Travel Technology - Watching recorded shows while traveling.

I have been researching a simple way for me to record TV programs and take them with me on the road. I have a Treo, and I am aware of some of the software that is out there to stream/record shows on your PDA, but my Treo is on its way out the door and I don't know what my next phone is going to be.

I always like new gadgets, so I would like to find out from the community what they use for recording shows and watching them on the road.

Here are my needs:

1) I travel during the week, so I am looking for something that hooks up at home, records during the week so I can sync up when I am home on the weekend. I have a DVR from my cable company, but I don't know if I can pull shows from it.

2) Acceptable battery life. I fly 2 1/2 hours, twice a week. So far, most media players I have seen have acceptable battery life (Archos, Touch).

3) Acceptable portability. I don't want to take up too much room in my bag, so I am willing to sacrifice screen size.

So, what are you using?

I use a sprint mogul HTC 6800 hooked up to a slingbox back home. Everything I really want or need.

Use a DVR at home, and watch on laptop? That's what I do...

JP

I record on a PC with TV Tuner card running XP Media Center Edition. It is as simple as sinking that content with my PDA. Recording on highest quality then syncing, each 1/2 hour is about 200MB. A 4GB card holds a lot.

I have a nearing 3 yr old Toshiba RD-XS34 recorder which has a 160GByte hard drive and a DVD burner. It uses a TV Guide program guide. It won't let me burn some copy protected content but there is a workaround. I burn what I want "to go" and watch it on my notebook. It is only SD but so are my TV's until one of them breaks and I get my mythical 46-47" LCD HD TV. Probably not a suitable solution for hand held playback but I want a larger screen so it works for me.

I use a Tivo w/ TivoToGo! activated and transfer them to my Ipod or Laptop.

Also I use Amazon Unbox / iTunes every now and again.


On the other hand I REALLY like nmenaker's suggestion of using a 6800 and Slingbox, that just SOUNDS cool!

-SF

I record on a PC with TV Tuner card running XP Media Center Edition. It is as simple as sinking that content with my PDA. Recording on highest quality then syncing, each 1/2 hour is about 200MB. A 4GB card holds a lot.
Hmmmm....you need certain hardware to run MCE, correct? I couldn't upgrade my seldom used XP laptop to MCE. I will look into this further. Thank you for the info.

I use a Tivo w/ TivoToGo! activated and transfer them to my Ipod or Laptop.

Also I use Amazon Unbox / iTunes every now and again.

On the other hand I REALLY like nmenaker's suggestion of using a 6800 and Slingbox, that just SOUNDS cool!

-SF

TivoToGo sounds like an idea. Let me see if I understand what it can do:
I buy a Tivo and hook it up to my TV.
Record shows to my hearts content.
Using TivoToGo loaded on my PC, I transfer TV content from my Tivo to my PC.
From my PC, I transfer the TV shows to my portable player (I noticed that I can use my PSP).

Use a DVR at home, and watch on laptop? That's what I do...

JP

Do you use a cable company supplied DVR or a Tivo? If the cable company supplied box, I didn't know you could get the shows off of the box. Could you share a little more info, please?

I use a refurbished Slingbox Classic connected to my DirecTV DVC and my laptop to access up to 304 hours of previously stored stuff and any current showings. It sure beats the crap outta most hotels tv listings.

MisterNice

I believe gatorray's best bet is to use the Slingbox.
Slingbox just came out with Sling Catcher wchich let's you watch any show recorded in slingbox on another TV in the house.

I transfer stuff to my Archos 504 which has 160GB - I haven't worked out how to record live using the scheduling function so I just end up playing stuff off the Virgin Media V+ PVR box and using the record function on the Archos. Battery life is easily 3 hours and I have two spares for long haul use.

I have a Slingbox but for some reason they don't have a remote control configuartion that allows you to access the recorded material on the V+ box.

I believe gatorray's best bet is to use the Slingbox.
Slingbox just came out with Sling Catcher wchich let's you watch any show recorded in slingbox on another TV in the house.

They announced it, but it's not out till Q2.

I use a combo of TivoHD w/ TivoToGo and SlingBox Solo.

For things already recorded before I leave the house I just transfer to the laptop. HD stays HD, but files are around 5gb/hour. SD files are around 1gb/hour. I remove commercials using VideoRedo if it's something I plan to archive to DVD or HD-DVD. Being able to record 1 hour of HD content that is compatible with an HD-DVD player to a 4.7gb DVD-R and 2 hours to an 8.5gb DVD-R DL is a big plus for me. It allows me to archive my favorite shows in full HD on an inexpensive optical media that can be played back on the HD-DVD player in my home-theater system (or others around the house). This is one reason HD-DVD will live on for me even after it dies as a commercial format.

For things that record on the TivoHD while I'm away, live TV while I'm away, or to my phone (Samsung Blackjack) I use the TivoHD component-video output to the SlingBox Solo. HD is downconverted to DVD quality but the widescreen aspect ratio is kept in tact. Most hotel WiFi can keep image quality pretty good, airport WiFi is hit-or-miss and I often watch on my phone instead in these instances. When watching on the phone the resolution is converted to the phone's native 320x240 QVGA which keeps the image quality and frame rates up and dropouts down, especially when on 3G networks.

The only thing I can't do that I wish I could is transfer files from the TivoHD to my laptop over the internet while away from home. Transferring a few SD shows or one HD show overnight using hotel WiFi would be great. I'm sure with some effort (VPN and some IP trickery) it could be done, but I'm not up for it.

I use my Ipod and convresion software to get it there.

I am currently investigating the Slingbox as I am very, very interested in what it can do for me and my laptop when I am on the road. I too think it would be a big upgrade over the hotel TV.

Check out Orb (http://www.orb.com/). Pretty nifty, will allow you to stream stuff from your home computer based on the connection of the device you are using.

Thanks everyone for the continued replies. After reading through all of the replies and researching, it seems that Tivo is the way to go for me right now. The shows I record don't require HD, so that helps (I am addicted to "How Its Made" and "The First 48 Hours"). I just want to carry the episodes I miss during the week with me on the plane to occupy my mind.

I am not sure I am ready to stream content to my phone or laptop since I don't watch much TV when there is an internet connection available.

Keep the ideas coming. I hope this info helps more than just me.

I currently do the Tivo plus Tivo-to-Go method to get content for my phone or laptop or iPod. Actually, I use a shareware app to get and rip the .tivo files off of the tivo for my Mac, rather than use the official Tivo-to-Go application.

Previously, I was using an El Gato EyeTV with my Mac to record television shows and watch on my laptop.

I don't have a Tivo but I do record shows with MCE on my laptop (have a tv tuner card) and then transfer them to my Nokia E61.

This past weekend I watched 3.5 hrs of movies on flights on one battery charge :)

Not sure what format MCE uses, but with the DIVX player, it automatically converts them to my mobile format.

Vista Home Premium & Ultimate have recently added a sling-box type feature so that may be an option as well if you us an HTPC for recording. Transfering is still likely the most reliable way to get consistant quality.

I use the Archos 700. I am not in the US enough to pay the monthly TIVO charges so I just hook up my Archos to the RCA output jacks on the cable box, tune to the History Channel, and let that thing record for several days.