Replacing Tivo's Suggestions

[pete_c]

Its become time to replace the Tivo's. Both old. One is a lifetime SA Tivo and the other is a Direct Tivo.

We have Direct TV, Cable and an OTA antenna.

I'm looking for something to satisfy the wife; easy to use; similiar to the Tivo.

I don't watch regular TV; nor record any TV; its just for my wife.

Today I have a NMT which works with TVersity and PlayOn TV. Wife doesn't utilize these.

I also have a W7 Media Center PC. Wife doesn't utilize this box.

Any suggestions?

 

[Monk]

Stay w/Tivo for continued WAF - or at least get a strong buy-in on the "replacements". We have a couple of the newer ones (HD w/ dual tuners) and they work great.

 

[pete_c]

Are the ones you have Tivo's for cable or satellite?

 

[Monk]

For cable. We record a lot of TV and sometimes get 4 things recrding @ once.

 

[js19707]

Our Tivo HD w/ Cablecard and lifetime service finally bit the dust a couple of weeks ago, so I took that opportunity to transition us to a Windows 7 MC HTPC w/ Ceton infinitv cablecard tuner.

For the wife, the big selling point for Windows MC is actually the Pictures screensaver: we have it pointed to a NAS containing the last year or so of photos we've taken, including plenty of shots of my 9 month old son. While we've looked at many of these pictures soon after they were taken, the random selection of pictures has been great for bringing back lots of memories. Actually, it's that, and the ability to sort recordings by the original air date (which I don't think we had or figured out how to use w/ the TiVo).

The Ceton tuner itself (4 streams w/ a multistream cablecard) has been working great. I do notice some minor pixellation that wasn't present with the TiVo but the machine has a lot more CPU and RAM than the Tivo did so it really shows when creating and editing the equivalent of "Season Passes".

The only big thing that we've given up AFAICT is the TiVo remote itself; we're using our iPad and iPhones to control WMC, using an app called "Remote Kitten". I was in a hurry to get some basic control solution in place (my HTPC case didn't support an IR remote), and this fit the bill. Definitely worth the couple of bucks for the paid version.

After some brief adjustment to the UI and IMHO slightly clunky usability, we're mostly at home w/ WMC and it is working really well. We're still using the HTPC even though I got the Tivo back up w/ a replacement HD a week ago. Now I'll have to look into a case that's got better ventilation and lower fan noise, and figure out a better remote solution.

 

[pete_c]

Thanks guys. I currently have an MCE W7 set up with one tuner. I have tried getting wife to use it; but no luck; so its mostly off.

She is very much used to her Tivo's; GUI, etc. She records "stuff" all day long and typically watches her recordings and not any live TV at night sometimes or during the weekends. It'll be an upgrade just for her Tivo; as I don't record any TV.

She likes to cook and I have two LCDs in the kitchen and one in the laundry room set up such that she can watch whatever has been recorded with her Tivo's. This past summer enabled a weather system alert configuration with the HA server such that she would hear it; because she didn't noticed the siren sounding during a couple of tornado warnings this past summer. The siren is sitting at the edge of our 100 home subdivision.

 

[electron]

The new TiVo Premiere Elite is pretty nice, and supports playing back recordings from other TiVo's. Comes with 1 CableCARD tuner, supporting up to 4 streams. Pics/Video from CEDIA can be found here.

 

[pete_c]

Thanks Dan. Very nice video presentation.

 

[pete_c]

I'm recording one of the wife's shows in HD today using MCE and comparing it to the same show recorded with the Tivo today. Not sure really if the differences will be noticed; as content is higher up on the list than anything else.

 

[pete_c]

It was the content versus the picture relating to the recording. Sounds like most folks are pretty happy with the Tivo that uses the cable cards. Direct Tivo never did the deal with Tivo and I've read that their DVR really is somewhat lacking compared to the Tivo OS.

 

[pete_c]

Personally looks to be the Tivo connected to Cable.

The UI / HW / flexibility even better than the Direct TV DVR or Cable DVR right now makes it the choice over the Direct TV DVR or Cable DVR.

My wife is the only one that uses the Tivo and could care less whether its HD or SD though.

 

[pete_c]

Found out that we are getting FIOS in our subdivision. I may consider moving from CC to FIOS for both internet / TV and may get rid of Direct TV; not sure yet. My wife's only concern with any switching was the Direct Tivo / TV channel number order.