TiVo User's Fears Explored

elrous0 writes "In spite of TiVo's continuing insistence that recent appearances of 'red flag' recordings are mere "glitches," the AP is reporting that customers are beginning to get nervous about the new content-blocking feature added in a recent TiVo upgrade. The story quotes Matt Haughey, of PVRblog.com, as saying 'TiVo would be of limited utility in the future if the studios were allowed to do this with regular broadcast content ... This is like cell-phone jammers. What if you couldn't talk on your cell phone? If customers can't do something with their TiVo that they could in the past, they will stop using it.'" We've touched on this topic in the past.

Comments

All The More Reason

[dringess]

To build your own PVR with MythTV or BeyondTV. It's more work, but you have more control.

the "noise" defense seems a little weak

[enrico_suave]

noise tripping this flag seems unlikely Other commentary on O'reilly blog

Re:Well that answers that

[screevo]

Heres some links for good hardware to start with.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82 E16856101111 - I actually use this very one. Comes with some excellent media center software, a remote control, built in stereo Hi-Fi unit (can operate independantly of the rest of the computer). Essentially, you end up with a DVR/Media Center/Hi Fi Stereo unit.
http://www.newegg.com/product/Product.asp?Item=N82 E16856101233 - Intel-based version of above
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82 E16814127987 - Reccomended tuner to the above hardware. I use a cheapy ATI TV Wonder that I've had for a few years anyway

You dont need a high power processor, a ton of RAM, or anything beyond the on-board video, unless you plan on doing things beyond DVRing. I have a bit of experience with this, so drop me a message if you want any furter info.