Tivo vs Purevideo HTPC?

[dguns]

Has the HTPC with Nvidia Purevideo caught up with Tivo in PQ?

[stanger89]

Depends on what you're doing and what kind of Tivo you're comparing to.

(BTW, I'm talking about SD content here) On an HDTV, driven at HD resolution I'd say the PC has easily surpased Tivo, it's been that way for a while. On an SDTV it depends. Video cards are inherently limited in their TV out quality so tivo may be better. However with a hardware decoder card like the PVR350 or Xcard, a PC could easilly match a Tivo.

Now if you're talking a DirecTivo, it's a little different since those just buffer the bitstream so it's a 1st generation copy. Those are probably a little better depending on your setup.

[dguns]

Thanks for the reply.

Yeah, I am planning to build a PC with MCE, NVTV, GF6600GT and use NVDVD codec.

I am using it for a RP-HDTV.

[jmhays]

stanger89,
Have you seen the picture quality of the HDTivo? It beats the picture quality of my HiPix card hands down! Plus, I get all the functionality of the Tivo, which is of course the entire point. People keep trying to duplicate a Tivo with a HTPC (me included) and we just can't do it yet.

I plug in my Tivo and it works. Period. I should be so lucky with my HTPC.

[stanger89]

Originally posted by jmhays
stanger89,
Have you seen the picture quality of the HDTivo? It beats the picture quality of my HiPix card hands down! Plus, I get all the functionality of the Tivo, which is of course the entire point. People keep trying to duplicate a Tivo with a HTPC (me included) and we just can't do it yet.

No I haven't, but since they both record the same transport stream, the recordings are identical. Therefore any differences are purely on playback, and the HDTivo is about 5 years newer than the HiPix, a lot has changed in that time and I'd imagine decoding and output has been improved.

I plug in my Tivo and it works. Period. I should be so lucky with my HTPC.

My HTPC just works too.

[justcallmefrank]

Strike up another for HTPC just works :)

[Karnis]

My HTPC works just fine, always has. TT 2.0 DVD @ 720p and My HD MDP-120 tuner card.
However, it can't hang with my HD TIVO in terms of functionality. That is one bad beast.

[Ursa]

Personally, I prefer Sage over my Tivo, but the constant need to tweak/bug hunt killed it for me. HD Tivo just works. I will note that one of the inherent problems of comparing DTivo vs. HTPC is the source material from which one is working. My old HTPC's captures from analog cable looked better than some of the stuff being served up by D*, but that's a different discussion.

OTA HD on an HD Tivo is just awesome.

Later,
Bill

[mdryja]

The HD Tivo does great for HD sources, obviously, but it's scaler/deinterlacer for SD sources is not as good as what you can get with an external device or an HTPC.