Basic advice on features to look into for either Satellite or Cable TV service

[bellbound]

I'm moving to a new house right outside the Los Angeles area and need to decide between DirecTV and Time Warner cable. I'm hoping someone here can give me some advice on what features I should be looking into, and provide advice based on experience/knowledge.

What I'm looking for:
- 5 rooms that will need 5 DVRs/devices for each TV
- large hard drives for lots of recording
- ability to control the DVR from my iPhone/iPad or just online from my computer (do these features exist?)
- ability to transfer video from the DVR to an external hard drive (do any of them have this feature?)

Based on the criteria provided, can anyone make a recommendation? What other features should I be looking into?

Thanks!!!

 

[jayn_j]

Both TWC and DTV have options for controlling recordings from an ipad. Also, you may not need 5 DVRs, as both carriers offer a whole house DVR solution where you get one DVR which can be accessed from all the cable boxes.

For large capacity and download, you might want to look at TIVO. They have a 4 tuner multiple output box that has a 2 TB hard drive. There is also info out there on ripping from TIVO to a computer for offline storage.

 

[bellbound]

Thanks for the reply.

I do not need 5 DVRs, I may have up to 5 TVs in the house, so I will need at least 1 DVD and 4 of the slave devices, not sure what they are called.

1. Is there no built in way on the TWC or DTV to transfer videos off of it to an external drive or to a burner?

2. Are there any other features that one offers over the other that I should be aware of?

Thanks!

 

[harshness]

DIRECTV will likely be cheaper than TWC in the long haul unless the broadband bundle pricing is heavily biased.

For the ultimate in long-term capacity to archive recordings, DISH Network is probably the best option.

Perhaps you should first consider the content as opposed to the hardware (the time honored personal computer acquisition approach). Having infinite capacity isn't useful if the programming you desire isn't available in the format you want it.

 

[harshness]

I do not need 5 DVRs, I may have up to 5 TVs in the house, so I will need at least 1 DVD and 4 of the slave devices, not sure what they are called.

DIRECTV doesn't offer slave devices at this time. You must have a conventional satellite receiver at each box that isn't served by a DVR. The advantage to TWC is that you don't need a box if your needs are simple.

1. Is there no built in way on the TWC or DTV to transfer videos off of it to an external drive or to a burner?

None whatsoever.

2. Are there any other features that one offers over the other that I should be aware of?

As I said above, you need to be fully aware of the programming offered. It should be a critical element of your choice.

 

[jayn_j]

TWC has no solution. When I first connected a Samsung DVR with TWC, they allowed connecting an external esata drive. However, they striped the drive so that it simply acted as a larger HDD. They disabled the feature in June, 2010 and now don't allow any external drive.

DirecTV does allow an external HDD on the H22, but plugging one in disables the main HDD. By plugging in different ones could be used to archive, but it won't work to rip content.

DISH actually provides the best solution. They support external hard drives and allow you to transfer back and forth from the main drive. DISH does not support it, but if you look around yahoo groups, you just might find people ripping content to PCs. We don't discuss that here.

I personally hate the TWC dvr so intensely that I replaced them with TIVO units. IMHO, DISH has the best DVR by far, followed by DTV. Other than that, it kind of boils down to who has the channels you want.

 

[bellbound]

Thanks everyone for your responses. I will start looking into the different programming options.

1.) What do you mean by plugging in an external drive allows you to archive video, though it won't rip content? When you archive video to an external drive, what format is it in? What would happen if you plugged that external drive to a computer and copied the file to the computer?

2.) If you do not have a satellite receiver at each TV, how do you control what is being watched on that TV?

 

[harshness]

1.) What do you mean by plugging in an external drive allows you to archive video, though it won't rip content? When you archive video to an external drive, what format is it in? What would happen if you plugged that external drive to a computer and copied the file to the computer?

Assuming you had a computer that was capable of dealing with the disk format (it isn't FAT nor NTFS), you would have a large file that you couldn't do anything with as it is encrypted.

The big problem with the DIRECTV external drives is that they can only be decrypted by the DVR that wrote the file. You lose or trade in the DVR and all the associated recordings are lost.

2.) If you do not have a satellite receiver at each TV, how do you control what is being watched on that TV?

With DIRECTV, you need a satellite receiver or DVR at each TV. DISH has some receivers that serve up one HDTV and a second SDTV with independent programming.

 

[harshness]

Assuming you had a computer that was capable of dealing with the disk format (it isn't FAT nor NTFS), you would have a large file that you couldn't do anything with as it is encrypted.

The big problem with the DIRECTV external drives is that they can only be decrypted by the DVR that wrote the file. You lose or trade in the DVR and all the associated recordings are lost.With DIRECTV, you need a satellite receiver or DVR at each TV. DISH has some receivers that serve up one HDTV and a second SDTV with independent programming.

With both providers, RF remotes are available on most receivers.