06-12-2007, 12:07 PM

can this be done? it does have a 40GB or 160GB HD (consumer's choice).

my roommate and i are interested in purchasing Tivo but we are reluctant to due to its $14/month service charge.

it does make sense that apple should include this feature.

06-17-2007, 09:49 PM

i guess apple tv isn't that tight

06-18-2007, 12:08 AM

Originally Posted by quackbook

can this be done? it does have a 40GB or 160GB HD (consumer's choice).

my roommate and i are interested in purchasing Tivo but we are reluctant to due to its $14/month service charge.

it does make sense that apple should include this feature.

No, not unless you hack the AppleTV to run OS X and then load it up with TV recording software. Even then it might not be powerful enough. Also, it does not make sense for Apple to integrate a TV recording feature. They sell shows for $1.99 on their website; if they let you record shows for free, why would anyone buy them off the website?

In addition, the state of recording TV is kind of in a weird place right now. You can record SD easily, but the AppleTV only works on widescreen, high-definition televisions so SD will look pretty crappy. You can only record HDTV over the air; CableCard hasn't made it's way into consumer systems (only 2 companies that I know of offer systems with CableCard in them), plus not a lot of cable companies offer that service yet. So there are a lot of recording issues there. I would say if you want to record on a Mac, get an EyeTV system:

http://www.elgato.com/

Their software and hardware is really nice; they do a great job as far as TV recording goes. I have an older Plextor tuner and EyeTV 2.0. It's a nice combination, but I mostly use it to flip tapes to dvd. I prefer my TiVo. The TiVo is cake to use and if you really want to archive the shows you can use Toast 8. The monthly fee is something of a hassle, but I've had zero problems with the TiVo. It's like a Mac, only freezes up about twice a year.

08-20-2007, 07:02 PM

I would also recommend one of the Elgato products. You can find them for cheap on ebay. I use my Elgato 200 and it works perfectly for me, it is very convenient and you can get apps that stream a recorded or live show to another mac over an internet connection which is pretty sweet. The only drawback about the 200 is that it doesn't have zero-latency for game consoles so you are going to experience lag with that particular machine, but they do make updated ones that have that capability of zero-latency. Also, it can be used to convert VHS tapes if you hook up a VHS player to the Elgato and once it is imported you can burn to a dvd. Pretty sweet!