Posted by meHomey on 05/28/06 13:18

If you have a TiVo with cable service, you still have to pay $15 per
month or $300 for life to get the automated program guide service that
you are not intrerested in. If you do not subscribe, you may not be
able to enter the manual recired mode.
If you have satellite service, you of course have to pay for that,
plus $5 per month for the DVR service - otherwise it will not let you
record.

Your cheapest option would be a DVD recorder with DVD-RAM. It lets you
pause the viewing while it continues to record. You can view any
portion up to the present time. You can delete shows to leave space
for new ones. Mine has a max of 6 hours on a blank disc.

I got mine refurbished on eBay for $150 - was $300 new.


On 21 May 2006 08:29:42 -0700, jmpc@msn.com wrote:

>This is a real 101 set of questions as I've mostly ignored the whole
>Tivo DVR advances in recent years and now I want to get involved. I
>would be appreciate if someone can look at
>the two sets of information below and give a bit of advice.
>
>First here is a basic list of what I want to be able to do when I buy
>whatever it is I end up buying:
>
>I want to be able to digitally record television to see just once and
>then erase (or record over or hold until the space is needed), and I
>can do this the old fashion way of figuring out what channel something
>is on and when it begins and when it ends and use on screen
>programming. I don't care about intuitive help to cut corners for me
>in this regard, such as searching and programming by program name.
>
>To a lesser extent I want to be able to record tv while I watch it,
>pausing tv commercials
>as I can now do with a vcr, with a remote control in my hand. This
>could be straight onto a disc or into cache to put onto a disc later
>(whether it is finalized then or later)
>
>I want to also be able to dub videotapes onto DVD (direct to disc or
>not) even if I have to connect my old vcr by component cables to a DVD
>recorder.
>
>I don't especially care about onscreen tvguide or finding or
>programming by name, or programming to tape the same show every time it
>is on.
>
>And finally the following things would be nice to have but definitely
>not completely necessary:
>Live buffering or watching a show which is broadcast say 9-10 but not
>beginning until say 9:15 while it is tillon, not waiting for it to
>finish.
>And to be able to watch one recorded or live program while another
>copies.
>
>Ok now here is what I can gather from a little research
>
>There are DVR's (like Tivo) or the one Directtv offers
>Then there are DVD Recorders which have hard drives
>And there are hybrids
>You can cache items to "burn" to disc later and when you do so you
>can program chapters and menus, and even some basic editing.
>
>>From reading all this I am not quite clear where a DVR is so popular or
>what it offers, and I especially do not understand why it is a service
>for which you pay a monthly fee.
>Paying a monthly fee is definitely something I wish to avoid.
>
>Should I assume the only downside of a hybrid is cost?

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