Another Tivo thread...

[felson]

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comcast customer over here. upgraded to a comcast DVR about 8 months ago. love it. this past weekend however, i was up in princeton visting ffk's sister and sister's husband. they have a tivo (not sure what series)...while i didn't havve a lot of time to learn/play w/ all the features of a TV, the only complaint from me is the latency when turning the channels which i don't experience w/ comcast dvr.

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tivo introduces a 2 second latency when changing channels. other dvr's have some latency too, though perhaps less. but dvr = pre-recording = reduced channel surfing anyway.

[gusmahler]

I have a DirecTV brand DVR. When it works, it works great. Records everything I want. Searches for program, does the equivalent of a Season Pass.

Unfortunately, it doesn't always work. I have two units. One of them completely went on the fritz while my mom was housesitting/baby sitting, she was completely unable to watch TV from that unit the entire week. The other unit worked perfectly until about 2 weeks ago and is now slowly dying.

The cure is simple, do a hard reset. I did that reset to the faulty one and it hasn't given me a problem since. Unfortunately, you lose ALL of the material you recorded.

Apparently the HD version of the DVR is just as buggy.

[N 82 50 24]

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i agree with n82 and astro. i have a series 2 with the lifetime subscription, which i purchased myself, not from ebay. i also have a high-def dvr for my newer tv, rented from Time Warner Cable and manufactured by Scientific Atlanta. (i bought a 55" sony rp-lcd last year -- thanks for the advice astro!)

the tivo interface is ridiculously better than the other box. plus the SA box reboots a couple of times a week, a problem which I've heard is common to these boxes. the series 2 is much stabler, and i suspect the series 3 is pretty stable too. if it weren't for price (series3 is ~$800), i would have bought a series 3 already. (btw, even with a series 3, i think we need to rent a separate cable box to support video on demand -- can someone verify this?)

regarding lifetime of the unit, my series 2 is ~5 years old. i did have to replace the hard drive once, and my remote just broke, but other than that i have had no problems.

if you only need standard def, buy a series 2, and probably with the lifetime subscription. if you need high def, then it just comes down to price.

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I'd really recommend getting the Series3 before the end of the year so you can get the lifetime on the Series3. A five year-old Series2, while workable and still like 100x better than a DVR, isn't quite the same.

Also, not sure if you're aware, but they got rid of the lifetime subscription option for new sign-ups.

It is true that the Series3 means that I can't get onDemand anymore. The CableCARDs that it uses to tune are not two-way devices. However, I don't mind not having onDemand. I almost never use it and I can record over 95% of what I'd want to watch. It is a slight drawback, but the benefits of the TiVo interface. I could keep a STB for that purpose if I cared, but I don't.

Lastly, to the guy with the DirecTiVo, I have actually heard of problems with those, especially the earlier models. I am heartily recommending a Series2 or Series3 to anyone who can afford one and thinks their cable DVR is good enough. The DirecTiVo is a different story, although I'm sure they're much much better than any crap DVR the satellite company can deliver.

[PurpleLight]

So I'm curious, with this TiVo thing, is it like an addition to your existing cable/satelite service, where it seems to be essentially a recording device, or does TiVo also provide the channels? I'm assuming as much because they want a monthly fee, but it doesn't seem clear.

[edfurlong]

Does Tivo still require a home phone line? That always seemed really 1980's to me.

[N 82 50 24]

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So I'm curious, with this TiVo thing, is it like an addition to your existing cable/satelite service, where it seems to be essentially a recording device, or does TiVo also provide the channels? I'm assuming as much because they want a monthly fee, but it doesn't seem clear.

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No, it's in addition to cable. The monthly fee is for the programming guide. Put it this way: TiVo isn't cheap. You're paying for the best TV watching experience possible. And the units (except for the Series3) are pretty cheap these days.

[N 82 50 24]

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Does Tivo still require a home phone line? That always seemed really 1980's to me.

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Nope. They come with an ethernet port to hook up to a router. They also have USB ports to hook up a wifi USB stick if you don't have a router nearby (need to buy the USB stick separately though).

It used to be that you need to go through the guided setup with a phone line. That isn't the case anymore -- you can set it up and get program info via your internet connection. I don't have a phone line ... I just use my cell phone.

[trumpjosh]

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Well, anyone have any info on these "lifetime" serviced tivo's from ebay??

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Not from eBay, but I have one of these that I bought back in about 1999. It still works like a charm, but regrettably is not HDTV compatible. I just gave it to my dad last night. He is psyched.

[astroglide]

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the only complaint from me is the latency when turning the channels which i don't experience w/ comcast dvr.

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they're probably connecting it using the "ir blaster", which is slower than using the serial cable. the ir blaster relays commands from your remote to a transmitter that you place in front of the cable/satellite box - it's a middleman. the serial cable is a direct link to the box, so it's normal in terms of response.

about ondemand, once cable companies release cablecard 2.0 cards (they're in testing right now) it will work on a series3.

[N 82 50 24]

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the only complaint from me is the latency when turning the channels which i don't experience w/ comcast dvr.

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they're probably connecting it using the "ir blaster", which is slower than using the serial cable. the ir blaster relays commands from your remote to a transmitter that you place in front of the cable/satellite box - it's a middleman. the serial cable is a direct link to the box, so it's normal in terms of response.

about ondemand, once cable companies release cablecard 2.0 cards (they're in testing right now) it will work on a series3.

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So we'll be able to get upgraded CableCARDs from our cable company and it should work in our Series3?

That will be sick, I'm looking forward to that. The only thing I miss is not having onDemand, although I didn't use it all that often.