PVR Comparisons
PVR Comparisons is a great site for information and (best of all) screenshots of many popular PVR models available today. I'm often asked by people if they should go with their cable company's free or cheap recorder or pony up the dough for a TiVo, and I usually list the pros and cons of the decision, but this site serves as a great information resource for the plethora of choices. They cover all aspects of each unit including capabilities, cost, and features as part of every review. This master feature chart is a good overview of everything out there.
I had no idea what the comcast DVR looked like until I saw this (ack, the colors! the fonts! man, that's an ugly UI). It's an exhaustive resource without equal, and I certainly hope they keep updating it.
Why were no Dish PVRs included? Supposedly there are more DISH PVRs out there than any other.
Posted by: Mike | November 19, 2004 at 06:16 AM
I use the Time Warner issued Explorer 8000HD which runs Passport not Sara and until those shots I also had no idea what it looked like. Passport is quite a bit more elegant AND you can change the colors. Not sure if they just accepted the default or what, but regardless the display and UI on Passport is superior.
Otherwise though I would imagine features are very similar.
Posted by: Jonathan Greene | November 19, 2004 at 06:44 AM
It looks like alot of that data is missing/incomplete.
It's Missing the Direct Tivo Completely...
Comcast also is in wide deployment of the Motorola PVR (and now in some areas Microsoft's software on the Motorola PVR) Which looks different.. but.. not eactly better (but hey at least it's not pink)
KC
Posted by: Kyle | November 19, 2004 at 07:33 AM
Direct Tivo is listed under DirecTV DVR (tivo).
What would really be interesting is an assessment of "off the shelf" vs. "popular hack" configuration for some of the more popular ones, both to round out the feature list and shed some light on how hackable each unit is.
In my case, my DirecTivo would gain quite a few green dots (broadband, 30 second skip, set up recordings via the web among them) as well as significant storage space. And I'm not an *advanced* Tivo hacker by any means -- all I did was apply a popular disk image package and pop in a network card.
Posted by: Mike | November 19, 2004 at 08:51 AM
The data at that site is ancient.
Posted by: Brad | November 19, 2004 at 09:50 AM
Man, no kidding, I've installed an Ethernet card in my Directivo and upgraded to 125 hours a long time ago. update that info.
Posted by: Rob | November 19, 2004 at 10:59 AM
The data at the site may be out of date, but as far as I know, it's one person doing the whole thing, running numerous systems. Not even the manufacturers have this kind of info on their own sites, so I'd cut this guy a break. No one else is putting the time and effort to document each system like this, so I'd cut him slack for not being 100% complete or 100% up to date.
Posted by: Matt Haughey | November 19, 2004 at 12:06 PM
It is more up to date than most such sites. And he covers far more systems. Plus, frankly, not a lot has changed as far as the features go on these units.
Posted by: MegaZone | November 19, 2004 at 06:14 PM
I should have been more clear: I think it's a *very* useful comparison. The fact that it came from real use data of each of those boxes is even more impressive.
I was mainly thinking about what info I would want if I were going to make a buying decision based on that table, and a key criterion for me (and probalby others who read this site) is openness and/or "hackability". I also suspect that many of the cable-company-provided options are much more closed than Tivo, and I don't know about the Replay TV. Just a feature request -- not a knock on what's there.
Posted by: Mike | November 19, 2004 at 08:14 PM
There are basically NO hacks for cable DVRs - you don't own them so modding them is a big no-no. There are some hacks for RTV, but not many - it is much more of a closed platform than TiVo. Were TiVo runs Linux, I believe RTV runs VxWorks, making the barrier to entry higher. And it is just a numbers issue too - while there are probably close to three million TiVo users now (we should know Monday, I believe the quarterly call is then), AFAIK there are only a few hundred thousand RTV users. (I'm not sure - I don't think RTV has released subscriber numbers since sometime in 2002.)
Posted by: MegaZone | November 19, 2004 at 09:11 PM
Well, Cablevision (IO Digital cable) now is renting out the SA-DVR boxes here in Metro NY area. I called them for quick info; It's the SA 8300 now being used, 110 hours of recording in the standard digital box, 24 for the HD version box. Three tuners (record two while watching a third). Otherwise most of what is in PVRCompare is correct. I found website that mentioned this model of SA-DVR could be a master unit to serve up to three additional non-DVR SA boxes over coax. Not bad, but unlike Tivo and RTV you still cannot extract direct (though I could have it output to a PC that records the file instead, just slow).
I have a couple RTV units myself. It's not as bad as you think to get video off them, there is a Java app out there that simulates one for downloading purposes (no internal fiddling needed, its network based). And the file is already in format all set for editors or direct burn to DVD. My only issue is their support, you're better off getting a new unit if the system dies, or have a third-party repair like replaytv.us work on it.
Posted by: Sungak | November 20, 2004 at 05:10 PM
The information on Comcast only covers the Scientific Atlanta DVR, not the Motorola 6412 that's currently being rolled out in my neck of the woods (Atlanta). So I don't know how accurate it is.
Posted by: Jack | November 22, 2004 at 12:40 PM