DMR-E85 and Tivo comparison

[ktnwin]

I have been using Tivo for 5 years+ and I loved it dearly. This unit was a gift to me as our company design disk drives that go into Tivo box. I only paid for the life time service fee (about 200$).

But my unit died twice. The first time, I sent in for repair (bad disk drive). The disk drive last about 6 months and died again !!! I should have back up the hard drive first (using software and instruction from a Tvio forum). Too late now.
I don't want to buy a new unit (100$ to 200$) because I have to pay the lifetime service fee again (250$)!!!

So I bought a DMR-E85H (with 120GB hard drive) last weekend for 350$ (not knowing all its features yet when I boought it). It's amazing. It has TV guide and and can setup to record once, daily, weekly, etc.... very much like Tivo, without any service fee (I use normal antenna).

With DMR-E85H, I can cut off commercials (something TV cannot do) before burning this program to DVD (my Tivo box has no DVD writer so forget this too).

With DMR-E85, I can transfer my video tape (camcorder, VHS) to DVD directly and get the entire tape(s) on one DVD using Flexible recording mode. What this means (most folks knew this, but many still don't), if my tape is
1) 1 hour long, recording is done at bit rate ~9.0
2) if my tape is 90 mins long, recording is done at bit rate ~6.0
3) 2 hours: bit rate 4.5
4) 3 hours - one minute: bit rate 3.0
and the quality is still pretty good at near 3 hours.

From the ease of use point of view, Tivo is definitely better than this DMR-unit.

I just see no reason for buying a stand alone Tivo box (unless it's part of the Direct TV package). The DMR-E85 (and other DVD desktop recorder with hard disk) beats Tivo box in every practical aspects.

Tivo does have a box with DVD recorder built in, however for 80 hours the cost is 390$ (after 100$ saving, limited time offer), and not counting the the monthly fee 12.95$ or lifetime fee 299$, this is the part that hold up people from buying Tivo. As I loved it so much, I advertized it to my family members (all can afford this unit) but noone want to buy it !!!
And you need to have a phone line, or network line !!!

The other advantage of DMR is: you can replace the hard drive yourself (most people can) if it go bad. Not with Tivo, the software is stored on the hard disk so if it goes bad, you cannot just buy a drive from Frys and replace it. We all know that hard disks do go bad and they will.

Can anyone convince me to buy a new Tivo box ? Please no religous war here. Just let me know really good reasons for buying Tivo box again.
I have to say this: if there is no service fee, I will buy it again and lot of people will buy it.

[lumis]

your tivo box is old, only supports on in put, no dual recording, it has a history of killing harddrives, its probably dusty.. there are some reasons, whether they are true or not, i dont know.

if i were in your shoes, i'd just put another hard drive in it..

[handyguy]

80 hours is low quality setting......who uses that?

SP mode is 2 gigs per hour. So, a 40 gig hd = 20 hours.

[ktnwin]

I have tried to put a new drive (with Tivo software in it) but it does not boot up, probably due to wrong software for my old model.
80GB = 80 hours, some folks use this mode to record talk shows, news, things they do not want to record on DVD.
Personally, I found that even at SP mode (40 hours), that's a lot of video to watch. I don't have enough time to watch all that.
The DMR_85H has 120GB and of course I use the SP mode (52 hours) as everyone else.

[handyguy]

Well, I got a 400gig in my panasonic. Sure, I won't watch that much but the neat thing is I only have to delete once every 2 months....

[ktnwin]

handyguy,
you are talking about a Tivo Panasonic box, right ?
I know a lot of folks upgrade theirs to get as much capacity as they could afford.
With my old Tivo box, even with 60GB (for 30 hours) I just don't have time to watch all I have captured, just me.
On the other side, don't you think the high capacity drive tends to use more power and usually more noisy then the low capacity one ? My box (Tivo or DVD-recorder) is always in my bedroom with a 55" TV. I like them to be as quiet as they could.