DVR w/hard drives

I've noticed the price of DVRs continues to drop, except for those with internal hard drives. Why do they continue to cost upwards of $500+? Hard drives from the computer store aren't all that expensive, so I can't see why a DVR with and intergral hard drive should cost so much more than one without. Am I missing something here?

Good question. I'd like to know the answer to that as well. I was pricing some and the figures I saw were rediculous!

You're missing a great deal.
DVR means "digital video recorder" and records video from cable, sat or broadcast
in a digital format (mpeg2 usually) and stores it on a hard drive.
So every DVR ever made has a "hard drive", they are an integral part of a DVR
in fact.
My dvr didnt cost five hundred bucks, it costs ten bucks a month from comcast cable
and records both hd and standard def and is also a cable box
Perhaps you're talking about a DVD recorder that also has a hard drive in order to make it easier to record and edit video, perhaps?
Its a good idea to have a hard drive on your dvd recorder, BTW

The DVR's cost so much more than HD's because they have more to them than just a bare drive. It has a controller to tell it when to record, skip, FF, RR , remember your favorite shows etc. They will come down in price also. What we have been seeing is an increase in available space while the prices have not been going up. I have a two year old DVR that cost me over $500 and it only has 80 GB. It would cost about $200 for that size now. A $500 unit now would have 160 GB capacity or more.

You're right - I was thinking of a DVD recorder w/hard drive instead of the true DVR.

Due to the piss-poor audio quality of the TV programs we watch (fast-paced mumbled dialog, poor diction from the actors, backgound music drowning out the dialog, etc) we have to record nearly everything we watch so we can continually go back and re-listen to what they're saying. Once we watch a show we immediately erase it as we have no interest in watching it again (re-runs are bad enough). I'm using a DVD recorder to accomplish this, but it would be so much easier if I didn't have to screw with individual disks that have limited recording capacity.

And as far as incremental cost goes, given the low cost of computer components, it shouldn't cost that much to add a drive and controller to and existing box, particularly if you buy in quantities. You can buy a decent entry level PC less than $500.

I've seen ads where they darn near give you the TIVO box if you subscribe - but that still turns out to be more than $150/yr. The only cable I can get in this end of town is TimeWarner, but they require to you buy an upgraded cable package to take advantage of their DRV program, and we don't watch that much TV to justify the cost. I guess what I'm looking for is an inexpensive TIVO-like box that you don't have to subscribe to a service for it to work.

...sells a Polaroid unit with 160gb of disc space for around $260...

jimHJJ(...dunno if that helps...)

150 a year is worth it, especially since such boxes can be hd capable.
DVRS literally change the way you watch TV, trust me, they are well worth 150 a
year

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pixelthis

150 a year is worth it, especially since such boxes can be hd capable.
DVRS literally change the way you watch TV, trust me, they are well worth 150 a
year

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Agreed, and when you rent, you can upgrade to newer models when they come out.

They're expensive because they can rip you off. IMO the components in them don't seem to be worth more than a few hundred a most. Nothing in there is fairly complicated or expensive at this point.

Still worth it though, I'd miss just about everything I like if I didn't have one.