For Those of You Who Want Tivo Benefits Without Tivo's Price

[amykhar]

Yahoo may have something that will interest you. It's called Yahoo Go TV and it has DVR capabilities and more. Best of all, it's free.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

aw man, it requires running a line from the tv to the computer. I have three rooms - one has a computer in it, the other two have TV's. I'd have to drill holes in walls

[pippadaisy]

It sounds similar to many of the free services out there.

We had a TVR card in my computer. And hated all the free services for running it, which was why we went with the Tivo.

How are the ads on it?

[nc10]

amykhar said

....and it has DVR capabilities and more. Best of all, it's free.

The DVR capability requires a Tuner card. (Most TV tuner cards also include a free web based electronic program guide and PVR software, the ones I've tried worked well)

I see this used to be Meedio, which used to be myHTPC. Tried this a while back, I didn't like it as much as Beyond TV, but Meedio generally got really good reviews. I think I'll try the Yahoo version. Thanks for pointing this out.

[amykhar]

Many newer PCs have a tuner card, and those that don't could have one put in. For many people, it's not the up-front cost of the tivo hardware that keeps them from making the plunge - it's the monthly fees.

[pippadaisy]

It's cheaper than Netflix. LOL.

[emeleel]

Howzabout this dealybopper?

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/how20/a...cbccdrcrd.html

[pippadaisy]

Having done both, I'll explain why we are paying the money for Tivo.

The suggestion feature alone with Tivo is worth its weight in GOLD to me. Based on what I watch and record, Tivolicious goes out and suggests like-themed shows to me.

Now, if you are watching sitcoms that probably isn't such a huge deal, but my kids' new favorite show is one I never would have known existed called How Its Made, that they are ENTHRALLED by (although yesterday showed how they make a glass eye complete with showing how they make the mold of the eye socket and eye things make me especially queasy). My four-year-old who sits still for NOTHING was asking questions about paper manufacturing and silvering mirrors. I had no idea that show was even out there.

Admittedly, we are probably a) a more tech savvy house than your average bear and b) my kids are a bit odder in their tv watching than a lot of kids probably are. But we really didn't get much out of the free software services (most of which cover cost either by blitzing you with ads or feeding your info to Nielsen and the like anyway) other than being able to record, pause, etc.

So it definitely depends on what you are looking for. We had a lot of channels and weren't watching a lot of tv, or at least GOOD tv. I love that when the kids are wanting to watch something, I'm not limited to what I can find on, and have a trove of things that Tivolicious went out and got for them, many of which I'd never have noticed or thought to look for.

If you are looking for a slightly more intelligent VCR, then the tuner card and free service is probably plenty, and worth the investment. I like that our tv watching is now totally refined (or at least, mine and the kids' can be described that way).

Also keep in mind that depending on how much you watch, you may need to upgrade your hard drive. 25 minutes of Little Einsteins runs me about 630MB. A two-hour movie is about 2 GB. I was running the tuner card on a 100GB partition on a 200GB drive and G would fill it regularly, forcing me to delete countless episodes of anime he wanted me to save.

[nc10]

amykhar said

Many newer PCs have a tuner card, and those that don't could have one put in. For many people, it's not the up-front cost of the tivo hardware that keeps them from making the plunge - it's the monthly fees.

Right, getting a tuner card is not too big a deal, if you just have basic analog cable. Running the cable to the PC can be a hassle, and if you have an external tuner box for premium channels, satellite, digital cable, etc, its gets more complicated. (Many TV cards come with an IR transmitter that will change channels on the tuner box). I was just saying that most tuner cards ( I've tried ATI, Pinnacle, Hauppage, AverMedia) also come with software that does most of what the Yahoo/Meedio Software does, especially if you just want to watch TV while browsing the web or something. Meedio was pretty slick, though. Its a generation or two behind SageTV or BeyondTV, and I even think you might like Windows Media Center a little better .

You can get a decent tuner card with software encoder for $30 or so, if you've got a fast computer to handle the encoding. If you have a not so fast computer, get one of the Hauppage WinTV PVR cards that have a hardware encoder, or the ATI TV Wonder Elite, which also has a hardware encoder, they run around $100.

Of all the software I liked BeyondTV the best, it isn't free, but you only buy the software once, afterwards the EPG is free (no "TIVO" fees), and is really terrific. Does all the "TIVO" things you hear about (I think, I've never actually had TIVO), it can be set to record only new episodes, search for shows about certain subjects and record them, record everything with certain actors, etc. You log on to the internet and schedule recordings from anywhere. We never watch TV live anymore, have one PC with two tuners for recording, and that PC is networked through our home. But SageTV, Windows Media Center and Meedio are all very good.

The problem I had with Meedio when I tried it was that it only ran full screen, which meant I couldn't really watch TV on a single monitor system while doing something else.

[pippadaisy]

I think the biggest difference in BeyondTV's features is how your Season Pass is recorded. You can search by keyword, but if I remember correctly, I couldn't set a Season Pass sort of thing by keyword (like how the Popular Mechanics with Cirque was automatically recorded). It also doesn't do suggestions, and I don't think it had the settings for automatically deleting files as a drive got full or to only keep a certain number of episodes.

[frazzledspice]

Sounds interesting. We've had Tivo for five years, but about six months ago, something went kerfluey.

It still records and sends and receives messages, but the NAMES of the shows we want recorded don't come up, just the time and station. So when we're going through the list, we have to think, "Hmmmm....Tuesday night, Channel 12, 7 p.m.--that must be American Idol."

We had paid extra to get "lifetime service." Then we saw the loophole--it's "lifetime" for the "lifetime" of that particular Tivo recorder.

So we are just using it as is, rather than getting a new one and paying for monthly service. It's not that much of an inconvenience.

[phoenixx[$]]

Fraz, maybe the TiVo Community's Help Forums can offer a solution?

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb...isplay.php?f=4

[pippadaisy]

Two things:

One, have you tried rebooting the Tivo?

Two, if you have a Tivo hard drive failure, you can replace the hard drive and your lifetime subscription STAYS ACTIVE.

[frazzledspice]

Thanks, when my hubby gets back home Saturday night I will suggest it to him. He's the Tivo person in the house..

[amykhar]

Fraz, in addition, You can upgrade the software on your Tivo to give it more features. Tivos, I believe, run a variation of Linux.

[pippadaisy]

Also true. I can't remember what the latest release is... of course, we are running whatever the latest beta of whatever is.