Tivo Roamio

[reggie14]

The break-even point of just under 3 years makes it tough. In theory, once you reach a certain point of performance, you should be fine for a while. My HD300s are fine, the first of which I got 3 years ago, and while I just updated my SageTV server, I was running the previous one for about 5 years.

We're also getting close to the point where I'm not sure if I'm going to want/need a traditional DVR in 3 years.

[davenlr]

On the bright side, it looks like the operating system is on flash memory now, so you can upgrade the hard drive size by just putting in a new drive and turning it on. Much easier than the previous linux copy, expand, supersize method.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by Skirge01

Just keep in mind that if you want to upgrade your Tivo within those 3 years, I don't believe you can transfer the lifetime service. I think it's lifetime of the exact Tivo device it's purchased for. If you're on these forums, my guess is that you'll constantly be looking for the next big thing and probably won't be happy with your current setup in 3 years.

Hey, I used my ReplayTV's for over 10 years. I had 4 of them. The only reason I stopped using those as "backups" (for the odd time that my Sage HD tuner or the channel messed up a recording) was my cable company removed the ability to directly tune SD channels without one of their horrible little boxes.

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by flavius

I haven't thought about that - I haven't owned a TiVo in eight years, didn't even look at them closely because of all the usability issues - but that shouldn't be to difficult to find out.
EDIT: So just learned that those flags don't appear to be an issue for the Mini - however, not all 3rd party content stored on the Main system can be played back.

I don't have any minis. why would you be able to share programming with a mini and not a Premiere - design genius? lol

[btrcp2000]

[QUOTE=reggie14;555835.

We're also getting close to the point where I'm not sure if I'm going to want/need a traditional DVR in 3 years.[/QUOTE]

^this. $@#% major league baseball is the only thing that keeps me tied to cable.

[flavius]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

I don't have any minis. why would you be able to share programming with a mini and not a Premiere - design genius? lol

I think you are the one who has the TiVo here, right? So, there's no question who the real *genius* is.

Originally Posted by Skirge01

That looks about right to me. $45, to be precise, although they say multi-service discounts may apply. Plus taxes and other fees, I'm sure.

I don't think the complete switch would cost me much at all. Monthly I'd be paying a little less actually since I can return three cable boxes (one of them a DVR), since I will only need two Minis to replace my three extenders - how much do those fetch these days?

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by flavius

I think you are the one with who has the TiVo here, right? So, there's no question who the real *genius* is.

genius English....

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

I don't have any minis. why would you be able to share programming with a mini and not a Premiere - design genius? lol

Did TiVo ever re-enable TiVo-to-TiVo streaming on the Premieres? I had heard they disabled streaming, so all you could do was copy a recording from one TiVo to another (thus requiring the recording to be marked copy-freely).

[tvmaster2]

Originally Posted by reggie14

Did TiVo ever re-enable TiVo-to-TiVo streaming on the Premieres? I had heard they disabled streaming, so all you could do was copy a recording from one TiVo to another (thus requiring the recording to be marked copy-freely).

well you learn something everday, even when you're a 'genius'....
streaming seems to be working now, but transferring is still forebidden. Also, the software has changed in so much that the big, red X is now less evident than before, which is likely why I assumed streaming was also taboo...
PS - I barely use the Tivo's. They exist for WAF - I am a Sage guy...

[btrcp2000]

why would you want to transfer from one to the other?

xfer vs stream to mobile device i get, and i'm sure that's not as wonderful as they make it sound.

[flavius]

^ Transfer of flag protected stuff to mobile devices does not work.

[Electronicbuff]

I hear there is a way to import your dvds into the Tivo server so we can time shift.

The one thing that would help me sway more would be the ability to use a program like Comskip to remove the commercials. I can't watch TV now with those annoying commercials any more.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by Electronicbuff

The one thing that would help me sway more would be the ability to use a program like Comskip to remove the commercials.[/B] I can't watch TV now with those annoying commercials any more.

Amen to that!! That is one of the major drawbacks to most of the SageTv hardware solutions like TiVo, Cable/Sat DVR's, etc.
It is also what has made OnDemand completely and utterly useless on Comcast. When OD first started you had to watch one or two short Comcast or network ads prior to the OD selection starting, but after that there were no more commercials. Now, not only do the majority of the OD selections have commercials intact from the aired version, but in a majority of those FF is disabled.
I could forgive the absolutely horrible FF/RW response of OD just to get that program that I missed, but now they have taken even that vastly underperforming function away completely.

[patja]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

Amen to that!! That is one of the major drawbacks to most of the SageTv hardware solutions like TiVo, Cable/Sat DVR's, etc.
It is also what has made OnDemand completely and utterly useless on Comcast. When OD first started you had to watch one or two short Comcast or network ads prior to the OD selection starting, but after that there were no more commercials. Now, not only do the majority of the OD selections have commercials intact from the aired version, but in a majority of those FF is disabled.
I could forgive the absolutely horrible FF/RW response of OD just to get that program that I missed, but now they have taken even that vastly underperforming function away completely.

Comskip is the killer feature that keeps me plugging away at keeping our Sage system going. I can't image going to forced unskippable ads, and even manual quickskip/FF solutions are pretty unacceptable.

What are the alternatives that incorporate comskip? I guess MythTV and XBMC?

[jerryt]

Originally Posted by patja

What are the alternatives that incorporate comskip? I guess MythTV and XBMC?

WMC

[mguebert]

MediaPortal NextPVR

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by jerryt

WMC

Please don't mention WMC. (it hurts my brain)

While I was having issues getting SageDCT to run on my WHS machine (eventually turned out that "something", never did figure out what, was trying to use the same RTP port as SageDCT) I tried putting my HDHR Prime onto WMC on my Winddows 7 machine. OMG! What a VASTLY, HORRENDOUSLY, inferior product. I couldn't even record my shows since I could not find a way to get those channels which insisted on starting shows 20-30 seconds early (yes my time is correct on the computer) using a series record to start 1 minute early.
Sure there is a setting in the main config for setting pre/post padding preferences, but I could not get them to work via series record (seems on the web nobody else could either). There is a setting to post pad, but no option to pre pad.
Just soo many things I have come to rely on in my very basic SageTV setup that were completely missing in WMC.

So I figured WMC *must* have a bazillion plugins right? Well there were quite a few, but almost none of any use (to *me*) at all with the exception of maybe tuner salad (to extend the 4 tuner limitation) and the tools to get comskip to work.

[graywolf]

Originally Posted by Electronicbuff

I hear there is a way to import your dvds into the Tivo server so we can time shift.

The one thing that would help me sway more would be the ability to use a program like Comskip to remove the commercials. I can't watch TV now with those annoying commercials any more.

I know what you mean. Last time I did Business travel I forgot my External HD that I keep some things to watch while on the road. Was stuck with just the room TV. It was PAINFUL.

Absolutely lost interest in the story lines with all the commercial interruptions.

[jerryt]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

Please don't mention WMC. (it hurts my brain)

There is a setting to post pad, but no option to pre pad.

I have a 2 minute pre-pad on "America's got talent". Works fine...

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by jerryt

I have a 2 minute pre-pad on "America's got talent". Works fine...

Maybe we're not running the same versions (mines on Win7), but I never could find a pre-pad setting for series and all my series recordings did not honor the pre/post padding in the main settings.