Oh wow! For what I was asking before about off loading the stuff on a Tivo
to something, this would be the perfect solution huh? Bet they cost a arm
and a leg though. lol Any idea how much?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Charles" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "'The Sandbox Discussion List'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, November 13, 2003 12:38 PM
Subject: [Sndbox] Swiss Army Recorder: TiVo/DVD
>
>
>
> By DAVID POGUE
> Published: November 13, 2003
>
> SOONER or later, the technologies of the various areas of our lives merge,
> resulting in a savings of cost, cables and clutter. For the nightstand,
you
> can buy a clock-radio-telephone. In the car, you've got one
> radio-CD-player-heating-control unit. In your pocket, a Swiss Army knife.
>
> But the area around the TV is still a mess. By the time you've installed
> your cable box, VCR, TiVo and DVD player-recorder, you've built a
> techno-tower crisscrossed by cables and overrun by remotes. If ever an
area
> cried out for consolidation, the TV room is it.
>
> The industry has taken a few tentative steps in that direction: combo
> VCR-DVD players fill the shelves at Costco and Circuit City, and Toshiba
> recently unveiled a $400 TiVo with built-in DVD player. But those early
> attempts should bow down before the sweet perfection of a new pair of
> hybrids: Pioneer's new DVR-810H and Elite DVR-57H.
>
> Each of these remarkable machines is a TiVo recorder, DVD player and DVD
> recorder in a single box, with one remote that also controls your TV.
>
> The TiVo part means that you can freeze, rewind or instantly replay
whatever
> you're watching; record a show (or, rather, a lot of shows) on its
built-in
> hard drive for instant playback at any time; and skip over ads.
> Above all, a digital video recorder, or DVR, like TiVo permanently
> disconnects the broadcast time from the viewing time. By the time TiVo
> zealots - which is pretty much everyone who has ever bought one - blip
over
> the ads, credits, recaps and promos, they can watch a one-hour show in
about
> 35 minutes. No wonder they never, ever watch whatever junk happens to be
on
> at the moment.
>
> These Pioneers are also first-class DVD (and CD) players, made all the
more
> likable because you control a disc's playback with the same buttons on the
> remote that you use for TiVo playback. If your TV has so-called
> component-video inputs (inexplicably labeled Y, Pb and Pr) the DVD player
> rewards you with progressive-scan output. (Translation: very high video
> quality found in fancier DVD players.)
>
> But the real magic happens when you highlight a recorded show in the
TiVo's
> Now Playing list and press the Copy to DVD button. A graph of the blank
DVD
> fills up as you select more shows to record onto it. (If a movie is too
long
> to fit on one DVD, the TiVo will even split it onto multiple discs for
> you.)
>
> Another button press begins creating your very own homemade DVD. That may
> sound like a serious technical business, but on this machine, it's every
bit
> as casual and effortless as using a VCR. The result is a disc that plays
on
> any standard DVD player of recent vintage.
>
> If this method of burning a DVD sounds simple and obvious, you've clearly
> never tried one of the other set-top DVD burners. For example, the TiVo
> already knows each show's name, so you don't have to type in the title of
> each show you're copying - a grueling exercise on other DVD recorders,
given
> the absence of alphabet keys. This is the only DVD burner that approaches
> the simplicity of a VCR, and the only one you'd ever wish upon, say, your
> parents.
>
> And now, an important digression into video-recording quality. Like any
> video recorder, the TiVo offers a choice of recording speeds. At Extreme
> quality, which looks spectacular, the "80 hour" Pioneer holds only 14
hours
> of shows. It holds 80 hours only in the lowest-quality mode, Basic, also
> known as "yucky."
>
> Now, hard-drive capacity isn't nearly as important on this TiVo as it is
on
> a regular TiVo, because you can always offload your recordings onto DVD's
> when the hard drive begins to fill up.
>
> Even so, the different recording modes become important when you begin
> copying shows from the Pioneer's hard drive to a DVD, because the quality
> setting determines how much video will fit on a disc. At Extreme quality,
> each disc holds only an hour; at High, two hours; Medium, four hours; and
> Basic quality, six hours.
>
> Using blank DVD's labeled 2x or 4x, it takes about an hour to burn a DVD.
> DVD-RW (erasable) discs take longer, and so do the older, 1x blank discs.
> (In any case, you can continue watching TV and using the TiVo while the
> burning takes place.)
>
> The Pioneers can record onto both DVD-R discs (about $50 for a 25-pack)
and
> DVD-RW discs, which you can erase and use again. That feature makes it
easy
> and practical to dump some shows onto DVD for, say, a car trip with the
> kids, and then use the same disc later for a couple of "West Wing"
episodes
> for your plane flight.
>
> Pioneer was wise to let TiVo design the software and write the manual,
which
> ought to win matching Pulitzers. But before you go charging off to
> www.pioneerburner.com for more information, you should note three
drawbacks.
>
> First, a delicious new TiVo option lets you record old VHS tapes and
> camcorder movies directly onto the hard drive, and burn them from there
onto
> DVD's. In the process, you give your video a new lease on life with a much
> longer life expectancy. Trouble is, you have to hook up your camcorder by
> using analog connectors. There's no FireWire connector that can
accommodate
> (and preserve the pristine video from) digital camcorders - an oversight
the
> size of Orson Welles.
>
> The second limitation applies only to TiVo fans who have signed up for the
> Home Media Option. (That's a $100 software upgrade that lets you shuttle
> recordings between TiVo recorders in your house across a home network, or
> play music and photos from your computer on the TV screen.) If you connect
> the Pioneer to your home network, you can watch shows from another TiVo in
> the house, but can't record them onto DVD's.
>
> Finally - are you lying down? - there's the matter of the price. Pioneer's
> suggested price for the 80-hour DVR-801H is $1,200 - and for its 120-hour
> Elite DVR-57H, a staggering $1,800. Has Pioneer gone stark, raving mad?
>
> You can find much better prices online - $725 and $1,400, respectively.
But
> that's still a lot.
>
> And that's not even the whole price story.
>
> Now, unlike the owners of the stand-alone TiVo, you don't have to sign up
> for any kind of paid subscription plan to use the Pioneer. You get TiVo's
> on-screen TV-guide service - the channel grid that you use to choose
> programs for recording - free.
>
> But this free service, called TiVo Basic, offers listings for only the
next
> three days, not two weeks like the regular TiVo. It doesn't let you search
> for a show by name, schedule a Season Pass (where you tell the machine,
> "Record every episode of this, every week"), or set up a Wish List ("If a
> show with this actor, director, or title ever comes on, record it
> automatically").
>
> These traditional TiVo perks are available only if you upgrade your
machine
> to TiVo Plus, which costs $13 a month or a one-shot payment of $300.
> (Footnotes: You get an automatic 45-day free trial of TiVo Plus, you can
> upgrade or cancel at any time, and you can get a $50 rebate before the end
> of the year.)
>
> To attain your Pioneer's fullest potential, then, you're talking about
$725
> for the 80-hour box, plus $300 for TiVo Plus. This holiday season, the
> rafters will echo with the voices of livid spouses: "You want to spend
> $1,025 on a VCR!?"
>
> One possible counter-argument: "Yeah, but we'd pay pretty much the same
> amount if we bought the components separately" ($300 for an 80-hour
> stand-alone TiVo, $300 for the lifetime service, $450 for a DVD recorder).
> Don't forget that business about saving space, clutter, cables, and remote
> controls, either.
>
> The bottom line is that the Pioneer TiVo is far better designed and easier
> to use than any other DVD recorder. The question isn't whether or not
people
> should buy it; the only question is whether or not they can.
>
>
>
>
>
>
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