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i just hit record in windows media center if i want to record anything onto my HDD for later viewing

Man TiVo is nice but you have to pay for it. Someone should write something that does the same thing for free. Hey, they could call it Freevo, hahaha. Oh, wait... someone already did that.

MythTV and its clones beat them to the punch.

Tivo cultists will flock, but everyone else will just find a better/free interface to use.

I have Tivo and although I paid for it at 300.00 for a lifetime...........it is the absolute best, easiest and most direct yet simplified interface available, PERIOD. PVRs are cool but Tivo costs because they actually have a signed agreement with TVGuide to provide lineups with full descriptions two weeks out. Other DVRs, PVRs may go two weeks out (if even) but I don't believe they use a comprehensive guide provide like TVGuide. Tivo is unparalleled in my opinion. I challenge anyone to dispute and provide concrete examples in their favour.

But what input source(s) can the Tivo software actually record?? Over the air antenna only?!? Many people have DirecTV and DISH Network.

Ultimate TV is, in my opinion, superior to TiVo:
1) 30 second skip forward and backward (without a hack)
2) "go back" for the remaining disk space (TiVo only goes back 60 minutes)
3) episode menu listings more descriptive
4) user interface doesn't obscure picture
5) better organized listing of recorded shows
6) recorded episodes identifiable on main screen (you need to click into TiVo menu to see episodic information)
7) TiVo's white colored time setting gets obscured by light viewing backgrounds
8) overall, a better user interface
9) better, more ergonomically designed remote
10) easier to add and delete channels because you can view stations while adding/deleting
11) I don't care about two weeks out, maybe five days...

My ATI All In Wonder with software does everything my wife's TIVO does.

TiVo has come to the PC, Should make it more programmable and opens up the market to everywhere for them, I mean there aren't that many people overall who do use their puter to watch tv, but there are some that do. Now with TiVo advertising with a free press release there are going to be more switching on the back of TiVo and only a few are going to jump to other models once they discover what we know.

Smart move.

Is this dedicated hardware or just media sharing both ways and pc storage? I would think it'd be a waste to add all new hardware when you could just update all the older system with an ethernet port to support media sharing and file transfer.