TiVo vs. Windows Media Center Edition

The Importance of writes "Two reviewers make head-to-head comparisons of TiVo and Windows Media Center Edition (here and here). TiVo still comes out ahead, but MCE is improving. Of course, some tout the flexibility of PC-based DVRs, while others question what this flexibility means when you have things like the broadcast flag and the INDUCE Act."

Comments

Sorry

[Anonymous Coward]

But anyone who picks a PC based solution is someone with too much time on their hands, and needs to examine their lifestyle, perhaps.

Computers are a hobby of mine, and *I* don't have the time or patience to set something like this up. $149 for a Tivo gave me dual tuners, snappy interface and recording of the original DirecTV data stream (no quality loss). $6 a month? If $6 a month is even an issue to you, again, take a magnifying lens to your life. Something isn't working correctly.

TiVo vs. MythTV

[gmplague]

I want to see a comparison of TiVo vs. MythTV vs. Freevo vs. Media Center. From my experience, MythTV should definitely come up on top. I've got a box running MythTV that acts as my tivo, fileserver, network audio device, and game console. Can tivo do all that?

Re:TiVo vs. MythTV

[kannibal_klown]

Throw "SnapStream" into there as well.

While not free, it's pretty cheap ($30 USD).

My main PC doubles as a DVR when I'm not using it. It's a breeze to setup (as simple as you could possibly get, actually), looks wonderful, and functions very well.

Granted, it requires some flavor of Windows (that can run .Net libraries), but it's still great. And they set it up that if the company ever goes under, you can point Snapstream to the same kind of data that Myth uses.

It's really a must-see-to-believe thing. I thought it was going to be some cheezy software, but it is really well put together.

However, I think a "Tivo" is a better solution. You don't have to sit there and configure stuff, update stuff, bla bla bla. It's relatively cheap (even with the lifetime subsription it's not that bad), and does everything you need (with the exception of burning the vids onto CD's or DVD's).

Re:Personally

[bje2]

that's exactly what i was thinking...don't let your anti-MS stance blind you to what they're doing...what if MS stumbles upon a cure for cancer...you just gonna ignore it, because MS discovered it???

forget MCE

[BitchAss]

It's been covered a million times here, but MythTV does more than MCE or Tivo.

One day I gave MCE a try and found it to be a dreadfull experience. Sure, some of the widgets and transitions were nice - and the remote was pretty sexy (anyone wanna help me write a driver for Linux?), but it just left me wanting more.

I have most of my media living on a different machine - MCE had a hard time dealing with that. I had to import my mp3s (not oggs - god forbid) into Media Player before MCE would recognize them.

Large movies were a pain too - MCE wanted a nice screen shot of each movie - so a directory with 10-15 divxs was painful to browse.

I have MythTV set up with a PVR-250 and it's the best thing ever. Automatic commercial flagging? check Windows? Not even. So much better.

Re:Personally

[darth_MALL]

"Even if eventually MCE became the better product? (god of technology forbid)"
Wouldn't it be a good thing to see MS bring out a product worth supporting? It's an awful lot of energy wasted trying to dislike something. Maybe they could earn the #1 spot for a change.

What about the A/V Vendors?

[grunt107]

A few years back the major a/v mfgs (like Yamaha, Denon, Pioneer) were supposedly agreeing on a common interface to their components, which could also be controlled by outside (read: PC) components. Has any of this gone forward? I would prefer the sonic advantage of standalone components, but would love to have server access (and use a live web connect as another "component"). Then MythTV (or TiVo) could be just another component enhanced by the home theatre system.

Canada as safe haven

[antarctican]

See, if I had the time and money I'd setup a company here in Canada where we don't have these insane laws limited consumer rights. Yes, it's getting worse up here, but for now I see this as the near-by safe haven for developing PVR type products safe from being sued.

Yes, importing could be restricted, but it's not stopping us from sending you guys cheaper drugs to get around that piece of insanity by your government - catering to all of big business' demands....

So look north, let us develop your PVRs, it'll be good for us, you'll have more freedom, and I can only hope we're sane enough to never let our government pass such outrageous laws.... Move MythTV's code base off-shore or north.... such a great solution. :)

PC will be the clear winner...

[MaestroSartori]

...for those of us in the UK, at least as long as there continues to be no new Tivo kit worth buying. There are some decent PVRs apparently, but I'm told they all fall short on various aspects...

Re:hackable tivos would be even more flexable.

[nchip]

Even if you don't want to hack them yourself, buying hackable hardware means you can probably install easily hacks done by others, which increases the value of the hardware a lot.

That's why I payed a little bit more on my phone (to get a symbian based one which allows you to install your own software instead of just java midlets), and a linksys Access Point.

Most people do not yet realize that the lifetime of hackable hardware is a lot longer than locked hardware.

TiVo is a Linux based PC.

[foooo]

TiVo is a Linux based PC. It is hackable enough to do a *lot* of interesting things that you can't on a normal TiVo.

The reason why TiVo corporation doesn't support this "hacking" actively is that they need to be legally insulated from lawsuits.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/

~foooo