Oceanic has been bombarding me with offers for their new DVR. Does anybody know, what features does it have in comparison to TiVo?
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TiVo vs. Oceanic's DVR
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Re: TiVo vs. Oceanic's DVR
I wish I knew someone with one of Oceanic's DVR boxes, just so I could do a side-by-side comparison. Though I'd be biased.
I'm totally addicted to our TiVo. We got the Home Media Option, linked it to the net via WiFi, upgraded to a billion hours (not really) by swapping out the hard drive... We haven't watched "live television" in ages. My kids now only watch stuff we pick out (from which they can easily choose), we can have our own "CSI" marathons, we can skip all the singing in "American Idol," and we can play our MP3s over our entertainment system.
Those Oceanic DVR ads are everywhere. Meanwhile, we downgraded from digital to analog cable when our TiVo helped us realize 90 percent of what we care to watch is already available on basic.
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Re: TiVo vs. Oceanic's DVR
Originally posted by pzarquonI'm totally addicted to our TiVo. We got the Home Media Option, linked it to the net via WiFi, upgraded to a billion hours (not really) by swapping out the hard drive...
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Re: TiVo vs. Oceanic's DVR
Originally posted by GlenAnd how difficult is it to swap the hard drive compared to on a regular PC? Tell me more!
And yeah, the TiVo at a minimum needs access to a phone line, but it also has an Ethernet port and it can either sit on your wired network, or your wireless one.
Originally posted by helenIs the cost of TiVo a one time thing or does one need to pay monthly fee like Oceanic's DVR?
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Re: TiVo vs. Oceanic's DVR
Originally posted by pzarquonAnd yeah, the TiVo at a minimum needs access to a phone line, but it also has an Ethernet port and it can either sit on your wired network, or your wireless one.
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Re: TiVo vs. Oceanic's DVR
As much as I hate Time Warner (Oceanic), the DVR is the better route than TiVO.
Tivo you have to pay a monthly charge and purchase a unit.
DVR you just pay the monthly charge and TW lends you the unit for free. I've had my DVR for a couple of months and I totally love it. Something like a microwave, you wonder how you functioned before you purchased it. Scan the tv guide, program what you want. Let the DVR record for you, and watch whenever you want.
If you currently have a digital cable box, you can swap it over the counter at Time Warner. Thats what I did. I suggest you try it out, give it a couple of weeks, and if you don't like it, swap the boxes back. And they'll pro-rate the charge.
And no, I don't work for TW.
Hope this helps!
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Re: TiVo vs. Oceanic's DVR
Originally posted by Glen MiyashiroOooh. My inner geek just started drooling. I didn't know TiVos could use WiFi, I thought you had to have a modem connection. This makes it a much more interesting gadget to me, as I already have a WiFi access point on my home LAN. And how difficult is it to swap the hard drive compared to on a regular PC? Tell me more!
Since Tivo uses Linux, you can use many of the available tools online to add another drive or replace the hard drive with a larger one. Try this site
In fact, I highly recommend that you backup the Tivo's hard disk. As you know, this will be the component that will likely fail over time.
The MFS tools will just backup the Tivo's Linux OS, your season passes, ratings, etc, but not the media files that contain the shows. You can fit the backup on a CD. I think my Tivo image was 200 MB. In a pinch, when the drive fails, you can restore the backup to a new hard disk...and voila..back in business...Last edited by 808_m3; August 7, 2004, 08:26 AM.
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Re: TiVo vs. Oceanic's DVR
I finally played with an Oceanic DVR over at Oceanic's HQ, and am pretty glad I went with TiVo -- as if I had a choice, since TiVo was around long before Time-Warner tried to enter the hardware space themselves.
TiVo's interface is more elegant, since they've had a multitude of revisions over the past several years to work out the kinks. A TiVo is your box, not a rented unit, which - for me - is preferable, and why I stick with basic cable: I don't like "renting" a box just to translate the signal, when I'm already paying for the signal.
TiVo supports multi-unit homes, and transfers between units (when my kids are in the living room, they can copy over their cartoons from the TiVo in the den). TiVo integrates with PCs to stream music or photo albums from my computer to the big-screen TV. And thanks to a recent FCC decision, TiVo-To-Go will allow me to send shows to friends over the Internet, get shows from them, and download all sorts of content from third-parties. So far, the sky remains the limit... and that's just out of the box.
For the tinkerer, a TiVo is a beautiful thing. You can tinker with its insides, upgrade its capacity, back it up, beef it up... if you're willing to do things TiVo would rather you not, you can extract the saved shows and save them on your PC or burn them to DVDs (of course, combo DVD-TiVo units exist to do this legally). Based on the open Linux OS, a TiVo truly is a computer, as simple or as complicated as you want to make it.
Since both TiVo and Oceanic's DVR require a subscription, but a TiVo box puts you in control, it seems like a simple decision. Just my humble opinion of course.
I liked the article linked above, though, about how all DVRs are being called TiVos, since they defined the space. It's like how folks call all MP3 players iPods even when they're not Apple iPods, or how folks called all portable cassette radio players Walkmans even when they weren't Sony's.
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Re: TiVo vs. Oceanic's DVR
One thing the Oceanic Time Warner Cable ads for the DVR
do not say is you have to pay additional $6.70 on top of
the $9.95 you pay to rent the DVR. The reason why is the
Scientific Atlanta DVR has the Digital Cable settop box
built into the DVR.
Thus this is the reason why I have held back renting the
DVR from Oceanic. There is no way I could justify paying
$16.65 + tax per month.Check out my blog on Kona issues :
The Kona Blog
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Re: TiVo vs. Oceanic's DVR
Originally posted by pzarquonMeanwhile, we downgraded from digital to analog cable when our TiVo helped us realize 90 percent of what we care to watch is already available on basic.
cannot get on analog I like. For instance PPV is not available
on analog anymore and you cannot get iControl VOD movies.
Plus despite the mostly crappy channels on digital, there
is some I like and I cannot get them on analog [Encore and
most of the premium channels are only available on digital]
Thank goodness for the favorites option on the SA digital settop box.Check out my blog on Kona issues :
The Kona Blog
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Re: TiVo vs. Oceanic's DVR
Originally posted by pzarquonFor the tinkerer, a TiVo is a beautiful thing. You can tinker with its insides, upgrade its capacity, back it up, beef it up... if you're willing to do things TiVo would rather you not, you can extract the saved shows and save them on your PC or burn them to DVDs (of course, combo DVD-TiVo units exist to do this legally). Based on the open Linux OS, a TiVo truly is a computer, as simple or as complicated as you want to make it.
One mod I'd like to see is to remove the 137 GB hard disk limitation on the existing Tivos. There are some hacks available, but I haven't messed with it too much..I'd rather wait until Tivo releases a new software revision to address that. Putting down 2 250 GB hard disks into Tivo sounds pretty cool, but I have to admit that's just A LOT of TV to store.
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Re: TiVo vs. Oceanic's DVR
Originally posted by pzarquonTiVo supports multi-unit homes, and transfers between units (when my kids are in the living room, they can copy over their cartoons from the TiVo in the den). TiVo integrates with PCs to stream music or photo albums from my computer to the big-screen TV. And thanks to a recent FCC decision, TiVo-To-Go will allow me to send shows to friends over the Internet, get shows from them, and download all sorts of content from third-parties. So far, the sky remains the limit... and that's just out of the box.
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