technology makes converts of us all

[aruan]

Brighthouse sucks in its cable packaging, and so it seems I'm finally moving into the 21st century as a TiVo subscriber. I hear it's delightfully idiot-proof and ingenious.

However:

I'm to understand that if you're not recording in High quality, you may as well not record at all, which reduces the amount of space on the hard drive to a little over a third.

Do I need it to be able to write DVDs? What do you make DVDs of? It'd be one thing if I could, say, record a certain SNL skit or Conan monologue, but it's an all-or-nothing system. I could record only certain episodes of shows like Law & Order that are hit-and-miss, but I don't subscribe to premium channels and therefore won't record movies with commercials. I have a lot of videotapes that need to be converted to DVDs, but I can just by one of those conjoined consoles for that.

Thoughts? Experiences? Is TiVo really all that? What size unit should I buy? I hear the remotes are oftenish faulty and that the units can be defective, which Humax likes to replace with refurbished models even though you paid for a new one.

Comments

[beatpropx.livejournal.com]

I hardly ever bother with recording at the highest setting ('Extreme') and instead go with 'High' unless I've got a yearning for a pristine video rip for some fannish thing. I rarely burn things to dvd that I keep long term. Sometimes, if there is a show I want to watch in a non-weekly format I will burn eps off to make a temporary box set for myself when it finishes, but that's rare. Sometimes a movie that I particularly enjoy gets burned, but most of the time, I'd really just rather buy it and get extra features.

So yeah, my dvd burner gets mostly used for burning things to mail/share with others and to rip fannish crap.

[gjstruthseeker.livejournal.com]

See, this technology would've been great when I was, as you noted, grabbing random pop footage from everywhere and all the time. That's most of my video tapes right there. But you're right about movies and shows - if I'm bothering to watch, I'm likely buying it for the extras. Hm. There's the fact that I'm not compelled to clutch all Law&Order and South Park episodoes, among a couple of others, to my bosom though. Argh! At some point, there really is such a thing as too much technology, if only because of the options. Thanks for your input.

[chenin.livejournal.com]

I love my TiVo and I've had a series 1 version for about 3 or 4 years now. At that point I think the biggest capacity one they offered was 40 hours, but now they have much larger ones straight from the factory. I actually ended up hacking mine though, and put in a second hard drive so I have about 160 basic hours down to 45 hours for best. I generally just leave it at high, but never really had an issues with medium either except for some pixalation on fast moving videos or sports once in a while. Since I have a separate dvd player/burning I can just route a second output straight into that, but I think some people enjoy the all-in-one version available.

I've never had a problem with my remote, well except after the 10,000 fall the case finally cracked open. It still works even after all that so I have no complaints. Depending on what you want www.weaknees.com may have something you like. They offer pre-hacked TiVos as well and plain hard drives if you'd rather do it yourself.

[gjstruthseeker.livejournal.com]

The same box for three years? Because that means the lifetime subscription is worth it. Thoughts in that way? And yes, that's the other question, should I bother with the TiVo box that burns if I'm in need of a real DVD burner to convert my tapes and otherwise play DVDs. Hm. That probably answers that question.

Whoa, that site is awesome. Many thanks for the tips.