# Tivo alternatives



## Geordie Boy (Oct 28, 2003)

With 2006 being touted as the year of the PVR (as was 2005), when are we going to see anything approching the simplicity of the Tivo?

I've updated my Tivo with a pair of 160gb hd's but the lack of a freeview tuner is a bit annoying - my old freeview tuner has a tendency to freeze just when you need it most.

The Reelbox looks good but I'm damned if I'm spending £800 on a PVR! 

The Digifusion 9200 has a decent size hd & dual freeview tuners but I'm still not totally convinced.

The Panasonic & Sony hd/dvd models with freeview are coming down in price & offer the kind of features I'm after.

Any opinions on these options?

I'd like to try & build my own pvr with dvd. Any developments there?


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## cyril (Sep 5, 2001)

Unfortunately here in the UK, you will only get something as good as TiVo when the next UK TiVo arrives!

Everything else doesn't compare and won't for 10 years unless you want High Definition recording or must have twin tuners in a smaller box.

Check www.avforums.com where most people don't understand how much better TiVo is than Sky+, the Digifusion, Toppy, Humax etc.

If you have the money an HTPC or Windows MCE are the only real competitors IMHO.


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## sanderton (Jan 4, 2002)

The new Dual Core small form factor Mac Mini sized Viiv PCs which are due out any minute look very good, solving almost all of the MCE problems of heat, size and noise, but they will cost roughly the same as a TiVo + Lifetime sub did at launch! Very desirable objects though.










http://www.pcg.fic.com.tw/marketing/Products/main3.asp


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## B33K34 (Feb 9, 2003)

sanderton said:


> The new Dual Core small form factor Mac Mini sized Viiv PCs which are due out any minute look very good, solving almost all of the MCE problems of heat, size and noise, but they will cost roughly the same as a TiVo + Lifetime sub did at launch! Very desirable objects though.
> 
> http://www.pcg.fic.com.tw/marketing/Products/main3.asp


Very nice but that spec seems to miss a couple of key things - where do you put the two pci tuner cards (an external usb box(es) loses some of the sleekness) and there's no sign of an HDMI connection?


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## gazter (Aug 1, 2001)

i would be worried about the outputs/inputs or lack of them. At very least it should have rgb scart output for simplicity (tv outs are almost always svideo which lack the flags for ws switching, and are, to be frank usually crap), with possible component out. 

If we are talking a true dream machine it would have component inputs for hd PVR (I believe that radeon has an mpeg based card that can compress/capture hd in real time), then sky hd might be a prospect.


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## sanderton (Jan 4, 2002)

B33K34 said:


> Very nice but that spec seems to miss a couple of key things - where do you put the two pci tuner cards (an external usb box(es) loses some of the sleekness) and there's no sign of an HDMI connection?


I't's got one tuner and they're working on a twin tuner. Meantime those USB key tuners are pretty neat and work with MCE.

It's got DVI, which is pin compatible with HDMI.


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## sanderton (Jan 4, 2002)

gazter said:


> i would be worried about the outputs/inputs or lack of them. At very least it should have rgb scart output for simplicity (tv outs are almost always svideo which lack the flags for ws switching, and are, to be frank usually crap), with possible component out.
> 
> If we are talking a true dream machine it would have component inputs for hd PVR (I believe that radeon has an mpeg based card that can compress/capture hd in real time), then sky hd might be a prospect.


RGB is a bit quaint these days. 

It has DVI which will compatible with HD displays, which is what you need in 2006.

There's no such thing as a HD component input card outside of £2,000+ pro kit at the moment AFAIK.


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## Sneals2000 (Aug 25, 2002)

gazter said:


> i would be worried about the outputs/inputs or lack of them. At very least it should have rgb scart output for simplicity (tv outs are almost always svideo which lack the flags for ws switching, and are, to be frank usually crap), with possible component out.


Yep - S-video output from a TV-out on a video card is usually pants.

I'm running a VGA -> SCART cable (passive) with a Radeon video card delivering 576/50i video using Powerstrip in 1024x576 resolution on a PC. This delivers an RGB SCART picture from Media Center that is pretty close to a Freeview box - and certainly improves on a Tivo even in Mode 0 hacked mode (the extra MPEG2 code/decode is noticable) This is with a Freeview card capturing digital component MPEG2 broadcasts.

However you won't find many PCs that support Pin 8 widescreen switching - even if they are modified for SCART. However if you have a 16:9 TV this isn't an issue - as MCE will permanently output 16:9 video signals - and allow you to pillarbox, stretch, crop or zoom 4:3 sources within the PC (rather than outputting 4:3 for the TV to do the same with)

Equally it will do the same if you configure a 768x576 4:3 resolution and feed 16:9 video into the system.

I suspect the Viiv stuff doesn't have Radeon graphics? If so then DVI (which is HDMI compatible) is probably the right way to feed a modern TV (Plasma, LCD etc.) - though RGB is great with an existing 50Hz CRT.


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## B33K34 (Feb 9, 2003)

sanderton said:


> I't's got one tuner and they're working on a twin tuner. Meantime those USB key tuners are pretty neat and work with MCE.


I'd not seen those until yesterday when John Naughton was eulogising about the eyeTV usbkey tuner for the mac as some kind of revolution. You have to wonder sometimes - Eyetv has been around for ages.


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