RonGecan

35 hrs enough?

Hi everyone,

I'm going to get a DirectTV package with Tivo. The basic unit that's included has a 35 hr capacity. I can upgrade for a couple hundred to something like 105 hrs. At this point, it doesn't strike me as being worth it, but wanted to query the community. Is 35 hrs adequate or do people find that it can be limiting?

Also, I've heard of people dropping in their own hard drives into the Tivo to increase capacity, is this difficult?

Thanks,

Ron.

Mike>K

For me 35 hours is not nearly enough, but that's just my opinion. I have several season passes set up and sometimes I fall behind on watching those shows. Also, I like the freedom of being able to go on vacation for a couple weeks and know that my requested programming is always going to be recorded. As for upgrades, I decided to do it myself with a drop-in kit from Weaknees. Very simple stuff.

Michael Reuben

I know 35 hours sounds like a lot, but you'll be amazed at how quickly you can fill up a hard disc with programming. I'd go for the larger drive.

As far as adding hard drives, I'll have to defer to people who have actually done it.

M.

"Most people never have to face the fact that, at the right time and the right place, they're capable of anything." -- Chinatown

"What kind of movies would there be if everyone in them had to do what we thought they should do?" -- Roger Ebert

HTF Beginner's Primer and FAQ

Pamela

My first TiVo was 30 hours and I used it up real quick. I got an 80 hour TiVo and added an extra hard drive for a total of 225 hours. I don't watch a whole lot of TV, but I never have to worry about running out of space. Plus I have room to archive the shows I want to keep.

I also got my hard drive upgrade kit from Weaknees and it was a snap!

andrew markworthy

I think it depends how organised you are and how much of a life you have beyond TV. I have a 20 hour disc (Sky+, which is a Brit-only system; the nearest equivalent is Tivo which IMHO is inferior) and have difficulty filling it up. Having said that:

(a) stuff for keeps is generally recorded, checked for quality and then re-recorded onto DVD-R within a couple of days. Then obviously enough we delete it.

(b) if it's a series we're watching but not archiving, then generally we watch it when the recorder gets to the 20 minutes mark, so we can skip the adverts. Otherwise, we will watch it within a couple of days and delete it.

Thus, the 20 hours are more than enough and 35 hours sounds totally excessive for my personal needs. I think it comes down to lifestyle/personal choice.

Robert_J

Also, you won't get the full 35 hours unless you record shopping channels or black and white movies. If you record a lot of sports or PPV movies you will get less since those shows are not compressed as much. Most people get 27 to 30 hours. That being said, I've never had a program get automatically deleted and I'm using a "35 hour" DirecTivo.

-Robert

Michael Reuben

It also depends on how many channels you have available. I could fill 35 hours in a couple of weeks with channels like Sundance, Independent Film Channel, Turner Classic Movies and Trio. And that's not counting network broadcasts.

I didn't realize DirecTiVo had the same limitations as the regular model. So the 35 hours doesn't equal 35 hours of DirecTV's bitstream? Even more reason to get the larger drive.

M.

"Most people never have to face the fact that, at the right time and the right place, they're capable of anything." -- Chinatown

"What kind of movies would there be if everyone in them had to do what we thought they should do?" -- Roger Ebert

HTF Beginner's Primer and FAQ

Robert_J

DirecTV varies compression by channel and sometimes by show. Primetime NFL on ESPN will be less compressed than the exercise shows in the mornings. Channels with less motion are compressed more. Black and white is easily compressed more than most shows.

I don't consider it a limitation. You are comparing an MPEG encoder in a stand alone Tivo to a profession grade model costing hundreds of thousands of dollars at the DirecTV head end.

-Robert

Michael Reuben

By "limitations", I simply meant that the listed number of hours is a theoretical maximum and is much more than you'll get in actual practice (unless you're willing to sacrifice image quality).

M.

"Most people never have to face the fact that, at the right time and the right place, they're capable of anything." -- Chinatown

"What kind of movies would there be if everyone in them had to do what we thought they should do?" -- Roger Ebert

HTF Beginner's Primer and FAQ

andrew markworthy

I guess as many as you guys in the USofA. However, no way could I find 35 hours of watchable TV in a fortnight. Different strokes, I guess.