Dvr

[lovetheprincesses]

Okay, I know we are probably the only ones on the planet who do not have a DVR, but I know NOTHING about them. I am thinking of calling the cable company and adding some programming to our service, and was reading about the DVR rental. Stupid question.....can you just go buy a DVR instead of renting from the cable company, or do you have to have some type of programming/subscription to use them, just on your regular tv programming? Is it just like a VCR, or do you have to have some special subscription?

 

[sydneysmom]

I honestly don't know if you can buy one....I've never seen one that you could. We rent ours from Comcast and honestly, I woudn't live without it now. it's kind of like a VCR only without the tape. But you can set it to tape shows (you watch frequently) every week when they come one. It's great if you're going away or you have something on a given night. ( we taped LOST each week just in case !!)

You can record movies, anything. You can also choose when it'll delete. So it you recorded a movie you like, you can choose " delete when I choose". It's a great thing to have.

Check w/ your cable company for specials.....when we ordered ours they were offering DVR for 6 months free. So we thought, what the heck, we'll try it. Then....we were hooked.

I don't know if this might help you or not, but here's the FAQ on Comcast's website regarding " all things DVR " http://customer.comcast.com/Pages/F...716c0a9073&INTCMP=ILC-SRCPROMOCOM0042&fss=dvr

 

[bonoriffic]

The only DVR you can go out and buy would be Tivo. A Tivo will work with any service provider that distributes cable cards. Comcast for example charges $1.50 per month to use a cable card from them. Satellite and AT&T U-Verse are not directly compatible with Tivo. You can also use Tivo with free over the air HD, bypassing cable altogether but limiting yourself to a few channels. Tivo has an initial cost, about $250 plus a monthly/yearly/or one time service fee.

Most people rent the DVR from the cable company.

A final option is to use a computer as a DVR using Windows Media Center or other DVR solutions such as Myth TV. If you already have the equipment required, it is basically free. (But has serious drawbacks not worth discussing here, and is rather technical in setup)

 

[mommy2_3]

we have a DVR and love it. but we are going to be getting a TiVo (dh's idea). its just like a DVR. you can get them at best buy http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olstemp...##1##f&list=y&usc=All+Categories&nrp=15&iht=n

 

[JB2K]

Pricing for DVRs vary depending on who your service provider is.

As AT&T U-verse goes, the DVR is free with certain packages.

 

[scard192]

I have mine through the cable company. I recently got an HD TV and the HD DVR is only $5 more/month than the regular HD box. $60/year well spent IMO. I record movies for when my grand daughter sleeps over. I love the options to only record new shows; no need to figure out if it's a repeat. I am recording so many more things than I ever did with a VCR. Can't live without it now! My 4 year old grand daughter called me the other day and asked her to record "Cars" for her next Saturday.

 

[Ava]

I am also hooked on my DVR & would not want to live without one now. We rent ours from the cable company (Cablevision), it's $10/month for the box & service.

 

[r&kmommy]

We have DVR through Dish Network, but years ago when DVR first came out (back when we were using VCR tapes to get our shows, omg remember that chaos?!?!) I had a Tivo in the bedroom... It had about 100 hours of space on it, and we chose the lifetime subscription option. I think it was around $300, you pay that one time (to Tivo) and your box is all set for the life of the box! The box itself was about $150. We totally got our money's worth out of that sucker, I used it for 7 years before we moved and got Dish!

That said, nowadays it's more budget to "rent" the DVR from Comcast/cable/dish provider.

Good luck. One word of warning though -- Once you go DVR you won't know how to watch a tv show the "regular" way again LOL!

 

[squirrel]

Look into a DVD Recorder.
I have a Sony that records the shows I program in (just like a VCR) then if I want to keep a copy I can burn it to DVD. Mine has a hard drive so I can save programs and then delete them once I've watched them or burn them to a DVD.

There are some that will only burn to a DVD without the hard drive. I think it's worth the extra to get one with a hard drive.

 

[Swimalie]

Just to let you know, you aren't the only one to not have a DVR. I still use my VCR and don't have any problems with it. When a season of something, like Survivor starts, I set it up to record every Thurs night 8-9pm. No problem. To me, it works about the same as s dvr and I don't have to pay a rental fee. Oh and I haven't bought a new tape in several years. I bought a Costco pack a while ago and I just use those. Sadly, I know one day those will be impossible to find, though.

 

[momof1princess]

we don't have a DVR either-no issues with our VCR. i cringe at the thought of paying DirecTV $100 for the privilege of having another box in my entertainment center, then paying them an additional fee each month for the honor of using it with their service!

 

[squirrel]

I love my DVD recorder, I forgot to mention that I tape Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and other Playhouse Disney shows and then burn them and give them to my nieces to watch at their house as they don't get that channel.

 

[bumbershoot]

We rent the DVR from Comcast, and when we started doing the math on how much we've paid to rent that thing...yeah, DH is getting to do a big huge "I told you so" dance, because he did, indeed, tell me that it would end up being cheaper to just buy a tivo.

My brother has a Tivo that he owns, and he also uses his PS3 as a sort of DVR as well. It's very complicated, and it's a bit what he does for a living, sort of, so it's really elaborate. DH admires this about my brother, and wishes to have a setup much like my brother's.

The biggest downfall of renting the box from cable is that if you get rid of the box, or have to upgrade (the harddrive in ours is slowly dying and we can get a new box for free), all the shows you have saved will be gone gone gone. We use the DVR mainly for DS's shows like The Upside Down Show that can't be bought on US DVD, and we'll have to go through the showings again to get them all again... We wish we were using a computer to do it so we could actually have those!

 

[hffmnheidi]

I had to buy a new DVD player/VCR combo because we don't have digital cable. Cost me 400 dollars last summer, but well worth it. I can record to DVDs, VHS tapes, and upload my digital camera photos to a DVD as well.

 

[splash5]

With the DVR, you can tape 2 shows at the same time. You can also pause live tv if you need to make a bathroom run or grab a snack, or if you get a phone call. No more missed shows. It also checks the schedule for your show and records it (if it is shown on a different night or at a different time for some reason).

 

[tink2dw]

Directv has the cheapest best DVR's and service!!!!!

 

[mjkacmom]

With the DVR, you can tape 2 shows at the same time. You can also pause live tv if you need to make a bathroom run or grab a snack, or if you get a phone call. No more missed shows. It also checks the schedule for your show and records it (if it is shown on a different night or at a different time for some reason).

Yes, it does so much more than a VCR! I can search for shows and movies, and if the schedule changes, the recording changes (like the last episode of survivor). Sometimes I'll type in old movies, or TV shows, and see if any of the many cable chanels are running them. I also like the ability to watch anything on any TV (we have boxes on all of ours).

Warning - once you have one, you can't go back. It kills me.

 

[jedijill]

I've been a Tivo lover since 2000. Another great deal is that you can stream movies from Netflix, Amazon, and Blockbuster if you have a Series 3 Tivo or Premiere. Love that feature a lot.

You can burn your shows to DVD from your Tivo. You transfer the programs to your pc using Tivo's software and then I found a free program on the internet to convert the file to a mpeg. Once it is converted I just burn to a DVD. Really easy.

Jill in CO

 

[yoopermom]

My DM has her DVR through her cable company and I have mine through DISH. A few things you should ask/be aware of:
1)how many things can you watch/tape at the same time (I have a dual DVR, so can either watch something already taped and tape 2 new things at the same time, or watch one thing live and tape one thing)
2)how many tvs can you watch whats been taped on (With mine, you can watch on either of the two tvs connected to the dual DVR.)
3)does it run off a hard drive (mine does, and I will say I've had to have it replaced, so pay the extra monthly "insurance" fee, it's a little touchy)
4)how many hours of regular tv and how many hours of HD can it hold (you will use more than you think! lots more!)
5)how can you organize what you have recorded(mine has "groups" that you can set up, so each of us in the family has his/her own group)
6)how easy is it to prioritize (I watch a lot of cable shows that are repeated throughout the week, therefore I make the network shows a higher priority since they're only shown once)

An excellent board (like this one) is dvdtalk.com They really discuss all of this in depth!

I have to admit that I am a technology junkie, but I love nothing more than my DVR!!!

Terri

 

[erincon23]

We have DirecTV with three televisions in the house. We bought a TiVo at Best Buy several years ago for our bedroom; in the family room, we bought a DirecTV DVR at Best Buy ($100), and in the office, we have just a straight satellite box (which, now that we have DVRs in the other room, drives me crazy). The TiVo hasn't given us ONE MOMENT of trouble. The FR box that we bought crapped out after about two years -- when I called DirecTV for help trying to figure it out, they decided it was dead and sent us a new one to lease for $20. That one lived for about three months, then started to overheat. They sent us another new one, for free this time. That one overheated. I have a third new one sitting in the box on the floor to install. DirecTV told me that they are in the process of changing all their DVRs to TiVo brand because the quality is much better -- I can attest to that!

The other difference is that the TiVo service allows you to do other things that the regular DVR box doesn't. We don't have upgraded TiVo -- it's still a 6-year-old box, and doesn't have all the fancies on it -- but I like it much better than the regular DVR service -- you can search for shows by keyword or actor, by channel, by name; set up "subscriptions," it can recommend shows for you based on what you already record (although that can get annoying -- way too much).

My parents got a DVR about a year ago. We had been trying to talk them into it, and they kept saying no -- now they wouldn't be without it.

Erin