Digital TV/PVR's

[Dion]

Originally Posted by fotze

do you have to return the dish if you cancel with Bell? There has to be some sort of penalties that are above and beyond.

A few years back I canceled with Bell and signed up witn Shaw. They took my Bell reciever and gave me a Shaw digital box in exchange.. Sold the dish privately

[ericschand]

Originally Posted by Bench Warmer

Are there any stand alone PVR units out there that I could buy and hook into my non-PVR Bell receiver and record shows?

I Ebay'd a couple of Tivo's (series 2, model# must start with TCD240,
no other models will work) as a solution. It does not record HDTV, but
I only spent about $100 plus a couple of wireless USB adapters for both.
The wireless adapters that it uses are Wireless B, and old, so they
are cheap (I think $20 for 3 of them, router included).

Right now I am willing to compromise on the HDTV recording.

The Tivo's connect to my home PC and get their TV guide data from it.
A program runs on the PC which goes off and downloads the TV guide,
then massages it to work on your Tivo.

The added benefits of this setup are:
- view pictures from my digital camera (once transferred to the above
mentioned PC) on any Tivo
- record on one Tivo, then transfer the show to the other to view it.
I am not locked to viewing the show on the Tivo it was recorded on.
- view home video on any Tivo (once transfered to PC) or view any
*cough*downloaded*cough* video. No need to burn to CD/DVD first.
- send mp3's to any TV to listen to (I don't use this feature, but it's
there)
- send recorded shows from the Tivo to your PC for storage, or to burn to
CD/DVD.
- control your Tivo over the internet. Record shows from work.

Very simple setup, and it just works.

ers

[DuffMan]

Originally Posted by ericschand

I Ebay'd a couple of Tivo's (series 2, model# must start with TCD240,
no other models will work) as a solution. It does not record HDTV, but
I only spent about $100 plus a couple of wireless USB adapters for both.
The wireless adapters that it uses are Wireless B, and old, so they
are cheap (I think $20 for 3 of them, router included).

Right now I am willing to compromise on the HDTV recording.

The Tivo's connect to my home PC and get their TV guide data from it.
A program runs on the PC which goes off and downloads the TV guide,
then massages it to work on your Tivo.

are you saying you have your Tivo's connected to your home PC with a wireless setup. How does that work? Do you give your Tivo's IP addresses?
Sounds pretty good.

[ericschand]

Sorry for the late response.

Yes, my Tivo's are connected via wireless to my home PC. Tivo does
DHCP addressing, so most (if not all) wireless routers will work.

There are a couple of gotcha's. One is that there are only specific
models of Tivo this will work for, as in my previous post. Also, the USB
wireless cards that the Tivo uses are difficult to find, as they too must
be a very specific model. When I did find the stuff, it was very cheap.

The Tivo controls your Bell satellite box (or Shaw box in my case), and
you control the Tivo.

ers