TIVO and DVR's

I have the DVR from Time/Warner Cable NYC and all I can say is "SELL YOUR TIVO STOCK!!!".

It's a simple system that can record numerous programs at the same time and allows one to "rewind" LIVE programming. We watch the programs we want to watch when we want. I hope your cable company catches up.

joe, when did you get your TW NYC DVR?! i didn't know they existed. is it an hdtv DVR or standard def DVR?

lightwizard, i'm not aware of any DVR that you can use with HDTV. the pioneer has s-video and composite inputs and component, s-video, and composite outputs.
so you can use it but you won't be able to record hdtv.

too many acronyms guys. What does TIVO mean? We're six months behind ya's down here.

TIVO is a device that is simply a harddrive which records selected TV programs and will then automatically record anything that is related to that recording if you so choose. DVR stands for DigitaL Video Recorder. I'm finding out if the Pioneer has component outputs and if the TIVO can be hooked up via a split cable signal. I do understand that eventually TW will have a HD DVR! Maybe I should be patient. I still record with a VCR -- the Daily Show and Leno every day.

ye110man -- I couldn't find where the Pioneer had component outputs and my local store didn't know (although they didn't have as good a price as online). Is this on the link site? The unit is very new and it will have competition soon I'm sure.

I missed the spec tab -- yes, it does have a video component output! I know it won't record hi def and it does have an 80 hour capacity, the Time Warner only 20 hours. It's the DVD burner that is really attractive -- goodbye videotapes even though the DVD blanks are expensive (I should shop them online to see what the lowest price is).

i buy my blank dvd's off ebay. last time i bought a spindle of 25 for $37. you can find spindles of 50 for $60-70. you just have to stick with the brand names.

We've had the TW DVR about two months. L used it to record all the Fashion on 7th Ave shows when we got it. Now we use it to record the shows we would have watched anyway but something else got in the way,
but we don't keep any show for longer than a week or so. I can't imagine wanting to go back and watch "What not to wear.?" (Can you tell L is in the rag business?)

It's a delight to be able to decide that you would like to see CBS Sunday Morning on the following Monday or, as happened last night, I froze the World Series in it's tracks in order to go yank the steak out of the broiler.
(I came back into the living room, hit play and the Yanks struck out of the inning, then I just hit LIVE and the real-time game came back on after about five seconds of the commercial break.. .. No time lost and the steak was medium rare.

What they've done Wilso, is allowed the home viewer to have instant replay. The programming is recorded on a disc and can either be saved or played back whenever one chooses. We've played back the previous two minutes of a show when the two of us lose track of what's going on. (We're terrible TV watchers, we read, play chess and frolic with the cats when we are supposed to be in gaped wonder over whether the NY police detective will find the clue he needs to nab the prep before the strikingly beautiful District Attorney takes over the case. )(yawn)

was that a special dvr testing program under TW or something? i've never heard of TW NYC offering DVRs.

With this Pioneer machine, the death knell on videotape is getting very loud. Imagine just entering a show you want to watch and then slipping in a DVD to record it for a library! Of course, 80 hours would give more than enough capacity to build up a small library for viewing during the immediate coming months if one continues to delete the time shift shows they've watched and don't want to keep. Anyone have a good online download for making DVD covers?

It's not a special test -- all of Time Warner digital cable customers can have the DVR for about $6.00 per month. Trouble is, like I said, you can't have both the HD tuner and the DVR as the digital programming is only set up to operate with each seperate unit. I'm still debating whether to wait for a HD DVR from Time Warner. However, without the triple layer blue laser HD DVD burners, it does make the Pioneer look very attractive and I'm surmising it won't be obselete for three to five years as far as the upgrade. List price is around $1,200 but I haven't shopped it on line -- the online dealers they link to don't seem to have firm prices.

i didn't know that. i gotta call them up tomorrow. i'll sacrifice hdtv for dvr.

knowing time-warner you'll be waiting years for an hd dvr. i don't archive shows except for the sopranos which comes out on dvd anyway. so i don't need recordability. i can do it on my computer if i wanted to. i have a tv tuner and dvd burner.

I have UltimateTV for Satellite, a separate stand-alone component DVD burner, as well as an HDTV combo Satellite-Off-the-Air tuner and two VCRS. All my component switching is done through my receiver ... I can record from any tuner or source to any other recording device, while watching any of the devices independently. Maybe what you need is better switching and more inputs and outputs.

As for HDTV, yeah, its breathtaking, but there still isn't a lot out there yet. About the best programming material available is no better than DVD's 480P resolution. Iff I hadda choose, I'd probably opt for the DVD recorder for now.

TW sent me a thing in my bill about the DVR. I was standing in line (actually sitting in a line of chairs) the next day at lunch. You bring one of your converters and the clicker, they trade you for the DVR.

Here's an interesting note: I was watching the seventh game between the Yankees and the Red Sox. Boone comes up to hit. Just before the pitch I hear out my window this great cheer and before I can say "What the ..!"
Boone hits the ball over the left field fence. I was watching Live but apparently there is about a three to four second delay.


Joe

There's enough HDTV in my area to make me very reluctant to give up the tuner. Just saw "Fosse" again and it was like watching it live on stage. The "Lawrence of Arabia" documentary on PBS was also great. Some broadcasts like the HBO and Showtime movies are, of course, not filmed in high definition film. Ditto "The Sopranos." It is a better picture than the 480dpi and the 5.1 digital sound is also superior. I'm calling Time Warner techs to see how I would hook up the Pioneer from a split but since I am reinstalling Road Runner, that would be four splits of the signal (although I would be able to give up the VCR split and just use it for playback of old tapes -- it's now almost painful to watch video at only 250 lines).

Oh, and thanks Ye110man for the tip on DVD blanks.

There is a noticeavle delay between the UTV output and that from the other staetllite receivers ... a second or two, usually. This is due to the fact the program material is being recorded to and read from the HD, as opposed to being displayed "Live". That's how the "Instant Replay" function works ... the drive starts recording as soon as you select a channel. There's also a delay of around 1 1/2 to 2 seconds comparing satellite TV to the same material "Off-the-Air", BTW ("Speed-of-light, and all ya know ... the signal has to make about a 45,0000 mile trip from the uplink to the bird and back down to your dish ... this puts the UTV's output around 3 seconds behind "Off-The-Air" when comparing the same material).
Its really a shame Microsoft never got UTV "Off the ground" ... its features are great, particularly its twin-tuner capability and its flexible recording options. All in all it is really the most capable of the combo Satellite Receiver/PVR combos out there. It was just out there about 2 years ahead of the market for it.
One of my VCRs records in S-Video, which blows away standard video ... 400+ lines to 250 lines or so ... huge difference. Anyhow ... like I said, LW ... all my switching is done by my Yamaha A/V receiver ... whatever component or format its hooked to, it up-and-down-converts across all the other outputs. You really oughtta look into a new A/V receiver, methinks.

I have that capability on my A/V receiver but as far as I know it's not compatible with the cable HD tuner. I really only use the VCR to time shift programs which would become obselete except for playing old videos once I would install the Pioneer or something like it. I still wouldn't be able to loop in the Pioneer in order to record scrambled cable channels and that's why the Time Warner DVR shows its superiority when on cable hookup. I guess I could have an additional cable box which would provide the extra tuner but I'm not sure how that works with TIVO. Purchasing the Pioneer also gives one the TIVO service included in the cost.

i noticed the delay with my regular digital cable (no dvr) when i was talking on the phone with someone who was watching the same show received OTA.

i just saw the little blurb about TW DVR on my bill today. these people are terrible at advertising. this is gonna push my bill over $100/month. damn the time-warner monopoly!

Yea, all I got was a little flyer in my bill that I could overlook -- however, they have been running commercials lately on several cable channels.