TiVo makes all the difference in the world for me. I could never be sitting at the TV every Wednesday night at 8. Ryb and I have talked about expanding the Naruto setup to popular shows like Lost, so that might be an option next season for those of you without TiVo. In fact, if anyone has the entire season one in Divx/Xvid get in touch with me in PM or email, please.

Actually I DVR many of my shows, kinda like Tivo without all the costs envolved. It is like a supped up VCR that digital cable gives ya. You just set it to record, and watch it whenever. Makes that 1 hour program go by in about 40 min.

DVR
That's what TiVo is. DVR stands for Digital Video Recorder.

That's what TiVo is. DVR stands for Digital Video Recorder.
Yep, but I don't have to pay $25/month or whatever the cost is now, plus the initial cost of the unit, depending on if I want a 4 hour memory or 8 hour memory.

It has been about a year since I shopped the TiVo, so I don't know if it has changed. The DVR I have with my cable runs me a little less than $8/month, and can store 20 hours worth of recording.

Tivo subscription is $5/month. There has never been a 4 hour/8 hour version. There are 20 hour and 40 hour versions. The 20 hour version can store a lot more if you're not on satellite and record at the lower quality broadcast TV uses.

I recently went back to Comcast (I had the DirecTivo, the absolute best DVR you can get) but just because of HD. It was worth it, but we miss the Tivo.

(I had the DirecTivo, the absolute best DVR you can get)
That's what we've got. I never watched TV before at all, and after we got it I follow 5+ shows.

Tivo subscription is $5/month. There has never been a 4 hour/8 hour version. There are 20 hour and 40 hour versions. The 20 hour version can store a lot more if you're not on satellite and record at the lower quality broadcast TV uses.

Wow after reading your info I thought I should check into TiVo again, though I found out that it is $12.95 a month + the cost of the unit. You must have gotten a better deal, than what they are offering at the moment.

http://www.tivo.com/2.1.1.asp

http://www.directv.com/see/landing/dvr_offer.html

I'm still running XP Media Center Edition, with output to my InFocus 4805.

If you have HDTV with DirecTV, you have to pay like $1000 or some crazy number for HD recording Tivo or something.

If you're gonna put stuff up for download, please add House...that would own.

PS I need a Tivo

House and Lost are two we talked about. Figured it would be pointless to start so near the end of the seasons, but if someone will help me get the files together we could probably host season one of each.

House and Lost are two we talked about. Figured it would be pointless to start so near the end of the seasons, but if someone will help me get the files together we could probably host season one of each.

If their is anyway to get files off of my DVR box I would be able to give you House. So if anyone has any info on how to do this let me know. Otherwise they are going to get deleted by the CSI re-runs off of Spike TV.

TiVo here and like Sanchek I never watched TV until we got one. In the end I wound paying $50 for my 40hr unit ($100 rebate).

If you pay the lifetime service you don't have a monthly fee, but I do indeed pay $12.95 per month. My cable provider just now got a DVR option it's the exact same price as TiVo.

However, with my TiVo I can schedule any recordings anytime even remotely. My unit is on my network, I can download and upload files. I'm not restricted to any particular format b/c I burn to my DVD drive in my PC which supports all formats and I have MyDvD Deluxe or some such which is da bomb for me.

So you can keep your cheesy recorder you probably paid $400-500 (at least that's the ones I was looking at) with no service, and w/o the same functions as my TiVo setup.

The only thing I haven't figured out yet is how to take those huge TiVo files and put them in DivX format w/o paying for some utility so if anyone wants to clue me in please do ;)

Oh and I have all of Revelations, but we don't keep any other shows like House. We delete after we watch.

House and Lost are two we talked about. Figured it would be pointless to start so near the end of the seasons, but if someone will help me get the files together we could probably host season one of each.House *was* great this season. The second-to-last episode (three people present with leg pain) was great.

No doubt, House is good stuff.

I bought a Hauppauge 150MCE from amazon last month and it works like a charm(~$63). It's basically the same as a TIVO(from what I have heard) without a monthly fee. A good alternative if you ask me. :cool:

While on the subject, does anyone know if there's such thing as a "software cable descrambler"?

Surely someone knows how to convert Tivo files to DivX? :(

www.zatsnotfunny.com/ttg.htm
tells how to strip the mpeg from the .tivo file. After that you should be able to do anything you want with it.

If you have ReplayTV instead of TIVO, you can head over to www.poopli.com (http://www.poopli.com) and get people to send you just about anything over the internet. Great stuff. Makes it easy to transfer onto your system for burning too.

I have a Hauppauge-500 which is, essentially, a dual-150 + FM tuner. So, I can record two basic cable or broadcast channels at once. I also have an ATI HD Wonder, so I can record OTA HD as well -- and often all three at once.

I don't suggest watching a saved fourth television program while recording all three; as it's pretty hard drive intensive. You end up with a bunch of shows with skips in them. ...but 3 at a time is enough for me :)

I don't get OTA HD here yet, or I'd have a MCE 2005 Box close to Palimax's. Right now it's got 2 Hauppauge 250 MCE's using digital cable boxes and IR blasters for the ability to record digital premium channels like Showtime and HBO. (Self Built, AMD 2600 w/ 400gb raid 0 array) In addition I have a 350ish HR TiVo (2x160gb) and a 180ish HR (1x160gb) both recently expanded to LBA48 kernel limits to take advantage of the >137gb HD partitions with the release of TiVo OS 7.1. They record analog channels off cable.

I'll never go back to the old way of watching TV. I can record 4 things at once (which is going to be necessary next fall on Thursdays and Sundays) and never really have to know when something is on. I just watch it when I want to.

www.zatsnotfunny.com/ttg.htm (http://www.zatsnotfunny.com/ttg.htm)
tells how to strip the mpeg from the .tivo file. After that you should be able to do anything you want with it.


your link doesn't work for me

For some reason it wouldnt let me cut and paste it. Just google "convert .tivo to mpeg" or something along those lines.

Episte and Palimax,

Which program do you guys use with your DVR cards? The one I use takes a hell lot of space...>3GB just for the Tonight Show.

I use Windows XP Media Center, and a hidef recording of 1080i runs bout 8 gigs an hour. Highest quality analog runs me about 4.5g/hour. Since 300 gig drives don't cost much, it's not an issue for me.

I do have like 30 hours of Who's Line is it Anyway to watch though...

I also use XP Media Center Edition 2005.

I've only got 2x200gb drives though. I'm only recording standard def TV though, so an episode of Lost is 3gb, give or take, and my recorder storage says it can record about 90 hours.

My "Whose Line" collection is on my 320gb TiVo.

Episte, 2005 supports multiple tuners quite nicely. Up to three if one is Hi-Def, and if you've got an antenna somewhere, the quality of Hi-Def MCE2005 is very nice. Zero artifacts. If you're looking for a toy for yourself, get another tuner (or two :) )

For some reason it wouldnt let me cut and paste it. Just google "convert .tivo to mpeg" or something along those lines.

Oddly enough and this has been my problem all along none of the links work. Sure Google comes back with what sounds like fantastic links "step-by-step guide, blah blah" but when you click.......nada.

I'm sure it can be done and eventually I'll figure it out when I have more time to dump to. I am convinced it's going to be a search or expensive software to do it. Or, a long drawn out process :(

I just did a google search for "tivo to go" and the 5th one down was the link I tried to post. It worked fine from google, but does not work from here for some reason.

well i'm convinced i'm not meant to see this.....it didn't work for me. now this could be b/c i'm at work so I will give it a try when I get home. /sigh I just want my MPEG!

If your going to put more stuff up for download, how about Alias?

Also another Anime, like Burst Angel. :)

While its normally frowned apon, if someone has a livejournal acct I can send you a link to a livejournal that has all of the Lost episodes on it. They wanna preserve their bandwidth

Gonna PM it to you in a sec Sanchek.

Just want to say I am now able to get my MPEGs. Boy it took some digging, this might lead one to think there is some conspiracy out there to prevent this sort of thing :D

Episte, 2005 supports multiple tuners quite nicely. Up to three if one is Hi-Def, and if you've got an antenna somewhere, the quality of Hi-Def MCE2005 is very nice. Zero artifacts. If you're looking for a toy for yourself, get another tuner (or two :) )

I'm in BFE, Washington. No OTA HD here, otherwise I might.

I've got dual analog tuners (2 x PVR250MCE) right now getting their signal via digital cable boxes/composite inputs.

If I move to somewhere like Seattle, I may take the HD plunge.

Which decoder do you use, by the way, Palimax?

I was using the Nvidia decoders for a long time, started having "decoder error" problems, switched to Intervideo, but decided I didn't like the lack of MCE subtitle support, so I switched back and so far I haven't had any problems *fingers crossed*