Why is DVR such a confusing and obsure monopoly?

[Warmsignal]

This is not my area of expertise, so I may sound like a fool. But back in the day, when you wanted to record something on TV, you put a cassette tape in and you pressed record. You could even program the VCR to record at the exact time and channel you wanted. It was simple. It was free. 

Now, you basically have TiVo, and TV provider equivalents which all charge you monthly rates to be able to record the shows you want digitally. Yet, elsewhere on the market there are very, very few products which do the same without any call for subscriptions. In fact, the only thing I can find is a DVD recorder by Magnavox which also has an internal 500 GB HDD.

My question is why are there virtually no devices on the market where you can simply record from video-out and be able to at least manually program dates and times, and possibly be able to export or store the data on an external or thumbdrive? If this exists, I'd like to know about it.

I guess I was extremely lucky to have bought an Aiptek handycam several years ago that actually features a video in recording function. It is essentially a mini-DVR, just not the most convenient means of recording television. Yet, I see nothing else really to choose from, because I'm dead set against paying a monthly fee to be able to record stuff off TV.

Anyone here know more about this stuff than me? Maybe there is something I'm missing here?

[kamikazekeeg]

This is not my area of expertise, so I may sound like a fool. But back in the day, when you wanted to record something on TV, you put a cassette tape in and you pressed record. You could even program the VCR to record at the exact time and channel you wanted. It was simple. It was free. 

Now, you basically have TiVo, and TV provider equivalents which all charge you monthly rates to be able to record the shows you want digitally. Yet, elsewhere on the market there are very, very few products which do the same without any call for subscriptions. In fact, the only thing I can find is a DVD recorder by Magnavox which also has an internal 500 GB HDD.

My question is why are there virtually no devices on the market where you can simply record from video-out and be able to at least manually program dates and times, and possibly be able to export or store the data on an external or thumbdrive? If this exists, I'd like to know about it.

I guess I was extremely lucky to have bought an Aiptek handycam several years ago that actually features a video in recording function. It is essentially a mini-DVR, just not the most convenient means of recording television. Yet, I see nothing else really to choose from, because I'm dead set against paying a monthly fee to be able to record stuff off TV.

Anyone here know more about this stuff than me? Maybe there is something I'm missing here?

That's why there's nothing out there.  They don't want people to easily have bootlegs anymore.  Sure you can do it obviously, that's what pirating is about, but it mostly just became about controlling the content.  I have a DVR which is only a couple bucks a month more to have than a cable box, so I don't think it's really terrible, other than both DVR's I've had from Comcast have had some sort of issue to them lol

[atarileaf]

You could just use Kodi to watch whatever you want for free. It's how I've watched Game of Thrones and Walking Dead for the last few years.

[burningdoom]

You can still use a VCR. But DVR is a whole lot easier to use.

[badATchaos]

They still make TV Tuner cards for PCI-e. I've never used one but i'm sure on the newer ones you could set up a recording schedual.

I think the whole tv recording market has been hurting because how wide spread illegal streaming has become.

[rayne315]

But back in the day, when you wanted to record something on TV, you put a cassette tape in and you pressed record. You could even program the VCR to record at the exact time and channel you wanted. It was simple. It was free. 

This still exists all you need to do is buy a dvd player that has a record function then use the remote that came with it to program when you want it to start and when you want it to stop. the only issue now is that if you dont have a cd that has a large enough storage for what you want to record. depending on which cd type you get you can even record an entire season onto one disc then transfer that data to your computer and edit it (like remove comercials) then put it on another device (a smart phone while at work on lunch) for later.

[dstone]

Silicondust makes the HDHomerun network TV tuner that I use in conjunction with several Windows 7 machines running Windows Media Center. I have a pool of six over-the-air tuners set up to share between three Media Center computers; each machine can access up to four of those tuners at once if required. Makes recording all of my over-the-air stuff easy. They also make a CableCard compatible box, but for the price you pay for the CableCard from the cable company you might as well just get their DVR (you'd have to get one of these CableCards if you got Tivo, too). And if you have satellite, it's a whole heck of a lot easier just to get their DVR.