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TiVo HD<br />
$300 plus $17 per<br />
month • tivo.com<br />
A year ago, we gave the $800<br />
TiVo Series3 our Best of Test<br />
award. Now, you can get most<br />
of its top-of-the-line features<br />
for $500 less. The hard drive is<br />
a little bit <strong>sm</strong>aller—just 180<br />
hours of standard-def recording<br />
or 20 hours of HD—but you<br />
get the same sweet TiVo hallmarks,<br />
like Season Pass and<br />
the technophobe-friendly user<br />
interface. Hooray for progress!<br />
WIRED Dual HD tuners.<br />
Downloadable movies and TV<br />
from Amazon Unbox. Streams<br />
MP3s and photos from PCs.<br />
Mobile access to scheduling<br />
from some Verizon phones.<br />
Traffic information and weather<br />
forecasts from Yahoo.<br />
TIRED Monthly fee is a little<br />
steep on top of your cable bill.<br />
Requires digital antenna or two<br />
CableCard decoders for dualtuner<br />
use. No THX support.<br />
Video Gear<br />
EDITORS’<br />
PICK<br />
DVRs<br />
Tame your TV. Next-gen DVRs<br />
bring time-shifting flexibility to<br />
hi-def programming and Web<br />
content to the living room. —R.B.<br />
Comcast Motorola DCT3416<br />
$10 per month • comcast.com<br />
Comcast’s box handles the usual standard- and hi-def programming<br />
and recording, complete with dual tuners so you can watch a recorded<br />
show while recording two others. Not bad for an extra $10 per month<br />
on your bill. Too bad the ugly, unintuitive menu system will make even<br />
the tech-savviest geeks weep, and recording glitches abound. But<br />
much-needed relief is coming: Comcast plans to offer TiVo-equipped<br />
boxes later this year. The company won’t commit to a date, but it<br />
can’t happen soon enough, we say.<br />
WIRED Dual HD tuners. No up-front investment; rent it cheaply<br />
from your cable company. Easy access to on-demand programming.<br />
TIRED 80-GB hard drive holds just 15 hours of hi-def recording.<br />
Can’t hop past commercials. Sluggish interface can inspire fits of rage.<br />
Shuttle XPC X200 M<br />
$1,997 • shuttle.com<br />
Here’s a surprisingly well-kept secret: Windows Vista Ultimate packs<br />
some killer DVR features. So, in turn, does the XPC, a media-center<br />
PC inconspicuous enough to slip into your home theater without<br />
upsetting the decor. It’s ultra<strong>sm</strong>all, yet it squeezes in 750 GB of storage,<br />
a slot-loading DVD burner, and a four-in-one media reader.<br />
WIRED Plays and records TV shows TiVo-style. Enough RAM and<br />
processing power (2 gigs and 2.2 GHz, respectively) to run Vista at<br />
a healthy clip. Sits horizontally or vertically. Built-in Wi-Fi.<br />
TIRED A single TV tuner, and it’s analog. Pretty pricey for a PC,<br />
even one as compact as this. Generic wireless mouse and keyboard.<br />
Small, nonstandard remote.<br />
Velocity Micro CineMagix<br />
Grand Theater<br />
$5,223 • velocitymicro.com<br />
The Windows-powered CineMagix, disguised as a glam stereo component<br />
but loaded for home-theater bear, sports three TV tuners: two<br />
CableCard and one standard-def/over-the-air HD. It also plays Blu-ray<br />
DVDs, your music collection, and hot Windows games, and of course,<br />
displays photos. Plus, it’s a full-blown PC. You may need a second<br />
mortgage to pay for it, but for TV junkies, the hunt is over.<br />
WIRED Elegant case looks at home in the living room. Stocked to<br />
the gills with a quad-core processor and 2 terabytes of storage.<br />
TIRED Rich-folks-only price tag. No HDMI output—just DVI. Setup<br />
instructions don’t cover CableCard and home-theater connections.<br />
WIRED TEST<br />
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