[MacDV] DVRs

[John Mistretta]

On Apr 29, 2005, at 12:18 PM, GD2 wrote:

> Speaking of this Sony, I've been looking for a hard disk-based DVR to 
> take
> the place of a programmable VHS recorder for TV and aux. sources, but I
> haven't been having a  whole lot of luck finding such machines. 
> ReplayTV and
> Tivo fit the bill, but they seem to be subscription-based or nothing.
>
> Reading Patty's post, the DVD recorder would definitely be nice. I also
> wouldn't mind something "hackable" so I can install a larger hard 
> drive down
> the road, but that "feature" is of least importance.
>
> Does any one here have experience in this area? Opinions, reviews, 
> websites,
> etc. would all be helpful for one or both types of devices.

I'm a long time Replay owner and think highly of them, I've also 
recently gotten an EyeTV 200 which I like a lot as well. The long and 
short of what I can advise is that the DVR concept hasn't been nailed 
down satisfactorily by anyone yet and until Apple does one, it probably 
won't be. With that in mind, the solution you're after will probably 
not be exactly what you want and may well be superceded by something 
better in a year or two. Also keep in mind that, if I'm not mistaken, 
after July anti-piracy tags will be in place and embedded in recorders 
that will prohibit you from making copies of TV content.

The problem lies mainly in the channel guide as well as the content 
providers animosity to consumer friendly features that skip over 
advertising and allow for flawless copies of content. Until this 
conflict is worked out what we have available in the way of DVR's will 
be far short of what they're capable of.

The subscription-based solutions I think are still the best. Tivo and 
Replay are pricing their boxes at barely cost, so the couple hundred it 
costs to buy the program guide seems steep until you realize that their 
programing guides are so well integrated with the functionality of a 
DVR that it really is worth the money. The Replay beats the EyeTV by a 
wide margin when it comes to viewing what's on TV and programing the 
DVR to record. However, EyeTV beats out Replay in it's ease of use of 
editing and transferring what you've recorded to DVD.

Stand alone DVR's all suffer from their lack of channel guides, leaving 
you to treat them as a mere substitute for a VCR with all it's 
connection glitches, compromises and workarounds.

Until Apple get's it sh*t together and puts together the components 
they already have in place to make an iVideo website/iDVR box analogous 
to it's iTunes/iPod system, I'd recommend the Replay over the Tivo. 
Tivo's are getting aggressively hostile putting advertisements in your 
face, something the Replay simply doesn't do. The Replays can be 
upgraded easily with larger drives, and certain models can be networked 
via ethernet to your computer to offload programing you've taped. They 
also have an active hacker community to ease the pain should the boxes 
ever become unsupported.