Just got a DVR! (Digital Video Recorder)

[fulloflead]

This is definately one of those things that, once you get it, you're like, "Why the @!#% didn't I get this sooner!"

:thumbup:

This is definately the wave of the future. EVERYONE should be watching TV like this.

I love it because my G.F. won't shut up during the news, and now I can just rewind and see what I missed.

My only regret is that it only holds something like 40 hours of recorded TV. What I think I need is something like 400 hours so, on those sleepless nights, I can get up and watch Animal Planet shows until my heart's content.

No more: "It's on at the same time as this other show - I guess we can catch it in reruns" Nope. I can record it while I watch the other and watch it whenever I want.

I love the "record this series" feature. The Daily Show is on too late - now I won't miss it.


I felt the same way when I got my DVD player...
then my surround sound...

I wonder what's next.

Next, I want to be able to download about 50 gigs worth of TV to a DVD recorder and have it just burn a DVD of every episode of Desperate Housewives ( ) at the end of the season in the background while I'm rewinding the sex scenes in ROME where Cleopatra gets... well, this isn't whine and cheese, but you get the idea.

I'm actually not much of a couch potato, which is why I need it; I don't feel like watching TV when the stuff is ON, but when I FEEL like watching TV it's all home-improvement and golf.

Watch, for Christmas, they'll have them that'll hold 10,000 hours worth of TV and I'll trade this one for a used Cold Steel knife.

.

 

[mad cow]

It is great for the reasons you mention but also for "Live" TV.
I like football,as soon as a game starts,I hit pause and take a shower,do a load of laundry,whatever.
Then I fast forward through all the commercials,if I get close to caught up,pause again and maybe pay the light bill or something.
There is a handy little bar graph when fast forwarding that tells you how backed up you still are.Also pausing for phone calls,pizza deliveries....
And your own instant replay,slow motion and frame by frame on plays of your choice,can't imagine TV sports without it.

 

[Ken C.]

How nice. OFF TO GADGETS & GEAR!!! Geez, you should know better than to post this in Community.

 

[Point44]

Your life as you know it will change.
We got Sky+ almost a year ago and we've been watching TV like crazy. The series link feature is great. Just record everything. Never miss an episode. I never like to watch a show now at its given time. So at most we wait 15 minutes and do other stuff then that way once we watch we can forward through the ads.

At first i thought 20 hours of recording should be fine. But right now the drive is filling up. Like you i love watching documentaries but the good ones are always at weird times so it's great to be able to record it and watch another time.

There's one disadvantage though, as my wife has discovered. She gets annoyed that i keep rewinding stuff for even a few words i missed. That rewind is addictive.

Best money spent in quite awhile. When my mom comes to visit here from Malaysia she records all the home improvement shows. She says she wants to write to the satellite company in Malaysia to provide it. She says she'll be the first in line to get it when it comes out.

 

[fulloflead]

How nice. OFF TO GADGETS & GEAR!!! Geez, you should know better than to post this in Community.

Oh, keep your panties on! At least I didn't post it in the knife discussion...
He-he. [sheepishly] I gotta make sure you Mods earn your pay.
I'll learn my way around this danged forum someday.

Now if I only had an rewind button...

Where were we? Oh yeah:

There's one disadvantage though, as my wife has discovered. She gets annoyed that i keep rewinding stuff for even a few words i missed. That rewind is addictive.

Yeah, I'm a little hard of hearing myself. (Huh?) So, I'll be using that too. I do it with DVDs. Drives her NUTS!

.

 

[shootist16]

I am in the market for one. What brand and model did you get? What should I look for in one?

 

[jeeperaz]

DVR is the greatest invention ever!



Personally, I like Tivo. It might be 5 bucks or so more expensive than some of the others but it's features make up for the price. I've tried other forms of DVR but always end up back to Tivo.

 

[fulloflead]

I am in the market for one. What brand and model did you get? What should I look for in one?

Mine is just the Comcast cable one, but TiVo has a bigtime rebate deal right now. I heard that they end up being $50 after the $150 rebate. You might have to buy it from a certain place though.

I think my Comcast DVR is only costing us something like an additional $10/month.

.

 

[donovan]

I agree that the Tivo features make it worth the extra 5 bucks a month. You'll also discover that the 40 hour memory is really only 20 hours when recording with the highest resolution.

Jack

 

[Mike G]

Mine is intergrated into my Dish Network receiver.

It is definately better than VCR tape, and damn convenient.

 

[Copaup]

Forget pennicillin and the wheel. THIS is the greatest invention in the history of mankind. I have been reduced to a slave in front of the box. I for one welcome our new Robot overlords.

Of course now my wife and I can fight over multiple shows at the same time. Maybe I could get multiple DVR setups...

 

[fulloflead]

Of course now my wife and I can fight over multiple shows at the same time.

It's funny you should mention that.

Maybe I could get multiple DVR setups...

[Drool.]
Yeah, baby, let's make it COMPLICATED! Before long, I won't be able to focus my attention long enough to tie my shoes.

What? Who said that? Let's go ride bikes. Hey, have you ever seen that movie where... mmmm I feel like popcorn. I once ate a firefly and it gave me a bellyache. Have you ever taken a shower in your underware? I once saw a chicken nugget shaped like abe lincoln...

.

 

[DaveH]

haha, they're keeping a list of all the shows you watch.... Pretty soon you'll be getting snail mail offering you special deals on "Desparate Housewives Handbags" and such. Plus they'll notify telemarkets 10 minutes after you sit down to watch something.

 

[mschwoeb]

I dont know why they are still "hiding" these by really only selling/providing them with cable/satallite services. There would replace DVD players in my view. Dont you have to subsribe for the Tivo ones? And if they would just start selling them everywhere, they would soon have greater memory size in them.

But untill then, couldn't you just hook up another hard drive to it somehow? I know there used to be a Tivo hack that you could do that and double your recording time.

 

[fulloflead]

haha, they're keeping a list of all the shows you watch.... Pretty soon you'll be getting snail mail offering you special deals on "Desparate Housewives Handbags" and such. Plus they'll notify telemarkets 10 minutes after you sit down to watch something.

Maybe. We'll see.

.

 

[fulloflead]

I dont know why they are still "hiding" these by really only selling/providing them with cable/satallite services. There would replace DVD players in my view. Dont you have to subsribe for the Tivo ones? And if they would just start selling them everywhere, they would soon have greater memory size in them.

But untill then, couldn't you just hook up another hard drive to it somehow? I know there used to be a Tivo hack that you could do that and double your recording time.

TiVo owns the patent. There was an article about this (Slate Magazine I think) a while back about how they originally thought they'd make a fortune off of them, but when they didn't, they got smart and started selling "rights" to cable companies who pay them a royalty to use the technology. You'll probably be seeing them on endcaps at Target about the time their patent runs out.

 

[mschwoeb]

So what is the deal with the Media Center pc's out there by Dell, HP and others then? They have the same capabilites as the Tivos essentially.

 

[fulloflead]

So what is the deal with the Media Center pc's out there by Dell, HP and others then? They have the same capabilites as the Tivos essentially.

Beats me.

.

 

[mschwoeb]

Just wishing and hoping, I dont want to wait around a decade messing with DVD, then HD-DVD while we have great technology like this.

 

[Temper]

I read an interesting article about a year ago regarding this, free TV shows and Advertising. Basically if TiVo and their ilk gain too much popularity then the advertisers are going to stop using TV as a medium for hawking their wares. TV shows will then become extrememly expensive, quality will undoubtedly drop and shows will all be on PPV. I'm not saying its not a cool invention, it is, but there is no such thing as a free lunch.