When is a Comparison NOT a Comparison?
Answer: When it's like this article! Seriously, he purports to offer a comparison of 3 "DVR options" but deliberately focuses on only a subset of Tivo functions so that it appears to be a 2-and-a-halfway horserace. Nice try, but even sporting that Pinocchio-esque nose, it's not even close. Here's why...
Where to start? How about his deliberate choice to limit the comparison to a Series 1 Tivo? Sure, he acknowledges that he has a Series 1 and that there is such a thing as a Series 2, BUT he doesn't offer any explanation of the differences. Worse, he implies that (since he thinks the original NYT writer probably has a Series 2) the comparision equally applies to either unit type!
This is a pretty outrageous bit of writing craft. Clearly, at a minimum, he should have alluded to the additional features that SA2 users enjoy, particularly since he takes the time in one of his followup comments to attribute one of them to his MCE:
"As to cost, I believe my homebrew Shuttle SFF MCE box cost about the same as an HD TiVo and has the extra benefit of handling digital music and photos, which was essential for me."
Ouch! Excuse me, Ed. Have you heard of Tivo's Home Media Option (now augmented with the developing Home Media Engine)?
So, quickly, here where I diverge from Ed's "analysis:
A Series 2 Tivo offers: the Home Media Option, which offers music and photos (and now with HME, it's developing even richer options as well). For multiple Tivo owners, it also offers wired and wireless networking, and with it, Multi-Room Viewing. You can move shows between rooms, and if you watch halfway through in one room, once you move to the next room, you can pick up right where you left off.
There are other distinctions but let me cut to the chase: Ed's MCE HARDWARE cost him $817 in the first year (including the $60 extra he paid out at $5 a month for the second cable box for the second tuner). Now tack on $125 or so for the MCE software and he's in for $1,042. I own 3 Series 2 Tivos that cost $50 each from Tivo directly, and I pay $27 a month in combined service cost ($13+$7+$7): So, after factoring in the 3 $20 network adapters for my Tivos, I am in for $534 for the first year (a savings of $508, which means I could actually have 6 Tivos--with 6 separate tuners, etc., etc., and a year's service on each--for what he's spent on 1 MCE). And I don't have to rent a single cable box...
The above cost comparision is heavily weighted in Ed's favor too, cause most store-bought MCEs will run higher than his setup. And that alone is the central issue in the current comparison. But hey, if he prefers to only have one un-networked, PVR'ed TV, more power to him.
In closing, Tivo is not perfect--it's BETTER. Much, much better. And I am tired of people trying to shape the debate by carefully limiting the "scope" of their comparisons.