New HD TV
Posted September 22nd, 2009 @ 08:55pm by Erik J. Barzeski
For a few years now we've had a 19" TV hooked up to an old TiVo (a Hughes unit) in the bedroom. This has worked "okay" as a second source for television programming the few times we had conflicts.
With hockey season coming up, I decided now was as good a time as any to replace the 19" TV and the TiVo with something more suitable. HDTV prices aren't high anymore - particularly for the off-brand stuff that may not have the absolute best picture.
So Monday I called DirecTV and told them to ship out another HD-DVR. They go for $199 and they're technically an up-front payment for a two-year lease (after which you just kind of keep them), but I was able to get a much better deal than that as a "long-time customer" ((Since early 2002?)).
I also picked up a 37" Vizio at Sam's Club on Monday. My brother-in-law said that Vizios are either broken right out of the box or they work okay and last long enough, so that was good enough for me.
I set the TV up in the bedroom but kept the old TiVo/TV hooked up (pre-season hockey was being recorded) Monday night. Tuesday afternoon the HD-DVR arrived - I wasn't planning on having that before Friday or so at the earliest - and as I type this I'm watching the Penguins play the Maple Leafs in HD from my bed. Woo!
This'll come in handy. We're not big TV watchers (more so in the winter), but for conflicts with sporting events (mostly hockey), this will be a life saver.
P.S. I hooked up the AirPort Extreme base station that had gone unused for so long so the new HD-DVR had network access. Scheduling recordings from my phone and/or computer without turning on the TV's is awesome.
Donate Life
Posted 23 Sep 2009 at 2:37pm #
Sounds like a sweet setup. PVR must be great for recording sports games. Maybe I should upgrade my HD box to a PVR.
Also, great ending to that Maple Leafs v Penguins game 😉
Posted 23 Sep 2009 at 3:11pm #
I am somewhat jealous that you're able to setup recordings on your HD-DVR from your computer. The TV UI for my HD-DVR from Rogers Cable (Ontario) is slow and sucks majorly.
Posted 23 Sep 2009 at 3:52pm #
[quote comment="55484"]I am somewhat jealous that you're able to setup recordings on your HD-DVR from your computer. The TV UI for my HD-DVR from Rogers Cable (Ontario) is slow and sucks majorly.[/quote]
I've been very, very pleased with DirecTV. Not only has their programming been pretty good, their prices have always been reasonable and their setup and the ease with which you can move is great.
And recently, the 0x34c software update enabled a dual-live-buffer feature that I used to like on the TiVo. They call it DoublePlay or something, but whatever the name, the last thing I liked on my TiVo that my DirecTV DVRs didn't have is now a non-issue. So even the DirecTV DVRs are really pretty nice.
Posted 23 Sep 2009 at 4:11pm #
We have a 42" Vizio (almost 2 years now) 1080p and we love it. It was inexpensive but had all of the features we wanted.
Posted 14 Oct 2009 at 11:54am #
[...] two DirecTV DVRs, each having equalled and even surpassed the TiVo(s) they replaced, things have been going along [...]