DVR Help - Want to get one for Christmas....

[Wifezilla]

...but there is NO WAY IN HECK I am paying a monthly fee. Seriously! Can you imagine paying a fee for your old vcr?

So I need a DVR that lets me record shows off of cable that kind of works like an old VCR. I don't care if I have to manually program it.

Does such a beast exist??

 

[Boyd]

Quote:
TiVo

 

[Wifezilla]

Tivo has a subscription fee.

Apparently from what I have found, stand alone DVR's that function like an old vcr are common in Europe. Why not here??

 

[Bluemoon420]

It's the same as the cell phone companies here, and in Europe. Here cell phone companies have contracts, and certain phones are locked to work with only certain cell phone companies. In Europe, everything is unlocked, no contracts, and you can buy extra minutes as you check out at the register. etc. etc.

With DVR's here you have to go thru whoever your cable/satellite company is, or get a Tivo box. Either way, you pay a fee to someone every month for the service.

I have directv ( I've been with them thru several states, and before they were even called directv ) They usually have reasonable DVR boxes, and a lot of the time they send me the box for free, and I pay 5 bucks extra a month. I'm not sure how the cable companies work.

I know a few years ago you could buy DVR boxes ( not Tivo) at bestbuy for whatever satellite company you had, but I'm not sure if they do that anymore.

Bluemoon

 

[cat]

Hi, we live in Ireland and we have a tv with a mini hard drive, i guess it is a bit like a memory stick, you then program the tv with what to record and it records onto this drive. At present you cannot disconnect the drive and move it to another tv, but it is very common in most new european tvs and not expensive, my daughters tv is a flat screen, was about £100 or $150 and came with a dvd drive built in so she could watch movies, and a hard drive that records about 30 hours of tv. Something like that would work for you if they have them stateside.

 

[cat]

Quote:
Not quite, phones are locked to a network (Vodafone, O2, Orange etc) but you can pay to have your phone unlocked so you can use the same phone if you change networks. Everyone has a contract, whether it is a pay as you go (buy minutes at the supermarket, cash machine, online) or a contract with a set price plan. This is true in UK and the rest of Europe. What we do not pay for, and cannot understand how they get away with charging you for, is to receive calls - I think that is outrageous.

 

[Bluemoon420]

Wifezilla is right. Apparently they don't offer any stand alone type DVR here in the States. I just did a search on it. They did a few years ago, but that's apparently been phased out. They have TV's here that are a combo TV with a DVR player, but you can't really record any shows with it. Just watch movies, etc.

Best alternative is satellite TV. All their boxes are DVR's. You don't pay an extra 25 a month like cable does I guess. I know I don't with Directv, all I pay is 5 dollars extra a month for HD DVR on our living room TV. The other boxes we don't pay extra for the service.

Bluemoon

 

[Bluemoon420]

Quote:
Not quite, phones are locked to a network (Vodafone, O2, Orange etc) but you can pay to have your phone unlocked so you can use the same phone if you change networks. Everyone has a contract, whether it is a pay as you go (buy minutes at the supermarket, cash machine, online) or a contract with a set price plan. This is true in UK and the rest of Europe. What we do not pay for, and cannot understand how they get away with charging you for, is to receive calls - I think that is outrageous.

I know. My DH goes to Europe almost every month for the past 8 years. ( all over Europe ), and the system used in Europe is MUCH better than what we have here. We've bought unlocked phones from Europe in the past, and I've used them here with various companies. I always get the 3rd degree. " Where did you get that phone? " " Why is it unlocked? " " Why don't you have a contract ? "


Bluemoon

 

[Wifezilla]

I may have to just use an old computer as a DVR. I have a mac mini that might work. Depends on how much damage my son did to it before we got him his newer machine

 

[Bluemoon420]

That might just work

We have a slingbox ( google that ) but I think you still need some sort of DVR type box to watch recorded shows. I'm not sure, but maybe slingbox has a DVR function in it. When my DH is out of the country, he can tune his laptop thru the slingbox to watch our TV. Doesn't matter where he is. He can also watch any recorded shows I have saved. It doesn't require any monthly service, and he feels somewhat sane when he's sitting in a hotel room, and can't watch anything in english.

Bluemoon