PVR Wire

1. TiVo costs money every month. MCE is free. TiVo is cheaper upfront, MCE is more expensive (the OS itself is $140!).

I'd go with the one without fees, myself. And the ability to do HD seals the deal. I just wish that I could do it for less than $800. Not too likely.

Posted at 12:03PM on Nov 2nd 2005 by Buzzcut

2. Don't forget that MCE now does Aikimbo, too. Okay, the service isn't great... yet. But the concept is killer, especially now that it runs on MCE.

If Aikimbo had HD movies, I'd be all over it.

Posted at 12:08PM on Nov 2nd 2005 by Buzzcut

3. hmmmmmm what do buy... a device that restricts my FAIR USE and right to archive public programs or a PC that'll let me DO AS I PLEASE without draconian restrictions. Yes, I'll opt for the solution that liberates me from Draconian Rights suppression Management EVERY SINGLE TIME even if it costs more!!

Posted at 1:50AM on Oct 31st 2005 by BeLeBored

4. >>Yes, I'll opt for the solution that liberates
>>me from Draconian Rights suppression Management
>> EVERY SINGLE TIME even if it costs more!!
So... You're building a MythTV box?

Posted at 3:31AM on Oct 31st 2005 by Smithee

5. BeLeBored,
That's until Micro$oft decides that DRM should be used on your recordings. Micro$oft would never do this would they? Good luck...

Posted at 4:08PM on Oct 31st 2005 by Alex

6. As someone else implied, neither TiVo nor MCE are particularly fair use friendly.

Though with my TiVo unit it's not difficult to get all of my fair use rights exercised, with the biggest headache being the need to strip the DRM out of my TiVo files so I can burn them to DVD with Nero (don't want to buy the TiVo's "supported" product since I already bought Nero).

Comparing TiVo and things like MCE doesn't make lots of sense when you think about it, comparing MCE and products like MythTV is a little bit more appropriate.

I will say one thing though, my boss has a MCE PC, and he liked it well enough, but when he got an unbelievable deal on a TiVo (effectively free thanks to an ad misprint) he picked one up and likes it much better, his wife, which never went near the MCE PC took to the TiVo easily.

Posted at 10:52AM on Oct 31st 2005 by Robert Aitchison

7. I think everybody is missing the point of my article. I didn't intend to compare features of a MCE box to a TiVo. Instead, what I was trying to do was to show that an MCE box isn't a good deal for the "average" non-geek consumer. Why would the average consumer want to buy an MCE box when they could get a TiVo for a lot less money. For somebody who wants a lot of features MCE might be the best bet.

Posted at 4:09PM on Oct 31st 2005 by Alex

8. MCE crashes. TiVo does not...

Posted at 7:35PM on Oct 31st 2005 by The Jeremy

9. My Cox DVD records with 2 tuners, sometimes 2 HD programs at once. And my wife knows how to use it. But she keeps forgetting how delete the old watched programs.

Posted at 10:59PM on Oct 31st 2005 by David