Octavean:
Could someone please explain what it is you get for ~$99.99 a year and how it outperforms Vista Media Center as well as other programs?
I’m not trying to be a wise guy I’m just trying to understand.
I dont pay the 99.00 a year, but I did pay for a lifetime subscription. It is most certainly worth it for me. We watch a lot of TV (like most everyone on this forum) and TiVo just makes it better. How, you say? Well for one, TiVo has this uncanny ability to always stop at just the right spot when you are fastforwarding, it just doesnt miss. Another thing I find invaluable is how TiVo can learn your viewing habits and automatically record shows that it thinks you will like. It only does this if there is a tuner available, and it would never premept a normally scheduled show. When I first got Tivo I didnt think that feature would be very usefull, however it has proven itself to me on many occasions by picking up on a show that I did not have selected to record, and I did infact watch/like its suggestion.
Just for example, lets say you watch a lot of Supercross motorcycle racing. Tivo might at first suggest/record Motorcycle Road Racing as well as MotoCross Racing. You let Tivo Know that you dont like Road Racing (by pressing a "thumbs down") and it wont record anymore road racing on its own. However if you liked the motocross and you gave that show a "thumbs up", Tivo now know that you seem to like offroad motorcycle racing, so it looks for other shows that may be similar in some way. So lets say you have now set a Season Pass to record the Supercross races, and since you watched and liked the motocross racing you made a Season Pass to that as well. If this was done with a standard DVR or even a VMC , you will only get those specific shows on those specific channels you set. But TiVo has learned a little about you and it sees that at 2:30 AM a completley different channel is broadcasting the Motocross Des Nations from Brazil, it will record this show for you, which makes you quite happy since you would have missed it otherwise.
I know that is a longwinded explanation, and it only covers 2 aspects of a TiVo, but they are 2 of my favorite things that make my 300.00 lifetime sub worthwhile. Couple that with a stable platform that just seems to work, heck maybe I will send them a little extra money <G> J/K
Dont get me wrong though, I know have a VMC too, and I am liking it fine. It can even do something that a TV cant, and that is be a whole house solution. That is what my VMC is doing and it is doing it pretty well. If I were a Microsoft Project lead I would see this a Microsofts biggest attribute for Media Center.
alas, I digress...
Lon