Tivo, television, and the Olympics -- help wanted

[beth_leonard]

Dear lazyweb,

I am an Olympics junkie. I only buy access to television once every 2 years for one month so that I can watch the Olympics. This time they start on August 8th, which is the same day I'm going to start filming the vaulting nationals. This means not only will I miss the first 4 days (I tend to work 16-18 hr days at Nationals) but I'll be very busy editing my videos after nationals and not really have time to watch as much as I'd like.

My first step is that I need to order cable, or fiber, or dish, or some sort of broadcast TV access. Any opinions? I want to cancel after a month, so no long-term contracts for me. We don't (yet) have an HD TV.

The second step is to record it somehow, in a format I can watch over the next several months. I was thinking of TiVo or similar device, (I used to use gobs of VHS tapes on EP) but I don't know anything about DVRs -- if I buy one of these but cancel the service that comes with it after a month, can I still watch the shows I've recorded? If I don't buy service at all, can I still program it to record channel N from 8pm - midnight? The sales people are not entirely clear, or necessarily knowledgable in this respect.
--Beth

Comments

[ashke.livejournal.com]

My parents have TiVo and I do believe they go hand in hand with the service (ie. TiVo is only good as long as you have the service).

Have you thought about buying a DVDR? It is a dvd player that can be hooked up to a tv and "tape" different tv shows, etc. I'm assuming you husband may be around to change the disc every couple of hours (I do believe you can only fit about 5 or 6 hours of taped tv per disc). This way you can still have the shows after you've canceled the service.

As to the service plans, maybe check with your local service and see if they have one specifically for the Olympics? Otherwise, shop around and see who has the best deal for what you want. That would be my two cents.

[beth_leonard]

Thanks. I'm currently in the shopping around phase. Part of that is asking my LJ friends for word of mouth recommendations of things to track down. I'll look into the DVDR too.
--Beth

[songmonk.livejournal.com]

For a TiVo, the service is required for the programming information, but once it is recorded you do not need service nor does it need to be connected to any sort of input.

If you were to program it by time, I'm not even sure you need the service, but that you need to verify from another source.

[zonereyrie.livejournal.com]

Any TiVo Series2 or newer requires a subscription to record at all. You can't record manually without a sub. And there is a one-year minimum subscription period, with an early termination fee. Specifically to stop people from doing things like using one for a month and unsubbing it, since they lose money on the box and rely on the sub to make up for it.

[songmonk.livejournal.com]

Well, there's definitely someone who knows what he's talking about. :-)

[beth_leonard]

Thanks! That's exactly the type of information I was looking for, that's not clear in most fine print.

--Beth
PS. Do I know you? Or did you just randomly find my blog and happen to be in the right place at the right time?

[zonereyrie.livejournal.com]

I don't think you know me, or I you, but not quite so random - tivo_in_lj

[beth_leonard]

Ah, that is an amazingly creative way to put together Google search and LJ syndication data. I'll have to keep in mind that such things are possible, although I'm trying to cut down on my LJ use, not look for more ways to spend my time ;-)

Thanks again for lending a helping hand,
--Beth

[songmonk.livejournal.com]

Btw, I am an Olympics junkie too.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

We have SageTV, which is a cheap (buy once, not subscription) downloadable TiVo equivalent. I believe there are several ways to convert your computer into a DVR, or otherwise homebrew one. So that takes care of step 2.

[beth_leonard]

Interesting. I'll have to look into that too.

--Beth

[minorninth.livejournal.com]

TiVo really does have the best user interface of all of the DVRs, though. One option is to buy the fanciest TiVo with a lifetime subscription (it's a fixed cost, that way there's no monthly fee you're signing up for) and then resell the whole package on eBay. Note that "lifetime" means the lifetime of that unit. :) If you look on eBay you'll see lots of TiVos with lifetime subscriptions and you can get an idea of what you could get for it, and whether it'd be worth it or not.

Also note that high-end TiVos and other DVRs have multiple tuners, so you could record multiple channels at once! They also have keyword wishlists, so you could type in your favorite events and it will record them automatically no matter what channel they're on, saving you time planning out your schedule.

[beth_leonard]

I will look into it, thanks!

Ok, looked into it, wow, pricy for lifetime subscriptions. I haven't yet looked into the resale prices.

--Beth

[patrissimo.livejournal.com]

for such a short-term thing, might it be easier to find a friend w/ cable & a tivo and use their setup? Just seems like an awful lot of work to get your own tv access + recording device for such a short period of time.

[beth_leonard]

My in-laws did that for the closing ceremonies for me last time around, and complained bitterly about all the time it took them to dump it to DVD for me. I haven't aked anyone else, and most people I know don't watch that much TV either.

There's a lot of olympics programming. For $80-$100 for 2 months or so I can do it/watch it myself.

--Beth