Posted on 07/27/2006 5:07:52 AM PDT by abb
Elaborate, please. Does this mean you have disconnected the TIVO "return line" and are successfully using it as a "plain jane" video recording device?? If that's possible I might re-think getting one.
To me commercials are literally TORTURE!... it reminds me of Clock Work Orange (?) The movie... where they force the guy to watch a movie by forcinh his eyes open with some kind of device... just torture!
I also love my 3 DVRs, but I still consider TIVO the best... because it has that feature that when you are flying over the commercials and you press STOP, it "rewinds" about three or four seconds putting right at the begining of the segment. With the piece of junk, the DVR I got from DirecTV, it does not have that feature and it's a PIA (Pain in..) to find the beginning of the next segment. I am sure they did it on purpose to deter people from skiping them. I still dream of something that would either skip commercials automatically, or at least something that one could time the length of the "skip," say in portions of 30 seconds (3 clicks=minute and a half - like my microwave! :)
Anyone knows anything like this?
Give that man a kewpie doll for hitting the bullseye!
My oldest daughter has her's at almost 500 days and the youngest daughter has her's at 364 days. (She was in Okinawa until last June.)
Just be sure and check the telephone jack periodically for mouse droppings, dust, osprey nests (not that they would hurt anything) and you are good to go.
But you do not need to have a phone line hooked up. I do not have phone lines hooked to any of the DirecTV and/or Tivo devices.
If I want to purchase a movie or anything else, I do it on line. Sports subscriptions also do not need a line hooked up to receive them.
To be succinct. All they want is your money. The phone line hook up is for their benefit so they can sell the results of your viewing habits.
Like giving someone your email address, family income, numbers of kids, magazine preferences, etc., when you fill out a warranty card. They would NEVER sell it to anyone.
I only have BASIC cable, 20 channels maybe, basically the local broadcast channels, The Weather Channel, CSPAN and CSPAN2 and TBS.
I dumped extended cable years ago, and don't miss it... at first I did, because I was a news junky... now, no way, don't miss it at all. Other than when a major news event happens, I don't miss it at all.
Even with my limited channels, I have debated buying or building a DVR.. just so I can watch the few shows I do watch anymore when I want.
In the evenings I am now much more likely to be doing things than 3 years ago when I had extended cable... my lifestyle has changed drastically, and on nights when I do have nothing going on, I feel like I should get up and find something to do.
I have reached the conclusion that if I could "subscribe" to just shows I wanted, IE shows downloaded directly to a DVR that I could watch when I wanted for a fee I would probably do that, but I have zero desire to have 80 channels of smut in my house.
In fact, when we went on vacation recently and stayed at a hotel, we tried to find something for OUr son to watch at about 8:30 at night on their cable offerings.. just flipping through the channels to find a kid friendly channel we were lambasted with overt images and situations and language on nearly every channel. I'm no prude by any stretch, but Cable has clearly gone down a spiral rapidly... Not that it had that far to go... but still in 3 years its gone beyond gutter.
If there is a good show that came out that I don't have access to and want to see, I'll rent or buy a season of it on DVD for $20 or $40 and watch it on my time without commercials.
And as to just regular broadcast TV, its gone down the dumper too... not only do I feel like I have to be doing something on the odd night that I am actually around and could just watch TV.. but when I do turn on the TV and look at whats on... its wortless reality shows on EVERY channel.. literally.
Yep. Buy a season at a time on DVD, watch it, and stop buying just as soon as the product quality starts going downhill as it nearly always does. Most of my video recreational time allotment goes to the Inet leaving movies/shows as treadmill entertainment. An typically episode lasts almost as long as my daily workout.
I've got one.It's a DVD burner/HD in one.I can easily record to HD,then record to DVD if I like the show,or I can simply record straight to DVD.Best purchase I've made in years.It also plays MPGs and displays photos from cd.I like it also because I can take my vhs camcorder videos and burn them to DVD.Paid around $239 for it if I remember correctly.
Thanx for the info. I'll have to check into this further.
ReplayTV used to have the ability to automatically skip commercials which worked right about 80% of the time. Their newer models have the ability to press one button to go to the next "segment" of the show, which just happens to match exactly with their way of detecting commercials. They also have one button for 30 seconds forward and another for about 7 seconds backwards.
Well I built mine, I dont know of any manufacturers yet who sale one cheap enough for the masses, I spent roughly 1800 on mine, but thats more so that I can shoot Nazis on it also.
Well, when you search through the commercials at 16X you don't have to see much of the marketing message.
Probably there will be direct internet feeds soon and the whole thing will be all bolloxed up again. I'd rather keep the FCC out of it.
Whats the monthly fee? I pay less than 10 bucks to Time Warner and the hardware comes free. I don't think it is as good or flexible as a HTPC would be, but it works pretty well for me. TIVO sounds like a bunch of crap. Thanks for inventing the technology dudes, later.
$9.99 free hardware includes dish, 3 regular receivers and one Receiver/DVR.
Thanks for your feedback! :)
YOU "BUILT" ONE? excuse me? :) are you talking about a DVR? probably not.
In today's NY Times
Does a DVR Boost Viewing Hours or Not?
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/31/technology/31drill.html?ref=media
Thanks, see my email to you.
an HTPC, and yes they function as a DVR and are quite easy too build. Here let me link you to an how to for you doubting thomas.
http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/HTPC.html
http://www.engadget.com/2006/01/24/how-to-build-a-practical-htpc/
http://www.firingsquad.com/guides/building_home_theater_pc/
This is just the first few links on Google. Maybe you can do a little investigation yourself before coming to some uneducated response again.
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