My TiVo is not right next to the Mac. About 20 feet away. I just have some long cables I hook up when I need to. I'm not sure about how well 50 ft. cables will work.

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As far the other issues:

Playing back in realtime is not a huge issue for me. I usually use this for short items that I want to keep off the TiVo. Remember, the article is about "ease of use". This way is extremely easy to do (and it's completely on the Mac). So it ties up the computer? So what? Some of us like actually using our computers ocassionally.

As far as extracting files, that involves hacking and networking and in the end, converting the files to readable formats anyway. This can be a tedious process. My way is easy, anyone can do it, and converts the files to readable formats as they are recorded and allows the use of a Mac for the whole process.

Digitizing can sometimes cause quality to suffer. This is usually do to poor quality digitizers. The Canopus ADVC-100 delivers an impeccable DV signal. The quality is fantastic! Well worth the purchasing price.

My solution is much, much cheaper than the author's solution of buying a PC. So for me (and hopefully others who read this) creating DVD's from TiVo can be done, extremely easy on the Mac, using all of the tools Apple supplies. No hacking required!