Video Asylum

Posted by townsend on December 04, 2004 at 15:24:02

Yeah, I'm much more an audiophile guy, who has lived up to now with a DVD player and a VCR. But now my VCR won't take a tape, and I doubt it is worth fixing.

I use it for recording broadcast TV shows, sometimes manually and sometimes time recording. So now I need to replace it with a DVR.

Years ago--there was Replay and TiVo, and I am assuming that Replay died and TiVo rules, correct? There is no way in hell I'm going to 1) run a phone line to my TV; or 2) pay $12.95 per month to those guys.

So what are my options?
1) Does somebody make a simple DVR with a harddrive that I can hook up to my TV, and I can record at least manually--pushing a button?
2) Or do I need to buy a DVD recorder, and "record" to a DVD-RW, using that disk essentially like I did my VCR tapes--the cycle of record, watch, erase by recording over, etc.?

Lastly, I know this can be down via computer, but my computer isn't near my TV, and my house isn't wired between these two points.

I hate being such a neophyte on this topic, and would appreciate your help.

regards, townsend

P.S. I've got to be able to "fastfoward" through commercials . . .