Tim Coyle is out with a comparo between his cable company’s (practically) free DVR and his Media Center PC. He covers a lot of the same ground I covered in my three-way comparo back in March and reaches pretty much the same conclusion:
Media Center comes out ahead by leaps and bounds. Media Center has much more program information available and an overall better TV guide and user experience. While a nice try by the Cable Company, the TV guide information is lacking and the remote needs a lot of help.
Thomas Hawk points out what Tim missed:
A huge point missing though is HDTV and while Tim acknowledged that his Adelphia box was capable of recording HDTV, his Media Center box is not capable of recording HDTV cable TV …
I bet if you polled HDTV users and asked them would they give up their HDTV in exchange for a DVR with superior features and functionality you would get over 90% of them who would never do it. Once you have seen HDTV you can’t go back.
Tim has a standard analog 20” TV. For him, recording high definition signals isn’t an issue. I’ve got 32” analog TVs in the living room and the master bedroom. On those screens, the analog recording from the Media Center box is just fine. In my den, the big HDTV screen thrives on the beautiful digital hi-def image, but we save that for special occasions.
In my opinion Thomas overestimates the appeal of HDTV. If you force me to choose between HDTV and a DVR with acceptable standard recording quality, the DVR wins every time. A gorgeous picture that is only available on someone else’s schedule is worthless to me. I’d rather downgrade to a standard signal than be forced to rush home on Sunday night so I can catch the latest episode of Deadwood or stay up till midnight to watch Jon Stewart on The Daily Show. Not to mention the capability to back up a play it again when we miss a crucial snippet of dialog. (“What’d he say?”) The idea of everyone in America sitting down in front of their TVs to watch the same show at the same time was fun in the days when Lucy and Uncle Miltie ruled, but it’s just quaint now.
My cable company’s DVR is good enough. And as they say, good enough is the enemy of excellent. Despite some annoyances, the Scientific Atlanta DVR I get for (practically) free from the cable company combines the HDTV and DVR functions and thus “wins” in my household. It makes me willing to use their box for programs that I want to watch on the big screen in the den. But I still record three or four times as much content on the Media Center box, mostly old movies that don’t need to be seen on a big screen to be enjoyed. And I can’t wait till this fall, when I really really really hope that one box will do it all.
Ed Bott 
“A gorgeous picture that is only available on someone elses schedule is worthless to me.”
Ed, I agree with you totally on this. But with a HDTV cable or satellite DVR that same gorgeous picture IS available on YOUR time schedule. That’s the point.
Personally in my case pretty much 100% of what I watch is now in high def and I never watch anything when it’s on. With four kids it’s simply impossible — not to mention I hate commercials. There is so much content that I can’t keep up with it all and so generally I choose not to watch stuff that’s not in high def.
Microsoft has now sold 2 million copies of Media Center according to Gates. Last month CNET reported that the number of HDTV sets shipped in North America will hit over 14.9 million this year. Even if you throw in the 3 million or so TiVo subscribers, HDTV still trumps the standalone DVR.
What cable offers that is compelling is both HDTV and DVR functionality — albeit with a significantly weaker UI and horrible, by contrast, functionality.
While Media Center is fantastic and you will be hard pressed to find someone who is as big an advocate as I am, for most Americans the HDTV story is more compelling today. Walk into any consumer electronics store today and the story tells itself. With LCD and DLP, now HDTV sets are even getting cheap enough to put them in the kitchen, guest bedrooms, etc.
The Holy Grail of home media of course is the true convergence of the best of class in ALL areas.
Cable/satellite HDTV
DVR functionality including recordable HDTV with expandability.
Superior user interface and feature set.
Access to Internet TV and the upcoming explosion of micro content (wouldn’t it be great to watch Channel 9 on your MCE).
Portability – DVD, laptop, auto entertainment, portable devices, extender technology.
Simplicity, quiet and attractive aesthetic design
Oh and cost.
So:
Cable DVR wins
Cable DVR wins
MCE wins
MCE will probably win
MCE wins
Cable DVR wins, although this changing
Cable wins
My point was to ignore the HDTV issue is to miss a pretty big part of the picture.
But then again everyone knows I’ve been an HDTV freak for a while. And people have pointed out to me in the past that Jay Leno isn’t any funnier in high def — but when he has Cameron Diaz on as his guest it sure is more enjoyable.
I suspect, by the way, that very shortly you will be able to have the best of all worlds with MCE — with the expection of cost — you will probably always pay a premium for something as powerful as a PC.
I run my Media Center in our den/playroom and do the majority of my recording on this. In our family room (the room we use mostly for tv) we have the Motorola HD/DVR from our cable company and an Xbox Media extender. I just ordered the HP Media Extender for our master bedroom.
I don’t think I could give up either the Media Center or HD. For now, I’m content running the systems somewhat in parallel and paying the extra $10 to my cable company for the fancy box. The Media Center guide is leaps and bounds ahead of the one from my cable company.
However, I don’t think mainstream users are going to embrace the Media Center until it has good HD capability in conjunction with the cable box without using the IR blaster. My cable box has an ethernet connection and USB ports. I should just be able to plug them together.
I did leave out the HDTV debate because mainly I don’t have an HDTV set. And I probably won’t have one for a while. I will wait until my cable company has a solid TV listing of HDTV channels before I sign up for it. I think for the average consumer there is a lot being thrown at them with HDTV and DVR’s – I have a feeling they will be overwhelmed this Christmas.