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banditws6
Shrinking Time and Distance
join:2001-08-18
Naples, FL
 ·Comcast
1 edit | reply to balazone
Re: TiVo vs. DVR
Basically, the difference is in ease-of-use and flexibility of the user interface. Scientific Atlanta DVRs are especially bad; the Motorola boxes have software that at least looks good. SA can't even do that.
With my TiVo, I can instruct the DVR to watch for a show of my choosing, either by title, subject, actor, etc., and have it recorded whenever the DVR sees it -- even if that show is not on the grid anywhere in the next two weeks. My Comcast DVR cannot do that. If I want to make sure a show gets recorded, if that show is not on my grid, I can't do it. If I know a new show is gonna begin airing on September 25th, say, I have to remember come back to the DVR within 10 days of that date and set up the program.
If you like, TiVo can also record "suggestions" of shows it thinks you will enjoy, based on what you've told it to record. I not only use this to discover "new shows," but also to catch stuff I already enjoy that I didn't know was going to be on. Suggestions are automatically deleted as needed to make sure the programs you set up yourself always have room to be recorded. I really like this feature. Some TiVo users leave Suggestions turned off.
The TiVo's handling of season passes, recorded programs and other stuff is just much more intuitive and functional. On my Comcast DVR, if I have a season pass to a show, I can't cancel recording just one episode. It can only cancel the whole season pass, which I then have to re-add again. The TiVo will let you cancel recording individual shows without affecting the overall season pass preferences.
I could go on.
One crappy thing about my old SD TiVo is that, since it translates analog video to digital, it has to employ its own compression scheme which is pretty ugly and inefficient. I doubt this is a problem on the new HD TiVos.
Edit: D'oh, too slow. NGOwner beat me to it and also has additional good points. I agree about the Lifetime Service; I have it on my TiVo and wish TiVo still offered it. It's a major discouragement to me from buying a new TiVo HD... | |
Ahrenl
join:2004-10-26
North Andover, MA
 ·Verizon FIOS
| I'm not sure about the SA boxes, but it sounds like the Motorola boxes are a little better than the SA's.
They (Tivo and Mot guide) do both get their data from the same place, and you can search by title etc. You CAN cancel individual series recordings, but there is no equivalent functionality to "suggestions". I DEFINITELY like the Tivo interface better (although I haven't used it in a LONG time), the mot interface has at least gotten more responsive.
Some of those TIVO things in NGOwner's post look REALLY exciting. Especially the display of content from computer networks. Maybe I could finally decomssion my HTPC, or just set it up as a storage server.  | |
banditws6
Shrinking Time and Distance
join:2001-08-18
Naples, FL
·Comcast
1 edit | said by Ahrenl  :I'm not sure about the SA boxes, but it sounds like the Motorola boxes are a little better than the SA's. Yes, they tend to be -- at least, the guide software that's supported on the Motorolas is better in most markets. My dad has a cable co. DVR in a Motorola area, and can search by title -- although he says that search still only covers shows that are on the grid, i.e., going to air within the next 10 days or so.
On my SA box, I can't even do that. It's either the [ugly] grid or a huge alphabetical list of every show, on every channel, for the next 10 days. Not only is that alpha list unmanageable, I've also discovered that it frequently does not contain the same data as the data in the grid! (I saw a movie on the grid view that simply did not show up in the alpha list.)
said by Ahrenl :Some of those TIVO things in NGOwner's post look REALLY exciting. Especially the display of content from computer networks. Maybe I could finally decomssion my HTPC, or just set it up as a storage server. I like the new broadband and network-friendly stuff TiVo has been adding. You can subscribe to broadband mini-shows and webisodes, and they transparently download to your TiVo and show up in the list like a regular TV program.
I also like the fact that I can access my TiVo through my Web browser, download shows to my computer and then convert them to standard MPEG using a little command line utility. The only problem is, that's when TiVo's admittedly poor compression rears its head, as the file sizes are huge given the quality you're seeing.
Also, I should point out that this command-line utility is not exactly supported. 
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"I'll follow the law until it's just stupid." -Ted Nugent | |
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