Advice? DVR, ESPN Gameday, Cable/Dish, Internet

[jwinslow]

Here's the scoop. My dad is going to africa sept/oct and will miss all of the good games for MSU (ND, UM, OSU). He would like to have those recorded (naturally I volunteered ).

I am moving into columbus at the end of the week. I will be getting some form of cable, and then subscribe to ESPN gameday (same concept as NFL ticket). I would also enjoy the sports package that includes the FSN's and such, but don't need that, unless it made sense with a particular package.

1. What is the best cable/satellite company to use if all I want is sports (I don't need movies, etc)?
2. Does DirectTV or anyone offer DVRs with burners (they have bargains on normal DVRs, but I need to burn the DVDs for him)?
3. Do any of these mesh well with getting cable/dsl internet?
4. Will DVRs allow me to record two games at once? (ie MSU game same time as OSU game)

I don't need HDTV.

Any advice you could provide would be helpful.

 

[The Man]

Directv offers a DVR, (getting mine tommorrow), I believe with the HD DVR you can record two programs at once. I'm not sure if the regular one does or not. I've had directv for 7 years now and I love it, have all the FSN's and the ESPN gameplan and Sunday ticket. I think directv is your best option but I don't know how helpful my DVR info is, good luck...

 

[keeponrisin]

I know Time Warner offers all packages including DVR, Internet, Phone, etc.
Not sure about game packages.
price for the DVR system is around $15month, but I don't believe you can burn from the unit they provide.
I know you can record 2 shows at once.
Welcome to Cbus

 

[BrutusMaximus]

I dont think any of them offer a dvr/burner combo. You'd probably have to buy a stand alone burner seperately.

You will run into trouble with Directv and Dish though, because they both block out about 90% of the games that arent local to you. I am not familiar with Time Warner, as we have Comcast over here.

I do know that Time Warner would be able to do cable tv and internet for you. I think DirecTV has DSL also, but it would be the same as goin through your telco, so I'd say it would be best just to do that seperate. SBC offers DSL for like $14.95 a month.

 

[NorthShoreBuck]

It has been awhile since I checked but there are DVR/burner combos. Just google it.

I found some while researching TIVO. You still need to get the service of course. Direct TV used to be TIVO but I think they have their own hardware and software now. My buddy had Direct TV and would not get OSU games sometimes in Columbus but could from the Cincinnati stations?

You can get a basic DVD recorder from WalMart and run it off your cable, that is what I do and burn to DVD-/+ RW.

Cable companies vary on what games you can buy. Down here I can buy them a week at a time but not a season for college.

 

[jwinslow]

Thanks for the advice... sounds like doing it all-together may not be the way to go.

trouble w/ DirectTV = not getting every game with the sports package (FSN, etc)?

Or do you only get some of the games listed each week here... The ESPN Gameday package supposedly looked like this last year:
http://www.directvsports.com/Subscriptions/ESPNGamePlan/Schedule/

The gameday package is typically not a great option, until you realize that my dad will probably pay for it so he can get all of his games recorded onto dvd while he's gone :)

 

[muffler dragon]

Need some input/advice from the BP tech residents.

Presently, I have a combo set up with Comcast/Xfinity:

Cable/Internet/Phone w/ HD Dual Channel DVR: $155/mo (total).

This group out here has a couple different options if I wanted to change:

Clear Internet/Phone: $55 mo. This is a wireless DSL line.
Dish Network: Up to 3 Receivers (two of which can be DVR) and one is a dual-channel DVR. To match the shows I get with Comcast, I'm looking at $64/mo (12 month introductory price).

My question is how do you guys feel about:

1) Cable v. DSL? I'm not a huge downloader; however, my wife and I like a quick and responsive internet. Will this drastically change?
2) Cable v. Satellite? Positives and negatives?
3) Dish v. DirectTV? Positives and negatives?

For me, saving no less than $40/mo would be cool; however, I don't want to be displeased with the change for that amount of money. I'm locked in on a lifetime charge with Comcast, and I realize it's high but I don't have any present complaints.

Thanks for the help.

 

[sandgk]

Dish vs. DirecTV - those comparison ads are fairly close to on the money. You certainly get NFL in HD cheaper on DirectTV for instance - the DirecTV DVRs (newer models) can be easily expanded with large external drives, don't know if you can expect to do that on Dish. The DirecTV DVRs make it too complicated to archive on DVD, don't know if Dish is better.

The variables with Cable vs. DSL are too numerous to make a reasoned comparison. One absolutely critical key is how good the POTS is to your residence. If it is creaky then DSL may not be a viable option. If Cable is dominant on your street as the internet choice then you may be geting throttled speed on Cable and DSL would be better. The ideal would be something like FIOS (:envy) for both TV and Internet.

 

[muffler dragon]

Dish vs. DirecTV - those comparison ads are fairly close to on the money. You certainly get NFL in HD cheaper on DirectTV for instance - the DirecTV DVRs (newer models) can be easily expanded with large external drives, don't know if you can expect to do that on Dish. The DirecTV DVRs make it too complicated to archive on DVD, don't know if Dish is better.

The variables with Cable vs. DSL are too numerous to make a reasoned comparison. One absolutely critical key is how good the POTS is to your residence. If it is creaky then DSL may not be a viable option. If Cable is dominant on your street as the internet choice then you may be geting throttled speed on Cable and DSL would be better. The ideal would be something like FIOS (:envy) for both TV and Internet.

Thank you for the info. Just to make sure I'm understanding correctly, are you saying that DirecTV IS better than Dish, IYO?

Regarding Cable:

1) And how is POTS "creaky"?

Apologize for my ignorance on this. Thanks again.

 

[MaxBuck]

I seem to recall that AT&T's fiber-based U-Verse service here in Dublin would ostensibly allow you to network your DVRs (and the cable system generally) with your home PC network. I think the idea was you could burn DVRed shows using the DVD burner of your home computer.

I could be wrong on this, but it may be worth checking out. No clue what kind of sports offerings they have. One issue is, of course, that there's no guarantee that the sports offerings when you sign up will remain for the entire term of your contract. Caveat emptor.

 

[Taosman]

I have had DirecTV for years and because I buy the east coast ABC feed I rarely miss a game.
As far as DVRs go, I like using a DVD Recorder better. Use DVD-RW for re-recording like a DVR and I own it. Make permanent copies of movies and sports.

 

[BlufftonBuckeye]

With Dish (and I'm sure its similar with DirecTV) you can record two streams at a time. Remember, you have two streams available, so you can't record two and watch a third.

The DVR IS expandable with an external, but I'd be shocked if you filled it up.

You can buy a USB capture device for your computer and record it from your DVR right to a DVD through your computer.

With Dish, if you get their 2nd tier "Silver" package with locals you will get nearly every tOSU game. The only game that wasn't ABC/ESPN or B10NET last year was Toledo.

As far as MSU games, no idea if you could get them all. I assume they are on ESPN/ESPN2/ABC/B10NET as well.

That package without HD would run you $60 or so.

 

[muffler dragon]

Btw, for those interesting, I decided to stick with Comcast package deal (cable, internet, voice). Primary reason was that the Clear Channel (clearwire) received horrendous reviews throughout pretty much any geographic. Not about to leap off of 16 Mbps for 0.25-1.0.

Thanks for the help on the Satellite considerations. If I could get an alternative internet source that didn't suck; then I would consider flipping to satellite.