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#1
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OK, now a question for the A/V guru's...
I know about commercial A/V gear but very little about home stuff. My elderly father has a TV attached to cable and a VCR. He regularly tapes shows he likes to watch but every few weeks he forgets how to operate it and I have to spend hours teaching him how it works again and again because he no longer has the ability to retain new information.
So now for my question - what type of rig do I need to: 1. Limit operation of the system to a very few buttons like power, volume and channel and record. 2. Easily set up a schedule to record and play back his favorites. 3. At any given time, even if another show is being recorded at that moment, he wants to record what's showing on the TV. Now, if he had access to satellite, he could just use a dual tuner/DVR but he is restricted to cable in the place where he's living. Currently his cable is just hooked up to the TV but I'm wondering if there's a similar box for cable that does what my DVR at home does. Do cable companies send digital cable into the same places along with analog? Another way to go I thought of is to get one of those programmable remotes that you can change the appearance and function of the buttons and change their function to suit the job. Then I could set up macros to do everything. What do you all think?
__________________
-Evan Benz Fleet: 1968 UNIMOG 404.114 1998 E300 2008 E63 Non-Benz Fleet: 1992 Aerostar 1993 MR2 2000 F250 |
#2
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TiVo?
or any other DVR |
#3
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I don't know much about TiVo. My satellite rec. has it's own scheduling/recording system. Isn't TiVo a subscription service? You have any model numbers?
__________________
-Evan Benz Fleet: 1968 UNIMOG 404.114 1998 E300 2008 E63 Non-Benz Fleet: 1992 Aerostar 1993 MR2 2000 F250 |
#4
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uhmmm no...
who is his cable provider? |
#5
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Unless limited by the type of subscription (some condo or HOA groups) he has to cable, virtually all cable providers have implemented digital cable and deployed hard drive based DVR set top boxes for subscriber additional fees.
For instance the SA 8300 DVR will record two programs while allowing viewing of a live or recorded program, at the same time. A programable remote makes a lot of sense. |
#6
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well if you have a computer with windows media center and a dual tv tuner card then yes what you want to do can be achieved. plus unlike the vcr it is easy because it has easy menus to get through. with the price of hard drives now a days you could put a 500 gb in there and you could record multiple shows seasons to watch later on.
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#7
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Using a PC in the situation described would be counter productive.
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#8
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PC would be great for me but not for Dad. He needs a minimum of buttons because he can't think through processes logically any more.
__________________
-Evan Benz Fleet: 1968 UNIMOG 404.114 1998 E300 2008 E63 Non-Benz Fleet: 1992 Aerostar 1993 MR2 2000 F250 |
#9
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What is his cable provider?
I also would suggest the Tivo. My grandma has one, and loves how simple it is to use!
__________________
-Justin 91 560 SEC AMG - other dogs dd 01 Honda S2000 - dogs dd 07 MB ML320 CDI - dd 16 Lexus IS250 - wifes dd it's automatic. |
#10
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He's on Time/Warner. Now here's a question: If I buy some sort of DVR with digital cable compatability, will it work with the digital cable signal? I just don't know any of this basic stuff...
__________________
-Evan Benz Fleet: 1968 UNIMOG 404.114 1998 E300 2008 E63 Non-Benz Fleet: 1992 Aerostar 1993 MR2 2000 F250 |
#11
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I believe TW's digital signal is coded to the digital box, so any device recording (VCR, TiVo, PC) would have to be after the box and before the TV, making their DVR the easiest way to go.
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#12
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If you can get a cable card, it will work in the Tivo box.
__________________
-Justin 91 560 SEC AMG - other dogs dd 01 Honda S2000 - dogs dd 07 MB ML320 CDI - dd 16 Lexus IS250 - wifes dd it's automatic. |
#13
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For now, how about writing out the directions for the next time he forgets?
__________________
1980 500SE/AMG Euro 1981 500SEL Euro 1982 380SEL 1983 300TD 1983 500SEC/AMG Euro 1984 500SEC 1984 300TD Euro 1986 190E 2.3-16 1986 190E 2.3 1987 300D 1997 C36 AMG 2003 C320T 4matic past: 1969 280SE 4.5 | 1978 240D | 1978 300D | 1981 300SD | 1981 300SD | 1982 300CD | 1983 300CD | 1983 300SD | 1983 380SEC | 1984 300D | 1984 300D | 1984 300TD | 1984 500SEL | 1984 300SD | 1985 300D | 1986 300E | 1986 560SEL | 1986 560SEL/Carat | 1987 560SEC | 1991 300D 2.5 | 2006 R350 |
#14
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Not necessarily. You can easily build your own Digital Video Recorder (DVR). Like stated before all you need is a tuner card, in & out, and a PC.
TIVO is proprietary software as well as the cable/satelite recorders. You can build your own without having to pay for a subscription. All it takes is a little research. http://www.mythtv.org/ Danny
__________________
1984 300SD Turbo Diesel 150,000 miles OBK member #23 (\__/) (='.'=) This is Bunny. Copy and paste bunny into your (")_(") signature to help him gain world domination |
#15
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Time Warner will provide a Tivo like DVR that will record both analog and digital signals. I think it runs around $10 per month.
__________________
99 ML320 94 SL600 92 SL500 95 E320 Cabriolet 87 560SEC 86 300SDL Grease Car 80 380SLC Euro 13 Fiat Abarth 02 Maserati Spyder Cambiocorsa 00 BMW Z3 90 Rolls Royce Silver Spur 80 Ferrari 308 GTSI 88 Jaguar XJS12 H&E Edition 99 Land Rover Discovery |
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