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I agree with MODHATTEr 100%
Magnavox makes a dvr with 500G hard drive.
TIVO also makes one.
I haven't researched them yet, but will probably get one.
I tried the Magnavox, but it is really not what you want. You want your devise to work just like the DVR's that can automatically switch channels to another station to record that show when it comes on and then switch to another station to record a show on yet another network.
If you don't care what it looks like, you can use an existing computer or laptop (but laptop is not ideal long term because of heat issue) Or better yet, there are forums that post building a HTPC (that's what they are called) using a special box (resembling a DRV from the cable company)
Building one will cost you between $450 to $650 depending on how sophisticated you want it to be. If you can't put it together yourself, you can usually find a computer place that can do it for you at a reasonable cost. I found one here in Las Vegas that will do it for you for $59.00. They assembled my son's gaming computer.
It is an investment but it is a good investment, as you can modify it as time goes on when parts go bump in the night as they eventually do as in all computers. But your dealing with generic computer parts, not some proprietary parts by one company that would probably cost more to repair than to buy a new one, and it won't have near the functionality as your own machine. Tivo is good, but you either have to rent the box (expensive) or pay a premium price to buy it outright. Then you have a proprietary piece of equipment that you can't replace components as you need them later on. Plus it won't do what a HTPC will do for you. You can buy one all ready assembled on Ebay, but you will pay way more for it.
Take the time to Google "Best HTPC Build for money", and start reading the forums like Tom's Hardware or the AVS Forum about building them. They even post their configurations with the parts they used and what they paid. Just order the parts they specify, and the appropriate case which they will also post, and bring it to the computer store PC Outlet in Henderson, and they will put it together for you for $59.00
I built a HPTC/Steam box for around $1000 last year and its a pretty good system to game on a big screen monitor or use the DVR functions. I still prefer Roku for internet media streaming due to its low power consumption.
I built a HPTC/Steam box for around $1000 last year and its a pretty good system to game on a big screen monitor or use the DVR functions. I still prefer Roku for internet media streaming due to its low power consumption.
If you want a serious gaming HTPV, than you can spend $1,000 on a HTPC build- and more for that matter, but for the average user who just wants to be able to record 1080 HD shows from their TV or surf the net using their big screen tv, and watch videos on line or go to Netflix or any other subscription service to play movies, etc., you don't need to spend that much money. If your a serious gamer, you need a better board and graphics card and larger fans for cooling, which will bring your costs up.
I haven't looked (as technology changes monthly), but I assume if you have to buy windows 7 for your operating system (Has the nec. Media Player installed) and a dual tuner and a 2 Gig. hard drive, and if you want it to have a Blue Ray player instead of a regular $20 DVD player, and then you would want the Logitech Wireless Keyboard for it to operate from the comfort of your couch.
You will probably be in the $600 category. It all depends on your intended purpose. For me, it was I just wanted something capable of recording HD TV shows, and surfing the net, and playing various videos and Live News shows online, You Tube, Network stations like Comedy Central, Lifetime (movies) Bravo, MSNBC, etc.
When I decided I wanted one, I did not feel confident enough to put one together myself, so I took the easy way out, and purchased a newer refurbished Dell Computer (desktop) with a Sandy Bridge i 13 for $399, then bought a Silicon Dust dual tuner ($100) that you just plug into your TV, and added another
1 GB. hard drive for $79. Computer came with the Windows7 on it, so I was set. Later added the Logitech keyboard shown above. So total cost for me was a little over $600.
If I had known that I could have had one put together for me for only $59, I would not have gone this route. I could have for about the same money (maybe $50 more) had one build using a more appropriate and significantly more attractive DVR type HTPC case. But anyone out there thinking about this can learn from my mistakes, and do it the right way the first time.
We cut the directv cord last year. I got two of the SiliconDust HDHomeRun Dual TV Tuners so I could record up to 4 shows at the same time off the OTA antenna. I just use my desktop computer. Windows 7 has a built in media center with an episode guide. It will do "season passes" or record series for you just like a Tivo or DVR. I have them recorded to an external hard drive attached to my computer. Every week I run the shows through a free program called MCEBuddy (there are several others like it). It takes out the commercials and converts the program to a format my media player can use. That is a little Sony SMP (streaming media player) that sits by the TV. It connects wireless to my computer in my office (thru the router) and I watch TV in the media room. I watch what I want, when I want. I guess that all sounds a little "techie", but it was really easy. It's amazing how simple they are making some of this stuff. The hardest part of the whole thing was finding an antenna position to get the 4 stations.
I think the TV tuners were about $80 each and the Sony media player (WD Live is another one) was about $50. And the antenna was about $7. Paid for themselves in the first 2 months without the Directv bill. Of course, I only get ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox. If you want other shows, I guess you can use Netflix type things.
I agree with MODHATTEr 100%
Magnavox makes a dvr with 500G hard drive.
TIVO also makes one.
I haven't researched them yet, but will probably get one.
No monthly service charge for the Magnavox because there is no service. You record shows by entering date, time etc. like the old VCR's
TIVO is much easier to use like the cable company DVR's but you pay a monthly fee
No monthly service charge for the Magnavox because there is no service. You record shows by entering date, time etc. like the old VCR's
TIVO is much easier to use like the cable company DVR's but you pay a monthly fee
I like my TiVo, but the recurring fees bug me so I'm selling mine.
The Magnavox does have a schedule but in order to record shows, you have to go into a menu and type in the channel, date, time of recording. It is like recording shows on a old VCR except it has a larger hard drive to record on. It is a pain in the butt, but better than nothing I guess. If you have Direct TV (not sure of others like Dish or Cox have same feature) You can go into the TV menu and tell it to turn to the channel and show you want to record, and it will switch to that channel using the TV feature, and then on the Magnavox, you don't have to put in all of that information. I forgot right now how I did it, but it made it much easier to record a show.
If you want to cut the cord though and just record OTA tv shows, there is no way to have your tv switch channels for you, so you have to resort to the old fashioned way stated above. There is no just clicking on the Record button to have it recorded when it comes on, or clicking on Record Series with the Magnavox, or Search feature to help you find shows.
If you want to go on the cheap and you have a not so ancient computer that has decent specs, you can just use that and buy a SiliconDust Home Run TV tuner. Note though that the HomeRun TV tuner needs to be plugged into your router via Ethernet cord, so you need to have this ability to do it this way.
if you go online, you can find videos on YouTube showing you how to hook it up. Then you have to have a sizable hard drive for putting the recorded shows on. It can be an external one. I recommend nothing smaller than a 1 Gig, as those HD shows take up a lot of space.
If you don't have Windows 7 on that computer there are other software you can buy to put on the computer that will run it like a DVR. MediaPortal is one such program, and it is free.
$80-$100 for an external or internal 1 Gig hard drive
$30 for the Logitech keyboard I mentioned in an earlier post.
Total $190
By the way, I have a Magnavox that I'm not using (I think I brought it with me) The DVD tray is stuck and won't pop out, but the recording part of the unit works just fine. Was used very little, as it was at at a vacation home I had, and only used it a couple of seasons for a couple of months. If I brought it with me and anyone is interested in it, I'd sell it for $40. I think I paid $169.00 for it when I bought it. Was going to put it on Craigs list anyway (once I find it and unpack it) But I still recommend the other set up for convenience and versatility.
Last edited by modhatter; 07-27-2013 at 12:38 PM..
No monthly service charge for the Magnavox because there is no service. You record shows by entering date, time etc. like the old VCR's
TIVO is much easier to use like the cable company DVR's but you pay a monthly fee
Quote:
Originally Posted by NLVgal
I like my TiVo, but the recurring fees bug me so I'm selling mine.
If you're going to get a TIVO & commit to it, the best way to do it IMHO is bite the bullet & pay up front for lifetime service. There's 2 benefits to it: (1) Lower monthly cost over time & (2) Resale value if you decide to go a different direction - my previous TIVOs with lifetime pretty much paid for my TIVO HDs.
About 5 years ago I bought TIVO HDs w/lifetime service, which cost me $300 per TIVO. Averaged over 60 months, that's about $5/mo & I'm still using them; the times I've checked w/Cox, it would've cost me $15-20/mo per HD DVR for an inferior DVR. Over time, that's a $600+ difference per DVR & I OWN the TIVO. I upgraded my TIVOs to larger drives (they're basically a custom linux computer inside) so that I have 318 HD hrs of recording & almost 2800 (!) hrs of SD recording. The TIVOs are incredibly reliable & durable - I MAYBE reboot one of them once a month & that's usually to get a software update. I can count on one hand the number of times they've crashed or frozen over the years.
I'll spare everybody the long-winded speech about what makes TIVO so great compared to other options (DM me if you want more details). Basically, the user interface is more intuitive & clean, they're more reliable, expandable & there's extra little perks you don't see with other options. TIVO learns your viewing habits & records 'suggestions' for you when there's space; it's found some wonderful stuff I otherwise would've missed. The bonus is if I decide to change or upgrade, there's a market for TIVOs with lifetime on eBay & elsewhere so I can get most of my money back. If you don't add lifetime service at the start of the subscription typically you can't add it later & people do tire of the monthly fees. TIVO has started to stagnate in terms of innovation, but I still prefer it to the other options. I use my TIVO remote to control my TV & TIVO, as well as doing all the tuning, schedule recordings & season passes (tell it what show to record & it'll find it on any channel).
All that said, I'll probably build a HTPC or two in the near future given that I'm an electronics geek & have lots of spare computer parts around, having built my own computers. Gotta make use of that 3-user family Windows 7 license. Thanks to modhatter, holmgrem & mojavedxer for posting your experiences. It'll motivate me to finally build that custom box I've been meaning to finish.
how do you schedule a recording of a show on tv. is there a magnavox menu that comes up on your tv?
You have to know what date, time, station and enter that information after accessing the menu. You also need to manually enter the show title using the remote. It's a bit of a hassle but you can record to the hard drive or to the DVD recorder. At low resolution you can record hundreds of shows with the 500G hard drive. I purchased it on line from Walmart, they are $258 (just checked their web site)
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