TiVo in DVD recorders soon!

[Bao H. Lammy]

Damn pricey, but exactly what I've been waiting for. Now comes
the wait for the price to come down. :-( And yes, I know you can
do all of this with a kludge of computer peripherals, but that's not
what I or many others want, which is a dedicated box for the A/V
center in one's home (that often isn't anywhere near a computer).

----------
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=SVBIZINK5.story&STORY=/www/story/06-25-2003/0001971592&EDATE=WED+Jun+25+2003,+08:0
5+AM

If the long link doesn't work for you, click the shorter one below
and then click the last link in the article (labeled TiVo-Pioneer):
http://www.tvpredictions.com/TivoDVD.html

[Jack Ak]

The referencing article incorrectly refers to the previously announced
Toshiba product as a DVD recorder. The Toshiba product with TiVo
at $549 has a DVD player, but no DVD recording feature.

A DirecTV DVR with TiVo connected to a standalone DVD recorder could
be obtained for less money and should provide better quality DVD recordings.

"Bao H. Lammy" > wrote in message ...
> Damn pricey, but exactly what I've been waiting for. Now comes
> the wait for the price to come down. :-( And yes, I know you can
> do all of this with a kludge of computer peripherals, but that's not
> what I or many others want, which is a dedicated box for the A/V
> center in one's home (that often isn't anywhere near a computer).
>
> ----------
>
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=SVBIZINK5.story&STORY=/www/story/06-25-2003/0001971592&EDATE=WED+Jun+25+2003,+08:0
> 5+AM
>
> If the long link doesn't work for you, click the shorter one below
> and then click the last link in the article (labeled TiVo-Pioneer):
> http://www.tvpredictions.com/TivoDVD.html
>
>

[Bao H. Lammy]

"Jack Ak" > wrote
> The referencing article incorrectly refers to the previously announced
> Toshiba product as a DVD recorder. The Toshiba product with TiVo
> at $549 has a DVD player, but no DVD recording feature.

You must mean this one: http://www.tvpredictions.com/TivoDVD.html.
Right, but the purpose of that article being posted was for the link at
the end, the long one that appears in browsers as "TiVo-Pioneer."


> A DirecTV DVR with TiVo connected to a standalone DVD recorder could
> be obtained for less money and should provide better quality DVD recordings.

Probably, but 1) it requires DirecTV service -- which not everyone
wants; and 2) doesn't have the folllowing capabilities integrated into
a elegant archiving system (or at least that's how I interpreted the
features list):

* Play programs from the hard drive while recording
from the hard drive onto a DVD
[The setup you described forces one to not use the TiVo (HD)
portion for anything else while archiving to the separate DVD
recorder, right?]

* Transfer content at high speeds from the hard drive to a
DVD for long-term storage
[Does this possibly imply a lossless or near-lossless transfer?]

I absolute agree that the announced cost is too high, but that's to
be expected for a new product.

[Jack Ak]

"Bao H. Lammy" > wrote in message ...
> "Jack Ak" > wrote
....
>
> > A DirecTV DVR with TiVo connected to a standalone DVD recorder could
> > be obtained for less money and should provide better quality DVD recordings.
>
> Probably, but 1) it requires DirecTV service -- which not everyone
> wants; and 2) doesn't have the folllowing capabilities integrated into
> a elegant archiving system (or at least that's how I interpreted the
> features list):
>
A DirecTV DVR with TiVo can provide playback quality equal to the original
programming. A standalone TiVo can't do that. The new product won't be
able to do that unless it has an integrated DirecTV receiver.

> * Play programs from the hard drive while recording
> from the hard drive onto a DVD
> [The setup you described forces one to not use the TiVo (HD)
> portion for anything else while archiving to the separate DVD
> recorder, right?]
>
A DirecTV DVR with Tivo can record two programs while saving
a previously recorded program to VCR or DVD.

> * Transfer content at high speeds from the hard drive to a
> DVD for long-term storage
> [Does this possibly imply a lossless or near-lossless transfer?]
>
> I absolute agree that the announced cost is too high, but that's to
> be expected for a new product.
>
>
One final advantage is that an independent DVD recorder and TiVo recorder
can be replaced individually when technology improves for either device.
Television receivers with built-in VCRs are undesirable for this reason.

[Bao H. Lammy]

"Jack Ak" > wrote
> > > A DirecTV DVR with TiVo connected to a standalone DVD recorder could
> > > be obtained for less money and should provide better quality DVD recordings.
> > Probably, but 1) it requires DirecTV service -- which not everyone
> > wants; and 2) doesn't have the folllowing capabilities integrated into
> > a elegant archiving system (or at least that's how I interpreted the
> > features list):
> A DirecTV DVR with TiVo can provide playback quality equal to the original
> programming. A standalone TiVo can't do that.
> The new product won't be
> able to do that unless it has an integrated DirecTV receiver.

Yes, we all know that. But 1) original quality on a DirecTV
system isn't necessarily better than original quality on a cable
system, and 2) not everyone wants DirecTV; your "solution"
requires DirecTV. Period.


> > * Play programs from the hard drive while recording
> > from the hard drive onto a DVD
> > [The setup you described forces one to not use the TiVo (HD)
> > portion for anything else while archiving to the separate DVD
> > recorder, right?]
> A DirecTV DVR with Tivo can record two programs while saving
> a previously recorded program to VCR or DVD.

Yes, but you can't watch something other than what is being dumped
to the VCR or DVD recorder with your method. The advantage I
described of the Pioneer integrated TiVo-DVD recorder is that you
can dump from its hard drive to a blank DVD while *watching*
something else. If one has a lot of archiving to do, this makes the
system useable even during the archiving to DVD. Or did I miss
something here?


> > * Transfer content at high speeds from the hard drive to a
> > DVD for long-term storage
> > [Does this possibly imply a lossless or near-lossless transfer?]
> > I absolute agree that the announced cost is too high, but that's to
> > be expected for a new product.
> One final advantage is that an independent DVD recorder and TiVo recorder
> can be replaced individually when technology improves for either device.
> Television receivers with built-in VCRs are undesirable for this reason.

True. I still think that the ability to archive in the manner I described
above outweighs this disadvantage. It is frustrating to me when I dump
from my standalone TiVo DVR to my VCR that I cannot use TiVo
at all until it's done. Though theoretically I could have TiVo recording
something else while it's dumping to the VCR, being able to watch
something else while dumping to offline media is much more useful, imo.)

[Bao H. Lammy]

> not everyone wants DirecTV

Example: I just moved into a home that never has had cable TV.
The previous owners did have a satellite dish, which they left, but
they didn't leave any other satellite equipment.

I currently have cable TV, and I called my cable company to
transfer my account to the new address (in the same city). The
cost?

$20: one-time transfer address fee; I think this is pretty good
as they actually have to come out to the old address to turn off
the cable feed "at the pole" as well as coming out to my new
address to turn on service "at the pole." The $20 also includes
one outlet. But, here's the kicker: for every additional outlet I
want (as long as it is on an exterior wall and doesn't require
wall-fishing), I only pay a one-time fee of $13.50. This includes
cabling, cutting into walls, installing faceplates and jacks, etc.
I'm getting 5 outlets in all.

Now, for DirecTV, I would need a DirecTV receiver for each
outlet as well as some sort of multiswitch or stacker. (I've
never had satellite, so please forgive me if I'm using the wrong
terms). In addition, if I want multiple devices at each jack with
cable, all I do is split it with a $2 splitter. For example, I might
want to have one feed going into a TV directly and the other
going into a recording device such as a VCR or DVR, keeping
the tuners in each entirely independent.

Sometimes a person just wants some sort of decent channel
lineup at various places in the home. Cable allows this easily,
while DirecTV requires major investments. Buying a DTV
receiver for a kitchen or even a bathroom is overkill for most.