35 hrs enough? (1 Viewer)

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Note that all the channels I listed are movie channels. During this last month, for example, I've TiVo'ed most of the contents of the recently released Chaplin box set, which TCM has been showing.

M.

Ah, now there we are in agreement! Sorry, I wasn't sharp enough in reading your post. I guess I probably record about the same amount as you then. Generally what I do is record a whole of movies speculatively and start watching. If after 10 minutes or so they look good, then I transfer them to DVD-R. If not, then I erase. I'm sure an occasional good movie slips through the net, but not all that many. Of course I do have more than my fair share of movies that start well and then go down the pan in the second half, but heck, the cost of recording all of them has been less than a movie ticket, so why complain?

However, I stick by my statement that I genuinely would be hard-pressed to record 35 hours of Brit 'ordinary' TV. :frowning:

Oh, I feel the same way about American (network) TV. The shows that I do record are watched and deleted pretty quickly. And like you, I transfer many of the movies to DVD-R.

I should qualify my previous description by noting that TrioTV isn't strictly a movie channel. It's a fascinating little network that broadcasts a lot off offbeat stuff, some new, some old, some U.S., some foreign. Just as an example, it has the exclusive U.S. broadcast rights to September 11, the film made up of 11 short films by 11 different directors from around the world.

Of course, they're also showing episodes of Footballers' Wives.

M.

If you let Tivo loose to record shows it thinks you might like, you will blow through 35 hours very fast. I travel for a week at a time, tape a lot of movies off HBO that sit for months as well. The 40gig drive got yanked the second month I had the unit....


Chris

What method do yo guys use to off-load your movies from you PVR to DVD? I want to do this.

I have a separate DVD recorder. I let TiVo control the cable box, and if it's something I want on DVD-R, I set the recorder to capture the program simultaneously. Then I just delete it from TiVo.

M.

The bible on upgrading yourself if you don't get a drop-in drive from a place like weaknees (and they are very good):

http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/hins...to/index9.html

I have not upgraded, put IIRC, a good idea is to read through the guide first. Then go back and highlight just the info that pertains to your type of system, drive config, etc......

But everyone that has done it and posted to places like www.tivocommunity.com have stated that it is relatively easy.....