Advice and recommendations wanted for DVR devices

[Jabbz]

Hi gang.

I'm looking at getting a HD DVR in the next couple of weeks and would like some input. I don't know alot about everything, but I'd be after a fairly large hard drive, dual tuners, and external hard drive connections and maybe the ability to burn to blu ray.

Any suggestions? I'm looking at this as being my set top box, as I don't have one just yet.

Thanks.

[Fenrir]

Hmm, keep in mind that Freeview have set out on a campaign to be thought of as the de facto authority on free-to-air TV, and have largely succeeded in forcing their DRM demands onto DVR vendors (no skipping ads, limited-to-no ability to extract recordings from the machine, etc). I'm really not sure about your Blu-Ray options.

The Australian TiVo offering seems restrictive, until you line it up against the rest of the DVR offerings we have. It should cover most of your needs, and will probably have the longest support lifespan. It'd be my pick if I were cuddling up to Freeview.

If you want to dodge Freeview's DRM spectre, though, your options are pretty limited (if they still exist, even). IceTV (http://www.icetv.com.au/) provide an independent electronic program guide (EPG) which a limited range of DVRs are compatible with, all capable of ad-skipping; or you could go the HTPC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_theater_PC) route.

[Lazlow]

I have an 8 year old PC and SageTV works pretty fine for me with a Asus USB stick tuner. >_>

[Jabbz]

Thanks for that information, I've had a chance to have a look. What if I got a DVR that has some kind of connectivity for a external hard drive, and I could record to there and transfer the files onto my computer, and then edit them? Or is there some kind of protection against that I don't know about?

[StorminNorman]

Avoid anything with a Freeview logo on it. They're infested with hideous DRM and will cost you a lot of the flexibility that a DVR should provide.

I honestly think the best DVR you can get in Australia is the Foxtel IQ+, but if you can't get cable TV, then that's probably not an option for you.

You might think about setting up a PC with Mythbuntu (http://www.mythbuntu.org/) on it instead. That way you'll have most of the functionality of a DVR, plus the flexibility of a media PC, plus you won't be infested with DRM.

Freeview needs to die in a fire.

[Fenrir]

Honestly, if you want to escape the clutches of DRM, I don't see why you wouldn't go with something IceTV-based.

As for your question (the external HDD idea), Look for something like that, I guess. TiVo only connects to one of their own branded external hard drives, which may (or may not) be incompatible with PC standards - I'm pretty sure it's a standard USB or eSATA port or something, but the filesystem and/or recording encoding may be closed and proprietary. There's also PC software for TiVo which allows you to pull data from the TiVo device over the network, but it may not let you conveniently separate that data from TiVo infrastructure.

I don't know about the rest of them, but the bottom line with Freeview is, they want you to watch the ads, and your freedom with these machines is likely to be bound by that in most cases.

EDIT:
I honestly think the best DVR you can get in Australia is the Foxtel IQ+
Really? I would've thought that sort of thing would be riddled with DRM gotchas.

[HOGIE]

I find this website to be really helpful for general hifi info:

http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showforum=8

[StorminNorman]

Really? I would've thought that sort of thing would be riddled with DRM gotchas.

It is, but you can fast-forward the ads on an IQ.

[Fenrir]

You can fast-forward the ads on a majority of DVR devices, TiVo included - Freeview were lenient enough to begrudgingly tolerate that much.

[pauljdavidson]

I got the topfield HD7100 or whatever its called. Supports external drives by usb, internal 320gb (which can be upgraded by topfield for a small fee apparently), wifi via dongle (included). It allows backup of recordings to your PC to burn or mess around with. IceTV is also pretty cool. Easy to use menus and surprisingly responsive. Im pretty happy with it.

[Mark]

is anyone interested in PlayTV at all ?

the PS3 dual HD tuner.. launching tomorrow. i want one purely for taping NBA on OneHD. pretty cheap considering i already have a PS3.