(OT) How do DVRs work?

It seems that as I get older the less I can keep up with technology. Or maybe its because the stuff is changing to damn fast.

Anyhow, I recall it was not all that long ago when everyone was buying VCRs and they were the craze. Looks like they are now obsolete. however I still use mine to record a tv program I want to see but at another time than they have it on the air. Or maybe I want to record a football game or movie to save.

I keep seeing tv ads for these DVRs now. They appear to be the replacement for the VCR, but the commercials say they can record several programs at the same time. I sure dont understand how they can record more than one show at a time...... Then again, how do they work at all? Do they need some sort of media, such as a tape, CD/DVD, or memory stick? Can the program be saved permanently, or is it just to watch the program delayed?

Another thing, it's a satellite tv company advertising them. Is it even possible to use them on a tv antenna, or are they limited to only satellite tv?

I just have a basic tv on an antenna, no cable or satellite, no hdtv, no surround sound or any of that expensive stuff. I'm satisfied with what I have, tv is not a major part of my life, but I do on occasion want to watch a show at a different time than it's aired, and once and awhile, save some program. Is a DVR worth buying, (for my needs), or am I best sticking with my VCR?

One other thing, if the programming can be saved, is it possible to edit out commercials and other unwanted stuff on a computer, or would that be on the tv?

Thanks

Reply to
jw
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Reply to
Higgs Boson

A DVR is basically just a PC (in a small case with a special interface) that records TV on a hard drive. When they say they can record more than one channel that means they have more than one tuner. The only one I know of that will export to a PC is a ReplayTV and they don't have a digital tuner for your over the air broadcasts.

If you are not getting one from the cable or satellite company, you might be as well off getting a PC set up to run Microsoft Media Center. Tivo is anther option but I am not sure how much they have progressed. The old ones still did not have the digital tuner you need.

Reply to
gfretwell

wrote

Everything goes to the hard drive and is then sent to the TV. That is how it allows you to pause, rewind, FF, etc. When you change channels, it is not instant, but the ability to do those functions makes it a vey nice toy to have.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

They record to a internal hard drive. Most have two tuners which is what allows them to record things while you watch something else or record two things at one.

They do not allow you to edit the recording and most do not make it convenient to move the recorded shows to some other media so that you can edit it. Most people fast forward through the commercials.

Some people never watch live tv, they have the shows they want to watch set to record. Then they watch them later and fast forward through the commercials. I do it a lot myself. A 30 minutes show takes about 20 minutes to watch.

As others have pointed out, they really are just a specialized pc. That's the case for most everything electronic these days, smart phones, ipods, tablets, dvrs, even newer tvs all are just specialized pcs.

Reply to
jamesgangnc

snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

You shouldn't feel too bad. I've been wondering all of this, too!

Reply to
Mr.Spock

"Ed Pawlowski" wrote in news:BJydnairsov3ovrTnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

Thanks for your info. I typed in ' buy DVR ' into google and got some nice results such as:

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Looks like something cool to own.

Reply to
Mr.Spock

I used to have Dish and their DVRs, I dropped them when they went nuts with added fees.

I got a TIVO and loved it, for awhile I just used it on antenna TV. The newer ones have a digital tuners,and work AWESOME.

Best of all it just plain WORKS!

My dish ones had perodic bugs that required reboots etc. very annoying

my tivo is rock solid..dependable. works great on a cable card with comcast

better than a VCR it records 2 shows at once, and you can start watching a show while its still recording.

I enabled SKIP on my tivo, so i can skip forward and backward thru commercials. I rarely watch live tv, I primetime has 17 minutes of commercials:( so i start watching survivor 15 minutes late and catch up by the end.

connect your tivo to the internet and it does netflix and other streaming

Reply to
bob haller

I think we watch way less than an hour of live TV/week. The DVR records what we tell it. Then watch or not whenever. I built the first one based on something called MythTV when few even heard the term "DVR" and then a number of them for friends after they saw it.

Reply to
George

-snip-

And it can hold a couple hundred hours of shows, which are all listed in an index. I think Tivo has much better software, but even the Time Warner software lets me arrange that 'index' by the name of the shows, or by the date recorded.

We got the TW version several years ago when it was introduced as a 6 month freebie. Their software sucks. It is unreliable, clunky and a royal PITA.

But I wouldn't go without it now for all the tea in China. It is rare that we get stuck watching live TV-- and I miss being able to jump through commercials when we do.

Inertia will probably keep me from pulling the trigger-- but the streaming ability makes Tivo a real temptation again.

Has Tivo got the ability to send things to another box? TW just introduced the ability to record on one DVR and watch on another in the same house. We have 3 DVR's - so we could effectively record

6 things at the same time and watch them on any box later. [sounds crazy--- but during sweeps week the 4 networks pit their best against the competition's best-- so 4 at once might come in handy]

Jim

Reply to
Jim Elbrecht

Basicly they are similar to a specialized PC, digitizing, compressing and storing video to a large HD.

I have the Tivo Premier which records up to 45 hours of HD TV. It will record many times that of non-HD. It has the capability of supporting 2 tuners. If you're just using an antenna as the OP does, then the tuners are already there. If you use cable, you get a cablecard tuner that's about the size of one of the old PCMCIA cards that plugs in. Cable company here, Cablevision, charges 2 or 3 dollars a month for the card. But it replaces the basic cable box which they charged 2 or 3 dollars a month more for, so you come out ahead on that. And if you compare it to Cablevisions DVR cable box, you come out 7 or 8 dollars ahead, because they charge $5 a month more for their DVR box. It also works with Satelite, I think Tivo is still supplying the box that comes bundled with DirectTV.

Everyone who has actually used one that I know of agrees that it has the best user interface and functionality of any of the DVRs. For example, I can search for what I want by name, actor, subject, etc. Usually after only 5 or 6 characters it's narrowed it down and found it. It will search not only the cable or broadcast guide, but also internet sources like YouTube. It uses an internet connection (required) and will play those YouTube videos as well as vidoes you can pay for from Amazon, Netflix, etc. Best part is the season's pass. After you find a show, you can sign up for a season's pass. It will then record it each time it's on, without regard to any shift in days or time. For example, if Hell's Kitchen isn't on next week, it won't record it. And if the following week it's on for

2 hours instead of one, or plays on a different day, it will correctly record it. It then organizes all the saved shows in an easy to find format.

You can also pause live TV while you go get a drink, etc. Or you pause one show and go to another one because it has two tuners. I do that occasionally. With the commercials it works out that you can watch two shows in about 1.5 times what it would take to watch just one.

If you're traveling and want to record something you can reach your Tivo through the Tivo website and tell it to record from there. If you have 2 of them, you can start watching something on one and then finish watching it on the other.

The downside is that it isn't cheap. To get the prgramming schedules, which is essentially necessary to use the unit, requires a subscription to the Tivo service. That is available monthly or for the lifetime of the Tivo unit. The unit with lifetime service is about $550. For me it's well worth it because being an existing customer I got it for around $400, it's saving me about $8 per month compared to the cable company and will pay for itself in 4 years. The Tivo Premier storage can be expanded with an external HD too, they have an XL that stores 150 hours of HD, etc. But for me the 45 hours works fine.

Reply to
trader4

Its one of those things that once you have one you will wonder why you waited. Very similar to GPS.

Reply to
George

What I resent with all of the newer cablecard and other digital DVRs is the leash that runs back to the content provider. I started out with MythTV I built myself which allowed you to do anything with the content. It even had a feature where it would scan the recording and edit out the commercials or insert auto skip points if you wanted.

They can also set expire flags so the content is unavailable after a number of plays or certain time.

Reply to
George

yeah you match the account code between the 2 boxes and bam you have 4 tuners networked

Reply to
bob haller

Since I have a DTV converter for my older tv set, is there a way to pipe that DTV box right into a computer? If so, what sort of card would be needed on the computer? I wouldn't mind taking an older computer and making it specific for recording tv programs.

I do NOT have any cable or satellite, just an antenna connected to a DTV box.

Reply to
jw

I hope it's a lot better than GPS. Buying a GPS was the biggest waste of money I ever spent. If I followed that thing, I never got where I wanted to go. Although I spent over $100 for it, tossing it in the garbage saved me a lot of money in wasted gasoline, and I got a free map at the local D.O.T. office, which works 1000 times better.

Reply to
jw

This is where I get lost. If I'm just connected to an antenna, I cant get the service. All I want to do is be able to record something off the air, either by pushing a "record" button, or setting a program timer. Why would I een need a service to do that? I can look up the local tv station websites to find out when they are going to be showing a movie I want to see, or whatever..... I'd also like to be able to copy a movie or segement off the local news to save as a file, or burn it to a dvd.

This is why I asked about using an old computer to do this. I can add a big hard drive, and imagine I need some sort of card, and some software (not sure what)? I can sort is see using my DTV converter box as the tuner, but not sure how to connect it to the PC. Yea, I'd only get one program at a time with the DTV box, but that's plenty.

Reply to
jw

On 9/7/2011 10:38 PM, snipped-for-privacy@myplace.com wrote: (snip)

Some people over in the computer or TV groups could give you better advice, but yeah- just search CL or eBay for a Hauppage (sp?) TV tuner card for whatever spare PC you have. The non-HD Hauppage cards are going dirt cheap these days. Depending on the card, you can feed in from the converter box via coax or the other usual flavor of cables. Downside to this approach is that the resolution isn't the greatest (at least on the one somebody gave me), and you have to watch the show on the computer. I'm no expert- maybe some of them let you pipe it back out to the TV. And they are pretty piggy on hard drive space, at least by the standards of older computers.

Reply to
aemeijers

I bought a video capture card for a PC for about $30 at Gearxs.com.

You can spend just about as much as you want on these things. The Tivo/Replay DVRs are easier to deal with because they are plug and play. You can get a Replay on Ebay pretty cheap these days because DNNA has threatened to drop the TV Guide service. Also finding the blaster code for changing a converter box may be a trick, depending on your converter brand. If you just want a manual record machine, it would be hard to beat an old Replay TV 4xxx or 5xxx. They have automatic commercial skip and they will port shows out to your PC so you can burn off DVDs. I have a

4xxx myself The guide is pretty cool tho, as long as it lasts. There are a bunch of hackers out there who have a work around if it stops.
Reply to
gfretwell

snipped-for-privacy@myplace.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Maybe it's the brand you have?

Reply to
RobertPatrick

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