Lots of great help here. I used Tivo Desktop plus to transfer my recordings from the Tivo to the computer. Yes - I know the price of drives is getting low. In fact - I just bought a 500 GB hard drive to swap out in my series 2 Tivo. (Until I know I can do it right, I don't want to mess with my Series 3 and possibly screw it up and definitely void the warranty. Not all my shows are HD, so storing some of the series 2 is fine). My computer had nearly 400 GB of free space when I started transferring shows - and its' almost full now. So with my habits, even a 1TB external drive will get filled up. I may use one to store HD movies and things where the HD matters more. But recording sitcoms, American Idol and my daughter's kid shows doesn't require HD. So I need to get some of these shows off all hard drives since they'll be filling up and get some to DVD-RW disks (I'm assuming that in a couple of years my daughter won't want her Hannah Montana shows, etc). I looked at the computer's dvd player and it didn't say DL or dual layer. I have to figure out how to get to windows explorer and I'll doublecheck about writing dual density. I got the computer in Jan. 2008. I think I will need something like VideoReDo. Not sure if I'd still need DVD Shrink in that case or not. I'll check it out. Urlee - does your DVR also have a Tivo? I really like the Tivo. perhaps I should get a Tivo DVR with builtin DVD burner. That would simplify this whole process - but I think it would cost a lot for the unit and then again for Tivo Service. If I don't have a DL DVD burner in my computer, I wonder if it's worth getting one? Sure could help to get movies and 2 hours shows burned in one dVD. Thanks. Lynn.

I read this forum quite regularly, but rarely post here...But sometimes.... I just gotta say it..... You people are nuts...... I am quite used to people telling me I am nuts and have no idea what I am talking about when it comes to such matters, BUT since I am never, make that NEVER the one who has neither virus/malware issues and problems and NEVER have spent even a dime nor any time on such matters, the reality of the situation is that I and the few other Linux users here are really the only ones who have any idea what they are talking about when it comes to PC Operating Systems and PC "security".... A whole forum of "what should I get","what's wrong" "I bought/installed and/but" "what should I do". Soon many reading this will be thinking "Oh he's just one of those Linux nutscases" But, ask yourself, does he "Buy this", "get this", "do this"......Oh yeah, and then ask yourself if your system can match mine on safety, security, performance. I have yet to have either of these boxes contract a virus or a worm or a root-kit nor any other form of malware, not bad for systems running zero AV/security software..... I very rarely ever disconnect from the W3 and rarely ever even turn either of these things off. I have 4 browsers running right now and my email account has been open for days. Other than an outgoing firewall, I am currently running absolutely zero "security" software of any kind. And no reformatting, no scans, no defrags, no registry anythings. I watch videos, play music, redo photo's, make phone calls and do all sorts of other sometimes fun stuff with neither and never a worry nor a care. And my total investment in Operating Systems and software on both boxes equals zero dollars and zero cents. And all my upgrades/dates are free too..... Do yourselves a big favor and go to distrowatch.com, read about the different flavors of Linux and pick yourself out a few LiveCD versions to trial. Or you can always just wait for MSWin7 to be released and start buying all sorts of new software to go along with your already penetrated and compromised, outdated and obsolete brand new high dollar Operating System. Some of the new Linus distro's are so simple to install and use that my best friends 59 y.o.wife has installed several different versions on the same hard-drive and has figured out how to use them all with little more than dang near no assistance from any body. She has even figured out how to use Knoppix6 full time and save everything she does/wants to a persistant image. Oh yeah, she is really good at kids and cooking and sewing and fishing and growing things and all sorts of DIY stuff, but, when it comes to computers, she has the techno-savvy and training of your average box of rocks..... Dang folks....even my daughter, whose "technotude" is somewhat close to absolutely zero has installed and has everything running and learned the ins and outs of both SimplyMepis and VectorLinux on her PC all by her little ol' self. And while her friends are having regular issues after frequenting such mandatory malware magnet sites as YouTube, and MySpace she has nothing of the sort, ever.... But, if you wanna believe that you must MUST have MSWin-something, feel free to spend way too much for way too little, and want to keep spending and installing/scanning/removing/etc for no other reason than you insist on running something as shaky and insecure as Vista1, hurry up and buy the fix for Vista1, Vista2, otherwise known as MSWin7, that's certainly your right.... Well, let's see...I may have exaggerated things a bit by stating the "free" thing........Getting Linux will cost you somewhere around $.125 for a blank CD-R, or the current cost of a blank DVD-R.... HAGD Here is a link that might be useful: better than MSWindows, IMHO it is anyway

There's lots of things that could cause those kinds of problems, including something on Netflix's end. An upgrade may be indicated when there are enough new features in the operating system to justify the expense of the new operating system. Of course, my definition of "justify" may not be quite the same as yours. You also need to ensure that your computer can meet the requirements of a new operating system. Generally speaking any computer bought with Windows XP is not likely to have sufficient memory or processing power to make running Windows 7 enjoyable. You might want to consider backing up critical data and doing a fresh install of XP. Cleaning out the old garbage can make a world of difference in the performance of an older computer. Plus there's no financial investment, just time.

You know, years ago consumer electronics were built like appliances - hardware that was designed to work as specified when built and sold. Occasionally, after the hardware design and release, problems would arise and "technical service bulletins" would be issued by the manufacturer and problems would be fixed, usually under warranty. Later on, with firmware (computer software) now controlling products, manufactures could make fixes with a firmware upgrade and avoid costly hardware changes. Next came, "why should we wait on releasing this product, when we can do it now and finish it up in firmware upgrades later that the customer can/has to do later on?" So now, with Blu-ray, we have both hardware manufactures and Blu-ray DVD authoring facilities and replicators, all taking the same approach - make the customer figure it out and try to correct it with firmware upgrades. It's the same mentality used in the computer industry to make their failings your responsibility to figure out and resolve. OK! Off my soapbox now! Sushipup, try doing a firmware upgrade from the onscreen menus, with an internet connection, and see if the manufacturer has not already addressed the hardware/software conflict. If, when trying to perform an upgrade, it fails, try downloading the appropriate file to a USB thumb drive or CD-R instead and installing that way - the mfg website will usually provide a text file describing how to do this.