I have never owned (or used) a TIVO, but I asked a few questions about
one at a local Best Buy recently. I believe that everyone I asked,
and everything I read, says that a Cable Card from the local cable
company is required for the TIVO to work, even if one has no cable box
and only cares about the unencrypted signals. It was less clear what
else might be required.
One sales person told me that our local cable company (Time Warner)
would require me to step up to the highest level service (which might
cost at least another $30-40) and that I would need a cable card
(which also costs something -- I've heard anything from $2 to $8 per
month). Another sales person, who seemed more knowledgeable, said
that I could get by with only a cable card, if all I wanted to view
and record were unencrypted channels.
If that last part is true, then a TIVO might be an alternative I would
consider. The EyeTV tuner lists for $150 (though I got a used one on
ebay for $90) and a Mac Mini lists for either $700 or $1000. I assume
the server version is preferred because of the larger hard drive
capacity (1 TB versus 320 GB). Does the extra RAM (4 GB versus 2 GB)
or the slightly faster CPU help at all with the DVR aspects? Both
versions of the Mac Mini have eSATA ports -- do external eSATA drives
work as well as the internal drives? If so, perhaps it would be
better to get the cheaper Mac Mini.
From what I gather, there are 2 current TIVO versions: one for $300
and one for $500. The fancier one has a larger hard drive (500 GB
versus ???) and built-in wireless. To get wireless working on the
cheaper one, I heard that one must buy the TIVO wireless adapter (for
$80). Also, one must pay for the TIVO service. The lifetime
subscription is $400.
So the prices of both solutions are fairly similar. I'm still not
sure which is a better solution for me. I suppose that if TIVO went
away, then the Mac Mini solution would still leave me with a
functional computer...
Gregg
On 11 Oct 2010, at 11:58 PM, [email protected] wrote:
On 2010-10-11 13:52 , Neil Laubenthal wrote:
Looking at the Tivo channel listing . . .I don't see the regular
broadcast networks (NBC, CBS, Fox, and ABC) listed . . .
i don't know what "channel listing" you may be looking at -- i plug
mine
into an antenna, it figures out what channels i receive, and it finds
the schedules for all those channels ... for those who are used to
cable-only, btw, digital broadcast TV is a huge quality improvement
over
analog broadcast, and there's quite a bit of HD content
although I do see HBO and the other premium channels listed . . .do
they come from the Tivo internet connection or still from the cable
connection? Our current Cox bill gets us basic cable (Cox Starter)
for 22, Expanded for 32, Advanced for 6, Sports for 3, and the HD
set top box (non DVR) for 8. Assuming all the channels listed on
the Tivo site are included in the monthly service . . .wouldn't I
still need the basic cable for those channels?
except for what it streams (Netflix, etc.), TiVo just gets what you
get
via antenna and/or cable, so it depends on what you think you need; i
don't think i need cable, except infrequently i'll stream something
that
was originally on cable, or check out a past season from the library
If I still have to pay for cable for all of those extra
channels . . .other than the DVR capability which wouldn't be all
that much use to us what's the real advantage of Tivo?
well if DVR is no use to you, that seems strange -- you only want to
watch live? another advantage IMO is not needing cable to have
plenty of
content -- timeshifting (DVR) lets you watch things that are broadcast
at odd times, which greatly multiplies the effective amount of
available
content; one more advantage is not having to configure squirky
software
on the mac, though i'd probably enjoy it, my partner would probably
hate it
My original post was looking for some easy/relatively cheap way to
use the mini (hooked up for streaming video from various sites that
aren't covered by Tivo) to record something while watching
something else . . .one big problem we seem to have is that two
good shows come on opposite one another. While it would be nice to
record one . . .it doesn't happen often enough to make it worth
another $30 a month.
what costs $30/month? cable?
my TiVo records two shows at once all the time; they are broadcast
shows, and as i said i don't know whether the dual tuners work on
encrypted cable or not, but they might; i'm also pretty sure you can
connect and record from both cable and broadcast signals
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