love the concept of the TIVO, just not their implementation. I've built a few SageTV systems for around the house, and you're right - it changes your viewing pattern. Each has a 250gb drive, so I get a couple hundred hours of recording time.

If I were to use the SageTV with digital cable would I need the digital cable box, or could I just connect the cable antenna line straight into the tuner card?

If so, combined with Tivo and the cable line split 3 ways (one for the digital cable box going into tivo and the other two going into the dual tuner capture card) I could record 3 different channels at the same time. Or am I just dreaming?

I get 100 hours on my more advanced DISHNetwork DVR (like a TIVO), plus 35 hours on my original one, plus 35 hours on the hard drive of my DVD recorder. Of course, everything has to go through that one DVD recorder, so there's still the bottleneck there. I am seriously considering going deeper into hock for a new DVR from DISH that allows recording two channels at once to the DVR hard drive. 25 hours HDTV, 100 hours standard. The unit will also down-sample HDTV. So ... tempting, very tempting ...

daMaddColombian,

It all depends on you cable company. The Hauppauge 500 (I think that's the model #) has two coax inputs, so you can definitely plug two cables into it, and record from two different channels at the same time. What I don't know is the how it works with the high-band channels that many digital cable boxes decode/receive.

I know of people currently using 2 and 3 of the PVR-250's in their SageTV systems to recod several channels at once.

But a cable box is not necessary to connect to the tuner card right?

You can connect your coax right to the tuner card. It's just that many cable companies scramble their 'premium' channels, and you won't be able to descramble them without a box.

That's fine, I'm just talking about regular channels like CN & Boomerang.

I love my Tivo!!!! :D

I have the dual dish reciever from dish network. 100 hrs of recording and record 2 things at once..Its pretty cool!
Thankx
Billy