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It's looking like, barring sudden medical/dental expense, I should be able to get ahead enough financially that I can buy a new TV in the next month or so (I'm researching that separately), and that also means lifting one of the last barriers to replacing my VCR with a DVR. Since I've never had a DVR before, I figured I'd ask here (among other places) for advice.
My cable company offers a DVR as part of their digital tier, but I've talked to some people locally who tried that, and they were dissatisfied, so I'm holding that in reserve as an "at least it won't involve hassle" option if I can't find a way to do things the way I'd prefer. (ETA: Also, while Dish's DVR option looks nice, my apartment doesn't really have the means to mount a south-facing dish.)
I'm not interested in building a DVR into my computer...I use a Mac in large part because I'm not a hardware OR software geek. However, a fairly "off the rack"-usable program to let my Mac control a DVR would be okay.
One of the big things that has kept me from switching to a DVR is I don't want to add yet another monthly expense. I want to buy a machine that will do things, and be done paying for it at the time of initial purchase. I don't want to have to subscribe to a separate service just to get the thing to work. I just want to be able to tell it, "record cable channel 49 at 8PM until 10PM this Friday" and have it DO that. (I have enough trouble keeping up with my existing programming, I don't need a system that can scour the entire listings and record other things I might be interested in, so I don't mind having a "dumb" DVR that has no idea what channel 49 is.)
The only thing I really want out of a DVR that a VCR can't do is simultaneous recording. Higher recording quality and going longer before needing to "change tapes" (delete things from memory) are nice add-ons, but I have low-def eyes and a 6-8 hour tape memory is something I've lived with for 17 years, I can put up with it for longer. Having it able to listen to instructions from my computer would also be nice (i.e. in case a station changes its schedule, something like Yahoo listings could automatically change the recording time), but again it's something I can live without. I really only need to upgrade for the simple fact that VCR tapes are phasing out, and I don't want to have to troll eBay for blank tapes in a couple of years. :)
So, in a nutshell, what I'd really like is something that works like a bank of VCRs. Records the channels I tell it to, when I tell it to, without needing to look online to some parent service for guidance (not even a free one, as those can vanish and leave me in the lurch...I want full manual control). Allow me to locate particular events (i.e. list by date, time, channel) and play them back on my television (I don't like watching shows on my computer for idiosyncratic reasons). Record at least two things at once from existing cable signal. If I can provide a local parent service on my desktop without having to program it from scratch or install a bunch of libraries, that'd be a nice plus.
If I can't find something at least comes close to meeting my preferences, I'll just buy a second VCR, they're cheap. Maybe by the time VCRs stop being available it'd be easier to get a manual DVR...or it'll be impossible to get cable without a company-supplied DVR (I can certainly see them going that route). Or the whole DVR transitional tech will have been replaced by a true on-demand system. Whatever.
I like the operating paradigm of the VCR, I'd just like to cherry-pick a few of the features of the DVR. I don't like the standard operating paradigm of consumer-level DVRs.
My cable company offers a DVR as part of their digital tier, but I've talked to some people locally who tried that, and they were dissatisfied, so I'm holding that in reserve as an "at least it won't involve hassle" option if I can't find a way to do things the way I'd prefer. (ETA: Also, while Dish's DVR option looks nice, my apartment doesn't really have the means to mount a south-facing dish.)
I'm not interested in building a DVR into my computer...I use a Mac in large part because I'm not a hardware OR software geek. However, a fairly "off the rack"-usable program to let my Mac control a DVR would be okay.
One of the big things that has kept me from switching to a DVR is I don't want to add yet another monthly expense. I want to buy a machine that will do things, and be done paying for it at the time of initial purchase. I don't want to have to subscribe to a separate service just to get the thing to work. I just want to be able to tell it, "record cable channel 49 at 8PM until 10PM this Friday" and have it DO that. (I have enough trouble keeping up with my existing programming, I don't need a system that can scour the entire listings and record other things I might be interested in, so I don't mind having a "dumb" DVR that has no idea what channel 49 is.)
The only thing I really want out of a DVR that a VCR can't do is simultaneous recording. Higher recording quality and going longer before needing to "change tapes" (delete things from memory) are nice add-ons, but I have low-def eyes and a 6-8 hour tape memory is something I've lived with for 17 years, I can put up with it for longer. Having it able to listen to instructions from my computer would also be nice (i.e. in case a station changes its schedule, something like Yahoo listings could automatically change the recording time), but again it's something I can live without. I really only need to upgrade for the simple fact that VCR tapes are phasing out, and I don't want to have to troll eBay for blank tapes in a couple of years. :)
So, in a nutshell, what I'd really like is something that works like a bank of VCRs. Records the channels I tell it to, when I tell it to, without needing to look online to some parent service for guidance (not even a free one, as those can vanish and leave me in the lurch...I want full manual control). Allow me to locate particular events (i.e. list by date, time, channel) and play them back on my television (I don't like watching shows on my computer for idiosyncratic reasons). Record at least two things at once from existing cable signal. If I can provide a local parent service on my desktop without having to program it from scratch or install a bunch of libraries, that'd be a nice plus.
If I can't find something at least comes close to meeting my preferences, I'll just buy a second VCR, they're cheap. Maybe by the time VCRs stop being available it'd be easier to get a manual DVR...or it'll be impossible to get cable without a company-supplied DVR (I can certainly see them going that route). Or the whole DVR transitional tech will have been replaced by a true on-demand system. Whatever.
I like the operating paradigm of the VCR, I'd just like to cherry-pick a few of the features of the DVR. I don't like the standard operating paradigm of consumer-level DVRs.
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DVRs... well, that can be a mess. Copyright holders and such are afraid of bootlegging. Advertisers don't want people skipping out on commercials. The best non-subscription option would be a video card for your computer with TV inputs for digital recording, but it's not going to have any features, and at worst you're looking at 350 MB for a 1-hour(really 40 minute) TV show. It's not viable to keep a lot of those files on hand.
You might get stuck with a subscription box no matter what. Unless copyright laws change, but don't count on that.
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From:
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Any flat srceen model TV, and especially the new HDTVs are incompatible with the old light guns for game systems. The NES Zapper, Sega Menacer, Super Scope, all useless. They were designed to work with old rounded screen TVs so their aim is horribly off. I recently tried a Sega Saturn light gun and had to stand about 2 feet from the TV to get even semi-proper aimm and all I have is a flat screen CRT.
And while those guns are mostly obsolete, I did spot a recent Sega Menacer TV-game light gun at Tuesday Morning for $10. Wholly useless to me, though.
If you ever plan to play games such as that, you'll want to get a round screen TV for cheap and stick it away somewhere. Not really a bad idea for old games anyway. Some HDTVs have problems with older game systems, and the digital switch might see the RF input removed eventually. Especially shoudl you ever wish to plug in an old Atari system or something.