On 16/09/09 12:55, dennis@home wrote:


"Tim Downie" wrote in message
...

I rarely want to archive programs forever, just time shift them and
for that the TiVo excels in performance and most particularly
reliability. The TiVo really is, IMO, the canines cojones of PVRs. I
say "is" rather than "was" as I think it still outperforms the vast
majority of PVRs even today. Just a shame you can't get a new one in
the UK. :-(

AFAICS the only thing TiVo offers above a media center PC is that it
decides to record stuff by its self.

I have built a mythtv box (will readily admit it's not suitable for
everyone) it does the usual "pause live TV" tricks, can record specific
programmes from the EPG, it does series-record, can record based on
keywords, and save recordings to DVD if required.

Because I have digital tuners it can record multiple programmes from a
mux at once, and because I have multiple tuners it can record from
multiple muxes at once, I can control it via an web interface (at a push
view recordings remotely too).

Occasionally I get a bit of grief from linux upgrades breaking
something, usually audio glitches but smooth video playback breaks from
time to time, but I wouldn't be without it really.