Clue me in on TIVO

In My Humble Opinion
1

I read this thread and others proclaiming the praises of TIVO…

A few questions

  1. How has TIVO changed your viewing habits?

  2. If you were going to purchase a TIVO…what would you suggest? I’ve heard others suggesting getting one off of eBay and then upgrading the harddrive?

  3. Speaking of upgrades…is the hard drive upgrade difficult…or wold you suggest having it done somewhere (and are there places that will upgrade it for you?). I have a mac…so I’m not sure that i could “bless” the new harddrive (is that the correct terminiology?)

  4. I assume the lifetime service plan is the way to go?

  5. We have DSL phone service…anyway for the TIVO to download its data over the net instead of a phone call?

  6. Any other websites or message boards worth checking out?
    We’re in the “sniffing” stage…not necessarily convinced to buy at this time…but certainly exploring our options.

2

My ex-gf had Tivo. It was AWESOME. I programmed it to get Simpsons, Frazier, and Cardinals baseball games automatically. It also guessed what you’d like by what you had asked for. With the small drive she had, she didn’t have much room for the guesses, though.

From what I’ve seen on the message boards about it, you really need to know what you’re doing with Linux before attempting to mirror the programming onto a bigger drive. You can find detailed instructions, but I personally would be in waaaaay over my head. I’m sure you could find some local Linux geek who might like the challenge and take the job for a small fee. Of course, you have the cost of the drive too, but if you buy an older used model, you should still come out ahead of the cost of the new ones.

The lifetime subscription pays off in a couple years, I think.

The phone call I’m pretty sure is toll-free, so there’s not much point in getting some other method.

Try Tivo.com, which makes it seem like the Tivo company is pretty cool with the hot-rodders. You still have to buy the equipment to have something to tweek.

3

Tivo is hands down the best peice of electronics that I have gotten besides a computer. I own two of the older (non series 2) models. I have upgraded both of them with larger drives.

Now to your questions -

  1. I get to watch all my favorite shows with my wife when WE want to, not when they are on. No running for tapes, forgetting what is on a tape etc…

  2. I would buy any tivo. If you get an older one you will want to upgrade the drive pretty quick. (Some of them only have a 14gig drive in them.) The good thing about the newer ones is that they have a USB port which they will later enable. The older ones are more hackable.

  3. The hard drive upgrade is pretty straightfoward. If you can install a drive into a PC you can follow the directions to upgrading your tivo. MAKE SURE YOU BACK IT UP is my only warning.

  4. Your choice on the service. I have both my Tivos for a while now with lifetime service.

  5. If you get a series 2 tivo you can hook a usb ethernet adapter to it. Older tivos can get a 3rd party network card for it.

6)some sites:
www.9thtee.com - Upgrades etc…
www.tivocommunity.com - best site for tivo info