March 6, 2006

TiVo or Windows Media Center - Which One for You?

My brother-in-law bought a new computer the other day with Windows Media Center. The funny thing is he didn't even know what it was until I showed him how easy it was to record TV right on his computer. So if you're looking for a PVR, should you look at WMCE or should you stick with TIVO? Digital105 has a nice little article that discusses the differences between WMCE and TiVo:

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.
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.

The article has some pretty decent points but it would of been nice if they also mentioned DVR cable boxes as an option too. In fact, cable DVR boxes seem to be getting bigger because they're so well integrated so well into your existing cable service.

At Digitial105

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