[Chrysler300] The last and final word on Tivo, I promise maybe

From: "Roger Schaaf" <obiwan10@xxxxxxxxxxx>

Date: Sun, 22 Jan 2006 13:07:34 -0800

Mike: Again, I paid for one Tivo some 5 years ago. Now run 4(long story why, but 3 of them are regular non-HD receivers and one is Hi Def) and have not been charged a cent more for them. However with DirecTV, you are billed 5 bucks per month for each additional receiver, whether Tivo or just a plain non-DVR. Each Tivo has 2 built in DirecTV receivers, but DirecTV treats it as one. So all and all, I have 4 Tivo's, 8 receivers(so I could be recording 8 different programs simultaneously if I wished--and I have--). DirecTV gives one for their regular service, so I am paying for 3 additional receivers(15 dollars monthly--but when I call to complain they always waive the charges for the next 6 months). This website link will give you a wealth of detail on upgrading Tivo's for greater capacity. I have myself added disk drives to existing Tivo's and enlarged the stock ones. In fact I just purchased a 200 gig Maxtor yesterday to add more capacity to my HD unit. You can take these Hi Def units to about 800 hours of non-HD programming and just over 100 hours of Hi-Def(Hi Def requires far more disk space). Hi Def broadcasts and playbacks from Tivo are spectacular. http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&f=25 Even if I were to pay 10 dollar monthly for Tivo, in the great scope of things and the investment that I and many have in Home Theatre equipment, it is inconsequential(like having to burn premium fuel in your 300). You can burn regular(and I can watch TV without Tivo) but it is senseless. I think that if you were to acquire a Tivo(in fact they cost less then a 100 dollars and often free with a DirecTV contract) you would see that it is far superior to any of the other platforms in ease of use, ergonomics and facility. This feature of "a program moving its time slot" is important, but is only one of numerous advantages of Tivo, I have not looked at a TV Guide or newspaper for 6 years for TV programming, schedules or times. Recording 2 programs at once is invaluable(you can be watching one(such as Barrett Jackson)while recording your wife's favorite programs. It is totally beyond my comprehension why everyone is not running a Tivo, or some DVR. I suspect that most people think that their VCR is as good and simpler. VCR's are as Model T's to new Ferrari's and Tivo is far simpler then dealing with recording on tape(finding the right channel, the start time, the number of hours, playback and on and on). Everyone and I mean everyone that I have introduced to Tivo(or any DVR for that matter) have become instant fans and will be as strong an advocate as I am, and will admit that they had not understood it until they actually gave it a try. You could take away their color TV and give them a black and white, but do not take their Tivo from their "dying hands" to quote Charlton Heston. Perhaps the rules have changed on lifetime memberships to Tivo, but for me, it is for all Tivo's as long as I am a DirecTV subscriber. Also one thing that we have missed is that DirecTV/Tivo gives a far better picture then other platforms(but cable is coming along and of course Echostar does this too). DirecTV broadcast signals from their satellites an Mpeg 3 digital signal to your dish, thence to the receiver, thence to recording on the Tivo hard drive(still digital) and then from there to your TV's S-video input in analog. Other solutions(such as then DirecTV----such as cable-- take a digital or analog signal from cable to the cable box, it is outputted in analog, recorded to the hard drive in digital, and then converted back to analog to feed the TV. These conversions cost much in resolution and lead to a seriously degraded final picture. Hi Def Tivo goes a step further if your TV(most HD TV's now provide this) supports HDMI. HDMI is digital input into the TV. So DirecTV Tivo's do not have to make any analog conversions at all. Also DirecTV Tivo also fully supports Dolby Surround Sound and 5.1(Dolby Digital) digital encoding/decoding. Many other platforms do not. Also I firmly believe that Tivo's ergonomics for controlling the recording and playback of programming is superior to all solutions. I am running 4 Tivo's, a 65 inch Hi Def monitor, a DVD, a Cable Box-- I (cost me no more because I have a cable modem for the internet) also have Hi Def cable--, a remote controlled antenna rotator for off the air HD of local network channels, a Parasound C-51 preamp and amp, all off a single remote control and I can control everyone of these devices with this remote from any room in my home or garage(I actually send outputs from these Tivos to other rooms in the home, like the garage, the kitchen, and all bedrooms. Each room has its own wireless RF/IR remote controllers. So instead of 8 remotes in my family room, I have only one to control everything perfectly. Check out this website for great remotes and their programming. I happen to use the Mx-600 which I think is the best in the industry(obsolete--but still available but hard to find-- and replaced by the Mx-850 which I think is an inferior product but still the 2nd best around). http://www.remotecentral.com/cgi-bin/mboard/rc-master/list.cgi Incidentally the MX-600 is a IR/RF version of the MX-500 which is IR only and is also a great remote. I used it for years until getting 600's for their RF support. Roger Schaaf ----- Original Message ----- From: Michael Reed To: Roger Schaaf Sent: Sunday, January 22, 2006 6:59 AM Subject: Re: [Chrysler300] Barrett-Jackson After reading the features available w/ Tivo, I think the only two things my RCA won't do that Tivo will (?). One is record a program that has moved to a different time slot, and the other is to record two programs simultaneously. The latter has never been an issue with me, but it could be someday. Before I purchased the RCA I discovered one thing I didn't like with the Tivo -- and this info came directly from them -- if you purchase a lifetime membership, it is for a particular device (i.e serial number). If that device breaks, or is destroyed, etc. you can't carry the membership to a new device. You would have to purchase another membership for another $200. Re: "...I can get up to 300 hours of programming on a couple of them" -- I am curious: were you able to replace the drive with a larger one? Or did you add a second drive? I'm curious about what it took to accomplish the expansion, Roger. Can you give me some details? Mike ----- Original Message ----- From: Roger Schaaf To: Michael Reed ; Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ; moparpjf@xxxxxxx Sent: Sunday, January 22, 2006 03:04 Subject: Re: [Chrysler300] Barrett-Jackson I paid 200 dollars for a lifetime membership for DirecTV/Tivo some 5 years ago. I have not paid a dime since, and am now licensed on 4 Tivo's. Up until recently, DirecTV still offered a lifetime subscription(do not know what the rules are today). As for your point that you pay nothing and get the same, this is incorrect. Tivo is more then just a recording device. Their is a wealth of features offered that no other system comes close to duplicating. Main competitors were/are Microsoft's Ultimate TV(dead for most purposes) and Replay TV(same). Also DVR service from Echo Star(competing Sat TV system) and Cable services are beginning to roll out services. DirecTV now as it is owned by Rudolph Murdoch, now licenses another DVR service besides Tivo.. There are some basic Tivo like services offered via your PC using special video cards. Any "free" Tivo like service does not offer a wealth of features that are standard to Tivo. Some highlight would be the ability to get a Season Pass. This allows you to tell your DVR to record every episode of say The Sopranos or Desperate Housewives or 60 Minutes. Each week, Tivo will then switch to the proper channel, at the proper time and for the proper length of time and record for you. Even if the program is moved to another time slot(say because of a football game), Tivo knows this and still records it. You can tell Tivo to always be on the lookout for say a favorite movie. Recently I asked Tivo to record The Gumball Rally(the best car movie of all time for me). Some 8 weeks later, it was offered on Speed Channel and one night I checked Tivo and found that it was recorded and waiting of me to watch it. Same for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and many other movies that I have captured. Right now, I have it waiting for reruns of Route 66. I can be recording two different channels simultaneously while watch a third program. Their are a wealth of such features, plus High Definition recording. No one else besides Echo Star can do this,,,,however Cable is now offering a primitive version of this now. I was a very early adapter of Tivo and have hacked my Tivos to where I can get up to 300 hours of programming on a couple of them and have been active in the Tivo community since the beginning. There is nothing even close, unless you believe that 8 track tapes are in the same league as super audio CD's in sonic capability. Check out this website just to see how active and geeky the adherents to Tivo are. Makes are membership look like rocking chair grannies in our devotion to our favorite auto. http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?&threadid=151443 Hate to get in a debate of this on this forum, but I firmly believe that those who are car nuts like most of are, are shorting themselves greatly if they are not a DVR user. Also for those who spend 4 to 10,000 and more for TV's now, it is very penny wise to save a 100 bucks a year and watch TV without a DVR. On each hour of programming you can watch in 40 minutes as you skip all commercials. What is your time worth, and your physic worth to avoid all of them? I believe that your cable company will rent you the DVR box and offer the DVR service for 10 bucks per month. Not Tivo, but close enough and far better then no DVR at all. In fact if I were on a desert island and was told that I could have only 2 home theatre items and it was choice of a 17 inch black and white TV with Sat/Tivo or a 20,000.00 plasma TV and a VCR, no doubt at all I would be watching my Barrett Jackson on a black and white TV. Are there any at all Sat/Tivo users within the membership of this forum? If there are, you know of what I speak. Roger Schaaf ----- Original Message ----- From: Michael Reed To: Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ; moparpjf@xxxxxxx ; Roger Schaaf Sent: Saturday, January 21, 2006 2:14 PM Subject: Re: [Chrysler300] Barrett-Jackson I agree, Roger. The DVR is the way to go, especially for B-J, what with the incessant and lengthy time devoted to commercials. Would like to comment on a couple of your comments however, for the benefit of the other 300 afcionadoes who might be considering a DVR. Personally, I don't believe Tivo is the way to go when purchasing a DVR. The monthly fee required for the Tivo turned me off. I purchased a RCA DVR a few years ago, for about the same price as a Tivo, but without any monthly fee. I thought the monthly fee was a rip-off -- you don't get anything for the monthly fee that isn't available on other DVRs free. The RCA gives me everything Tivo has, the constantly-updated guide as to what's playing on all channels, the sort/search/record/etc. functions, ad infinitum, without any fees. And it has a DVD player built-in, as well as a USB port for playing MP3 files and displaying JPEG images -- both of which may be stored/recorded on the DVR's hard drive. Maybe this is why Tivo's stock isn't doing too well. FYI -- standard broadcast cable and standard broadcast satellite have the quality picture and sound. just as HDTV cable and HDTV satellite have the same picture/sound quality. My DVR is not connected to a cable box, or anything else of the sort -- which is why I have cable. You can have cable service to as many TV sets, DVRs, and VCRs as you like, with each one tuned to a different channel (and recording a different program, if desired), with no receivers, special remotes, etc. Mike Reed / Michigan ----- Original Message ----- From: Roger Schaaf To: Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ; moparpjf@xxxxxxx Sent: Saturday, January 21, 2006 15:29 Subject: Re: [Chrysler300] Barrett-Jackson Up until now I have Tivo'd all of Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Tivo is currently working away on 10 hours for Saturday. I watch at my leisure, skip all commercials(they are long and repetitive), skip all cars of no interest, shorten viewing time by skipping past a lot of the time to watch cars of some interest go thru their auction. I can at my choice dump these Tivo'd auctions off to DVD or Tape for archiving. All of this is at quality exactly as broadcast(no degradation as on VCR's) and I can watch when I want, not when Speedchannel thinks that I should. Also can pause action or reverse for second viewing in event I missed some dialog or wish to zero in on some particular aspect of an auto(such as door gaps, engine detailing, license plate number, pretty girls etc). Also can in 30 seconds or less skip to any point in an 8 hour auction(for example if a car was destined to go off at 4 Saturday afternoon, I would not have to view 4 hours of earlier auctions(and commercials)) to take a look of a car of particular interest. Also use Tivo for recording of all the very interesting Automobile shows that are on Speed, TLC etc., not to mention my wife's Desperate Housewives and my 14 hours of CNBC(and Fox) each day that I can scan thru in 30 minutes or less. This all applies to Satellite broadcasts with Tivo, cannot speak to cable, but should be close except sat quality will be much better because of the method that Tivo much tie into cable boxes verses integrated Sat/Tivo box. I realize that some may think that I am a broken record on Tivo. However if you have never taken a look at it or tried it, you are missing the best bet since the advent of the hemi engine or at least the internet. Full disclosure, I have 4 Tivo's(they are very inexpensive, except for the Hi Def one, which is superb) and own a 1000 shares of their stock which I paid 7 bucks for and is now worth 6. Roger Schaaf 300 B Calyfornua ----- Original Message ----- From: <moparpjf@xxxxxxx> To: <Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Saturday, January 21, 2006 11:23 AM Subject: [Chrysler300] Barrett-Jackson > It is now 2:21 EST and the auction is up to lot number 1235, so I have to > assume that Clelland's car will go off somewhere betwen now and 3:30. > > Pete Fitch > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > > > To send a message to this group, send an email to: > Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > > For list server instructions, go to > http://www.chrysler300club.com/yahoolist/inst.htm > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > I choose Polesoft Lockspam to fight spam, and you? http://www.polesoft.com/refer.html To send a message to this group, send an email to: Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx For list server instructions, go to http://www.chrysler300club.com/yahoolist/inst.htm SPONSORED LINKS Chrysler 300 srt8 2005 chrysler 300 c 2005 chrysler 300 pictures New chrysler 300 2005 chrysler 300 limited 2005 chrysler 300 m ------------------------------------------------------------------------ YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS a.. Visit your group "Chrysler300" on the web. b.. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: Chrysler300-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx c.. Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! 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