I think most of my slashdot peers will agree that nothing beats a good-old-fashion home-grown HTPC.
You have several choices for free Linux or Windows PVR applications, and they keep getting better. Usually, all you need to have a Tivo alternative at your fingertips is a $100 TV Tuner Card with an MPEG decoder.
After 12 months you will have saved $60 on subscription fees, anyway.
I run a small computer company in my town of about 50,000.
Constantly I am getting people in here who are complaining about their computer slowing down, displaying popups, or not working at all.
Then they'll go on about how they bought some program from Staples thats supposed to remove spyware. But, you'll never guess what the problem ALWAYS is: Spyware!
As a technician, the first thing that I ALWAYS do is uninstall commercial Anti-Spyware. This article summs it up: install Spybot S&D and Ad-Aware (as well as Hijackthis). They remove 99% of the products I deal with.
There are always a few out there that NO anti-spyware programs can remove, and I'll have to do some manual digging through the registry, but thats to be expected.
Speaking of freeware, just for kicks, uninstall your expensive Norton Antivirus and go get AVG Antivirus.
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You have several choices for free Linux or Windows PVR applications, and they keep getting better. Usually, all you need to have a Tivo alternative at your fingertips is a $100 TV Tuner Card with an MPEG decoder.
After 12 months you will have saved $60 on subscription fees, anyway.
I run a small computer company in my town of about 50,000. Constantly I am getting people in here who are complaining about their computer slowing down, displaying popups, or not working at all. Then they'll go on about how they bought some program from Staples thats supposed to remove spyware. But, you'll never guess what the problem ALWAYS is: Spyware! As a technician, the first thing that I ALWAYS do is uninstall commercial Anti-Spyware. This article summs it up: install Spybot S&D and Ad-Aware (as well as Hijackthis). They remove 99% of the products I deal with. There are always a few out there that NO anti-spyware programs can remove, and I'll have to do some manual digging through the registry, but thats to be expected. Speaking of freeware, just for kicks, uninstall your expensive Norton Antivirus and go get AVG Antivirus.