Finally, my cable company now supports DVR's. I never caved in and went the TIVO route (though I was tempted) because I never thought that it was worth $400 ($200 equipment + $200 LT subscription). The DVR will only be $2/month and I don't have to deal with owning it.

So, this begs the obvious question: what should I program it to record? I only have limited TV time each week, but when I do have some time, it's always crap on TV and I end up watching the news. So, my current considerations for recording:

1) Curb your Enthusiasm

Any other suggestions?

Cool a thread I can dump a random thought of mine in without starting a new one.

With the demise of Tivo and DirecTV's relationship, I was thinking that Tivo's next best bet would be to partner with a competitor. Voom. They are currently working on their own HD-DVR which will be great, but I want all the tivo features to go along with the HD capabilities, w/o Tivo ripping me a new one for a $1000 HD-DVR. I don't think Tivo will make it with all these companies(cable & satellite) bundling DVRs with their setups. I think the only way to survive is to join forces. It would be a shame to see all the great features of Tivo to disappear because of all the 'cheap' dvrs. HD is the future and I think Voom has the best thing going on that front.

Anyway, matta, I just got my Tivo over the summer and love it. Just wish, as you can tell, that it recorded HD.

Lost

Following DirecTV's recent news about expanding their Hi-Def coverage, Voom has a better chance to going under.

So how do these DVRs compare to a Tivo? There's no way I'd give up my Tivo, but I'm curious what the other ones are like.

They suck, but are fine as a supplement if you have 1 or multiple Replays or TIVOs. One advantage over standalone TIVO and Replay is that they have 2 tuners.

Or deal with any of the features that make TiVo a far superior product, well worth every penny you pay for it.

Seriously though, get started on Lost. It's my favorite new show of the season.

Congrats -- welcome to the club!

$2 a month? Lucky bastard! Comcast hasn't released the DVRs here yet, but I think the rumor was that it's going to be $10 here. The only reason I want one is to record HD, but I'm not going to pay another $10 for it when I already have 2 prepaid ReplayTVs. There's already a $5 fee for a box plus a $5 fee for HD

We just got comcast digital cable installed. The box comes complete with a DVR for the same price.

Shopping for HDTV's now.

Do all the cable companies' DVRs have a single tuner? What a waste.......

I finally got a dvr at the beginning of September. Time Warner finally got them in here and at $5/month and 2 tuners, they can't be beat.

As for recommendations, everybody should at least try the 2 best shows on tv: Scrubs and Gilmore Girls. There are shows like Lost that I get more excited about because of all the plot stuff, but no other show is anywhere near as consistently good as Scrubs and GG.

Both on Tuesday and GG is now being rerun on ABC Family twice a day. Both shows have dramatic moments, but are primarily comedies, so you can pretty much jump on at any time with them.

Do these cable DVRs offer anything like Tivo's Season Pass, ie. anytime the show is on the DVR records?

That's one of the biggest reasons why I like my DirecTivo. Well that and the dual-tuning, but that appears to be in other units now.

One of my friends has a Dish DVR. I guess I'll have to check it out sometime and compare.

The Scientific Atlantic 8000 from Charter will record "all episodes" of a show. This pics up new episodes or repeats on the same channel. Thus shows like "The Real World" get recorded numerous times.

Well I'm contemplating getting an HD-DVR for $25 extra a month. I'll have to see what the HD cable quality is like first.
Plus no UPN or WB.

Teletubbies.

That's what I have and you also have the option of only recording the show in the currently selected timeslot. The only annoying thing is that you can't set it for that timeslot for just that day of the week. That would also help in avoiding multiple recordings.

No. The SA8000 has 2.

Congrats, matta. Your life is now over.

Happily though!

Welcome to the TiFaux revolution.

So does the Moxi DVR, which is available in a number of markets through Adelphia and Charter (replacing the SA800HD), with a wider launch impending. The Moxi definitely has some problems, its limited hard drive space being chief among them, but other than that, it seems pretty full-featured, apparently the best of the DVRs available through a cable provider. It's no TiVo, but the Moxi is only $7 - $10 a month (varies by provider, of course). I'm getting mine next Saturday.

As for the questions....

The DVR will record a season pass like Tivo. It has multiple tuners and can record on multiple channels (I just recorded two shows at once while watching a third). It also has picture-in-picture and the thumbs up - thumbs down recommendation thing that Tivo does.

So what else does Tivo do that makes it so great? I've used it plenty of times and it seems identical to what I have -- granted, I didn't get too in depth with the Tivo.

No matter how it compares to Tivo, I definately think this DVR is worth the $2/month (actually, it's $6.95/month, but since a regular digital cable box, which I need for HBO, is $4.95/month, it's a $2 incrimental fee)

Desperate Housewives
Sundays 9pm on ABC

Pilot episode aired last Sunday; I think there's a repeat sometime (I think).

Will it still find the show if it airs on a different night or time?

I don't know if yours can do this or not, but I'm taking a trip to vegas soon. So I setup a wishlist last night to find shows with Vegas in the title. Then I went through the list of shows to see what I wanted to record.

I've also used wish lists to find things by director, actor, category (sports/billiards), and keywords (samurai movies for example).

I don't use wishlists all the time, but they're very handy if I want to do something like record Hitchcock movies.

I have had a dvr through my cable company..Time Warner Cable.. since the first of this year. They use the Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8000. I freakin' love it!!

The only problem I have had with this brand of dvr is that they don't last too long. Just last week the hard drive went out on the dvr and I took it back for a replacement. This makes the fifth box I have had!!!!

Quick question to the Tivo and replay users....Is this a common problem with your sets?

I know that with the hard drive running constantly that it produces a great deal of heat and I am sure this is what makes the hard drives quit. You would think they would have designed a cooling fan in the box just like our computers. But short of unplugging the box there is no way to totally power down the dvr.

Anyways...here are my suggestions to the first poster for shows:

Lost
Smallville
Stargate:SG1
Stargate: Atlantis
Desperate Housewives
Boston Legal
CSI the original, Miami, NY
Without A Trace
Cold Case

Cartoons:

Justice League Unlimited
The Batman

Just a few Suggestions

Take care All!!!