The TiVo vs iPod Conundrum
I have a ton of music on Cassette Tapes, LPs ("Records"), CDs, DVD-Audio, SACD. But the majority of it sits on a format I whole-heartedly bought into back in 1986, the CD. My MP3 formatted music sat unused on my hard drive for several years, until I recently set it free with the help of the TiVo and Moodlogic subsciption services. It serves up music to my home entertainment system, and allows me to control everything by remote control on my TV set. Not bad, but not portable either. Since an iPod would give me the portability(but not the TV interface part), and no monthly subscription fee, it is a worthy alternative. I believe all electronic entertainment equipment should be expected to last 5 years before it either breaks or becomes obsolete. Therefore, I put together a first-draft of a 5 year plan for going with iPod or TiVo/Moodlogic. In a later post, I'll take a look at the pros & cons of these two systems.
My requirements in decending priority:
- Instant access to my entire collection
- Organization of entire collection
- My wife can find good music without knowing artist names
- Price
- Compatability
- Portability
Here goes my price stats for an MP3 collection:
QUANTITY:
1200 CDs
MP3 FILE SPACE:
84,000 MB (84 GB) (2.1 iPODs)
DVD BACKUP:
19 DVDs (@ 4.4 GB)
NUMBER OF SONGS:
28000
iPOD:
$500 / 10,000 SONGS / 5 YR LIFE EXPECTANCY
3 iPODs NEEDED
5 YRS = $1500
MOODLOGIC COST:
$30 / 10,000 SONGS / 1 YR SUBSCRIPTION
2 ADDITIONAL 10,000 SONG ACTIVATION CREDITS NEEDED = $60
5 YRS = $210
TiVo COST:
HARDWARE $149 / 5 YR LIFE EXPECTANCY
SUBSCRIPTION: $12.99/MO = $780/5YR
HOME MEDIA OPTION: $100
5 YRS = $1029
TiVO + MOODLOGIC:
5YR = $1239
