Why Did You Switch From TiVo to SageTV?

[dbfresh23]

Keep in mind that ReplayTV was sold 3-4 times. Had DirecTV not signed on with Tivo, Replay could very well have had more customers at this point.

Tivo is in some trouble now unless this comcast deal works out. Since DirecTV didn't renew the contract, it is my understanding that they can continue to offer Tivo service WITHOUT paying Tivo their usual $1 per month. Since literally 75% of Tivo's customers are DTV customers, that would be a gigantic amount to just up and lose. I think I would really enjoy seeing Tivo go belly up, which I can certainly see happening with cable company DVRs being cheaper per month and not having to buy the DVR.

[joe123]

Originally Posted by dbfresh23

Tivo is in some trouble now unless this comcast deal works out. .

Yeap. This was one of the reasons why I finally deceided against TiVo.

TiVo is in trouble - look at their current stock price. If TiVo goes belly up, I will loose my TiVo subsciptions PLUS I would have a piece of worthless hardware that cannot be modified (no software available to run other than TiVo software on it). $1,000.00 bucks down the drain with 2 tivo's - worse if you have more than 2.

[stevech]

Seems like ReplayTV would go chapter 13 well before TiVo. And if TiVo made chapter 11 noises, someone would go for them at fire sale prices.

s/Steve, satisfied SageTV user

[dbfresh23]

Originally Posted by stevech

Seems like ReplayTV would go chapter 13 well before TiVo. And if TiVo made chapter 11 noises, someone would go for them at fire sale prices.

ReplayTV is no longer selling STBs, they are moving to a software company. They'll be selling a PVR app for PCs. That takes away a lot of their expenses and could put Tivo in a worse position then they are in.

[stevech]

i.e., ReplayTV is imploding?

[Ralphjb]

I never had TIVO. I looked at TIVO and ReplayTV, but always liked the idea of recording to PC and all the functionality that meant. Before SageTV, I had a couple of generations of ATI A-I-W cards. Their reliability was cr*p, but it did familiarize me with the concept of recording to PC.

With SageTV able to work with an unlimited number of tuners, to work over a network, with networked drives, with the ability to take advantage of technological advances, etc., it was a no brainer to me.

[src666]

Originally Posted by stevech

Seems like ReplayTV would go chapter 13 well before TiVo. And if TiVo made chapter 11 noises, someone would go for them at fire sale prices.

s/Steve, satisfied SageTV user

Replay _DID_ go bankrupt, and the assets got picked up by SonicBlue way, way, way back when. The brand and IP are now owned by DNNA (Dennon/Marantz), who just killed the last of the ReplayTV line. They are moving to a software/IP only market.

[Fluffdaddy]

ReplayTV was my first love. They broke my DVR cherry.
I had their 2020,3020 and 5040 And they were not cheap back in the early days. I Still have 2 5040's "lifetime" for the kids

I just needed something that would support C-band and that's when Sagetv came in. Now I use nothing else

[joe123]

Just an update that I finally returned my trial TiVo back to the store.

I honestly gave TiVo a try, but SageTV blows TiVo out the water and NO MONTHLY FEES!

I don't understand why so many TiVo idiots pay $12.95 a month or fork out $300 per box for lifetime subscription when the EPG data is basically free on the web. I mean for 3 TiVo's that is almost $1,000.00 and the TiVo's suck when transfering files around, and limited disk space.

I thought of keeping both, TiVo and SageTV, but found TiVo to be so darn slow, noisy at night with disk activity and the $12.95 monthly fee was just the final straw to return TiVo back to it's home.

Buh Bye TiVo

[DFranch]

Fact of the matter is that most people are not willing to tinker aroud with building a Sage box like us. No one else in my family would go to the trouble I go to keeping my sage box up and running, debugging errors etc. Tivo is for those peple.

[jominor]

Originally Posted by DFranch

Fact of the matter is that most people are not willing to tinker aroud with building a Sage box like us. No one else in my family would go to the trouble I go to keeping my sage box up and running, debugging errors etc. Tivo is for those peple.

I wouldn't use Sage if it required that much upkeep. I've got me server in a corner in the basement. It runs 24/7 and I give it very little thought. I've recommended Sage to people and would have no trouble doing so to anyone who can turn a computer on.

I would just give them the benefit of my experience and telll them select this and that and enjoy.

[DFranch]

Originally Posted by jominor

I wouldn't use Sage if it required that much upkeep. I've got me server in a corner in the basement. It runs 24/7 and I give it very little thought. I've recommended Sage to people and would have no trouble doing so to anyone who can turn a computer on.

I would just give them the benefit of my experience and telll them select this and that and enjoy.

I expect mine would have less problems if I had a server and had client hooked up to the TV. I have everything in one box and it has been crashing about once every 1-2 weeks since about October (used to be rock solid). I really need to do a complete windows reinstall, but I am dragging my feet. These kind of problems are why I would not recommend to novice computer users. Also, many people do not like to take the cover off of their computer to install a (tuner) card. Let them buy a Tivo or get the cable company DVR.

[joe123]

Originally Posted by DFranch

Fact of the matter is that most people are not willing to tinker aroud with building a Sage box like us. No one else in my family would go to the trouble I go to keeping my sage box up and running, debugging errors etc. Tivo is for those peple.

Good point, but I found TiVo to be equally frustrating if you want to do other things.

I found TiVo almost useless without TiVoToGo. With TiVoToGo, I spent 3 days searching for a "supported" wireless usb. Then I found the transfer speeds to be outright criminaly slow - I now had to keep my PC running all night just to transfer a few shows because darn TiVo was so slow.

Then I wanted to upgrade the terrible small drives on TiVo and found that it was just like putting a PC together - heck, I can build 3 PC's in the time it would have taken me to understand all the steps required to clone a drive and install it. The I saw people complaining that 2 large drives on TiVo was killing the TiVo performance becauce TiVo could not keep up with so many movies.

That's when I said, wait, let me try a home PVR solution. I honesly found SageTV an equal if not easier solution overall.

I do agree that TiVo out the box is for GrandMa approval factors. Not too many Grandmas that use the Internet

[SubaruWRX]

Replay TV is no more?

I only as because my aunt has one.

[Fluffdaddy]

Originally Posted by SubaruWRX

Replay TV is no more?

I only as because my aunt has one.

They are no longer making any new stb's, but the Replaytv's that are out there will work fine for years to come. I give away 4 of my 6 replaytv's to family members and they are all working and they love them.

*I still have two, one for my wife court shows and the other for when I'm adding/upgrading my sage server which takes a day or so............... Yeah I'm slow

[Fluffdaddy]

Originally Posted by DFranch

I expect mine would have less problems if I had a server and had client hooked up to the TV. I have everything in one box and it has been crashing about once every 1-2 weeks since about October (used to be rock solid). I really need to do a complete windows reinstall, but I am dragging my feet. These kind of problems are why I would not recommend to novice computer users. Also, many people do not like to take the cover off of their computer to install a (tuner) card. Let them buy a Tivo or get the cable company DVR.

Same with me. I have a client in the bedroom and just added a mvp in the breakfast room. But my server is the dvd/pvr box on our 57" dlp TV. With a family of 5 it gets a real workout everyday. So unlike some folks here it will never go months and months with out a reboot or crash. 31 days have been the record. But most of the time it's 2 or 3 weeks...tops. I can live with that.

To run and cable my 5 tuner sage to the basement and use as a server only would be great..............but I'm just to lazy to redo everything after I got everything working the way I like

[joe123]

How about an automated weekly reboot during the night?

The only problem would be automating the process such that it reboots when no shows are being recorded or no upcoming shows in the next say 5-10 minutes are coming.

I think Windows XP has an option to create a schedule event to perfom something once a day only when system is idle? But here again, even if the PC is idle and a reboot takes place 1 minute before a show is to be recorded, the reboot proceess can cut into the recording time.