DVR vs. Tivo.....pros, cons, what's the difference

[marshallandcartersmo]

I need a way to record shows I can't stay up late enough to watch anymore. I'm officially getting old I guess.

Anyway, we don't have a VCR anymore, and I'm guessing we need either a DVR or a Tivo to record shows for later.

Is a DVR just like a VCR but it records on DVDs?
But I've heard great things about Tivo.


We have Comcast Digital cable, does that matter w/Tivo? What are the costs?

thanks!

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I don't have TIVO, but I do have a DVR.

It is digital, it does not record to a DVD. In fact I don't know how you would record to a DVD.

TIVO you purchase, DVR's come with your cable provider.

Once you get into your DVR or TIVO you will love watching TV again. I don't have to watch commercials anymore. I fast forward.

In fact you will find that you record everything you watch so you can fast forward thru the commercials. DH can't even watch NASCAR live anymore. He has chopped off almost an hour and a half off his TV time by skipping ads.

 

[marshallandcartersmo]

I don't have TIVO, but I do have a DVR.

It is digital, it does not record to a DVD. In fact I don't know how you would record to a DVD.

TIVO you purchase, DVR's come with your cable provider.

Once you get into your DVR or TIVO you will love watching TV again. I don't have to watch commercials anymore. I fast forward.

In fact you will find that you record everything you watch so you can fast forward thru the commercials. DH can't even watch NASCAR live anymore. He has chopped off almost an hour and a half off his TV time by skipping ads.

OK, now I'm showing off my electronic challenges..................the DVR doesn't actually record to a disc?? What the heck does it record to? Does it just store it in the box or something???

 

[mill4023]

They are basically the same thing. It's like asking what the difference is between Legos and building blocks.
DVR stands for digital video recorder. It records tv shows on a hard drive and lets you play them back whenever you want.

The main difference between buying a Tivo and renting a DVR from your cable/satellite company is that they will have different interfaces and may have different features. I think you'll also need to hook a Tivo up to your phone line, while you probably won't have to do that if you get a DVR through your cable company. But I don't know for sure.

I've never used an actual Tivo, but we've been pretty satisfied with the DVR's from Time Warner. I figure for $5/month, I'd rather just rent it.

 

[mill4023]

OK, now I'm showing off my electronic challenges..................the DVR doesn't actually record to a disc?? What the heck does it record to? Does it just store it in the box or something???

Yep. It records to a hard drive just like the one in your computer.

You can actually buy DVD recorders and use them just like a VCR, but that would only make sense if you want to record movies or shows and keep them forever.

With a DVR/Tivo, you will have a menu/guide on screen that lets you look at the TV schedule, search for certain shows, schedule which shows/series you want to record, then play back anything you have recorded.

Oh, and you can also pause or rewind whatever show you are watching. Because it's basically recording all the time, just in case you want to rewind or pause. The DVR's we have from Time Warner have 2 receivers, which means that we can record 2 shows at the same time, or we can watch one show while recording something on another channel, or we can even watch a previously recorded show at the same time as 2 other shows are being recorded.

 

[OK!]

I don't have TIVO, but I do have a DVR.

It is digital, it does not record to a DVD. In fact I don't know how you would record to a DVD.

You'd just run a cable frm the DVR to the DVD recorder (and then from there out to the TV, if your DVR has a limited number of outputs like mine does). I use the DVD recorder to permanently record stuff like episodes of The Office, highlights of Blues games, that kind of thing. I permanently record probably 10% of the stuff I record on the DVR. The main thing I love about the DVR is the ability to schedule recordings by show title, so the machine does the work of figuring out when things are going to be on, rather than you having to check listings, program the VCR / DVD recorder, adjust for time zone changes, etc. And for shows on channels like FX, where they sometimes will up and switch the day it airs, the DVR just knows about it and records it whenever it's on. It's like magic.

 

[Cool-Beans]

I *think* that Tivo is a DVR - it is just a brand name. We got a DVR through the cable company - the stuff is stored in the cable box.

I know one person who has an actual Tivo - everyone else I know gets it through cable or satellite companies. I don't know why, but she had to get a phone line just for the Tivo. For a long time, her Tivo was recording things she didn't tell it to record because it thought she'd like it to do that. It might have been her fault - I don't know. But that was driving her nuts. Other than that, she had zero problems with her Tivo.

We get it through the cable company. Like another poster, I don't watch commercials. I'll wait until 20 minutes into a show to start watching just to avoid them. I like that I can pause and avoid commercials, but what I like the most is that it will record House even when I forget to watch. I told it to record House anytime it is on and it has a better memory than I do.

You can only rewind things you've actually watched. If you turn on a show 10 minutes into it (a show you weren't recording), you can't rewind to the stuff you didn't see. And you can't fast forward to anything that hasn't been on yet. If the show has only been on for 20 minutes, you can't just fast forward to the end.

The thing that sucks is if the box breaks. If the cable box breaks and has to be replaced, you lose the stuff you had saved in there. Oh, and when people are talking about commercials, I never have any idea what they're talking about. But not having to watch them more than makes up for it.

 

[pooh4evr]

You should be able to upgrade whatever satelite/ cable package you currently have to a DVR - they just bring and hook up the new box and show you how to use it- it depends on the box you get i guess but you may only be able to watch your recorded things on the tv the box is hooked up to- we have 1 box but i think it is a dual recorder so we can record and watch on both tvs. DH says he is never going back!

 

[Karel]

I have a TIVO which I love. One great thing I can do is upload my recorded shows to my laptop. Also, I can set it to look for a particular interest - all movies by Will Farrell, any show about volcanoes...

It does also record shows that it thinks we will like, based on our chosen shows.

It uses a phone line to download the tv schedule. This can be a bad thing because it doesn't make allowances for last minute schedule changes. Also, if a sporting event runs over and bounces the schedule out of wack, it doesn't correct itself.

It was a present from my husband and it was $300 for three years. If I had to do it again, I get the one that can record two channels at the same time.

We just got digital and HD and we haven't figured out how to hook it up yet - it looks like we'll have to watch the same show that we are tivoing. So we need to work that one out. We also have ON Demand now which has cut down on our TIVO demands.

The best feature is that we watch on our TIVO input and if you have to take phone call, or get up for something, you can pause it or rewind. This takes awhile to get used to but it totally changes the way you watch tv.

 

[Carl]

What everyone else said, but the basic difference between a DVR and TIVO is on the TIVO you can have it search for shows by title, actor, etc. and you can have it record shows with a theme. The DVR will only record the particular shows you set it to record. They both have menus to choose from.

 

[mill4023]

I *think* that Tivo is a DVR - it is just a brand name. We got a DVR through the cable company - the stuff is stored in the cable box.

You can only rewind things you've actually watched. If you turn on a show 10 minutes into it (a show you weren't recording), you can't rewind to the stuff you didn't see. And you can't fast forward to anything that hasn't been on yet. If the show has only been on for 20 minutes, you can't just fast forward to the end.

Yes, Tivo is a DVR, but it's also a service. Basically, you need 2 things:
A box with a hard drive to record stuff.
A way for the box to get the schedule information.

If you get your DVR from your cable/satellite company, they give you the box and it gets the schedule information directly from the cable/satellite signal.

With Tivo, you usually buy the box yourself, then subscribe to the Tivo service, which provides the schedule information the box needs. I think the phone line is how it pulls the schedule information, but I'm not a Tivo expert, so I don't know.

Yeah, I wasn't clear on the rewinding. It's always recording whatever channel you're on. How far back it goes probably depends on which DVR you have. So if you've been watching channel 4 for 15 minutes, you can rewind back 15 minutes. If you switch to another channel, you won't be able to immediately rewind because it doesn't have that channel's content recorded.

 

[OK!]

Yes, Tivo is a DVR, but it's also a service. Basically, you need 2 things:
A box with a hard drive to record stuff.
A way for the box to get the schedule information.

If you get your DVR from your cable/satellite company, they give you the box and it gets the schedule information directly from the cable/satellite signal.

With Tivo, you usually buy the box yourself, then subscribe to the Tivo service, which provides the schedule information the box needs. I think the phone line is how it pulls the schedule information, but I'm not a Tivo expert, so I don't know.

Yeah, I wasn't clear on the rewinding. It's always recording whatever channel you're on. How far back it goes probably depends on which DVR you have. So if you've been watching channel 4 for 15 minutes, you can rewind back 15 minutes. If you switch to another channel, you won't be able to immediately rewind because it doesn't have that channel's content recorded.

On occasion, too (how well it works seems to vary), even if you flip over to a show and it's toward the end, you can hit "record" and it'll go back and record from the beginning of the show. I've gotten it to work with sitcom-length shows (specifically, an episode of Frasier and one of Will & Grace), but when I tried to do it with a local newscast, it only went back about 5 minutes. Maybe that's because the sitcoms are reruns and the news isn't; I dunno.

Still...the DVR is one of the greatest inventions EVER.

 

[mill4023]

What everyone else said, but the basic difference between a DVR and TIVO is on the TIVO you can have it search for shows by title, actor, etc. and you can have it record shows with a theme. The DVR will only record the particular shows you set it to record. They both have menus to choose from.

The kind of search functions and automated recording options probably vary depending on which DVR you are talking about. From what I've heard though, Tivo does have more advanced features than the typical DVR provided by most cable companies.

With Time Warner, I can search by title, keyword, theme, etc. But I cannot tell it to automatically record anything with a certain title, keyword, or theme. It's also a pain because by default, it only gets a couple days worth of the tv schedule. So if I want to search to see if something is airing in the next week, I have to scroll all the way to the end of the week in the guide to get it to donwload the whole week's schedule. I definitely liked some of the Tivo features. The problem is that we have a HDTV and Time Warner's HD DVR is only $5 /month, while the HD Tivo boxes were very expensive last time I checked (like $500).

 

[crazyforgoofy]

We had TiVo at our old house and LOVED it. We have a dvr here provided free by Dish. I don't love it as much.

I've heard that the dvr is TiVo's dumb little brother and I agree.

TiVo is so much easier to use!

 

[Patch'sD]

I have had a cable DVR for about Six Months now. And it really Stinks. My Wife has taken over the TV and has all of her shows recording. I can no longer get in there and watch the History Channel, Discovery Channel and Other Boring Stations on my time. My Daughter has already taken over it also so when my wife isn't in there she is watching all of those MTV shows. All kidding aside it is well worth the 10.00 more a month we pay. Mine is HD, and $ 10.00 per month will beat TiVo costs hands down. Again the only drawback is on Sunday Nights if the football game run long. So I generally set the device to record for twice as long.

 

[hydster]

We had TiVo at our old house and LOVED it. We have a dvr here provided free by Dish. I don't love it as much.

I've heard that the dvr is TiVo's dumb little brother and I agree.

TiVo is so much easier to use!

Us too. We bought the original Tivo when it first came out. We loved it. Loved the interface and the ease of using it. Then we got an HD television and at the time Tivo didn't offer HD so we went with the comcast dvr. It does "ok" but we still prefer Tivo over it. The Tivo was much easier to use and our comcast box freezes up all the time and has to be rebooted. Hopefully we can get the Tivo one soon. I can't imagine ever watching regular tv again!

 

[LoraJ]

Things you can do with TiVo that you can't with a DVR:

If DH calls me right now at work and tells me that my favorite band is going to be on a show in 20 minutes, I can go online and set my TiVo to record it.

If you have more than one TiVo, you can network them together. So say you are home sick in bed and want to watch Desperate Housewives that's on the living room TiVo, but you don't feel like getting out of bed, you can transfer it to your bedroom unit.

You can transfer shows from the TiVo to your computer and then convert the files for your ipod or other portable devices. even burn the shows to DVD. Great for when you are traveling.

 

[marshallandcartersmo]

Great opinions!! Thanks so much...............

I guess I'm leaning towards the DVR, mostly because I've looked and I can get that through Comcast for about $12 a month. I'm assuming I'd have to get one box for each TV though, right?? That's $36 a month and I don't think I'd go that route. Just pick one TV and have it on that one.........

 

[mill4023]

I have had a cable DVR for about Six Months now. And it really Stinks. My Wife has taken over the TV and has all of her shows recording. I can no longer get in there and watch the History Channel, Discovery Channel and Other Boring Stations on my time. My Daughter has already taken over it also so when my wife isn't in there she is watching all of those MTV shows. All kidding aside it is well worth the 10.00 more a month we pay. Mine is HD, and $ 10.00 per month will beat TiVo costs hands down. Again the only drawback is on Sunday Nights if the football game run long. So I generally set the device to record for twice as long.

I guess we have it good. We only pay like $6/month for our box. But I finally got tired of having my shows deleted because the DVR was recording 300 different episodes of Hannah Montana, Suite Life of Zach and Cody, etc., etc., etc. So we added a second DVR for the bonus room TV and told the kids that they were no longer allowed to use the one in the living room. DW and I are even considering getting a 3rd box for our bedroom.

If Tivo starts selling a reasonably priced HD DVR, I'd consider switching. The Time-Warner box is pretty basic, but it gets the job done. Although it was definitely a downgrade from the Moxi DVR service we had with Charter Cable in Oregon. They had a really nice interface.

 

[mom2aiden]

I have to add a vote for TiVo!! I absolutely love mine and would get rid of my cell phone before I got rid of TiVo!

We got a dvr from Comcast for a second tv b/c we didn't want to pay the price for the TiVo. We returned it very quickly, it was so hard to use in comparison. Plus, the TiVo has many more features since you can hook it up to your home network. We have ours over our wireless network, so we don't need it hooked up to a phone line. Like the other poster said:

You can schedule it to record on-line (if you're at work or traveling)
You can do slide shows on your TV (if it's tied into your network) from the pics on your PC.
You can play your music on your TV from songs downloaded on your PC.
You can record shows to a DVD/iPod and take it with you.

We are looking to get one of the new ones that allows you to watch one channel and record another. My DH wants the HD version too. Keep a look out on rebate offers. We got a 40 hour TiVo last xmas for $50 after rebate.