Looking to record your favorite HD shows to a digital video recorder (HD DVR)? You’re not alone. As of December, 2007, 20% of U.S. households had a DVR, up from 12% at the beginning of the year. Your choices are proliferating, and if you have cable service and are trying to decide between the company-issue DVR and one you buy yourself, we’re here to sort out the choices for you.
When TiVo announced YouTube integration last week, it got us to wondering: Is TiVo that much better? How do recorders offered by cable companies and PC-based video recording stack up to the more-expensive TiVo? TiVo is the premium choice, but cable companies are leasing units for a lower overall cost but without all TiVo’s frills. On the other hand, you might be interested in a home theater PC (HTPC) that has HD video recording capabilities, but if you want to record high-def premium cable TV shows (as opposed to off-air broadcasts), you’ll find yourself buying a new computer with a CableCARD or two along for the ride. Here’s an overview:
You Get This With All of Them
The best three reasons people want a DVR are to watch shows at any time, pause live TV, and to skip commercials. All DVRs can do an admirable job of those basic functions. Dual-tuner capability is now commonplace. This gives you the ability to watch a show while you’re recording another (or with many models, while recording two others), or to record two shows at the same time. All have the ability to record all episodes of a series — TiVo calls this a “season pass.”
TiVo
The user interface of TiVo is unparalleled in the DVR world. It’s just downright user-friendly, and you can immediately learn how to use it. Its thumbs up/thumbs down feature lets you indicate which types of shows you like, and then TiVo will find other shows you might enjoy based on those preferences. It automatically records its suggestions, but erases the recordings automatically if it needs to make room for shows you’ve scheduled. It lets you remotely schedule recordings on your machine from any Web browser. Its killer function is available only after you enter a
secret key sequence: 30-second skip. Push a button, skip a commercial. That one feature is life-changing.
Tivo’s catch? Price, where you’ll pay at least $8/month (when you sign up for three years) for the program guide that’s essential to the service, around $3/month for each of the two cable cards you’ll need, and then around $250 for the TiVoHD box (although we recently saw a refurbished unit for $180). The fancier TiVo Series3 HD DVR, with a screen that shows what it’s recording and more disk space, is a lot more expensive than that, but it’s been discontinued.
Cable company-supplied DVR
Cable companies are scrambling to improve their traditionally awful DVR offerings, with HD boxes whose hardware, and especially software, is vastly inferior to TiVo but steadily improving. Their set-top boxes typically consist of the
Scientific-Atlanta (now Cisco) 8300HD, the
Motorola DCT-6412 (pictured above), and a few others. Their interfaces get the job done, with “season pass” capabilities, passable program guides and usually awkward search functions. Noticeably missing are the beloved 30-second skip function and that TiVo remote that fits perfectly in the hand. However, the line is blurring here between TiVo and cable company DVRs, because some cablers such as Comcast are now starting to roll out TiVo software in their HD set-top boxes. If your cable company offers such a hardware/software combination, it might represent a happy medium.
Home Theater PC
If you want the ultimate in power and flexibility, a home theater PC (HTPC) such as the Alienware Hangar18 Home Entertainment Center pictured above is the way to go. With Windows Media Center installed (standard with Windows Vista Ultimate and Home Premium, or Windows XP Media Center Edition), the user experience is second only to that of TiVo. But there’s a catch. If you want to record scrambled cable TV shows, you’ll need to buy a pricey HTPC that’s been approved by the powers that be, namely CableLabs, the gatekeeper for everything having to do with CableCARD. That’s the credit card-size receiver that takes the place of that bulky set-top box you’ve grow accustomed to over the years. Since the PC you’re using has to have HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) from cable to screen, the outboard boxes that can accommodate cable cards, such as the
ATI TV Wonder pictured at left, are only sold with certain
crazy-expensive PCs that comply with this requirement.
It’s rigged like this because content creators don’t want you to easily copy premium HD programs (such as those from pay service HBO) onto your PC and spread them far and wide to those who haven’t paid for them. As a result, if you want to get an old PC and convert it into a CableCARD-totin’ HD DVR, you can’t. However, you can get an HDTV tuner for your PC that can record video, but all your shows will have to be received either over the air with an old-fashioned antenna or unencrypted (usually local TV stations only) over cable.
Use That DVR!
You’re on your way to choosing your route to HD DVR Nirvana. All the above choices have their advantages, but none is perfect. The price of a TiVoHD box is coming down enough to make it a competitive option, though it’s still more expensive than the cable company DVR with its lack of up-front costs. That Comcast HD DVR with the TiVo software seems like it could be ideal, but it’s not widespread yet, not everyone has access to Comcast, and there’s
disagreement about whether it works very well yet. The Home Theater PC is the most powerful and versatile, but most are unreasonably expensive and chasing a moving standard that could change soon.
By dmspen at 10:07 AM ON 03/26/08
SO what happened to the satellite DVRs? Recently, CNET touted the DISH Network DVR as the best on the market.
By Kurt2 at 10:28 AM ON 03/26/08
You can also use your HTPC to play world of warcraft on your big screen!
By thexfile at 10:51 AM ON 03/26/08
hi i live in holland and whel digital tv is just getting a foothold over here and i just got digtal cabel.
cable providers over here trie you to force you onto there set top box , but lukely there are 3 tv companies that have built in videocards withe decoders.
i thought about the whole set top box thing and opted for a sharp tv withe built in analoge , hd cabel and satelite tuner and hd recorder withe 160gb.
this way i have 1 mashine and can pop my decoderd card straight into my tv's slot.
the interface is pretty oke.
the only thing is that my tv alows to export recorded material to another mashine via hdmi cable , but i'm not quite shure what kinde of mashine :-S think it's a burner / recorder , but would like to be it a pc so i can store / burn material would like to find that out as shuttle has a pc withe hdmi interface but i'm not shure if it goes bothe ways.
i now tend to record a lot of movies and show's but after a while 160 gb seems smal.
but so far i love the al in 1 thing , to bad it did not had a built in bleuray player / burner :-S
that would have made it even better.
but so far i'm loving the recorder , i never had a vcr but i love this , so easy to skip comercials espacialy withe sharps 1 step forward 1 step back systhem wich puts you in 3 steps right at the end of the comercials.
over here some comercials last like 5 to 10 min sometimes :-S
so i tend to record and watsh insted of watshing live , it's 1 way to stop spam advertizing on your tv.
i can recomend a tv withe a built in systhem , trust me if you have a smal apartmant like me it's heaven...
By BackStJoe at 10:53 AM ON 03/26/08
I started out with a ReplayTV (which I freakin' loved!) and now have a cable box dvr. I'd love to upgrade to TiVo, but the lack of On Demand support will keep it out of my hands. I'll sacrafice interface for On Demand, which no matter how much hard drive space you have, you'll never have enough room to store all those "In Treatment" episodes.
By Anonymous at 12:13 PM ON 03/26/08
I've been using a Phillips DVR/DVD Recorder for the past year and it's wonderful. No service fees, it hooks up right to your cable like a VCR and you can dub from HDD to DVD or just delete when storage reaches capacity. There's no built in channel guide, but if you have any sort of digital cable you'll already have that with the cable box, so why pay the extra price? Plus, I can take this when I move and use it with whatever service provider I want. It's all a one time payment. I think I paid a little under $300 total. Why pay the extra cost for a service you don't need?
By Justin Thyme at 1:29 PM ON 03/26/08
Pay per view works just fine on Tivo contrary to your chart. It is less convenient because you have to do it the old fashioned way- call or use internet rather than simply activate the show if you have a cableco box.
Regarding "Bittorrent" and stuff like Home videos you might want to view and store on the DVR- since nearly all homes that have a dvr have a home computer, It is fair to say that Tivos do this kind of content just fine- and by the way- with far far less hassle than doing it on the MCE.
Lastly- Transfers. I transfer a lot of programming to my video IPods- it is a great pacifier for my 4 kids in the car. Anyway- I have a Windows media center hooked up to the TV, a Tivo HD and a Tivo (non HD), and so I am familiar with transfering programs.
There is a huge difference between their capabilities. The MCE and Tivo HD won't just refuse to transfer HD programs- they will refuse to transfer digital channels that have a no copy flag set on them. All of this content can be recorded on the Non-HD Tivo, so I am always going to have one in the house. The flagged shows are at least 20% of the shows that I record, and it would be a lot higher for other types of content.
"All Digital" is not necessarily a good thing.
By MegaZone at 7:31 PM ON 03/26/08
Actually, the HD capacity on the stock TiVo HD is about 20 hours, not 12. And CableCARD fees vary widely - in some areas the first card is free and the second only $1.50. But the TiVo HD can use M-Cards, which means you need just one card - not two. Most cable MSOs now offer M-Cards, and if the first card is free in your area - you're golden, no fee.
TiVo also supports more than just podcasts (and YouTube is later this year) - nearly any video you have can be transcoded and transferred to the TiVo over the network. That could be DVD rips, BitTorrent downloads, video from your camcorder, etc. This can be done with TiVo Desktop on Windows, or a number of 3rd party tools, like pyTiVo.
For PPV/VOD content, TiVo has also announced a partnership with Jaman.com, which will bring more movies to TiVo this year - similar to Unbox. And you can download free music videos from Music Choice. And there is also support for music services Live365 and Rhapsody, of course.
You can also expand the unit beyond the 500GB eSATA drive if you're willing to open it up. There are tools to upgrade the TiVo - the largest units today are 2TB with 1TB internal and a 1TB eSATA drive.
By Fibby at 12:13 PM ON 03/27/08
The Motorola HD DVR that Comcast uses is the most horrendous piece of garbage. I miss my Dish Network DVR. =:o(
By ig6 at 1:38 AM ON 03/28/08
There is a way to do the 30 second skip with the Comcast DVR's, it's just not something they're eager to tell you about due to the fact that their advertisers would frown on it. Very few techs actually know the codes and the ones that do are told to give it out very sparingly.
For instructions on how to program the remote to do the 30 second skip, go to the following website:
http://dcortesi.com/2005/05/04/motorola-dct6412-comcast-dvr-30-second-skip/
By Uilleam at 2:47 PM ON 03/28/08
Thanks for this article. It had information that I didn't know about, and hadn't heard from other sites like CNET. I thought I'd be able to just plug & play an old computer I had lying around and use it as a media center. I now know there's much more to it. Keep up the good work.