Tivo alternatives
From Clark Howard:
A cheaper alternative to Tivo
Personal video recorders such as Tivo and Replay TV have reached almost cult-like status these days. These services are expensive,
though. Usually, people have to buy the device, pay a licensing fee of about $250 and pay a monthly charge to get the service. But companies
are coming up with less costly alternatives that function just like Tivo using your home computer. Basically, you buy software and install
it on your home computer, which becomes the brains of the operation. You can then buy adapters to hook up to your TV and youre good to go.
One of the products is called Beyond TV3 and it costs $80. You can try it for a few weeks for free, and then buy it if you like it. It
includes all of the functions of Tivo, plus a skip commercial feature. Clark is going to try out one of these services and let you know how
it goes.
I have also seen the MediaMVP talked about recently. This is not really a direct competetor for the Tivo, but it is interesting.
MediaMVP Features:
- Access digital music, videos or pictures from your TV set, over your home network.
- Uses 10Mbit or 100Mbit Ethernet, for the best network performance with any type of digital media. Plays DVD quality videos on your TV set over an Ethernet LAN!
- Composite and S-Video outputs for the best video quality on TV sets, plus stereo audio output to TV sets or home theater systems.
- Watch digital camera pictures (JPEG or GIF) on your TV set. Play slide shows with music, too!
- Plays MP3 music, either individual titles, all the music titles in a directory or M3U, B4S, PLS and ASX playlists.
- Plays MEPG-1 and MPEG-2 recordings made with the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR's. Will also play most other MPEG-1/2 standard video files. With MediaMVP’s remote control, you can pause, rewind and fast forward through your recorded videos.
- Remote control for easy access to your PC media from your TV set. MediaMVPs remote control allows you to navigate through your PCs disk drives, and displays media names, directories and other information on the TV set. MediaMVPs remote also can control the audio volume and mute of videos and music being played.
From Clark Howard:
A cheaper alternative to Tivo
Personal video recorders such as Tivo and Replay TV have reached almost cult-like status these days. These services are expensive,
though. Usually, people have to buy the device, pay a licensing fee of about $250 and pay a monthly charge to get the service. But companies
are coming up with less costly alternatives that function just like Tivo using your home computer. Basically, you buy software and install
it on your home computer, which becomes the brains of the operation. You can then buy adapters to hook up to your TV and youre good to go.
One of the products is called Beyond TV3 and it costs $80. You can try it for a few weeks for free, and then buy it if you like it. It
includes all of the functions of Tivo, plus a skip commercial feature. Clark is going to try out one of these services and let you know how
it goes.
I have also seen the MediaMVP talked about recently. This is not really a direct competetor for the Tivo, but it is interesting.
MediaMVP Features:
- Access digital music, videos or pictures from your TV set, over your home network.
- Uses 10Mbit or 100Mbit Ethernet, for the best network performance with any type of digital media. Plays DVD quality videos on your TV set over an Ethernet LAN!
- Composite and S-Video outputs for the best video quality on TV sets, plus stereo audio output to TV sets or home theater systems.
- Watch digital camera pictures (JPEG or GIF) on your TV set. Play slide shows with music, too!
- Plays MP3 music, either individual titles, all the music titles in a directory or M3U, B4S, PLS and ASX playlists.
- Plays MEPG-1 and MPEG-2 recordings made with the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR's. Will also play most other MPEG-1/2 standard video files. With MediaMVP’s remote control, you can pause, rewind and fast forward through your recorded videos.
- Remote control for easy access to your PC media from your TV set. MediaMVPs remote control allows you to navigate through your PCs disk drives, and displays media names, directories and other information on the TV set. MediaMVPs remote also can control the audio volume and mute of videos and music being played.