TiVo Community Forums Archives - Comcast vs DirecTiVo

TiVoCommunity.com
(c)opyright 1995-2005 All rights reserved
indexcheckTC
This area is a static history of posts in the TiVo Community Forum Archive.
This archive history was made for the simple indexing of search sites like Google.

Pages:1

Comcast vs DirecTiVo
(Click here to view the original thread with full colors/images)

Posted by: Yuckle

I have just added Comcast digital cable to my towering stack of components to give me more choices to record. Except for a small issue with the Comcast remote (separate thread) everthing works as it should. Still I have these issues:

- Still can't watch one and record another (I knew this wouldn't change)

- Comcast Motorola cable box has no S-video output to feed into TiVo.

Someone suggested dumping Comcast and going with DirectTV, DirecTiVo in my case, as a solution. I know it will allow me to watch one and record another, but

- Does DirecTiVo have S-video out?

- What are the differences between stand-alone TiVo and DicrecTiVo?

- Is this a good idea or bad?

- If I were to do this, is there any market for my 60 day old series 2 TiVo?

- What else do I need to know?

Posted by: JimSpence

- Does DirecTiVo have S-video out?

Yes it does! And, an optical DD 5.1 output.:)

- What are the differences between stand-alone TiVo and DicrecTiVo?

DirecTV DVRs record the digital stream from the satellite with no loss, therefore the playback is as good as it would be if watched live. Dual tuners allow recording of two shows at the same time and allow you to watch a third previoiusly recorded show. Standalones have only one tuner and less storage if using the better quality recordings.

- Is this a good idea or bad?

Are you kidding? Of course it's a good idea.:D

- If I were to do this, is there any market for my 60 day old series 2 TiVo?

If you have a Lifetime Subscription on that Tivo it can be worth quite a bit on e-bay.

Posted by: Yuckle

Thanks for the info. You've mentioned the +'s of DirecTiVo over cable with TiVo. Are there any downsides? TiVo software the same - any loss of features?

How about DirecTV themselves? Comcast isn't the best, but I've got spectacular picture quality currrently, even in analog - and you can get to real service rep onthe phone woithout waiting in the phone queue. ]

I have 4 TVs in the house, only one on digital cable and TiVo, other just analog.

Posted by: Yuckle

I do not have the lifetime subscription. What would I get for my Series 2 on e-bay?

Posted by: JimSpence

DirecTV DVRs have Season Passes and Wishlists, these allow you to select a show to be recorded by its name and it will be recorded regardless if its time or day changes. Within reason of accuracy of the guide data. You can also do fancy things, like pausing live TV etc. Which to be honest, the cable companies now have their version of a DVR which can also do some of these things, just not as well. The PQ of DirecTV is good to great depending on channel. Because of bandwidth limitations some channels are compressed more causing some problems. I don't really notice it that much. Like any company with phone support, you have some waits and some dumb CSRs. My wait when I ordered the HD receiver was short. Unless, you have equipment problems, you can do a lot of your changes to subscription, add equipmen, on DirecTV's website. You set up an account and you can view your account, change your subscription, pay your bill. You may iencounter what's called "rain fade" where your signal will drop off during severe thunderstorms. Usually only lasts a few minutes.

You'd have to do a search on e-bay top see what others have gotten. Some here on the forum will suggest that you could get enough to pay for the DirecTV DVR and more.

Posted by: Yuckle

thanks Jim

Posted by: phodg

I had DirecTiVo in our old house, then we moved to a condo so I went with Comcast/Standalone TiVo. I couldn't wait until we moved into our new house so I could go back to DirecTiVo again. Picture and sound quality is better, you don't have to worry about missed channel changes and with the dual tuners you can record two things at once while watching a third. The only thing missing is HMO which I'm not interested in anyway.
If you sell your stadalone on Ebay you may make enough to buy 2 DirecTiVo's.

Posted by: Eight47

DirecTivo is great! With two turners you hardly have any conflicts.

Just check that you can receive local channels in your area.

Posted by: paulfife

quote:
Originally posted by Yuckle
Thanks for the info. You've mentioned the +'s of DirecTiVo over cable with TiVo. Are there any downsides? TiVo software the same - any loss of features?

The DirecTiVos have a few less features than the stand-alones because they have an older (3.x) version of the software. The major things are the HMO (as someone else mentioned), and Folders. It is not clear when or if DirecTiVos feature set will match the SA's.

quote:
How about DirecTV themselves? Comcast isn't the best, but I've got spectacular picture quality currrently, even in analog - and you can get to real service rep onthe phone woithout waiting in the phone queue.

I find the picture quality great, but my cable wasn't the best before. If you are concerned or picky about PQ, I'd go to a store/dealer with it hooked up for you to look at.

quote:
I have 4 TVs in the house, only one on digital cable and TiVo, other just analog.

If you are making cost comparison, remember that you have to pay $5 extra per month for each extra TV to have a receiver. You could alternatively get some video/IR senders for less used TVs if you don't mind them not being able to have different channels in all 4 rooms.

Posted by: mdscott

Comcast does have Motorola cable boxes with both s-video and digital audio. On the DCT 2xxx SD boxes some have it and some do not -- look for "Home Theater" boxes.

The DCT 5xxx and 6xxx HD boxes all have s-video (and component for that matter) and have the added benefit of being very responsive to IR control.

Not to take anything away from DTV and its articulate supporters on this board ;) but cable is not a complete wasteland.

mds

Posted by: FourDoor

OK I wrote up a nice little reply and accidently deleted it. So here it is in short version:

1. Pricing structure for a DTivo fanatic in your shoes would be for 4 DTivos:

$39 Total Choice with locals including 1 DTivo
$5 Tivo service fee for entire DTV account
$15 Mirroring fee for 3 additional DTivos.

So for $60 a month, you can potentially record 8 shows at the exact same time with the dual tuners while watching 4 shows simultaniously. A similar set up with 4 SA Tivos would cost $52 alone just for the monthly tivo fee if you didnt pay big $ up front for lifetime. With the monthly mirroring cost of a regular DTV set top box being the same as an additional Tivo, it is hands down the best deal for $99 a box.

2. Dolby Digital 5.1 recording is supperted in DTivo. You can watch premium/ppvs recorded on your DTivo in surround sound if you have the audio set up at home.

3. Picture quality was so much better when I switched from cable to DirecTV over a year ago. And the fact that DTivos record the actual digital signal from DirecTV means no loss of PQ when recording with a DTivo. This doesnt mean that all of the channels will look great as it has been reported that some channels are more compressed by DirecTV than others.

Downsides:
No officiall Tivo support for the USB/Ethernet connection like the SAs
No Folders
No Home Media Option
Cannot record OTA or other video/cable input sources

Hopefully 3 of those 4 downsides will be resolved by future software upgrades for the DTivo.

Posted by: Priz

I'm not trying to spam this thread, but I received this e-mail for a friend I'm helping out in Australia about some commission thing (he's using my address because I'm in the states and he ordered some videogame-related stuff from a place that won't ship outside the US) related to the company... I bring it up here as you mentioned having 4 tv's...

http://www.rapidsatellite.com/tivo_land.aspx

Basically, when I saw the offer a DirecTivo alone was free with free install and then multiple rooms were $47.95 (up to 5 total). You could get everything hooked up in the house on DirecTV for that price, all the receivers and such, I saw you say 4 tv's and instantly thought of this, so I dug up that old mail. There might be some referral code to save you some money, I honestly have no idea. Still though... for 5 rooms and a directivo at that price... mmm... (then all you need to do is spend $100 on a nice Western Digital 160gb drive, get a virgin HDVR2 image and... ;)

Anyway, just trying to help save some money. :)
Good luck with your choice.