Both TiVo and WMCE have the same basic functionality: after you tell them which programs to record, they find them, and automatically record them from your television source (antenna, analog or digital cable, or satellite feed).  They both have the ability to create a “Season Pass” (TiVo’s terminology) for a show, which will record all episodes of a show, or just new ones if you prefer.  These “Season Passes” are in kept in a prioritized list, which determines which program will record if more than one are on at the same time.

They both contain a program guide (similar to the TV Guide channel) which you can use to find and schedule programs, or simply to browse channels.  They also have search capabilities based on categories and keywords.  They both contain parental controls, allowing you to block certain types of content via a password.  They both allow you to view scheduled recordings as well as a history of programs that weren’t recorded or future programs that won’t record.

However, in most areas of operation, WMCE has the advantage by offering some additional features, though with every iteration of TiVo hardware, it becomes more like a Media Center PC (MCPC).  Here are a couple of the more notable feature differences: TiVo can only record a single program at a time (except for DirecTV TiVos’, and the yet-to-be-released Series 3, which can record two).  WMCE can record up to five programs at a time, one for every tuner card you have in your computer.  Also, WMCE responds much quicker than TiVo (at least the one I have does).  If you have a long list of Season Passes, and you reorganize them, TiVo sometimes needs several minutes to “think” before it will let you do anything else.  WMCE responds instantly. 

In addition to all this, WMCE includes the ability to play radio stations through your computer (many TV tuner cards include radio tuners).  With a special HDTV tuner, it can support HDTV recording.  It also contains areas to organize and view your photos and videos (including downloaded TV shows), listen to your digital music, and create CDs or DVDs, all with your remote control.  Plus it is an area for plug-ins (under “Other Programs”) which can contain anything from on-demand movies (via the internet) to MTV video spotlights.  However, newer TiVo models (or OS upgrades) include some or all of these features (except radio, to my knowledge).

If you are comparing TiVo and WMCE on features alone, WMCE comes out ahead, though TiVo is working to level the playing field.  But there are other things you should consider before you decide to get one or the other.  The first is cost.  You can buy a basic TiVo box (no DVD burner or multiple tuners) for a couple hundred dollars, or even free with some deals.  However, there is a $12.95 monthly fee for the TiVo service, which you pay as long as you use the TiVo unless you buy the lifetime subscription, which is $299.  A decent MCPC, on the other hand is going to run around $1000 (see future articles for putting together a great Media Center PC for a great price).  However, once you buy it, there are no monthly fees for using it.  In addition, you can also use it for other home-computer tasks. 

The other main thing to consider is your level of technical ability.  Buying and setting up a TiVo is about as simple as hooking up a DVD player to your entertainment system.  By contrast, there is a lot more than can go wrong with WMCE.  For example, most MCPC packages, for whatever reason, don’t include a video card with a TV output.  This only gives you the option to watch the programs on your computer monitor.  To use your TV, you need to buy and install the hardware and software for the video card, then re-configure WMCE to use your TV instead of your monitor.  This requires some computer expertise, and many things can go wrong (as I have experienced first-hand).  Your best bet is to order a custom machine off the internet from someone like Dell.  They will have tested it and made sure all the components are working together properly. 

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.  So based on this, if you need a home computer anyway, you might as well get an MCPC, that is, if you can put it near your entertainment center (else you need a Media Center Extender, which is about the price of a TiVo).  If you have cash to spend up front, an MCPC is probably a better value.  But if you are looking for something that is initially inexpensive and easy to set up, TiVo would be best for you.

The problem with copying the entire DVD to your drive is the amount of space it consumes. You can easily have a single DVD taking up 7 gigs of space on your hard drive. This works ok for a single movie, but if you are trying to take 5 to 10 movies with you on vacation it can become unmanagable.

By compressing just the movie portion of the DVD into a file format like MPEG-4, you can drastically reduce the amount of space required. There are several different ways to do this, but the simpliest method involves a little piece of software called HandBrake. HandBrake give you a simple GUI tool that hides most of the complexity from the process. You give it a DVD and it will create a .mp4 file of the main movie.

The program lets you specify the target bit rate or the final file size. Generally a target bit rate of 1000kbps will give you files of about 1GB in size. You’re also given the choice of encoding using FFmpeg or DIVX. DIVX will give you smaller file sizes, but it seems to take a lot longer to encode. Most of the settings work just fine left to their default, but you can play around with them to see what works best. Make sure you type a valid filename. HandBrake doesn’t appear to check, so if you try to save the file in a non-existent folder or something like that, it may chuck away for hours, but you won’t be able to find the file once your are done.

Not all DVDs can be encoded with HandBrake, so it is best to check the resulting file for playback before leaving on a trip.

Once you have an encoded mpeg 4 file, you’ll need a player. The standard Quicktime player can handle mpeg 4, but it doesn’t allow you to watch in full screen mode unless you pay the $29 for Quicktime Pro. VideoLan Client can play mpeg 4 (and most other video formats) in full screen mode and it is free software.

Command + F toggles between full screen and window mode. A few other commands that you’ll find useful are Option + Command + arrow to jump forward or backwards a few seconds. Command + arrow to turn the volume up or down.

Just to be clear, I’m not suggesting that people steal copies of DVDs by trying to create a huge library of movies on their computer. I’m suggesting the above methods for situations where you have the legal right to watch a video (purchased, rented, etc.), but it is inconvenient or impractical to play it directly from the DVD.

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My Powerbook had to go in for some repairs a few months ago, but I couldn’t afford to be without my computer for 3 days. By creating a live bootable copy of my entire computer to an external drive, I was able to ship off my laptop, plug my hard drive into an old G3 iMac, and continue working just like I was on my Powerbook. It was slower of course, but I still had access to all of my data, programs and settings. When the Powerbook came back, I simply copied the external hard drive over my laptop hard drive, rebooted and continued working with very little downtime.

This feature is part of the Disk Utility application stored in your Application > Utilities folder. It is simple to use, but you have to pay attention to make sure you are copying your data in the correct direction–you don’t want to accidentally copy an old backup over your working data.

When you launch Disk Utility, it will show you a list of the available drives on your computer. In the example, I have my internal hard drive (a 74.5 GB hitachi) with a single partition called Macintosh HD. My 232 GB LaCie drive has three partitions, Test, Backup, and Storage. The Backup directory is where I want to put my data.

In the right hand side of the application, I’m going to select the Restore tab. I’m going to “restore” my internal drive into the Backup partition on my external drive. This will make the Backup partition into an exact copy of my local drive–even changing its name to Machintosh HD.

With the Restore tab selected I simply drag Machintosh HD into the source and Backup into the destination and tell it to erase the destination. At this point I always double check carefully to make sure my source and destination are correct and that I’m not accidentally going to overwrite important data.

Clicking on the Restore button starts the process. It isn’t particularly fast. Ideally you should make the partition you are restoring to as close in size to the original in order for the transfer to be as efficient as possible.

If you ever need to bootup the drive on another computer simply tell that computer to start using the external drive as the startup drive. This is done from the System Preferences using the Startup Disk icon.

Once you reboot the system, it should boot up using the external hard drive as if it is the system you backed up originally.

To restore from your hard drive, you’ll simply perform the restore process, but this time moving the data from your external drive back to your computer’s internal drive.

If you found this article interesting you might like the article about backing up DVDs to your hard drive: Travelling with Movies on your Mac.

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