Elgato HD DVR vs. TiVO

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You answered one of my questions (as crazy as your response may be). How about the other two?

How would it handle two tuners?
How much space would you need to store uncompressed digital video?

 

now you are just trying to FUD things up to promote your point of view.

TiVo could add a component input on the back of the TiVo HD and the hardware to record that to hard drive and also the IR blasters - but it is simply a step back to a one tuner with the kludge of IR blasters and needing a cable box.

But that would be a significant step backwards versus dealing with a tuning adapter that are getting better as the tech matures.

 

It was answered...refer to post #19 above. Making demands won't really get you many friends around here.

 

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are IR blasters always dependable to change channels or do some cable boxes give you a ton of problems? You act like you have some perfect solution when all it is is yet another option with its own issues and drawbacks

 

No. However, the OP needs to reconsider the "one-size-fits-all" perspective on things (not just DVR's). There are certainly those who would prefer Elegato's approach, considering its pros and cons. Same thing for the Tivo. Not all solutions for a given type of product need to use the same approach.

Better is always subjective, regardless of the topic. As stated above, the better option depends on the specific person's needs/wants/priorities.

You also need to keep in mind that any discussion forum site is going to have a disproportionate number of threads on issues. I mean, hit any discussion forum site for any product and if you rely solely on problem posts you'd think that all products are nothing but trouble. It's the nature of these sites. Think about it, how often do people go through the trouble of finding a forum site and registering just to post that everything is working fine? The people with problems are the ones that are the most motivated.

Don't rely on forum posts as any sort of useful statistical tool. They're not directly useful in that manner. They are useful, however, for spotting the more common problems.

 

No.

We got your point.

"...one wonders why TiVo went with the CableCard. Why choose complexity over simple plug-and-play? What advantages does the CableCard provide? The Elgato system apparently works with cable, satellite, & FiOS, and will record premium and VOD content, without the need for a site visit by a tech or an additional tuning adapter."

Your point was that it's simpler and better to feed signals from a cable box to a recorder...a box the recorder has to use an IR blaster to control...than to feed a signal directly into the recorder which is able to tune and descramble channels on its own, recording directly off the tuner rather than recording video and audio being fed from an external box that needs to be controlled.

Even if a TiVo does need a tuning adapter, once it's connected, you're done. It's essentially a part of the TiVo now, despite the dongle.

Your suggested method is lumpy. TiVo's is streamlined. Yours requires trying to control a cable box and recording from an A/V feed off an external tuner. TiVo's is essentially an all-in-one package.

We understand your point, all right. We simply see it as invalid.

The only positive aspect in your method is that it allows for putting a filter between the cable box and recorder, which would then allow you do as you like with the recordings, whereas some or many TiVo recordings can't be burned to DVD or transferred due to anti-copy signals on a cable system. Since you didn't raise this issue...

 

Not only that, but to get dual-tuner functionality you'd have to rent two HD STBs from the cableCo to equal a Tivo w/Cablecard, which would probably cost more per month than the Tivo service itself.

As you said, recording component-in means unlimited transfers because you bypass DRM. That and ability to use with sat are the only two redeeming features in my mind for this kludge of a setup. Some folks are using the HD-PVRs with Sage or 7MC for exactly these reasons.

 

There's an alternative to renting two STBs from the cable company.

Almost all (all?) cable companies deliver local HD channels in QAM "in the clear". They're there, just hiding at wierd channel assignments like 80-62. That means you can digitally record the locals by using an HDHomeRun and PC/Mac. Then you only need to use component kluges for the non-network channels. Unfortunately that doesn't work for satellite, just for cable.

In addition, if you have a cable company DVR (or a TiVo), then you only need to record component output for stuff you actually want to archive. There are many many shows I watch that I don't need to archive. So a single channel archiving solution might work.

Having said all that, I'm happy with just TiVos in the house. This way all rooms work the same, and network programs can be transferred from box to box. Unfortunately my cable provider (Frontier) prevents copying any program that's not from a local channel.

 

I'd kill for TiVo to use my cablebox. Why? Because I'm in Canada, and because we don't have pesky FCC rules like interoperability, cable companies here only activate boxes they sell, and all channels are encrypted. There's no such thing as CableCARD support, either. If you want no STB, you can have the basic cable channels in analog. If you want digital channels, or HD, you must buy their cable box.

Hell, they even disabled firewire.