how well does windows media player work as a dvr?

[mamamia88]

i am just curious can it replace a tivo if i put a tuner card in my pc?

[coldReactive]

It won't work. Windows Media Player doesn't have TV Tuner capabilities. I've already tried it myself with an HVR-850. I always needed WinTV for my HVR dongle.

[aikiwolfie]

Windows Vista and Windows 7 also voluntarily refuse to allow you to record anything with particualr DRM broadcast flags. So you never really know if your going to be able to record the program you want or not.

[laceration]

Windows Media Center is what what will do this for windows as well as many 3rd party programs. Don't some Tivo's do encrypted cable? As far as I know there is no way to get encrypted cable into your computer, Windows or Linux. It is a totally locked down, closed system. Over the air and basic non-encrypted with tivo type functionality can be be replaced with your computer.
Why are you asking if Windows can do it on an Ubuntu forum? It is achievable on Ubuntu/Linux too. It is probably easier to do on Windows though. Installing the cards, remote and software is generally more automated. That is why I wrote the program OSTV -- it was the only way I could get a simpler yet functional setup going on my Ubuntu machine.