re: Is your HD DVR important?

Librainian — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 21:22:37 GMT

HELL YES I care. I've had a HTPC for 3 years now. I prefer using SageTV with a customized interface for my PVR software. I started with simple SD capture but graduated to over the air HD recordings as soon as I bought an HDTV. I LOVE HD. I hardly watch and SD content anymore. It drives my programming choices to a large degree.

I currently don't subscribe to cable or satellite precisely because it limits me to SD recordings. In a sense I guess I'm boycotting cable and sat until I'm given an option for making my own HD recordings.

My parents recently subscribed to Dish and got an HD-DVR. They are just starting to realize the convenience and utility of the device, but for me I was silently thinking "only 30 hours of HD?", "what a crude interface", "what a lame search feature" and so on. Once you use a more advanced DVR like MCE or SageTV, it's difficult to imagine being limited to a provider's HD-DVR device. Storage is a HUGE issue and so is sharing this content throughout my home.

I don't care if the content is encrypted. I don't need to burn DVDs etc. If I want to save an entire season of my favorite show and watch it during the off season, I should be able to do that. If I want to add another capture card so I can record 3 or 4 shows at once I should be able to do that too!

You are absolutely right that it's about control. I want to watch what I want when I want without storage restrictions etc. I understand the content protection concerns and fully support the right to secure your intellectual property from unlawful piracy, but I also think that the average consumer does not spend countless hours downloading pirated HD recordings off Bittorrent or alt.binaries.hdtv just to avoid paying for this service. I certainly don't and I'm an HD nut!

The vast majority of users want this content available for fair use in the manner most convenient to them and are more than willing to pay to get it. So RIAA, MPAA, TV networks and providers, please figure it out! Until then I'm voting with my wallet.

re: Is your HD DVR important?

KB — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 04:41:01 GMT

When is something going to come of the DirecTV/Microsoft partnership announcement of a year or so ago? That's when a lot more people would presumably be able to switch to Media Center for HD recording from satellite. In the meantime, no (public) news... so I have to live with my HD Tivo.