Tivo Series 2 80 Hour vs. Verizon FiOS HD DVR or Home Media Thing

[XTCinOvaltine]

Hey Everyone,
My family is finally switching to Verizon FiOs for TV and internet, but Im having a little trouble deciding on whether to get the Verizon DVR, their Home Media Network DVr (which allows you to view three shows at once off one DVR and stream music and movies to it) and Tivo Series 2. My main points of decision are ease of use, cost, and general network ability. I want to be able to view two shows, or at least record one show and watch the other, and be able to move the shows onto my computer, or at least stream from my computer. I heard the Tivo2Go thing for the computer is unreasonably slow. Does anyone have any insight on what I should persuade my family to get. Verizon made the appointment for Saturday so any and all help would be greeted very joyfully. If ANYONE, regardless of the points made above, has a reason to go with any of three, please tell me. I know posting in a TiVo thread is strange because of the bias that may occure, but at this point, I dont really care. I have a SlingBox, so Im also wondering which would be better for it. Thanks all!

[Einselen]

I was unaware that you can stream off the Verizon DVR.

As far as speed goes if you get a Tivo Wireless G Router and have a wireless G network then the speed to a computer is around real time IIRC and between Tivos is faster then real time.

Also another thought I just had is if you want to get multiple DVRs then from Verizon you have to pay and rent a special box that you can transfer shows to and from which is $19.99/month (at least in my market) where with multiple tivos on the same account and network have no additional cost to do multi room viewing.

[Einselen]

Also just FYI the Verizon DVR can record two stations at once while you watch a third that was already recorded.

The Dual Tuner Tivo can record two analog channels or 1 digital and 1 analog (unfortunately not 2 digital channels) at the same time while you watch a third show that was already recorded.

The Single Tuner if you can find them instore, eBay, craiglist, etc. can record one show while you watch a previously recorded show.

Once you get a DVR however you will most likely not watch TV live anymore. If you are watching live it is probably because of a major conflict of recording shows.

[Einselen]

Just upping my post count here.

Series 2 tivos allow for streaming music and pictures to your Tivo. Again that is no cost.

Also looking more at the Verizon site it looks like you have to pay $19.99 for the Multi Room DVR but then any other Tivo with a set top box ($3.95/month) can view shows off that DVR. benefit is you don't have to have two Multi Room DVRs to do Multiroom but downfall is you are only recording from one TV and only have ~80hrs between a few TVs where with Tivo you can get two prepaid for 3 years and have ~160hrs and more tuners to handle conflicts and still be less then Verizon (not factoring in the cost of the Tivo box). I recommend you confirm the Multi Room DVR with Verizon as I am going off what I read on the site and believe is how it works.

As far as the Verizon DVR goes I see nothing about being able to transfer to your computer, just streaming music and videos from your computer.

[XTCinOvaltine]

So are you saying that I should get a TiVo?

[bilbo]

Verizon's Home Media DVR is the same Motorola box as what you would get if you got their HD DVR. So it is either $13 per month for the HD DVR or it is an additional $7 per month ($20 per month total) for the Home Media DVR. Verizon's HD DVR has about 160GB of storage (about 15-20 hours of HD programming). Currently it only streams to its standard-definition boxes (which cost about $5 per month, but one box is included in the $43 per month programming cost).

[Einselen]

So are you saying that I should get a TiVo?

Well being on a Tivo Board I will more likely lean towards a Tivo but because personally I like the product and then I can upgrade the harddrive and if I ever move I can take whatever previous records with me. One last thing to worry about when moving. Also with the S2 I can transfer recording to my computer and then burn DVDs from it which was a huge factor for me.

I am just trying to provide you with as much information as possible to decide what is best for you.

[atmuscarella]

I think I will make a few obvious statements:


The TiVo 2 DT unit is SD and designed to work best with analog cable
The motorola DVR is a HD DVR and designed to work with Verizon's FIOS system


So do you have an HD TV? and do you want to watch HD shows in HD? If the answer to those questions is yes then you need either the motorola DVR or a TiVo Series 3.

If you can live with SD only content then a Series 2 DT TiVo would be usable, but you can only record 1 channel at a time with it from a Verizon STB (unless Verizon is also providing an analog cable feed).

Good Luck,

[Einselen]

Verizon's Home Media DVR is the same Motorola box as what you would get if you got their HD DVR. So it is either $13 per month for the HD DVR or it is an additional $7 per month ($20 per month total) for the Home Media DVR. Verizon's HD DVR has about 160GB of storage (about 15-20 hours of HD programming).

According to this site http://www22.verizon.com/content/fiostv/dvr/dvr/dvr.htm the DVR records about 80 hours. Question for bilbo or someone else who maybe has had experience with the Verizon DVR is is only a one setting for recording quality?

For Tivo the box may say 80 hours recording time but that is at Basic. Here is the breakdown for an 80 hr:

Best 23 hr 32 min
High 37 hr 30 min
Medium 49 hr 18 min
Basic 81 hr 48 min

I always record on High and don't see any quality loss. I have done some shows Medium and see some loss and Basic I have not done recently, maybe did at the beginning of having a Tivo and have not since. Like I said though you can easily upgrade the drive and that is one of my huge pluses to having a Tivo.

[Einselen]

If you can live with SD only content then a Series 2 DT TiVo would be usable, but you can only record 1 channel at a time with it from a Verizon STB (unless Verizon is also providing an analog cable feed).

Good Luck,

I believe Verizon does provide an analog feed for the first 49 channels or so. That will include your CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox is where I find for myself to have the most conflicts. YMMV

[dt_dc]

According to this site http://www22.verizon.com/content/fiostv/dvr/dvr/dvr.htm the DVR records about 80 hours. Question for bilbo or someone else who maybe has had experience with the Verizon DVR is is only a one setting for recording quality?The Verizon DVR does not record analog channels ... it doesn't even have analog tuners or MPEG encoders to change encoding settings so ... no quality setting. It records digital channels digitally as broadcast. All channels are available on Verizon via digital (as noted above, they do simulcast analog versions of channels 2-49).

It is a 160GB drive. I would call the 80 hours a bit ... optomistic. Alot will depend on the bitrates of the channels you record. Higher bitrates ... take up more space. In my experience, 60 hours of digital SD is more expected. However, the recording picture quality is the exact same as-broadcast ... no analog -> digital conversion ... no additional compression ... etc.

[dt_dc]

Does anyone have any insight on what I should persuade my family to get.Personally, If there's a Verizon STB drop-off location nearby I would:
1) Get the Verizon Multi-Room DVR and (however many) client STBs at install (Saturday)
2) Play around with it a while
3) You can always downgrade to the regular DVR and / or drop off any STBs you don't want and / or drop off the DVR and / or get the S2(s) if Verizon's solution doesn't seem to meet your needs and / or Tivo would meet them better.

If there isn't a drop-off location nearby ... make sure to find out from Verizon what it would cost to return any boxes later and factor that in.

But ... that's just me.

That being said ... the only (networking) feature (for video) that Verizon currently offers is streaming content from the DVR to the STBs. You can't access (video) content on a PC. You can't move content to a PC (well, if you can run Firewire to a PC you can grab any content that isn't DTCP protected ... and there's always analog capture ... but anyway). You can (currently) access music and photos on a PC from the client STBs ... but ... not video.

Tivo also (currently) wins hands-down for 'ease of use'.

Since those were two of your three main points of decision ... S2s very well may (currently) serve you best.

That being said ... Verizon has been showing off new software for their DVRs that (IMO dramatically) increases ease of use and features (expected by 'mid year') ... and even showing off better (video) networking (such as streaming video from a PC). Of course, what actually ends up getting released is never the same as the demo-ware so ... we shall see.

[atmuscarella]

Originally Posted by Einselen
I believe Verizon does provide an analog feed for the first 49 channels or so. That will include your CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox is where I find for myself to have the most conflicts. YMMVThis is good news for Series 2 DT users of FIOS, most of my conflicts are also between CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, and CW. But this is also where the most new shows are in HD so on an individual bases each user will need to way the value of HD. I know if I had some great new HD TV sitting in my living room I would want to watch anything broadcast in HD, in HD. If the choice was HD and no DVR or SD and a TiVo I might go with SD and TiVo , but with the choices being HD with non-Tivo DVR, or HD with TiVo Series 3, or SD with TiVo Series 2, I would take the Series 3 first, then the non-Tivo DVR and then the Series 2 or maybe some combination with multiple DVRs.

Thanks,

Thanks,