S3 vs. MCE+Xbox360

[Uday]

I have been a hardcore Tivo fan for the past 7+ years. I've had multiple Tivo units so far & have inspired over 20 friends to join the Tivolution. And I was eagerly awaiting the release of Tivo S3.

Now, I'm disappointed with their pricing. Tivo S3+tranfer of the lifetime service will cost me abt $1100 (including taxes). For this price, I can get a media-center PC and a xbox 360 (that I can use as an MCE extender), and get more features than the Tivo S3 (Eg: a gaming device, ability to watch video stream on any website, record web radio, etc, etc).

Would like to hear your thoughts about this before I make a decision. Thanks in advance.

[infinitespecter]

That setup has several benefits and one obvious detriment; You would not be able to watch any encrypted digital cable channels and you would never be able to upgrade to add that ability without replacing the entire PC. If you are ok with that, go with the media center. If you aren't, go with the Series 3.

[bkdtv]

Uday,

That media center PC won't ever support or record DTV/HDTV programs from digital cable. It obviously won't have the usability or reliability of the Tivo Series3.

As far as the $199 lifetime transfer, I wouldn't bother. The lifetime transfer is really meant to improve Series3 resale value on ebay. As an existing lifetime owner, you will never be paying more than $6.95/mo for Series3 service. All the lifetime transfer does is give you a free year of service ($83.40 value), and then you'd be paying $6.95/mo again on the Series2.

If I were you, I would just hold out until October, when we're likely to see the Series3 from the likes of Amazon.com, Buy.com, and Jandr.com for $600-$650. And forget about the lifetime transfer.

[theone]

vista media center edition will record HD if you care about that. I dont know the release date but you can get some info about it on ms site.

[Uday]

I should have stated explicitly in the original post.....the plan under consideration is to use a Vista media center PC.

In any case, I plan to upgrade from WinXP to a new Vista PC; so, the incremental cost for MCE functionality (tuner cards, remote, etc) is pretty low.

(The other question though is whether there'll be a performance degradation on the PC when recording/playing shows --- but this is a question for the MCE community).

[Uday]

That setup has several benefits and one obvious detriment; You would not be able to watch any encrypted digital cable channels and you would never be able to upgrade to add that ability without replacing the entire PC. If you are ok with that, go with the media center. If you aren't, go with the Series 3.

I think Vista supports CableCard technology -- at least based upon my limited research online. If so, this detriment isn't an issue?

[rodalpho]

Yes, it does. But vista isn't coming out for a couple of months, and you'll have to purchase an entire computer, you can't build it yourself, which will be >$1000. After christmas the s3 price will drop with various incentives. The s3 price will be competitive once it has some real competition-- right now it's the only game in town.

[russwong]

Yes, it does. But vista isn't coming out for a couple of months, and you'll have to purchase an entire computer, you can't build it yourself, which will be >$1000. After christmas the s3 price will drop with various incentives. The s3 price will be competitive once it has some real competition-- right now it's the only game in town.

That's in theory. Current MCE is also supposed to be purchased only by a manufacturer, but you are fully able to build your own. Vista you can get on your own, the question is will cablecard readers be available through the OEM channel? I suspect those chinese computer manufacturers will make it possible.

I use current MCE to record HD.

To answer the OPs original question, I think the things you have to ask yourself are:

- Is the Tivo UI worth it for you, or is will MCE be good enough.
* I think the Tivo UI is awesome, but I also feel MCE is good enough.
- Do you need to have media extender capabilities?
* I love being able to view my recorded shows on other TVs via the XBOX360 and now my new plasma, which has built in media capabilities.
- Do you want to be able to transfer shows to other computers?
* I'm going to Chicago this weekend, and I'm going to take a bunch of HD shows to wach on the plane.
- Are you computer literate enough to take care of your computer yourself?
* I can handle my computer myself, if this was for my parents, Tivo all the way.

Just my opinion. I think at this point, I'm going to hold off spending a grand, because not all the features are there. If the price drops down, it might be worth it, just for the UI, we'll see before the VIP offer is over.

[rodalpho]

Cable companies aren't supposed to install cablecards in hardware that isn't on their list. But yeah, that's a real possibility.

[russwong]

Cable companies aren't supposed to install cablecards in hardware that isn't on their list. But yeah, that's a real possibility.

There was a post somewhere on another forum about a guy just going to the cable company and picking up a cable card. So I doubt they care at some places. In the Bay Area, they still require an installer to come out.... but I figure that's just so they can charge you something, because it's just sliding the card in and recording the number....

[vman41]

(The other question though is whether there'll be a performance degradation on the PC when recording/playing shows --- but this is a question for the MCE community).

I record OTA HD on my PC running 2002 MCE. The extender install includes a resource monitor application for the system tray that gives a continuous summary for PC load. Recording and playing (via the Xbox) uses a relatively small fraction of the computer's capacity: < 10% of the CPU, and ~2 mbyte/second of disk I/O.

[megazone]

That's in theory. Current MCE is also supposed to be purchased only by a manufacturer, but you are fully able to build your own. Vista you can get on your own, the question is will cablecard readers be available through the OEM channel? I suspect those chinese computer manufacturers will make it possible.Under the current system that wouldn't be allowed. Cable Labs will only certify complete systems - hardware and software. CableCARD tuners are only supposed to be available to OEMs to use in certified configurations. And cable companies are supposed to refuse to install CableCARD in any non-certified system.

The CableCARD adapters will require the Trusted Computing Platform, from what I understand. So you wouldn't be able to use them on a home brew box.

[dswallow]

And cable companies are supposed to refuse to install CableCARD in any non-certified system.
Of course certification is pretty simple considering there's a self-certification process that can be used.

[drummer1]

I have been in the Vista MCE XBOX360 beta since May and early releases of Vista were buggy but the latest release of Vista (RC1) is very stable. I'm a Comcast cable user and have two hd cable boxes connected to the the MCE machine via firewire connections recording both SD and HD (MCE will support up to 4 tuners). The MCE machine is located in the basement and feeds the XBOX360 via a wired 10/100/1000 network.

Having been a Tivo user for about 5-years (2-Series 2 machines) in my opinion the combination of Vista MCE and the 360 is a better interface than Tivo. The pictures, music and TV interface is pretty slick and the fact that I can just keep adding HDDs to the MCE and network share to other machines gives me virtually unlimited storage capacity. Vista is scheduled to go GA in Q107 and the OCUR tuner will be available supporting cable card.

Of course this in my opinion but if you have a chance to see a Vista / 360 setup I think you would agree. :)

[tunnelengineer]

I think you will shelf this argument once you see the firt BSOD on that PC while watching an important show. Honestly I like the thoughts of media center pc's, but the technology isn't up to par yet. Good luck getting cable companies to support your media center boxes as well. I see that as a potential big problem.

10 years from now? Yes, that's all you will see. But for now, Tivo is the best game in town.