Comments on: TiVo vs. Windows Media Center

By: Cool Tech Reviews » TiVo vs. Windows Media Center: Which one is right for you?

Tue, 28 Feb 2006 14:18:52 +0000

[…] digital501 has a great review of the TiVo and Windows Media Center PCs with the objective of helping the end user choose which one is right for their needs: There are two basic ways to enter the world of the Personal Video Recorder (PVR): through a dedicated hardware unit, like a TiVo or ReplayTV, or through a software-based PVR that runs on your home computer, like Windows: Media Center Edition (WMCE) or MythTV. In this article I will compare the most popular form of each platform, TiVo and WMCE, to help you figure out which one would be best for you. … To summarize, WMCE currently has more features than TiVo, though TiVo is catching up. WMCE requires a large cost up front, but no monthly fee, while TiVo is a lower (or no) cost up front (for basic models) but has a monthly service fee. MCPCs can also be used as home computers. Finally, TiVo is much easier to install. […]

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 23:56:55 +0000

I disagree,

I have TIVO. I’ve had it since it came out. I also consider myself a computer geek and have hooked my PC up to a number of things.

Windows Media Center is a great idea. But to think that you get a computer along with your media solution is a little misleading.

You do get a comuter. But you get a computer that needs to be connected to your tv. Not real useable if you actually want to use it as a computer. “Hey dad, can you turn off the show? I need to check my email” isnt going to go over very well. If you could run dual outputs from it, one to a monitor for desktop stuff and one to a TV for media center only operations, that would be more useful…

Then look at it the other way. Sure you can record 2 shows or more at once, if you have extra tv tuner cards. How well do you think a resonable priced pc is going to perform while recording 2-5 tv shows? If junior is trying to play Quake 4 while you are recording 3 different “Law and Order” spin-offs at once there will be arguments. Any PC in a remotely reasonable price range is going to choke at the idea of that.

When you look at the costs its not an apples to apples comparison. You get a slightly more featured media center with a PC. But you pay a lot for it. Its also bigger. And harder to operate. And harder to setup. (which was addressed).

Tivo is a seamless operating system that functions at a level higher than most consumers are ready for. It will more than satisfy all but the most hardcore users.

Its worth the price of the fee. And a 2nd tivo in the house is only $6.95 a month.

Get two.

We did.

By: Bruce

Bruce — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 02:23:13 +0000

Jeremy, you have some great points - I didn’t realize a second TiVo carried a lower subscription fee. However, we have found our Media Center quite useful as a “computer”. The entire thing cost under $1000, yet it always records TV shows perfectly no matter what we are doing on the computer, including games. In order for a TV tuner to be Media Center certified, it must handle all the encoding through its own hardware, so the main CPU isn’t taxed.

If you want to watch recorded shows using Media Center, you can’t really do anything else with the computer at the same time. However, I can watch them with Media Player 10 in the background, while doing something else in the foreground, and my graphics card will pick up the video stream and put it full screen onto my TV.

Besides this I can watch them over the network on another computer (or a Media Center Extender) without running any programs on the main computer, freeing it to do whatever I want.

Personally the feature I love most about my Media Center is being able to integrate recorded shows and downloaded shows in one place. Besides that, my TiVo does everything I need it to. And supposedly TiVo will soon allow you to watch downloaded shows too. But I do think that a Media Center really does provide you with a usable computer in addition to its TV recording and playback capabilities.

By: Bill

Bill — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 14:20:29 +0000

Has any one heard of Remote Desktop. I needed a new computer and needed to get my home Media centralized. I purchased a Sony Viao - see http://sig9.com/articles/concurrent-remote-desktop
this hack enables you to increase the number of users who can use Remote Desktop (Its like turning you Media Center into a Mulituser Host computer) -
My Media Center sits in my living room and records my favorite TV shows, meanwhile I’m using a Ten year old Sony PC in my office , but - throught the magic of remote desktop - all my computing happens on the Brand New Sony Vaio Media Center.
Don’t throw out those Windows 98 and Windows ME machines - they make a great dumb terminal for you Windows MEdia Center.

Regards

By: Kate

Kate — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 06:01:58 +0000

Kate…

Very informative. Keep them coming….

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