Well, I am thinking more in terms of usability when going digital. Think about this, I can record as many shows as I want without worrying about tapes. I can assign names to timer slots, and when I get home, I will be presented with a list of shows I have recorded. I will just have to select a particular show, and presto, I will be watching it. With tapes, I have to figure out which tape to pop in. Sometimes, if I record two shows back-to-back and I have only watched one, I can't reuse that space because I still have another show on tape... blah... blah... you know what I mean... the various advantages of going digital.
I don't get it... isn't this easy (at least for people in the business)? Just pop in a HDD and an MPEG2 chip, and you have a digital VCR? Well, I agree there are advantages with downloading the TV schedule, but can't we have a low-end model that is just the digital version of an analog VCR?
Well, if someone can point me to a good and affordable MPEG2 encoder card (with Linux drivers), I'd be glad ot build one myself. I have done some searching on Google, so far the furthest ahead is the Video Disk Recorder project. Man, the DVB-S card itself is the price of a TiVO! ---
> Tivo requires one initial dial-in, with no
service activation required, to download
> who-knows-what (like the software).
So if I live out of the States, theoretically, I can mail-order TiVo, make it do one long distance dial to get who-knows-what, and after that I can use it like a normal VCR?
I get the impression that TiVo can only be bought with 1-yr subscription, not standalone.
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Well, I am thinking more in terms of usability when going digital. Think about this, I can record as many shows as I want without worrying about tapes. I can assign names to timer slots, and when I get home, I will be presented with a list of shows I have recorded. I will just have to select a particular show, and presto, I will be watching it. With tapes, I have to figure out which tape to pop in. Sometimes, if I record two shows back-to-back and I have only watched one, I can't reuse that space because I still have another show on tape... blah... blah... you know what I mean... the various advantages of going digital.
I don't get it... isn't this easy (at least for people in the business)? Just pop in a HDD and an MPEG2 chip, and you have a digital VCR? Well, I agree there are advantages with downloading the TV schedule, but can't we have a low-end model that is just the digital version of an analog VCR?
Well, if someone can point me to a good and affordable MPEG2 encoder card (with Linux drivers), I'd be glad ot build one myself. I have done some searching on Google, so far the furthest ahead is the Video Disk Recorder project. Man, the DVB-S card itself is the price of a TiVO!
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> Tivo requires one initial dial-in, with no service activation required, to download
> who-knows-what (like the software).
So if I live out of the States, theoretically, I can mail-order TiVo, make it do one long distance dial to get who-knows-what, and after that I can use it like a normal VCR? I get the impression that TiVo can only be bought with 1-yr subscription, not standalone.
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