Master Index of Archived Threads
Home Electronics Thread
| Kong76 Sep 12 2009 01:39 PM |
|
I've been slow to embrace some of the newer stuff out there. I just or- dered a blu-ray player from Crutchfield ... a Denon (staff picked), I've never been disappointed with anything from that site. What do you people record HDTV on these days? Cablevision has DVR now, but I freakin' hate them to the bone. Tivo? Another stand alone DVR box?
|
| Fman99 Sep 12 2009 02:23 PM Re: Home Electronics Thread |
|
We have two HDTV's -- a 32" one downstairs that my wife watches and a 46" that is mine. Her TV has the DVR because she likes to record stuff for herself and the kids to watch. It's a DVR that we get from Time Warner, and we pay $8 or so a month for its use. My bigger TV has no DVR. If I want to watch something I will watch it. I normally don't record anything for myself, too many other things to do.
|
| Benjamin Grimm Sep 12 2009 03:15 PM Re: Home Electronics Thread |
|
I love TiVo, but I don't have an HDTV box, which is the main reason I'm not subscribing to HDTV service. (Almost everything I watch is pre-recorded.)
|
| dgwphotography Sep 13 2009 04:36 AM Re: Home Electronics Thread |
|
I'm in the same situation as Ben - I love TiVo, but I don't have HDTv because I don't want to upgrade to another box, yet. Kase - go with the TiVo HD box - it will change the way you watch TV. Plus, if you have a wireless network, you can have the shows automatically transferred to your computer if you wish.
|
| Kong76 Sep 13 2009 05:55 PM Re: Home Electronics Thread |
|
My concern about buying a Tivoesque box is I need to get the HDTV signal from a cable box. It sounds like you and BG are basic cable guys.
|
| seawolf17 Sep 13 2009 05:58 PM Re: Home Electronics Thread |
|
We have the Cablevision HD signal, and for the extra ten bucks a month, the DVR box more than pays for itself in convenience. Highly recommended.
|
| Benjamin Grimm Sep 13 2009 06:06 PM Re: Home Electronics Thread |
|
[quote="Kong76":1uot5tj3]My concern about buying a Tivoesque box is I need to get the HDTV signal from a cable box. It sounds like you and BG are basic cable guys.[/quote:1uot5tj3] No, I have DirecTV, with a satellite box, which is pretty much like a cable box. TiVo supplies infrared cables that allow for channel-changing on the box. What's also nice about TiVo (aside from the software) is that you can pay for a lifetime subscription on your box, which means no monthly fees. (The lifetime fee costs about the same as 24 months worth of service.) The downside of the lifetime fee is that it makes upgrading less appealing.
|
| dgwphotography Sep 13 2009 06:37 PM Re: Home Electronics Thread |
|
[quote="Kong76":3lrb3lcc]My concern about buying a Tivoesque box is I need to get the HDTV signal from a cable box. It sounds like you and BG are basic cable guys.[/quote:3lrb3lcc] No - I have a cable box, and a Series 2 TiVo box. The cable gets split before the cable box - one split goes right to the TivO box, and the other goes to the cable box. then the cable from the cable box gets routed to the TiVo box. This way, I can record two shows at once, but only one at a time from channels that need the box.
|
| Kong76 Sep 13 2009 06:38 PM Re: Home Electronics Thread |
|
I'll have to read up more on TivoHD ... I'd hope it's HDMI at this point in the game.
|
| Kong76 Sep 18 2009 07:59 AM Re: Home Electronics Thread |
|
So, I'm gonna go buy a Tivo HD thingie this morning. One dumb question ... if you want to record something that requires your cable box does the box need to be left on and tuned the channel you want before you go out? One thing that I find very frustrating with all tv is that the service providers require some sort of box. Why not in- vent something that is addressable to their networks that allows a signal to come to a home and let the tv tuner, recording device tuner, etc. do the work. This way you can record channel 420, 60, and 123 while not being there to tend to a box. Maybe I'm missing something.
|
| Benjamin Grimm Sep 18 2009 08:08 AM Re: Home Electronics Thread |
|
The IR cable allows the TiVo to change the channel on the box. It's a cable that simulates the remote control. It runs from the TiVo to the box, and it has little bulbs on the end that send the same kind of signal that your remote control would send. So TiVo changes the channel on the box, and the box pipes its signal into your TiVo.
|
| Kong76 Sep 18 2009 08:17 AM Re: Home Electronics Thread |
|
Thanks. I completely forgot that we had a vcr years ago that changed the cable box ... off to Best Buy!
|
| Kong76 Sep 18 2009 11:22 AM Re: Home Electronics Thread |
|
Ug, not even out of the box and I have issues. a) Tivo HD doesn't work with the cable box. You need to get some cable card decoder from the cable company. $40 more to the Frederic Weis Wing Foundation at Cablevision and a required visit from that guy on the Verizon commercials. b) Unit must be on your network, which is fine. I ain't running a cable twenty five feet from my firewall to my tv area. Wait! It works with wireless! Another $40. I think I'll put the instructions back in the box and sleep on it but will probably just return it tomorrow morning.
|
| metirish Oct 10 2009 03:02 PM Re: Home Electronics Thread |
|
[quote="seawolf17":2348joh4]We have the Cablevision HD signal, and for the extra ten bucks a month, the DVR box more than pays for itself in convenience. Highly recommended.[/quote:2348joh4] Thinking of ordering this right now.....looking at Cable Visions site it says you can record 100 hours of standard TV and 24hours of HD.....doesn't sound like a lot...how does that work for you wolf? Also do you actually own the stuff you record , can you for instance burn it to a DVD? Kase how is the TiVo working out....that's a one time fee and then nothing monthly?
|
| metirish Oct 13 2009 09:27 AM Re: Home Electronics Thread |
|
Anything ?
|
| Benjamin Grimm Oct 13 2009 09:32 AM Re: Home Electronics Thread |
|
[quote="metirish":3b1lq9gj]Kase how is the TiVo working out....that's a one time fee and then nothing monthly?[/quote:3b1lq9gj] You can pay a monthly fee or buy a lifetime subscription. I don't know what the current rates are, but the last time I did the math, the lifetime fee was about the same as 23 monthly payments. Your TiVo is very likely to last more than two years, so going with the lifetime is definitely a bargain. I'm still using one TiVo that I bought almost five years ago.
|
| Edgy DC Oct 14 2009 07:11 AM Re: Home Electronics Thread |
|
In the kitchen today, I run into my former boss from another department. She's Colombian, didn't learn English until around 40, but as her kids grew up, she became a shutterbug and grew into a voracious technophile. Now she shows up this morning with a new camera --- a canon, does stills, video, dolby audio, the works. And then she pulls out a memory card the size of a postage stamp. "This has 32 gigs," she tells me. I can't imagine having 32 gigs worth of interesting stuff in my life to record. That's --- what? --- like nine straight hours of video? On a postage stamp?
|
| metirish Oct 14 2009 07:16 AM Re: Home Electronics Thread |
|
Or several thousand jpegs , I have an 8 gig memory card that holds over 1 thousand jpeg or close to 700 RAW files...I remember the card that came with my first point and shoot camera about 6 years ago.....16mb....I put it into the Nikon for laughs and it holds 1 RAW file....
|
| dgwphotography Oct 14 2009 11:32 AM Re: Home Electronics Thread |
|
That's about right - the RAW files from my new Nikon range from about 9 - 11Mbs... I generally carry 20 gigs of cards in my bag - two 8's and two 2's...
|
| Fman99 Oct 15 2009 07:21 AM Re: Home Electronics Thread |
|
Used my $25 Amazon gift card (that I won from Willpie in his NL only fantasy baseball league for best 2nd half improvement, thanks Will!) towards the purchase of a $50 pair of noise cancelling headphones. To get them in time for a work trip involving two full days of air travel that I have to take in two weeks' time. Got these. I know that they won't work as well as the $300 Boes ones but hopefully they will allow me to watch movies on my new netbook while on the plane.
|
| metirish Oct 15 2009 08:03 AM Re: Home Electronics Thread |
|
Amazon is great , I buy from them a lot....
|
| metirish Nov 12 2009 10:58 AM Re: Home Electronics Thread |
|
Went to Cable Vision and got the HD-DVR Box yesterday , got it home ,all excited and then nothing...it works great just nothing to record yet.....oh and after I left and got in the car I checked in the bag and noticed that there was no power cord...the girl explained that most people keep that when they bring in the old box for the swap out.....she also said she should gave me one....
|
| Fman99 Nov 12 2009 11:02 AM Re: Home Electronics Thread |
|
Looking at 50" plasma TVs. I want to upgrade my 32" 1080i LCD downstairs - by moving the 46" 1080p LCD down there and keeping the big plasma upstairs for my own use. There's a real price jump from the 50" 1080p plasmas (often on sale for ~$900-$1000) and the next sizes up, the 54" and 58" plasmas which seem to start around $1500. Will the 50" be big enough? I just don't know.
|