TiVo vs EyeTV

I was seriously considering getting a TiVo since they are advertising a $49 unit as long as you pre-pay for one year of service ($155.40). I did some research on their website and it seems like a good deal except I was a little wary of purchasing something that will require a monthly subscription fee. I already pay a lot for cable, internet access and was thinking of getting a NetFlix subscription, so the idea of adding another $12.95 a month to my entertainment bill seemed a little high. TiVo does offer a Product Lifetime option for $299 which covers the the subscription fee for the life of the product but I still wanted to see if there were other alternatives.

I did some more research and discovered the EyeTV from Elgato. They have a product called EyeTV 200 which connects to your Mac via a FireWire port and to your regular television cable. It provides you with the same PVR functions as TiVo. It also has the ability to edit your recorded movies using iMovie and transfer them to a DVD using iDVD. You can even import them to the new iPod Video. TiVo has a similar TiVoToGo feature but it only works with PC's and you have to network it to your computer first, plus it uses Microsoft DRM technology to limit how you access the copies. EyeTV uses TitanTV which is a free online TV guide for recording shows so there's no monthly subscription fee but the unit itself is about $299.

The only negative is that since it's not in my living room, it's awkward to access the live TV features of a PVR that's connected to my main TV. I will have to look into ways to control such as box using a wireless remote of some sort. Until then I will continue to look at this and other options.