Which is more important, Tivo, or PS2?

[Jahntassa]

Ok, here's my dilemma. I've recently "halfway" relocated to Atlanta from Jersey. Unfortunately, most of my stuff is still in Jersey, and i'll probably have no chance to go get it until January! (Due to work...)Now...to curb my insanity, I was thinking of getting a PS2. (My fiancee has a Gamecube, but we're both annoyed at the lack of titles). Now, if I got the PS2, i'd get a couple of games, etc etc.. Probably spend around $250 on it.Now. Here's my other issue. Her house (which is where i'm staying), recently got extended basic cable back.--sidenote--Her parents took away extended cable to "protect" her younger siblings, so all they had was basic cable, all 10 channels of it. Now that extended cable is back, I can watch Monster House/Garage again.. BUT.--/sidenote--My Tivo is still in Jersey! GAH! So...I can get a Series2 Tivo for $200... As I don't trust my Mom to unhook my Tivo and ship it down...What do you guys think?-- Another alternative I just thought of... Heh... Mike? How good are you with A/V components? My house shouldn't be too far from you!

[drunkenmaxx]

i have never even seen a tivo, i am not even sure if they have them around here. seems a waste of money to me, tv shouldn't play a very important role in your life, if you miss the show, f*ck it! i'd stick with the ps2

[Jahntassa]

-DISCLAIMER- I am a RABID fan of Tivo and XM, so yes, I pay $10 a month for radio, and an extra $13 for television. I consider these to be the two best inventions of the last few years. It's really one of those "Don't knock till you try" things. I'll push to get people to try both, but please don't think that i'm trying to upset or anger anyone! I simply think these are great products that everyone should have. Everyone has their own opinion, and while I may speak strongly, I NEVER intend to anger, upset, or discredit ANYONE. -/DISCLAIMER-quote:I don't understand what Tivo offers that's so much better than a basic VCR. Tivo is NOTHING like a VCR. For example...- I can record 170 hours of television on my Tivo, all instantly accessable. (47 if I crank it to best quality)- Easy to record, it has a built-in program guide. If I want to record a show, highlight it, hit record, and i'm done.- Pause live TV. Up to half an hour, if I'm watching a movie and have to go for a while, hit record, and it'll record from that point on.- Skip commercials. Nuf said. Takes about 5 seconds to skip 4 minutes of commercials.- Record 'n watch. Record one show while watching one already recorded. -Almost forgot. I work in television, i'm the first to know how much of it is crap. My MAIN reason for owning a Tivo is that it lets me watch ONLY what I like. Anytime I want. I don't like sitting in front of a TV and watching crap. I have my Tivo so the few hours a week I watch are spent watching what I want.And, oh yeah. NO TAPES. Plus, I hate VHS. If my Betamax recorded stereo, i'd use that over a "Basic VCR." (No offence to those who're stuck with VCRs!)quote: Man, moved in with the inlaws before the wedding. Hope that works out for you. They must be pretty cool to do that. Not sure I'd be that understanding if it was my daughter. Set a date yet? Next December. And yeah, they are. We met when I was on a trip down here, caught up online a few months later, and then started the long-distance thing. The relationship really started in spring of 2001, my first visit to her house was March of 2002, a few more visits down, and now i'm pretty much here for good.

[joatmon]

Tivo sounds great and much better than a VCR. For me, however, I have a VCR, and about the only thing I record is Most Extreme Elimination Challenge, on Spike (formerly TNN), and then hand the tapes of to my brother who doesn't have cable. My kids tape the anime stuff off Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, because I won't let them stay up that late during the week. Beta was a better format, Sony blew the marketing with the whole proprietary format stuff. Super VHS is better than regular. I still like Hi-8 best, but those are uncommon. Digital will probably kill tapes.I wasn't saying that all your needs would be met by a VCR, just that for some small money you might be able to pick up a cheap one to get you by until you can get the real gear back. ----------------------------------------------------------Work in television in Atlanta. Are you on Ted Turner's team?

[drunkenmaxx]

that extreme challenge show is freaking hilarious. i love to watch those people just fall on their face!

[pwarren4]

To me this would be a no-brainer.PS2 rocks!Besides, you'll be able to get your TiVO later, why spend the money again?

[drunkenmaxx]

good point, you can watch tv without tivo, you can't play the games without the ps2!

[fuel4soul]

I just got my PS2 because of Vice City, I love that game! And It's a DVD player also in it.

[Jahntassa]

Well...right now there're two gamecubes and an XBOX in the house.. I did end up getting a used PS2 at Gamestop. Been trying out Kingdom Hearts for the last two hours...now the fiancee is working on Ecco.You can never have too many Tivos....of course..this coming from someone that has three XM recievers..I'll stick with the PS2. I found out MadCatz released a Media Player that'll stream video / audio / JPG from a networked computer... This will be a most handy addition to my main video setup once I get an apartment..I like that it's a DVD player...but I already have some of those sitting around! That, and I can't give up my 5 Disc DVD/SACD player...

[GT_03]

PS2!!!!! It is such a great piece of equipment, i could not live without mine.......okay, i could live, but not happily

[Lancer]

Walmart has the Xbox for $172 + you get two games with it, Splinter Cell and the New Mechwarrior. I love my XBox! And it too plays DVDs and music cd's. It's also has the most powerful cpu and graphics card in the market. XBox sponsers NOPI and other race and car shows as well as skater competitions so there's tons of games for it.

[ragingfish]

Just upgraded my Tivo's drive last night! Went from a stock 40 GB drive to a whopping 160 GB drive. Unfortunately, Tivo uses a version of Linux without extended LBA, so it can't "see" beyond the 137 GB mark. I'm staying optomistic either TiVo's next software release will include xLBA, but if it doesn't, seems like some have already "hacked" the Linux on it to use xLBA. Even with the capacity setback, though, I went from about 40 hours of recording time to 157 hours, just with one drive swap.Perhaps I'll get a 200 GB drive when the prices come down, again, in ancitipation of future improvements...mmmmmmmm Tivo......

[wicked1981]

Quote, originally posted by ragingfish »Even with the capacity setback, though, I went from about 40 hours of recording time to 157 hours, just with one drive swap.Umm.. whats the point of having soooooooo many hours?

[ragingfish]

Because there are a lot of programs I recorded and want to save. Each saved program takes away from recordable hours. I'd almost filed the old drive. My ultimate goal is to get a DVD recorder, transfer the programs to DVD, then I wouldn't need to keep upgrading my Tivo.

[Stang2Vibe]

My PS2 is quite handy, but TiVO just has almost no appeal to me. I'd have really no use for it. All I watch is cable news (which essentially repeats itself about every 2 hours) and things like Discovery Channel and History Channel. I should drop my digital cable because I almost never watch more than about 5 channels. I love my PS2 though. I like the reverse compatibility of it and the fact that it is a DVD player. I'm living pretty simple right now so having a DVD player built into my gaming unit is a great move. The DVD player in it isn't great quality, but it gets the job done.XM satellite radio seems like a really cool concept, I'd try that if it was cheaper. Just have to wait a little while until the technology ages a little and the price drops. I saw that XM offers the FOX News Channel audio feed so I'd actually have a good use for it. I have a great talk radio station in town now, so that keeps me pretty happy for audio entertainment in the car. I'd like something that works like a TiVO for the radio, that way I could record the talk show hosts that I like during the day while I'm at work or in school and play them back later when they have the stupid local sports talk show on in the afternoon. I would imagine that it wouldn't be very hard to connect XM to a TiVO-like unit to perform the TiVO functions. The only problem is getting XM to carry the stations that I'd like to hear so they could be recorded.

[ragingfish]

Quote, originally posted by Stang2Vibe »My PS2 is quite handy, but TiVO just has almost no appeal to me. I'd have really no use for it. LOL! I'm the same way about PS2! I have a playstation (not PS1, but it's predecessor) and it's been collecting dust for eternity now.Quote »All I watch is cable news (which essentially repeats itself about every 2 hours) and things like Discovery Channel and History Channel. I should drop my digital cable because I almost never watch more than about 5 channels. I'll take your digital cable if you don't want it! I still have crappy old standard...no premiums even...but seriously, what's cool about TiVo is that you can tell it what shows you like, what shows you hate, and it will suggest and record (if you want) shows it thinks you will like, based on those ratings. I've actually gotten quite a few interesting suggestions from it...also, you can tell it to just keyword search any TV listings, and if it ever finds those keywords, even a year away, it'll record for you. I.E. I told it to record anything GTO related...and sure enough, the other day, was a tv car magazine's review of the GTO. Quote »XM satellite radio seems like a really cool concept, I'd try that if it was cheaper. Just have to wait a little while until the technology ages a little and the price drops. I saw that XM offers the FOX News Channel audio feed so I'd actually have a good use for it. I have a great talk radio station in town now, so that keeps me pretty happy for audio entertainment in the car. *droooools* I'd die without my XM. And really, it isn't horrendously expensive. They kinda hit you with the cost of equipment, but depending on what you go with, it can be relatively inexpensive. I went with the skyfi which is versatile, but costly. You need not only the unit, but a dock for the car, and they're sold separately. That's about 170 for the two. Then I got suckered into the boombox and a home dock. Not suckered. Drawn is a better word. But the Roady is only $129 and is ready to go out of the box. As for subscription fees, I paid around $449 and I'm good for 5 years -- and wittled down, it's only $7.49 a month. Plus, it's not a contract -- I can cancel any time and get a pro-rata refund.Quote »I'd like something that works like a TiVO for the radio, that way I could record the talk show hosts that I like during the day while I'm at work or in school and play them back later when they have the stupid local sports talk show on in the afternoon. I would imagine that it wouldn't be very hard to connect XM to a TiVO-like unit to perform the TiVO functions. Now that's a pretty damn sweet idea! May be hard though because not all the channels, as you alreayd know, are XM broadcast. Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, are all just direct feeds off TV. Tivo is dependent on a lineup. You search for the title of the program you wanna record, and it comes up in a list. If XM could somehow work with it's stations to develop a true programming schedule 2 weeks at a time, it most definitely could be done!Quote »The only problem is getting XM to carry the stations that I'd like to hear so they could be recorded.What ones do they not have that you'd like to see?

[Jahntassa]

Yay, now I get to rip through posts!Quote, originally posted by Stang2Vibe »My PS2 is quite handy, but TiVO just has almost no appeal to me. I'd have really no use for it. All I watch is cable news (which essentially repeats itself about every 2 hours) and things like Discovery Channel and History Channel. I should drop my digital cable because I almost never watch more than about 5 channels. Aah, but that's the REASON for the TiVo. I wouldn't be paying for satellite right now in my new apartment (i've long since retrieved my Tivo, btw!) if I didn't have a Tivo. The point of it is to record what you WANT to watch. That way, whenever you want to watch some TV, you have what you want, ready to go! I can come home and see ER, or Whose Line, or Family Guy, or Futurama, whenever I want! Instead of waiting by watching some other worthless show. It makes it so you can watch TV you wanna watch, when you want it.Quote »I love my PS2 though. I like the reverse compatibility of it and the fact that it is a DVD player. I'm living pretty simple right now so having a DVD player built into my gaming unit is a great move. The DVD player in it isn't great quality, but it gets the job done.Agreed. Spending some money on the network adapter and the GameShark media player is also a great thing. I love being able to watch DivX movies through my PS2, right from my computer!Quote »XM satellite radio seems like a really cool concept, I'd try that if it was cheaper. Just have to wait a little while until the technology ages a little and the price drops. I saw that XM offers the FOX News Channel audio feed so I'd actually have a good use for it. I have a great talk radio station in town now, so that keeps me pretty happy for audio entertainment in the car. ::deep breath::Alright. Here's the deal.. How much cheaper do you want it to get? Right now, you can get a Roady2 with built-in FM modulator, and everything you need, out of the box, for $129. Don't want that much? Get the PCR for $49 and run it through your computer.Even with the SkiFi, if you buy CD's, the inital cost and ONLY $9.95 a month is much more worth it than buying CD's you'll listen to for a few weeks and ignore. That, of course, is if music is your thing. XM also caters to you news folks, too.Quote » I'd like something that works like a TiVO for the radio, that way I could record the talk show hosts that I like during the day while I'm at work or in school and play them back later when they have the stupid local sports talk show on in the afternoon. I would imagine that it wouldn't be very hard to connect XM to a TiVO-like unit to perform the TiVO functions. The only problem is getting XM to carry the stations that I'd like to hear so they could be recorded.There is a device that can do that with FM. I think it's around $40, but the C|NET review of it wasn't very good. It might be pretty easy to write some software (if it doesn't exist) to accomplish this task. A down'n dirty way to do it is to hook the XM up to a VCR, and have it record certain times to tape, and just play it back later!As far as "carrying the stations".. XM does all their own stations. With the exception of the news/sports, all of their music programming is 100% XM. All of the stations on XM are much less repetative than ANY FM station, including college stations! I haven't cared about FM for two years now, and i'm NOT looking back..Just my rant. I had my father-in-law tell me tonight that he was sorry to have ever doubted the usefulness of XM. He drives long distances sometimes.. (Southeast regional manager for a Record distribution company), and he says his trips have improved a LOT with XM, because there's always something for him to listen to, mostly in the Talk and News stations..

[wicked1981]

I would just get an X-BOX best system out there.

[Stang2Vibe]

XBOX is a whole different story. While it is a cool system, I have my gripes with it too. It will become more appealing in the market when they have more games for it. No other game system has as many games as PS2. And I hate the XBOX controllers.

[Stang2Vibe]

I see you guys have accepted and adopted the "penalty box" response system. I have that patented, so congratulations, you're in violation of my copyright rights .Mike, I guess most people outgrow gaming consoles after a certain age and a change in lifestyle. I rarely get to play video games anymore. Mostly I play them in the winter time when I can't really do anything outside except shovel snow. All I play on it are Vice City and sports games (Madden football and NHL hockey). And the g/f and I have grudge matches with Jeopardy on it, I can't forget about that! LOL.As for XM, I don't know how useful it would really be for me. I could literally rip the tuning knob off my radio because I listen to one station almost exclusively. I love the new talk radio station in town that much. I'd like to hear my favorite hosts when I travel, so that's really about the only use for XM I'd have if they carried that station, but that would probably cause major copyright infringement issues and liscensing headaches. But I guess I'd listen to pop music from the 80's and guitar rock on XM if they carry it. (I know, I know, I have odd tastes, but that's what makes people different).And for TiVO, those are some pretty cool features you guys mention that I wasn't aware of. Might be something to look into in the future. I'll live happily for now glued to FOX News, History Channel, and Discovery Channel.The up front costs for XM are still a bit high for my liking. And I feel that $9.99 per month is still a bit much. At $4.99 per month, I'm in. Get the up front costs under $99 and I'll give it real strong consideration. I just don't have that much use for it, it would just be a nifty gadget in my car right now and I can find at least 20 other things I'd rather spend that money on at the moment.

[russ257]

i have a ps2 but will buy an x-box for playing halo and halo 2 when it comes out

[ragingfish]

Finally officially completed the TiVoupgrade tonight.While I had replaced the master drive with a larger one last week, the plan all along was to replace the master drive with a 160 GB drive, and use the stock drive as a surplus. Problem was, when I ordered my custom mounting bracket for the TiVo (to hold 2 drives), I ordered the wrong one. Took another week to get the right parts. But alas, I now have a combined variable capacity of up to 207 hours! WOOOOOO!The Maxtor drive in front is the stock 40 GB drive. The Western Digital in rear is my new 160GB drive. The red block attached to the new drive is called a PowerTrip. The Tivo has a weak-ish power supply built in. It wouldn't be able to handle the surge of power caused by the simultaneous startup of two drives. Most drives, when spun up, however, use very little power to operate. The PowerTrip delays the startup of the primary drive by about 5-10 seconds to keep the surge of power from killing the supply. The primary drive gets delayed because, if the secondary drive were delayed, the startup sequence would fail to detect it because it wouldn't start in time. By already being spun up, it's already detectable by Linux. Lots of adapters! Underside of the mounting rack. The rear IDE cable is quite cool -- the individually wires are separated to permit air flow. Also, additional power adapters where the newly installed fan receives it's power. The new mounting kit includes an extra fan to help enhance circulation and keep my drives running cool. And of course, confirmation of my new capacity!Realistically, everything I record is at high quality, so I only have 56 hours......time for a DVD burner!!!

[Mavrik]

I don't think i'll outgrow my PS2... currently I am looking eagerly forward to GTA4 GT4 and Metal Gear Solid 3.Sure I don't play as much as I used/want to but the winter gives me more time with less outside to do.If I have kids/adopt, they are getting their own haha.

[AKLGT]

i have a ps2 given to me by a good friend. i think i've used it maybe twice. LOL

[wicked1981]

Quote, originally posted by Stang2Vibe »XBOX is a whole different story. While it is a cool system, I have my gripes with it too. It will become more appealing in the market when they have more games for it. No other game system has as many games as PS2. And I hate the XBOX controllers.Well you have to see how long Playstation System (PS1 & PS2) has been out compared to the X-box.