These are satellite dishes running up the side of an apartment building in Abu Dhabi. Technically, the cable company monopoly is supposed to be the only game in town and satellite dishes are not allowed. I was naive when I arrived and signed up for cable. When I mentioned this to my students they gave me a look of disgust. It wasn't a look of confusion or humor, it was disgust... as in "How could anyone be that stupid."*****
I have found remarkably good advice comes from readers of this blog. I hope the pattern remains true. In this country there's cable which has OK options for about $50/month and good options for about $120/month. So far that's close to the US.
For satellite there is no DirectTV or Dish Network. There are options to get the package of news stations with an upfront price of $200 and then paying about $50/month. The same type of package for the basic movie channels and the expanded movie channels costs about $100/month.
The DVR/Tivo is a new product here. I loved mine DVR back home. But the only way to get it here is to pay $600 upfront and $120/month. I'll consider that but, yeesh, that's even more than I paid for it back home.
The other option is "grey market." I think that's a polite way of saying illegal. It has the same $600 installation fee but you can get everything for about $40/month, but no DVR.
If I didn't love the DVR so much I'd jump at this option.
My question: Is it possible to hook a third party DVR/Tivo that would function anything close to one connected to the system... or would it be a glorified VCR? Are there other options I should be considering?
Some of this may be less accurate due to tv standards.
ReplyDeleteTivo relies on knowledge of what shows are on, and it gets this from the carrier. You won't get that level of ease of use by building your own. You should be able to buy a computer with a tv tuner, HDMI output(or whatever is appropriate)and decent software. you may still have to do manual selection of the record times though.