[Transcend]

WOOO - Tivo just officially announced that they will support Canadian customers now with full information.

They won't however ship a box to Canada...weird. I will be ordering one to my Vermont address tommorow. :love:

 

[dfinn]

great. You get to pay subscription fees and deal with their DRM and broadcast flag crap. I just built my own "freevo" and I would recommend doing that. Got a spare computer around? Like to "tinker"?

 

[Transcend]

I already have a media server, thanks. I am sick and tired of dealing with ****ty hardware, ****ty configurations, and ****ty hardware.

I miss my tivo.

 

[MMike]

I hear that we're going to be legalizing staplers pretty soon too!

 

[zahgurim]

I hear that we're going to be legalizing staplers pretty soon too!

Pfft, sure.
Then we'll have to deal with mandatory registration, and have to complete a Stapler Aquisition Certificate course to buy staples for it.

You: "I need some staples."
Staplesalesman: "Show me your Sac."

Of course, the government would screw up and be retardedly overbudget trying to convince everyone to register their staplers, and half the people in the country wouldn't register because they believe they have a right to bear staplers without any hindrance from the government.

 

[Ridemonkey]

I just use Rogers Digital Cable with PVR. AWESOME! I could never go back to regular cable.

 

[dfinn]

I already have a media server, thanks. I am sick and tired of dealing with ****ty hardware, ****ty configurations, and ****ty hardware.

I miss my tivo.

what's your current setup? It doesn't really take top of the line hardware or expensive software to put together a decent system.

 

[Transcend]

what's your current setup? It doesn't really take top of the line hardware or expensive software to put together a decent system.

An athlon 1800+, 756mb of ram, windows xp, happauge tv card etc.

It will not consistently record and encrypt shows, the software suite i was using wasn't properly supported (open source), it broke many times, it was too difficult to setup and maintain..etc etc.

Basically a huge pain in the ass I didnt need. Plug in a tivo box and go.

The only thing i am worried about is that i KNOW it will not work with my digital cable, as my provider (videotron) requires you use their silly decoder boxes (same reason i barely use my own media server for input).

So I may be back to either plain old cable, or buying thier $600+ pvr. I can get a tivo + 1 years service for way way under that. Think about $200.

 

[dfinn]

what were you using, gbpvr? have you considered a commercial product that is better supported and devloped? i'm using BeyondTV and so far I'm very happy with it.

 

[Transcend]

I am using meedio.

If I drop any money, I will go buy a tivo for $49 and have no hassles with hardware, software etc.

 

[dfinn]

ok, enjoy your tivo. i've heard nothing but bad things about meedio, aside from how it "looks". not trying to convert you or change your mind because it sounds like you are pretty well decided but both BeyondTV and SageTV offer long trail periods at no cost. I bet you would be happier with either of those than you are with meedio.

 

[Transcend]

I am sure I would be happier, as meedio is a flaming dog turd, no question about that.

The problem is to record properly with beyond tv for example, I need a new PVR card (as beyond tv support only on card compression). This alone will cost 3 times more what a tivo would + the software. Then I have to deal with the headaches of setting it up, a noisy server tower in the closet etc etc.

As it is i have 3 almost new PCs that I never use, as I now favour my powerbook. I don't really want to be spending more on pc hardware if I don't have to.

 

[dfinn]

you said you have a hauppauge tv tuner card. unless it's a really old hauppague card then it should be supported. you know what model it is?

let's assume it's not supported. you can find new hauppauge hardware encoding cards for under $100. i guess it would cost more than a tivo...initially. don't forget about that $13 (in the US, not sure what CA has to pay) monthly fee.

so you have 3 almost new PCs you never use? perfect, take one of them and turn it into a media center. but not sure why you would have to do that when you already said above that you have a system set aside for your media center. the specs on the system you mentioned above sound just fine, I'm running it on a P3 1ghz w/256MB of RAM. not high end by any means.

 

[Transcend]

I just don't feel like investing in more pc hardware, that may or may not work, and I still have to maintain. The lack of needing to do anything to a Tivo is almost worth the $13 a month on it's own.

 

[Brian HCM#1]

I've had TIVO for about 4 years now, and all I can say is it kicks ass!!!!!!

 

[dfinn]

damn, hope you bought the lifetime subscription

 

[Transcend]

I've had TIVO for about 4 years now, and all I can say is it kicks ass!!!!!!

lifetime is where its at for $160

 

[Transcend]

damn, hope you bought the lifetime subscription

So do you have the a lifetime subscription to your internet, cable, telephone, cell phone, car insurance?

Some things are worth paying for.

 

[Brian HCM#1]

lifetime is where its at for $160

Thats way cheap

 

[dfinn]

So do you have the a lifetime subscription to your internet, cable, telephone, cell phone, car insurance?

Some things are worth paying for.

trust me, if there were cheaper and better (in my opinion anyways) options for my internet, cable, telephone, cell phone and car insurance I would be going that route. Unfortunately for those I do not have a choice, unless you know something I don't.

edit: and where are you getting that lifetime subscription fee from? I just checked the tivo site and it's $300.

edit again: and if you read the fine print that "lifetime" subscription is tied to the hardware. So if something happens and you have to or want to upgrade, that "lifetime" subscription cannot be transfered.

 

[Brian HCM#1]

trust me, if there were cheaper and better (in my opinion anyways) options for my internet, cable, telephone, cell phone and car insurance I would be going that route. Unfortunately for those I do not have a choice, unless you know something I don't.

edit: and where are you getting that lifetime subscription fee from? I just checked the tivo site and it's $300.

edit again: and if you read the fine print that "lifetime" subscription is tied to the hardware. So if something happens and you have to or want to upgrade, that "lifetime" subscription cannot be transfered.

I may switch to lifetime $300 is not bad.

 

[Transcend]

I got lifetime when I was in Colorado. We got my roommate a Tivo for xmas, and the lifetime was $160. Didn't they just recently put the price up on the monthly fees too?

As it is, tivo lifetime + box still is less then the PVR alone from my crappy cable company.

 

[Spunger]

We got Tivo this year as my girlfriend "had to have it". I bought the 140hr one beacuse if you like to record any sports games it eats up the space big time. The lifetime membership was $175. I got it off Ebay and everything has worked fine since.

It's so nice to not miss any TV shows. Plus we got it hooked up wireless so you can transfer shows to your computer or laptop (so if you travel alot you have something to watch). Bewarned though, an hour long show at 3 out of 4 quality is 1.6GB.