TiVo versus Media Center

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TiVo versus Media Center

A couple recent notable comparison tests between a Microsoft Media Center Edition PC and a standalone TiVo have been making the rounds: TiVo versus Media Center Edition PC's - finally! and Media Center Eye for the TiVo Guy.

In both sets of tests, the Media Center Edition PCs prove to be a bit buggy and crash-prone, and the reviewers eventually give the final nods to TiVo with its bulletproof simple design and reliability.

Michael Gartner, a media analyst and a big fan of MCE, counters with the mention of all the cool things you can do with a recorded show on a PC: archive it to DVD, stream it with other computers on your network, and copy it to a portable device.

What it all comes down to is how you want to view and consume media. For most folks, they just want a dependable box that will do what they say. In a way, it's a lot like a helpful robot. You say "tape all the Sopranos you find" and you expect it to do your bidding. If you want to do more, you'll have to hack around a bit or throw some parts and free software to build your own, but a minority of folks seem to go to such lengths. That's what came out of a recent discussion of building your own PVR on MetaFilter, where even hardcore geeks admitted that it was much cheaper to just buy a tivo, set it, and forget it, when compared to the parts list and nuturing that a linux-based PVR requires.

I think that's the bottom line to all of this talk. If owners want to burn stuff to DVD or watch shows on their laptop while traveling, it's probably worth using MCE or MythTV, even though it costs more and they might crash from time to time. But for the vast majority, an $80 TiVo box will serve their needs, can be trusted, and hopefully if TiVo can get their "TiVo ToGo" features released soon, you'll be able to do many of the things that MCE boasts as advantages.

by Matt Haughey July 7, 2004 in News

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TiVo already can do some of them, of course. I own a Pioneer TiVo DVR-810H. Built in DVD-RW - burning shows? No problem. In August Toshiba is supposed to release two new TiVo/DVD-RW units - 120GB for $599 and 160GB for $699. And the new units have more functionality, and include a DV input for duping from digital camcorders. Heck, I paid ~$700 for my 80GB 810H. :-) And those prices are MSRP on the Toshibas, so they're surely be out there for less.

Now that Home Media Option is included you have online scheduling, photo viewing, and MP3 playback included with TiVo. And if you have multiple units, multi-room viewing.

And, as you say, TiVo To Go should bring a lot more features. Even better they dropped the dongle from the plans.

Posted by: MegaZone at Jul 7, 2004 2:18:42 PM

While TiVo might not do all of the things that MCE will do right out of the box, it can be made to do almost all of the things MCE can do with relatively simple modifications - and often for less money total that for a buggy MCE machine. By adding a CacheCard to my DirecTivo I can now extract shows from my TiVo over my home network. Once extracted, I can pretty much do what I want with them - I can burn to DVD, convert to DiVX format and watch through my Gateway Connected DVD player, or watch from my PC. The CacheCard also allows me to use TiVoWeb for online scheduling. Perhaps the best part is that, when I extract, I get industry-standard formatted video, instead of the proprietary and closed Microsoft format.

Posted by: AJRitz at Jul 7, 2004 3:41:26 PM

It seems there's a happy medium that's not being hit. Tivo allows very little hacking (most notably, program extraction) and MythTV et. al. have horrendously bad usability.

I didn't see the plans to drop the dongle on Tivo To GO. Do you have a link? I might have stuck with Tivo if I had known that (switched to replay a few months ago and am quite happy; better video quality, too).

Posted by: pb at Jul 7, 2004 4:54:56 PM

Essentially, TiVo is racing the clock. Will they include the features people want before the cost/usability factors of MCE or MythTV make them the better alternative? As a TiVo owner, I certainly hope so, but one can never tell.

Posted by: Michael at Jul 9, 2004 7:30:51 AM

FWIW there are other reasons besides initial costs and additional features for rolling your own tivo-esque device.

A lot of it (besides the geek chic factor) has to do with control.

Control over your privacy (for the tinfoil hat types), control over extending functionality and hardware, control over content and moving it around/burning to DVD etc (granted there ARE some tricks to get the mpegs off your TiVo, but work with me here)

As I'm prone to saying... I love my s2 40 hour tivo. But I do enjoy the tinkering and additional functionality/flexibility my homebrew Pc-based version allots me...

Although it's in a totally different class (uber high end) the MCE based Denon NS-S100 is wicked impressive.

http://www.g4techtv.com/feature.aspx?article_key=46850

*shrug*

rampy

Posted by: rampy at Jul 9, 2004 9:30:41 AM

Good luck surfing the web, playing games, or using your TV for any other task besides recording and watching tv programming with a Tivo. Sorry, but I'll give Tivo the nod for pure video recording but WME is much more than recording and storing or burning, even with the media pack.

Posted by: Justin Gordon at Jul 14, 2004 8:28:03 PM

I tape about 50 TV shows a week (still using Beta) and want to change to a totally digital format. ie. record on Tivo and then extract the 3 min segnments I need to keep and store them directly on my Imac hard drive for editing on IMovie. With Tivo To Go I believe that is npow possible. I need help setting up this system and don't want to end up with the wrong equipment.

Rampy, you seem to know what you're talking about. Can you e-mail me.

Posted by: Pam Bishop at Aug 17, 2004 6:37:27 PM

Sorry, been long day, I entered the wrong e-mail address.

Posted by: Pam Bishop at Aug 17, 2004 6:39:12 PM

i, too, want to transfer from my tivo to my mac through imovie. this should be simple but when i connect them through the rca cables,i don't have any luck...help...thanks...gail

Posted by: gail at Aug 26, 2004 10:03:41 AM

i, too, want to transfer from my tivo to my mac through imovie. this should be simple but when i connect them through the rca cables,i don't have any luck...help...thanks...gail

Posted by: gail at Aug 26, 2004 10:04:15 AM

Ditto on the Mac Hack -

Seems silly to have to buy a standalone dvr burner when there is one sitting on the g5

jgracin@nyc.rr.com

Posted by: jay at Sep 25, 2004 4:55:02 AM

Posted by: a at Oct 11, 2004 12:06:32 PM

I have ended up with both. I agree it all come down to what you want to do. My wife prefers the Tivo because of it's simplicity. I like my Media Center becaue of the ability to burn, organize personal videos, blah, blah.

Posted by: Traazu at Mar 23, 2005 11:44:35 AM

TiVo versus Media Center

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