I am looking for a DVR with a built in hard drive similar to Tivo but without the monthly fees. I have tried Best Buy, Circuit City and Fry's Electronics without success. They only sell Tivo they say. I did see one at Walmart made by Phillips that is a Dvd recorder with a built in hard drive but not sure if it will do what I want it to do. It is $300.00. I don't need a dvd recorder, just a unit that will do something like my vcr but record onto a hard drive and not a tape, then watch from the hard drive without having to burn to disc. Any suggestions?
It sounds like all you need is a TV Tuner PCI card.I have one in one of my computers and record 3 shows a week thru it and then i burn what i want to save to disk.Take a look at this:
I do have an HD tv tuner stick that connects to my laptop via a usb port. It works really well but it is so cpu intensive that the recordings sometimes are not quite as good as watching them on the tv. Plus it takes up a lot of hard drive space on my computer which I need. I am looking for a standalone unit that hooks into my tv to record onto. Thanks for your response and I'll check out that link when I get a chance.
The lifetime subscription was paid for by the previous owner of the Tivo when they sell it the subscription comes with it, you just plug it in and go. I don't think you can buy the lifetime subscription any longer for a new tivo.
I'm running XP Media center with Comcast(ripoff) it's easier to record than a VCR. I can program out up to 2 weeks, and record on demand. It helps i've got 3tb of hard drives but I also convert everything to DivX. As I record and convert, off it goes to It's folder(genre).
I bring in cable, program to record my 3 fav weekly shows and then burn if i start to run out of room and havn't watched yet, I only have 750 gigs of hard drive
