tivo, xbox or pvr(build my own)

[CABBIE]

Hi all just a quick question. can tivo play avi or mpeg4 files ? What im after is something that can play dvds record tv and play avi files . i know tivo cant play dvds but what file type dose it save in?:confused:

[Darren King]

TiVo cannot playback AVI, DiVx or MP4 files. It records and plays back in it's own proprietary format based around MPEG2

[catdog]

I use a modded xbox for DVD/divx/xvid etc and tivo for recording TV shows, combined they cover everything :) With the low price of a second hand xbox these days its a good option.

If you really want a single box which can do it all, then your only choice is to build a PC based PVR.

[daggo]

I use TiVO to record and a MythTV box to store what I have recorded. You just can't go wrong with OzTiVO sooooo easy to setup and get going! And the community are very helpful in getting one going and keeping it going.

Just can't say the same for the MythTV comunity.

[tenty]

Just to add to the conversation, I have both a Media Center Edition 2005 machine and a TiVo... I still use the TiVo as my main machine as the remote and interface is just so easy. Even though MCE's interface is similar, it can get clumsy without a remote and without knowing all the short cut keys and installing the different hacks needed to get it to work properlly with guide data and something similar to TiVoWeb