HTPC vs DVR or Tivo

I have never used a dvr or tivo, but wanted some feedback from some of you guys that have. I am trying to make a case that having an HTPC might be a better commodity to have than dvr or tivo. Now I know that Direct ATT Uverse, or Direct TV have the functionality of recording from more than one room. Or recording in one room, and being able to watch it in another room. I am trying to convince my girl's parents to get an HTPC. I showed them mine with all the nice features that the plugins prpvide, but they are still not convinced. Maybe having a HTPC should be an addittion and not a replacement to having Tivo or DVR. What are you guys' thoughts on this? Would having MC Extenders compensate for recording in one room and being able to watch in another room? Or, is there some component that can provide that?

No component needed to make that work. All you need is a MC rig and an extender or two. What ever one extender starts doing i.e. recording TV, The other can go into the recorded TV and see the file that was just started from another room. It will be still recording but you can still start, stop, FF, and RR the recording up to the point its caught up to the live feed.

Do each extender work independently of each other? Basically, if I am in one room, can I be doing something totally different than what the other extender in the other room is doing. To make it simple: Can I be on a different channel, or be recording in one room, while the extender in the other room is on another channel without affecting the other rooms or extenders?

As long as you have the tuners in your HTPC to cover the demand, yes, each extender can do it's own thing.

Up untill last month, we had 2 360's as extenders in our home, though now we only have one, but we could stream recorded or live tv in HD to both at the same time with no problems.

Hope this helps

Scott

Wouldn't a dual QAM ( tuner also be beneficial in this scenario, allowing for even recording and watching on the HTPC *and* using the extender?

Or was that assumed already in building a HTPC?

A dual tuner would work, sure. But you could only watch one show and record another. If you were recording 1 show, and both extenders wanted to stream live tv, you would be out of luck.

I recommend at least 2 dual tuner cards, minimum.

Hope this helps

Scott

Yes thats one of the reasons MC can handle 4 Tuners.
To insure one always is available.

Actually, you can hav a max of 16 tuners in w7 Media Center.

With Windows 7 Ultimate :

4 analog
4 over-the-air digital
4 clearQAM
4 cablecard tuners.

With Home Premium, a maximum of 2 each.

Hope this helps

Scott

Well I just learned something.

Yup, you gotta love all those tuners, especially during March Madness and the NFL playoffs.