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Review: Nero LiquidTV - TiVo on your PC
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The following comments relate to this news article:
article published on 1 April, 2009
Given the domination of the home video and TV markets by various digital formats, connecting a PC to your home theater makes more sense than ever. With the introduction last year of LiquidTV, Nero hoped to provide another good argument to make that connection.
For the last month and a half I've been using LiquidTV, and I believe it's capable of filling a market niche that has been underserved ... [ read the full article ]
Please read the original article before posting your comments.
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Senior Member
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1. April 2009 @ 13:20 |
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So, what would this actually work with? Over the Air?
I mean, this would not work with my local cable company, right? I know it wouldn't work with my DirecTv. Who is buying and using these?
It's an awesome idea and I'd love one, if I could get it to work with the services I already pay for. Unfortunantly it won't.
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windsong
Member
1 product review
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1. April 2009 @ 13:52 |
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Quote:
If you need a hard drive, a 250GB model will cost you around $60. A second tuner like the one that ships with LiquidTV will cost you another $100.
Wow..60 bucks for a 250 gig? At newegg you can get a 500 gig for that price!
FAIL. FAIL. FAIL.
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Staff Member
2 product reviews
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2. April 2009 @ 10:00 |
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Quote:
Quote:
If you need a hard drive, a 250GB model will cost you around $60. A second tuner like the one that ships with LiquidTV will cost you another $100.
Wow..60 bucks for a 250 gig? At newegg you can get a 500 gig for that price!
FAIL. FAIL. FAIL.
Not for an older PC with only IDE support. Newegg has an OEM 250GB from Western Digital for $55.
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plazma247
Member
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2. April 2009 @ 10:04 |
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hahhaa just another good excuse to keep using media center which also doesnt have such a gay interface and doesnt require any subscription.
Media center + webguide 4 = tv anywhere any time.
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Staff Member
2 product reviews
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2. April 2009 @ 10:09 |
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Originally posted by ThePastor:
So, what would this actually work with? Over the Air?
I mean, this would not work with my local cable company, right? I know it wouldn't work with my DirecTv. Who is buying and using these?
It's an awesome idea and I'd love one, if I could get it to work with the services I already pay for. Unfortunantly it won't.
It will work for OTA (ATSC), Clear (unencrypted) QAM from digital cable, and analog capture. The problem with DirecTV (or Dish Network for that matter) is they're not required to provide an interface for third party devices to decrypt their signals. Both use DVB (except for DirecTV's SD and older HD systems), but have chosen not to support computer-based capture. It could be done with existing PC hardware, but they're too paranoid about piracy.
Cable companies are required to provide CableCARDs for third party decryption support, but only a select few OEM PCs are allowed to ship with them, and to the best of my knowledge only Windows Media Center can actually make use of them. The number of channels sent in the clear varies from one cable company to another.
Personally I use it for OTA captures since most of it is for my wife, who primarily watches CBS.
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Senior Member
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2. April 2009 @ 11:08 |
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It's not hard to put a SmartCard reader into a PC that could accept a Cable Card or DirecTV Card but I doubt that DirecTV would allow the interface or software to decrypt the video signal to be used in a PC as it would open up the hacker world again.
There are other programs that have been able to do this on a PC and have been around for some time so I don't see this as a big deal and with the limited scope and the fact that you pay an annual subscription would rule it out for most smart people, niche at best.
Also as time goes on I wouldn't really consider anything from Nero since version 9 they have hit the toilet as far as I'm concerned.
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Staff Member
2 product reviews
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2. April 2009 @ 11:19 |
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Originally posted by Mr-Movies:
It's not hard to put a SmartCard reader into a PC that could accept a Cable Card or DirecTV Card but I doubt that DirecTV would allow the interface or software to decrypt the video signal to be used in a PC as it would open up the hacker world again.
I would argue that the "hacker world" can already do this. It's primarily people who would willingly pay for it who can't.
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There are other programs that have been able to do this on a PC and have been around for some time so I don't see this as a big deal and with the limited scope and the fact that you pay an annual subscription would rule it out for most smart people, niche at best.
Right now any computer-based DVR or media center software is a niche product by definition. To me the real question is whether a particular product does a good job of targeting a specific market segment that's not already pretty well owned by a competitor. I think LiquidTV does that. Better questions IMO are whether the market segment is big enough or Nero will be able to effectively reach it. Both remain to be seen.
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gogreen
Newbie
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2. April 2009 @ 13:46 |
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Hey All - I can't stand paying the local cable company $150 per month! I pay for Cable internet, Cable TV with two HD DVR's. By the time I pay the DVR's, gateway fee, taxes and etc. Its a rip off!
Has anyone performed a cost analylsis on the cheapest way to have some form of high speed internet (DSL or Cable), HD TV service with DVR functionality? My wife and I use two cell phones for $80/month and do not have a hard line phone in the house.
If I get satellite or TIVO I need a phone line. I'm not opposed to getting the phone line turned on but its $25/month. After the introductory rate's drop on the satellite, I will be back in the same boat.
I've thought about hooking my HP laptop to my flat panel TV's and watching over the internet. (Get rid of Cable TV and two DVR's).
Any thoughts?
yes, I'm a cheap a$$!
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AfterDawn Addict
1 product review
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3. April 2009 @ 10:07 |
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Originally posted by gogreen:
...
If I get satellite or TIVO I need a phone line. I'm not opposed to getting the phone line turned on but its $25/month. After the introductory rate's drop on the satellite, I will be back in the same boat.
...
I don't know about Dish network, but with DirecTV for example, you don't need to turn on your phone land line. That is optional.The phone line is only if you want to order Pay Per View using your remote, or if you want to have caller ID displayed while watching TV.You can order Pay Per View online or by calling.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 3. April 2009 @ 10:11
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ripxrush
Junior Member
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4. April 2009 @ 10:25 |
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If you want a Series3 TiVo, you can get a refurbished unit for $300. Add a one year TiVo subscription and the price jumps to about $430. This will get you 250GB of storage and two TV tuners.
uh, your prices are a little off! Tivo HD $199 referb, $299 on tivo.com, $249 on Amazon.com! oh and all HD tuners are series 3 even tho they dont advertise so! i got the $249 on amazon Tivo HD version & on the Tivo it self it ways series 3 as does the software in the unit!
I also can add a dual tuner to my pc for $79 and poay a 1x fee of $99 for snapstream! (i think i paid less) so those are my real world prices! I also have to pay extra for a Cable card for my tivo if i want HD and/or Digital! other wise i get HD/digital OTA or Analog from my Cable company!
I have been using snap stream for 2 years now & love it! find it very easy to use! no subscription fees (which is what would keep me from Tivo on my pc) & i don't want to have to move all my settings & data to a new program! i all ready have 2 dual tuner tivos! they need to let the subscription feel go if you all ready have 1 tivo subscribed all ready!just upcharge the initial charge more!!
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