PVR Chart Clarifications

[Mike Richardson]

Could someone clarify this PVR Chart for me?

http://www.dbstalk.com/pvr_comparison.htm

Season Pass - Isin't this a little biased since that's a Tivo trademarked feature? Or do you just mean the general idea of Season Pass?
Monthly Fee - The AT 50 fee is $9.98, and the AT 100/150 fee is $4.98, for the model 510.
VOD - Define this more specifically. Do you mean like downloading PPVs to a "secret" part of the hard drive so that people can order them and then view them immediately? I thought the 510 was supposed to have that.
Upgradable - Do you mean hard drives? Or Software?
Auto Record - What is this?
Suggestions - Do you mean, where it suggests shows you might like?

Also, shouldn't you technically compare the Dishplayer too?

It looks like you spent time on the guide but it's a little vague.

[Karl Foster]

Thanks for look at this. When I get to work tomorrow, I'll tweak it a bit. It is saved on my work computer.

[toad57]

Thanks for look at this. When I get to work tomorrow, I'll tweak it a bit. It is saved on my work computer.

A couple more changes needed:

(1) Recording time

Dishplayer 7200 recording time is about 22 hours (swag: 1 hour per 0.75GB of disk. Mine had a 17GB drive, so ~22 hours. I think a 9Gig was in the 7100's, so they would be about 12 hours. I have also heard that the 7200's shipped with a few different drive sizes, all in the 15GB-20GB range.)

(2) "Ultimate" is spelled wrong in the chart header

(3) Dishplayer 7100/7200 is timer-based recording, not name-based.

(4) The 7100/7200's offered Internet access via WebTV. I know, not exactly a DVR
feature, but might be a feature for some.

Thanks!

From a (surprise) 7200 owner.

[Chris Blount]

A couple more changes needed:

(3) Dishplayer 7100/7200 is timer-based recording, not name-based.



Are you sure about that? I'm fairly positive that the timers are name based.

[toad57]

Are you sure about that? I'm fairly positive that the timers are name based.

I've had one for a loooong time and never had any hint that it was name-based. If it is, it's been failing miserably (i.e. told it to record 'XYZ', ended up with 'ABC').

[Mark Holtz]

The Hughes HDVR2, Phillips DSR-7000, and RCA-DVR39 are essentially the same series 2 box coming off the same production line with some cosmetic changes. If you really want to get specific, it's DirecTV DVR with TiVo (http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/imagine/TIVO.jsp), although you can put in there (aka "DirecTiVo").

Not sure on the model numbers for the series one though.

[Chris Blount]

I've had one for a loooong time and never had any hint that it was name-based. If it is, it's been failing miserably (i.e. told it to record 'XYZ', ended up with 'ABC').
What the Dishplayer has is "limited" name-based recording. Haven't you ever wondered why the Dishplayer will completely skip over a timer because the name of the show was not exactly the same as when you set the timer? Happened to me many times.

For instance, I would have the news set to record. The name of the show is "News a 5pm". If, for some reason, the name changed to "Eyewitness News at 5PM", the Dishplayer would not record the show.

The Dishplayer is NOT timer based. If it was, the show would record no matter what the name just like the other Dish DVR's.

[toad57]

Hmmm... I guess I've never observed my DP successfully recording a show that had time-shifted. And yes, I've had the DP fail to record a show (gee, what DP owner hasn't) but did not realize it was due to a name change in the show.

I have attempted to record a show ("Hawaii Five-O") that was/is now shown sporadically on the Hallmark Channel. I went to the guide, pushed 'record' for the show on Monday, along about Friday I noticed that it never recorded and I'm pretty sure there was another Hawaii Five-O shown between Monday and Friday. If the DP is name-based recording, then why did it not record the next occurance of the show?

I can think of no good way to setup a test scenario to determine if it is timer-based or name-based.

[Mike Richardson]

I think maybe it's timer and name based (although I have not owned one so don't quote me).

What it seems like, is that the DP will record via a timer style setup, but if the name of the show changes, it will not record. This makes since, for example, if you set it to record "Seinfeld" but the damn local channel decides to air "Whocares Elementary School Baseball Game" or some such nonsens that you don't care about anyway. But it screws up minor name changes like "Eyewitness News @ 5" instead of "News @ 5".

[toad57]

OK, I did some poking around in the newsgroups... as mentioned here, people call the Dishplayer's method "limited name-based recording". A bit of it is mentioned here (http://tinyurl.com/nm86).

I guess it has been there all along and I did not realize it. It's certainly not as feature-filled as the Tivo style.

So, at this point, based on the various comments/experiences, I am guessing that the Dishplayer 7100/7200 does the following:

1) When a recording is selected via the guide, the DP sets start time (1 minute early, actually) and stop time (1 minute late, maybe?) for the program to be recorded, as well as remembers the program name.

2) If there is a modest change (such as program becomes longer) then it will handle that and record the longer program.

3) If the time to record arrives and it finds the program name in the guide data doesn't match the original name when the record request was made then pffft! it records nothing (and tells you nothing, leaving you to cuss the thing for not recording the program).

4) Any recording has to be initiated via the user selecting the program (e.g. hit record button) from within the guide, setting up a manual timer, or hitting 'record' during a live program. The Dishplayer does not search through the guide looking for any and all matches to the program name so it can record it (this is what Tivo calls 'season pass', right?).

[toad57]

I've had one (a Dishplayer 7200) for a loooong time and never had any hint that it was name-based. If it is, it's been failing miserably (i.e. told it to record 'XYZ', ended up with 'ABC').

Okay, now that I think about it more, this only happened once... recently. I went and looked at the show it recorded 'wrong' and it turns out the guide data was 100% correct, they just plain put up programming that did not match the guide data whatsoever.

[Mike Richardson]

So what toad57 is describing is actually pretty nice! I'd like that in the 5xx models, especially extending the recording time if the show gets longer.

[Steve Mehs]

Very nice Karl! I like the organization of the new chart. One little thing though, there's two new models of the DTiVo, the Philips 7080, with an 80GB stock hard drive and one made by Samsung with a 120 GB hard drive. The Samsung is out, I saw it at best buy a few weeks ago. I don't think the upgraded Philips is out yet though.

[Karl Foster]

OK. I'll add those to the spreadsheet and forward it to Chris once again. I think he's getting sick of me. It is saved on my computer at work, so it'll have to wait until tomorrow.