[KingCrutch]

So, as a related question, another newbie to Tivo.

Between two sellers (eBay and Craigslist) I have the following options:

Tivo Series 2 40 HR Recorder + 1 year of Plus Service = $135

Humax DRT800 80 HR DVD Recorder + 1 year of Plus Service = $325

So, I am looking at $200 more to buy the DVD recorder version of Tivo, with the 80 HR capacity. Though I understand that the Humax records at a lower quality and is therefore equivalent to the 40HR Tivo.

I'm wondering if the DVD Recorder in the Humax is worth the extra $190 to have an integrated DVD recorder with Tivo. I'm thinking that if I want to add DVD Recorder support later I can add a pretty nice quality standalone DVD Recorder for $190 or less and come out even.

Thoughts?

 

[KingCrutch]

Well the eBay seller claims the units are new. Hard to know whether that's true, but that's the claim, and the seller has sold a lot of units. So I'd basically be paying the $20 for a NIB unit rather than a Refurb. Of course I'm dealing with an eBay seller and waiting for the $150 rebate rather than Tivo directly, so perhaps it is a wash.

I appreciate your advice. Much like the OP, it's a hard decision as to whether to invest the extra $200 for the DVD burning unit. It is certainly appealing but since I've never had Tivo it's hard to know how much I will use it, or whether I will appreciate the DVD features for the extra money they cost.

Decisions...decisions...

Or as the OP suggested by direct from Tivo fro $20 less see {OP's Post}
As to value it depends on how many DVD's you plan to burn. The integrated unit makes it so easy. Simply select the recodings and insert a blank. 20 minutes later you have a disk complete with Tivo style menus and program details.

On a seperate unit recording could take up to 4+ hrs with intervention required for each show.

For example dumping 8 episodes of a 1/2 hr sitcom. Humax 20 minutes, external recorder min 4hrs plus you'll need to manually select the next show every 30 minutes.

 

[KingCrutch]

Not sure what you mean there ... the capacity of TiVo boxes is at Basic quality, so you can get 40hrs of basic quality on the 40hr box and 80hrs of basic on the Humax.

What you may be referring to is that the DVD units record at slightly different screen resolutions that are DVD compliant so they don't have to do any transcoding when burning to DVD, but this should not affect quality.

Yes, I guess this is what I was referring to, I had been reading the reviews on Amazon and there are several complaints regarding the picture quality of the Humax compared to the standard Series 2 40HR unit.

 

[KingCrutch]

Well the missus has decided she would use the DVD recorder feature enough to justify the cost, so I guess we're moving in that direction.

Now to decide whether to buy the "factory-renewed" DRT800 direct from Tivo or try our luck with a "new" unit from eBay...