so about DVRs

[Aerozord]

I'm sick of missing all my shows because of my job. Anyone know of a good DVR that doesn't require a subscription. I just want to be able to record shows. While bells and whistles would be nice I'm content with something I just hit record before I leave and fast-forward past the bits I don't want.

I tried shopping online but my search was flooded with DVD recorders, wi-fi streamers, and subscription services. I'd rather not have something shipped to me only to learn it wasn't what I was looking for.

Any help

[Bells]

Is a PC solution viable to you?

Having your PC On and connected to the TV might not be the most elegant of solutions, but i do know for a fact that it can be done. And it's probably cheaper.

It mostly depends on your rig (which does not have to be a monster for this...) HD space (a given...) and a decent capture card and software.

[Aerozord]

I keep my PC and TV quite far apart from each other and would rather not have wires running all over the place. Plus if I wanted to do that I'd just find episodes online of it. I'm looking for something self-contained with my TV.

[Bum Bill Bee]

Eh, I just wait around for stuff to get on either Youtube or my Local Public Library. I'm patient like that, but I know not everyone is.

[Bells]

reading about a bit, going from what i knew about capture cards, i ended up with this

http://www.magnavox.com/product/spec.php?id=60

From what i saw, these Magnavox units do not have subscription feed and can record for HDD or DVD. Seems pretty close to what you described, but the price if quite premium if i may say so myself...

[Aerozord]

yup thats it, but hoping to find something cheaper, that thing is 300 bucks

[Magus]

I think the reason most people pay for the subscription is its such a low up-front cost--I pay Dish I think six dollars a month for the DVR service, it's cheaper than paying 300 dollars up front. It's also cheaper than say, TiVo which is I think 15 bucks a month. Of course, I'm sure TiVo offers more space...

Of course most of these cable/satellite companies want two-year agreements so that's at least 150 dollars at 6 dollars a month, I'm sure in the long run it is cheaper to buy one you can hook up yourself. The problem is that the cheaper ones like the TiVo ones require a subscription, whereas if you don't want to pay the subscription, it's 300 dollars...this is probably why so many people have started using their computers to record.

I personally used a DVD recorder for years, it is not a bad device. If you buy cheap DVDs it's not very expensive (buying rewritables is more expensive, though, and I've found it's pointless to buy rewritables because the cheap ones inevitably get errors in them and become unusable, and the more expensive brands are more expensive) and it's fairly easy to hook up, just like a VCR. The only difference is it digitally records the thing and then when you hit stop or it reaches the end of the recording, it writes it to the disc, so if the power goes out...you won't even get part of the recording. But DVR is not much better in that regard.

The reason DVRs are so convenient is that with a DVD recorder you have to manually put in the timers yourself...since I started getting the DVR I've become fairly addicted to how easy it is to use. But if it were more than six dollars a month I would have stuck with my DVD recorder.

Basically you will either have to pay the price up front with a stand-alone device or get a subscription-based one...how much is the subscription-based one with your current company?