Digital Video Recorders

[Big_Jit]

Are there Digital Video Recorders out there and are they worth buying? I've seen the vcd recorders but i'm thinking something like a vcr but digital where it captures to a harddrive and then you could somehow retrieve it through a network card. Instead of using your computer...

[lusid]

The replay4000 and later models are designed to share video with other replays over a network. There are ways to trick it into thinking your file server is another replay, so if you're a techie at heart you could probably go that route.

There are also ways to hack a network card into a tivo, and there are ways to extract data off the various units hard drives by pulling them out and dumping the data with a PC.

Or you can build your own PC based pvr. ShowShifter is great for setting up a dedicated (or not) PC based PVR box. It's a little weak in the EPG department, but otherwise full featured.

If what you really want is to digitally record and archive stuff off tv, as opposed to simply timeshifting programs, then a DVD recorder might be a better choice. It would cost about the same as a decent PVR + subscription, but you'd be buying lot's of blank dvds at $1-$2 each.