TiVo vs. Oceanic's DVR

[pzarquon]

Re: TiVo vs. Oceanic's DVR

So, if you have recorded a show on your TiVo, which is on your network, would you be able to watch the show from one of the PCs on your network? In my house we have more PCs than televisions, so this would be a really useful trick.

Right now, you can already send shows from one TiVo to another. With TiVo-To-Go (here's the official announcement), though, yes, you willbe able to do stuff with your TiVo content - music, shows, and photos - on other devices, including PCs.

For the first time, TiVo subscribers with Home Media Option(TM) will be able to move their favorite programs stored on a TiVo DVR to a laptop for viewing on the road, or to any PC. For those who have a PC equipped with a DVD burner, programs can then be burned to DVD so users can take the TiVo experience with them wherever they go.

The big giant question mark is how their DRM system will work. I think at one point it was literally going to be a physical dongle or USB key that needed to be plugged into the alternate device to authorize playback... but last I've heard, it's going to be an all-software solution, probably comparable to Apple's FairPlay.

[mel]

Re: TiVo vs. Oceanic's DVR

Everyone interested in recording digital TV content to your computers ought to be buying a PC network card for that purpose today because by next year, the movie and TV industry plan to put a major roadblock in your way.

[Konaguy]

Re: TiVo vs. Oceanic's DVR

This recent decision in favor of TiVo by the FCC, I read is going to court
probably. The NFL is exploring going to court to block this because they
are afraid people in areas where the games are blacked out will be able
to see it through sharing on TiVo.

[pzarquon]

Re: TiVo vs. Oceanic's DVR

Just caught a great post (thanks, Jon) by someone who has used both the Time-Warner DVR and a TiVo -- Mark Frauenfelder of the illustrious Boingboing.net. Being a uber-geek and a bit of a usability evangelist, the Time-Warner unit gets a hair-pulling thumbs down, and the TiVo (now under $100) gets an enthusiastic thumbs up.

If TiVo were a beverage, it'd be a tall glass of Jamaican ginger beer with chipped ice and a lime wedge, while the Explorer 800 would be a paper cup of warm fake lemonade stirred with the finger of a nose-picking six-year-old.

Read the whole thing, entitled, "I hate this digital video recorder: Scientific-Atlanta Explorer 8000."

[scrivener]

Re: TiVo vs. Oceanic's DVR

You're correct. TiVo needs to talk to the mother ship, but it needs either a phone line or 'net access, not both.

I just want to clarify this. If you have just a landline, you can make TiVo work without an ISP? So does your box call the mother ship, or does the mother ship place calls to your box?

[pzarquon]

Re: TiVo vs. Oceanic's DVR

I just want to clarify this. If you have just a landline, you can make TiVo work without an ISP? So does your box call the mother ship, or does the mother ship place calls to your box?

TiVo doesn't need net access. Lots of TiVos do their thing only with a landline. TiVo does the calling, too, and uses a local access number IIRC. (The first call is to an 800 number to determine the local number.) Interestingly, a lot of TiVo users were annoyed at the landline requirement, at least for that initial setup, so they might have found a way around it with the Series 3 boxes. But I haven't "moved up" yet.

TiVos got a little less attractive with their new pricing plan (no "lifetime" option too, which is what we have on our boxes) -- the best time to have gotten TiVo was before March.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: TiVo vs. Oceanic's DVR

1) Does Tivo get it's programming from their own site meaning no need for cable or satellite?

2) Can Tivo receive local broadcasts like KHON, KITV, KGMB etc off the same land line or net connection or does it require an antenna feed?

3) I've heard that you can use a Tivo as a standalone DVR but if you don't subscribe to it can you still use it as a DVR but with no programming control other than timing to turn on and record whatever it's input is connected to?

4) What kind of formatting does Tivo require on the hard drive?

And finally,

5) What format is the recorded file? Such as avi, mpeg4, etc?

[Hellbent]

Re: TiVo vs. Oceanic's DVR

how does a custom built PVR compare vs a tivo? arent some shows restricted from tivo now?

[Pua'i Mana'o]

Re: TiVo vs. Oceanic's DVR

save the money, and learn to love all that low rez has to offer when you find what you want on youtube, metacafe and stupidvideos.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: TiVo vs. Oceanic's DVR

save the money, and learn to love all that low rez has to offer when you find what you want on youtube, metacafe and stupidvideos.

you got a point there because even with HDTV, it's still the content that's important. I don't need to be reminded visually of a stupid tv show in high definition.

And I don't care how good HD is, if you want to see the Grand Canyon in high definition, you can't beat being there and no TV set will ever capture the awesome feeling of the Niagra Falls even with surround sound.

[damontucker]

Re: TiVo vs. Oceanic's DVR

One of the big problems with Oceanics DVR is that it will not record HDTV.

One option: The Motorola DCT6412 Dual-Tuner HD-DVR

Until recently, television viewers who recognize the value of both High Definition Television (HDTV) and Digital Video Recorder (DVR) technology were not able to integrate all of these desirable advancements in one device. Now Motorola has two advanced high definition set tops that make integration a reality!

http://broadband.motorola.com/dvr/

This seems like a good one to p/u if your into HDTV! (anyone know if they are going to become available in HAWAII?)

Watch live HDTV while you record another HDTV program! Record live HDTV while you watch previously recorded HDTV programming! Record two HDTV programs at the same time!

[pzarquon]

Re: TiVo vs. Oceanic's DVR

1) Does Tivo get it's programming from their own site meaning no need for cable or satellite?

Correct. TiVo, of course, actually gets its program data from one of the few core providers that everyone else uses, but serves it to you on its own system (either online through an internet connection or through periodic local-number landline dialouts).

Can Tivo receive local broadcasts like KHON, KITV, KGMB etc off the same land line or net connection or does it require an antenna feed?

Actually, running TiVo on an antenna is uncommon. Usually it records off a cable or digital cable signal, so as long as you get local channels there, you've got it on TiVo.

I've heard that you can use a Tivo as a standalone DVR but if you don't subscribe to it can you still use it as a DVR but with no programming control other than timing to turn on and record whatever it's input is connected to?

I think this is still the case -- that you can basically use your TiVo as a tapeless manual VCR -- though perhaps newer units are "locked down" in some way to be pretty useless without a subscription. Considering that they moved their entire business to subscription models (i.e. pushing monthly fees and no up-front hardware purchase), this wouldn't surprise me at all.

What kind of formatting does Tivo require on the hard drive?

TiVos come with hard drives, but they're standard 3.5" drives with (I think) Linux formatting. There are companies like Weaknees that sell pre-configured large capacity drives, so you can turn your 80-hour TiVo (which is really a 20-hour TiVo if you use the highest quality, lowest compression settings) into a 300-hour TiVo. And, of course, some DIY nuts do it themselves. I bought the smallest stock drive for our TiVos, then immediately put in larger Weaknees drives.

What format is the recorded file? Such as avi, mpeg4, etc?

I think it's a flavor of MPEG, MPEG-2 perhaps. But remember -- while there are lots of great features now for PC-to-TiVo and vice versa transfers and archiving, there is a DRM system in place, so you can't send your recording of "Battlestar Galactica" to your friend. At least as designed. Like with most systems, though, there are dozens of ways around the DRM, and folks are burning DVDs and both posting and downloading shows via bittorrent all over the place. I don't mess with that stuff, though -- there's enough legitimately recorded stuff to keep up with!

As for HDTV, the TiVo Series 3 is an HDTV DVR. Upgrading to a Series 3 from a Series 2 would require me to also move off standard cable to digital cable and upgrade my TV. And, as some have said, I have no problem with "low resolution" regular TV... even though my HDTV friends insist I'm not really watching "LOST" without it.

how does a custom built PVR compare vs a tivo? arent some shows restricted from tivo now?

There are rumblings that things like broadcast flags and other evil DRM schemes will begin to limit what a TiVo can do, from putting expiration dates on shows you've saved to preventing them from being saved at all... even turning off commercial skipping. Definitely troubling, and one of the reasons I'm happily staying "behind" with my lifetime Series 2 box and standard cable.

For the future? Well, if TiVo loses its battle with the networks and cable companies and starts telling me what I can't do, MythTV and a custom box will probably be the way to go.

As to the original question, "TiVo vs. Oceanic DVR," I have to say as a TiVo fanboy that you may very well find the Oceanic offering to be more than enough. It's basic, it's integrated with Oceanic (no weird channel-change quirks like with an add-on TiVo), and affordable. My dad has it and thinks it's great. In core functionality, there's little difference.

But, just like the Mac OSX GUI versus Windows, I give a lot of points for elegance and intuitive design. And while TiVo is struggling to serve its customers as well as its content providers (with yucky DRM stuff), they're far more likely to "hold out" and give you power to do creative stuff with what you've recorded than Oceanic, which is basically part of the problem.

[bueller555]

Re: TiVo vs. Oceanic's DVR

I'll take a crack at these. Please jump in to add more:

1) Does Tivo get it's programming from their own site meaning no need for cable or satellite?

The phoneline or wifi connection is needed only to update the Tivo programming guide and other doodads that are part of the Tivo features. No television programming is sent via the phoneline (i.e. episodes of Lost are not sent via the phone.) However, some special Tivo content is actually sent via phonelines (or wifi), but it's very limited. For example, I subscribe (for free) via the Tivo to CNET's Tip for Living. This is a 12 minute video program that is sent via the web to my Tivo weekly.

2) Can Tivo receive local broadcasts like KHON, KITV, KGMB etc off the same land line or net connection or does it require an antenna feed?

No, it requires either an over-the-air antenna, cable or satellite.

3) I've heard that you can use a Tivo as a standalone DVR but if you don't subscribe to it can you still use it as a DVR but with no programming control other than timing to turn on and record whatever it's input is connected to?

This might have been true with the Series 1 Tivo, but not so with the current Series 2 or 3. After your schedule guide runs out of information, the Tivo is pretty useless. It cannot be programmed like a VCR to record on a specific time and day of the week only. It requires the updated schedule guide information.

4) What kind of formatting does Tivo require on the hard drive?

Not sure what the formatting is, but the info can be found here. http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hins...to/index9.html I read that if Windows is allowed to boot from the upgrade drive, it will render the drive useless for Tivo.

And finally,

5) What format is the recorded file? Such as avi, mpeg4, etc?

Not sure on this one. I'm pretty sure that it's not a standard format because it requires a lot of hoop jumping to make it burnable.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: TiVo vs. Oceanic's DVR

I'll take a crack at these. Please jump in to add more:
The phoneline or wifi connection is needed only to update the Tivo programming guide and other doodads that are part of the Tivo features. No television programming is sent via the phoneline (i.e. episodes of Lost are not sent via the phone.) However, some special Tivo content is actually sent via phonelines (or wifi), but it's very limited. For example, I subscribe (for free) via the Tivo to CNET's Tip for Living. This is a 12 minute video program that is sent via the web to my Tivo weekly.

So where does Tivo get it's programming from?

[pzarquon]

Re: TiVo vs. Oceanic's DVR

So where does Tivo get it's programming from?

Craig, what are you asking? I think you got both answers, but maybe we're misunderstanding your question.

Where does TiVo get its information about programs? That is, the frequently updated schedule that it needs to know when "Good Eats" is on? It's downloaded either over the phone (local call for most locales) or over the web, licensed from Tribune Media (the same provider for services like Zap2It and Yahoo! TV, I think).

Where does TiVo get its content? That is, the stuff you actually watch? It tapes it off your cable box. Or satellite dish (i.e. DirecTiVo).

If you have your TiVo linked into your home network, it can also download special content over the Internet... the CNet shows, movie trailers, podcasts (though these are streamed, not cached), video podcasts, yada yada yada. There is a lot of integration with Yahoo! web services, in fact. You can browse Yahoo! Photos or check Yahoo! Weather on your TiVo-powered TV, for example.