Even with the issues that I have with TiVo, the thought of LG taking anything on is sort os laughable. If the media center blows half as hard as their mobile line, then I think that TiVo is safe for now.

This is interesting. LG’s new LRM-519 Digital Media Recorder is “a combination digital video recorder (DVR) and DVD recorder powered by Windows® Media Center Technologies with a 160-gigabyte hard drive for unparalleled recording flexibility.”

OK, and this is different from a TiVo box how? Let’s add up the differences:

* Media Center interface. It really is an improvement over the TiVo interface, but only enough to appeal to the true cognoscenti.
* Expandability. You need to hack the crap out of a TiVo to put in a bigger hard disk. (Here is a cached version of the site I relied on when I hacked my TiVo.) With LG’s unit, you plug an external drive into a USB port.
* DVD recording. Yes, Humax has a TiVo-powered DVD recorder, too.
* Networking. TiVo to Go takes some setup, but it works. The LG unit can send programs to any other Windows XP computer without any fuss.
* DVD playback. I can’t tell from the LG press release, but I assume that the LG unit does DVD playback, not just recording.
* Music and pictures. Really easy with a Media Center box, not so easy with TiVo. [Read the rest]