I’ve got the DirecTV unit too. A few bugs, but that’s in the channel “sorting”; you can’t sort by channel name. (If anyone knows how, let me know.)
Also, it keeps reminding me of how many episodes of “Dr. Who” I’ve yet to watch. But I’ve got all the new ones since October. 
You guys had me by post #3.
I went to Best Buy today and bought the $249 Tivo I had looked at yesterday. Bonus: I received a $180 mail-in rebate, so it only ended up costing $69. I hooked it up this afternoon and told it to slap a season pass on Scrubs and The Simpsons. The first few episodes it recorded came out VERY poor quality and I was starting to get pissed about it until I realized that I had accidently pressed a wrong button on my cable box. Now, the picture looks perfect. Thanks for all the input, especially the hilarious ones.
That is the most baffling thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life. You are watching something. She wants to talk to you. So instead of telling her to wait, or trying to listen to her and still pay attention to the TV at the same time, you pause the show so that you can give her your full attention… and somehow that is a BAD thing?
I bought my first TiVo in 2001. A large, warm box that I only sorta wanted. Within a week, I was completely unable to live without it. When that TiVo died, it was 2 in the morning on a Tuesday – by 3a, I had a new one from Wal-Mart. My TiVo is absolutely essential.
I spent the last year traveling – 3 days home, 4 days away weekly. My TiVo didn’t miss a single thing I wanted, and it was all waiting for me, at my convenience, when I wanted it. From my cellphone’s web browser, I programmed it several times when I saw a commercial for a show I wanted to watch while sitting in my hotel room halfway across the state. The show would be waiting when I came home.
I work a crazy retail schedule, with shifts that start between 6a and 2p and wrap up between 3p and midnight. If I didn’t have my TiVo, I’d never see anything I want to, cause I’m usually at work during primetime. On top of that, the cable networks run shows several times a week at varied hours, which means that I can always find one that doesn’t conflict with something else.
With the TiVo Desktop software, I can look at photos and listen to my desktop PC’s music on my TV. In addition, the TiVo supports something called “series transfers”; this means that any episode of that series I record will be automatically transferred to my PC for use there, where I can watch it again or burn it to DVD (Who wants a Galactica boxset?) My brother and I can move stuff back and forth to/from our TiVos so we can watch it where we want it.
I actually watch less TV than I did previously, but it’s all stuff I want to watch. I also like the suggestions feature, but I’m conscientious about thumbs-downing the stuff I don’t want to watch before I delete it. The folders do make all the difference, though, cause I do remember scrolling through the suggestions mainlined with the requests on my old Series1.
I see the OP already bought his TiVo, but I think any other readers on the fence should join us. TiVos (as was previously stated) will actually change the way you look at TV. I know I sound like a damn commercial, but everyone I know with a TiVo feels exactly the same way.
Not specifically with our DVR, but other situations arise where my wife presents a no-win dilemma.
For example: if my wife asks me to pick our daughter up after work, I could ask, “From your office?” She would then exasperatedly reply, “Of course from my office!”
Or, I could assume she meant from her office. Then when I arrive at her office, she’d say, “Where is she!? You were supposed to pick her up from school!”
This is from a woman who will, after 20 minutes’ silence in the car, will just state, “That was really a really stupid movie.”
“What movie’s that?” I’ll ask confusedly.
“‘There’s Something About Mary.’ I can’t believe you took me to that!”
“That was eight years ago! And I’ve apologized for that.”
:: raises hand ::
My wife loves TiVo. For me it is no big deal, but mainly an aggravation. It slows down everything. It’s a several-second lag to change channels, for example. And it produces these “blips,” these hiccups on the screen where everything flashes and freezes, then starts back to normal after a second or two. Usually right at the point in a show where something important is happening. It seems like we gave the TV more than it can handle. Maybe we have it hooked up wrong.
The main effect is has for me is that I find myself cursing and looking for the remote a couple of times every game I’m watching, so I can tell the @#$%ing thing not to switch channels to record CSI or Scrubs or some stupid reality show. The disagreeable machine assumes that what I’m actually watching is less important than some other show and will switch automatically. My wife and TiVo are in league against me.
If the Tivo people were smart(er), they would take this thread and turn it into a TV commerical.
Well, in its defense, it has no idea whether you’re watching its output or not. It’s always sending a signal to the TV; whether anyone’s viewing that signal is beyond its ken.
Your other problem – with the channel change delay – is just the nature of the beast. But why are you watching live TV anyway? That’s what you have a TiVo for.
Nonsense, the machine is being deliberately rude. No other explanation.
I, um, don’t work well with machines. I’m not sure how to use it, and I’m not particularly interested in learning. So, in fairness, I’m probably not the right acid test for determining the value of TiVo. I still can’t work the VCR, and that’s obsolete. A whole generation of TV viewing technology has expired without my having mastered any significant portion of it. And that’s fine with me. The rest of you can carry on. I’ll be over here with my buggy whip, reading a book.
Nonsense, the machine is being deliberately rude. No other explanation.
I, um, don’t work well with machines. I’m not sure how to use it, and I’m not particularly interested in learning. So, in fairness, I’m probably not the right acid test for determining the value of TiVo. I still can’t work the VCR, and that’s obsolete. A whole generation of TV viewing technology has expired without my having mastered any significant portion of it. And that’s fine with me. The rest of you can carry on. I’ll be over here with my buggy whip, reading a book.
This annoyed me to no end with our old TiVo using IR blasters on our cable box. It made channel surfing live TV just too slow and frustrating to do (yes, I still love channel surfing live TV instead of watching recording programs). Our new dual-tuner TiVo solved this problem, though. Tuner 1 handles non-cable box available chanels (1 to 80 or so), tuner 2 handles those above. It’ll now change the lower channels as quick that the TV could do.
The other dual-tuner awesomeness, is the ability to watch two live shows at once. Turn on something on both tuners, pause one, go watch the other, when your hit a commercial pause it, flip to second tuner, watch to commercial, pause it, flip over, fast-forward through commercial, watch it, repeat, repeat, repeat…
Now that’s a bold statement!
Give up the net? :eek: :scared: 
It’s a passive aggressive way to tell you that she’s bored and all the two of you do any more is watch TV. Not that I hear that from my wife every day, or anything… :rolleyes: