Comments on: 11 things a DVR should do

By: Josh

Josh — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 00:18:27 +0000

The TiVo does have multi-room viewing as long as the other TiVos are connected to the home network under the same subnet mask. To increase the storage is a little tricky now that they no longer offer the WD my DVR Expander. To accomplish this you have to utilize the free TiVo desktop software and have your recordings auto-transfer to the pc. Which drive they go to is up to you My choice WD MyBook 1tb less than $100us. Granted you may have to get the desktop plus to move them off the drive but that gives you the ability to change the format and take the shows with you on the drive, a zune or an ipod.

By: Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress

Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:22:09 +0000

True. As mentioned, these are things a DVR with a Broadcom-chip can do. Obviously, not all features are enabled by the box manufacturer. But the manufacturer pays the same price for the chip whether it chooses to enable the features or not. As a consumer, I just want to know what I’m missing. And I really want a multi-room DVR with expanded storage!

By: Eric

Eric — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:01:43 +0000

Wow, this is a great advertisement for broadcom. Is this really supposed to be piece of journalism? Videoconferencing. REALLY? How is that related to sitting back and enjoying a show or a movie? DVRs are popular with consumers because they provided convenience (watch when you want to) and help them get little bits of time back in their life (skip commercials). So how does videoconferencing support either one of those two? Or for that matter how does meet some real unmet consumer need? Oh wait. Broadcom integrates that on the more expensive chips that the sell to the guys who make DVRs. Right and Broadcom can make more mony selling those chips. So yeah let’s get videoconferencing on your DVR. So whatever is good for broadcom, that’s on the list of things a DVR could and should do. Same applies for surfing the net and streaming music, just because these boxes can do these things (of course they are little computers) doesn’t mean they should or that integrating all on one box necessarily makes sense for the consumer.

By: kda0045

kda0045 — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:11:49 +0000

When will the DVR manufacturers’ release DVRs’ that can record 4 or more channels at once from over the air, without subscribing to Tivo or some other service ? I have a Philips DVDR3576 and it’s great, but it is limited to just one channel at a time recording. Philips no longer sells them, and Magnavox is hard to find, I think only WalMart has them on special on-line order.

By: Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress

Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:05:57 +0000

Remember ReplayTV? Skipping commercials was a selling point. RIP. Windows Media Center still has 30 second skip (hackable to whatever you want) and there's also a hack to do this on TiVo's to.

By: Cable 99

Cable 99 — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:31:33 +0000

I had an old Moxi box and you could overshoot past commercials into the show and hit start and it would auto-correct to the first second of the show’s return. They don’t make them anymore and TW only supplies Motorola boxes, which do not have this capability. I feel like I’m using an old VCR when I fast-forward. Totally rots.

By: Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress

Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:09:16 +0000

Didn’t realize that… Does seem artificial. Anyone else try recording more than 50 series? Thanks for sharing.

By: Steve Fields

Steve Fields — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:51:21 +0000

My biggest gripe is the seemingly artificial limitation of only 50 series on my DirecTV DVR. It sounds like plenty until seasonality comes into play. I find that I have to delete summer series to record fall series then scramble to re-list their season premiers in the winter or spring. (Think The Closer or Eureka.)