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CableCard tuner - which one to buy? - Page 2

post #31 of 39
2/16/12 at 8:42pm
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Originally Posted by Bill WOW HD View Post

If you have Time Warner, you may run into issues archiving your shows. From what I've read, they copy-protect just about everything.

Well that's going to take a lot of fun out of this. In reading some other posts, it almost sounds like it's pointless to buy a HDHR Prime or a Ceton if you have Time Warner.. is that essentially true? The prospect of using Xbox and an extender (assuming that works) could make this worth the effort, but that wouldn't really be my main goal here. At the risk of asking a very loaded, potentially stupid question (and feel free to PM me about this one because right now I feel like a bank robber ).. can I assume there's nothing I can do about this short of switching to another cable provider that doesn't copy protect the shows I'm trying to record?
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post #32 of 39
2/16/12 at 10:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Quaker2001 View Post

Well that's going to take a lot of fun out of this. In reading some other posts, it almost sounds like it's pointless to buy a HDHR Prime or a Ceton if you have Time Warner.. is that essentially true? The prospect of using Xbox and an extender (assuming that works) could make this worth the effort, but that wouldn't really be my main goal here. At the risk of asking a very loaded, potentially stupid question (and feel free to PM me about this one because right now I feel like a bank robber ).. can I assume there's nothing I can do about this short of switching to another cable provider that doesn't copy protect the shows I'm trying to record?

Depends what you do. I am on Time Warner and have no real interest in any sort of permanent archive - I just use my DVR as a FIFO buffer. Works great for me.
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post #33 of 39
2/16/12 at 10:43pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by erickotz View Post

Depends what you do. I am on Time Warner and have no real interest in any sort of permanent archive - I just use my DVR as a FIFO buffer. Works great for me.

That's my thing.. I do have interest in a permanent archive. Which is why I pretty much couldn't live without my HD PVR. Since I already have a good decent PC and an Xbox, adding a Ceton or a HDHR seems like a nice solution. But if I can't offload shows onto DVD or Blu-ray or the like, that's a major negative for me right there.
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post #34 of 39
2/17/12 at 4:33am
If you're on TWC and want to archive shows, you need an HD PVR or Colossus. Sorry, but they're just Nazis about DRM.
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post #35 of 39
2/17/12 at 6:05am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Quaker2001 View Post

That's my thing.. I do have interest in a permanent archive. Which is why I pretty much couldn't live without my HD PVR. Since I already have a good decent PC and an Xbox, adding a Ceton or a HDHR seems like a nice solution. But if I can't offload shows onto DVD or Blu-ray or the like, that's a major negative for me right there.

I used to archive lots of shows and burn them to DVD. You know what I ended up with? A lot of DVDs that sat around taking up space and collecting dust. I simply don't have the time to go back and watch shows, let alone a complete series, that I've already seen before. Archiving may seem like a great idea, but the novelty does eventually wear off.

I don't buy movies or TV shows on DVD for the same reason. If there's something I want to watch that I haven't seen I'll rent it from NetFlix or get the occasional TV show via torrent sites. People used to give me DVDs as gifts, usually of movies I had already seen. They're still sitting on the shelf in the original shrink wrap.

What's funny is that I'm on FIOS and don't have the same DRM issues as others on Comcast or Time Warner. It does make it easier to share recorded TV without using extenders. It would also be great if I was still into archiving shows, but I got that out of my system years ago. You've really got to ask yourself whether or not you'll ever get around to watching them again. Your initial reaction will undoubtedly be that you will, but time will probably tell a different story.
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post #36 of 39
2/17/12 at 6:44am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Quaker2001 View Post

That's my thing.. I do have interest in a permanent archive. Which is why I pretty much couldn't live without my HD PVR. Since I already have a good decent PC and an Xbox, adding a Ceton or a HDHR seems like a nice solution. But if I can't offload shows onto DVD or Blu-ray or the like, that's a major negative for me right there.

Admittedly I didn't read the entire thread - but as long as you have the original PC (configuration/DRM keys in tact) to play on/from either directly or via extenders, you're still able to offload to external storage.
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post #37 of 39
2/17/12 at 10:04am
As long as you're willing to keep the original PC, sure. But that's not a great archive solution.

Have to agree on archiving though, don't see too much point to it now that a lot of stuff can be streamed after the fact. It's not like the quality is going to be that much worse than HDTV is now.
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post #38 of 39
2/17/12 at 1:07pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by slowbiscuit View Post

If you're on TWC and want to archive shows, you need an HD PVR or Colossus. Sorry, but they're just Nazis about DRM.

So I've been reading. I actually fired off an e-mail to my building manager today to see if Verizon Fios is available. Sadly it is not, and ironically, Time Warner and MSG finally reached a settlement on their contract dispute.

Quote:
Originally Posted by captain_video View Post

I used to archive lots of shows and burn them to DVD. You know what I ended up with? A lot of DVDs that sat around taking up space and collecting dust. I simply don't have the time to go back and watch shows, let alone a complete series, that I've already seen before. Archiving may seem like a great idea, but the novelty does eventually wear off.

Old habits die hard. Back in 1992 (I was 13 years old at the time), I decided it would be a fun idea to record the entire Winter Olympics on VHS. So I did it and I've done it for every Olympics since, including most of Vancouver 2010 in HD (and I mean everything including all of the cable coverage, not just the network coverage on NBC). I'd like to do the same for London on some level, knowing what a challenge that is, especially that virtually everything I have from Beijing is in SD. And yes, I still do watch some of these DVDs, they don't always sit on a shelf collecting dust (not to mention that BD-R's take up 1/5 the space and don't even cost 5 times as much as blank DVDs!)

So that's my motivation here. I hate to think Time Warner would prevent me from doing what I've done for the past 2 decades. Yes, it is perhaps an unhealthy obsession that one day I will realize was pointless, but believe me, this isn't something that I just conceived to do now.
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post #39 of 39
2/18/12 at 7:13am
Well, they don't protect the local channels (and can't, per FCC rules) so all your NBC stuff will be ok, but anything on cable will be protected.
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