PC alternatives to TIVO

Before signing up for TIVO think about a couple of PC options.  Snapstream Media’s Beyond TV 4 has a snazzy interface and allows you to record your fave TV show to your hard drive. Even while you are watching another program. In fact you can watch the same show on any number of TV monitors in your home through its server capacities. You need Windows 2000 or XP, a tuner card, a 600 mhz processor, plus a video card, Directx9 and ten GB of hard drive space. You can skip those annoying commercials, record with a single click all the episodes of your favorite show, or just the new ones.

Plug your PC into your TV and you are good to go. And speaking of going, move the shows to your portable media center for easy travel. What, you forgot to set it for this week’s American Idol? No prob. Just go online and schedule it via the internet.

SageTV  with its V4, is another player in the personal video recording field. There’s support for High Def, up to the minute weather reports if you are manic about those things. With a PVR you get to pause live TV, (fast forward, no, go back, no, you past it, go forward) and jump all around to see what you want when you want.

Costs start around $70 with no subscription fees like TiVo and there are plenty of add-ons to give you just what you want in your home. Just too neat for words.