Gadgetopia

A PVR for only $4200, what a steal.

I created my own PVR awhile back with a P4 1.5Ghz, 512mb, 80GIGHD, a WinTV150 card, and BeyondTV. It worked but here are my beefs with PVRs:

1.) If you want to watch one program and record another -- or record two programs at once -- you'll need an extra capture card. Add another $140 to your PVR costs.

2.) No matter which setup you use, the encoding quality just isn't as good as the stand-alone DVRs I've used.

3.) ALL PVR software is plagued with bugs, open source or not. I've tried Media Portal, GB-PVR, MythTV, and a few others I can't recall. BeyondTV is perhaps the biggest joke of them all charging $70 for software that's still in beta.

4.) Figure that you'll spend at least 15-20 hours getting the PVR to do exactly what you want it to do.

5.) Most importantly, you have to figure the computer costs at LEAST $200 + $140 for the single capture card (more for a dual tuner) + $70 for BeyondTV. We won't count the cost of a good video card, wirless card, and other extras... That means a PVR will cost anywhere from $400-$500. The same price as a TiVO lifetime membership so why not just get a TiVO? The new TiVOs are really impressive.

Computers are great for reading Gadgetopia, but if you want to record TV or game, I say get a stand-alone.

I just want some more space in mine. I set up a series recording for "Modern Marvels." Sadly, it was right before a "Modern Marvels" marathon kicked off. The DVR deleted almost all of my daughters Dora episodes before I caught it.