I’m thinking about getting a TIVO for the family for Christmas.
I can get the 80 hour basic box for free (plus service of course)
or the deluxe can record 2 shows at once 80 hour box for $69.95 (plus service)
I can get 3 years of service for $8.66/ month if I prepay.
OR
I can get a DVR from my cable company for $10 / month (I think, Time Warner’s web site is not very helpful)
I have digital cable (not HD)
My questions are:
Which box should I go for, or should I get it from the cable co?
The Time Warner website lists two choices of boxes, DVR and HD DVR. If I get a box from Tivo will it do HD if and when I upgrade?
Any suggestions or recommendations?
Tivo has a dual tuner HD box (Cable Card) for $800, the free one (or the one for $70.00) does not have HD capability.
As for what box to go for, that’s kinda up to you. FYI though, the dual tuner can only record two analog stations or one analog and one digital, but not two digital stations. (It take’s one feed directly from the coax and one from the cable box). There’s a lot of options and it’s hard to make sense of them. I’ll be happy to answer anything I can though, but the questions have to be a bit more specific.
It was so much easier for me, they only made one box (Series 2 40 hour) and two payment plans. Monthy or lifetime.
I have Comcast digital cable and the TIVO basic 80 hr. box. I’d much rather have Comcast’s DVR service, but I got the TIVO box and the service for free. One limitation that I hate, is that I can’t record one station while watching another, unless that other station is not a digital channel. I had to hook it up in a way to still get analog channels so I could still watch analog channels while recording. I don’t know if you’ll run in to the same problem if you go with the deluxe box.
One of my favorite features of TIVO that I don’t know you’ll have with Time Warner (or if you even care about having) is hooking up the TIVO box remotely to wireless router. I can remotely download videos from my PC, such as videos from Google Video, to my TIVO DVR and watch them on TV.
TIVO’s HD box is $800. I’m pretty sure most cable companies will let you use their HD DVRs for free, but I would call Time Warner about that one if you plan on getting an HD TV set anytime soon. Also, ask Time Warner what the monthly fee will be in total. I hear after the extra fees, it more like 14 - 15.
Most reviews I have seen of non-Tivo devices mention that the UI is crappy. I believe the Comcast DVR is one that I have seen reviewed (since I have Comcast, I was interested to see what they had), and it did not do well. For that reason, I recommend the Tivo over the Comcast.
I like the dual-tuner – being able to watch one thing while another is being recorded is just nice.
As for HD – I believe that a standard definition Tivo will record the signal, just not in HD. If you plan to upgrade to an HDTV at some point, then you will want the HD box, but until that time, the the vanilla version should be fine. Tivo has an undocumented “one-time transfer” option that you can use to move an existing service contract from one box to another, so you could upgrade your Tivo box when you upgrade your TV, taking advantage of whatever is out at that time.
So, net:
I say get the deluxe Tivo, and prepay for three years of service.
The real payoff is when you are at Grandma’s house and the kids say “pause it! I have to go potty!” and then realize there is no Tivo and say, crestfallen “oh, BROADCAST.”
My Comcast Tifaux has its limitations, but I didn’t have to buy it; it only costs $10 a month; and it can record 2 shows at a time. I can watch a third, if it’s already been recorded, but not if it’s live. Biggest drawback: crappy searchability, CRAPPY movie capsules (no directors mentioned, for one thing, so you can’t search by director).
I have two TiVos. One is the “basic” (although it has a DVD burner in it) and the other is the dual-tuner model. By far my favorite is the dual-tuner model because I can be recording two shows at once. But, as another poster says, only one of those could be off a digital channel, unless of course you just ignore the digital channels. In fact, that’s what I’ve done on that box. I have my digital cable box in the living room and if I want to record something on one of those channels I’ll do it out there, and if I really want to watch it on the other TiVo, it’s no trouble to transfer it to the other box. I find the channel changing is much faster without the digital cable box, so I only have the one in the house.
I have a Scientific Atlanta DVR with my (soon to be gone) Adelphia account, and there’s a TiVo back at my home.
The TiVo has some much better ideas and seems to be higher quality (for example, it resets a few seconds back when you fast forward at a high speed, which actually makes really good sense!) and along with TiVo2Go…personally, if I didn’t have to buy one, I’d have the actual TiVo in a second.
I’m a Tivoholic. We have the basic one. My husband just wigged out and got the DVR box from the cable company. It sucks comparatively, but does handle HDTV.
There actually are quite a few options out there beyond TIVO and Cable’s DVR.
Check out Mythtv.com and also Windows Media Center, both are considered viable alternatives.
Ultimately, TIVO wins for the interface, which just kicks so much booty. We are looking into MythTV since an 800 TIVO isn’t in the budget and my husband will die if I miss an episode of Heros. That and I don’t give enough of a crap about HDTV.
Pardon me for bumping this again, but I’ve got a question.
I’m considering a Tivo series 2, dual tuner. I can’t get a landline (phone) to the box, so I’m going to need their Wireless adapter (I’ve got a linksys -G broadband, 802.11g, I think). How does Tivo handle my secure network? Is there some sort of UI that will allow me to give the Tivo box my WEP key? I’m puzzled about how this part works. Will I need anything else to use the adapter (besides a really short USB cable)? Also, will I need to buy a remote (their website shows a bunch of remotes for sale)?
The TiVo setup screen has a field for you to enter your WEP key (note that, as far as I know, the newer TiVos only support WEP, not WPA.)
The TiVo comes with a remote. The ones for sale are for when you break it. They’re quite robust, though; I haven’t broken mine yet and I bang the hell out of that thing.
Thanks friedo, I’m still new to this tech. I’m about to order one for the missus (she has lotsa shows she likes to save). Since I don’t have a DVD-R on our TV, do ya think it’d be a good idea to order the humax recorder along with it? It seems to be a Tivo + DVD-R in one box.
Thanks if you (or anyone else) is familiar with this.
I liked being able to save recorded TIVO programs to video tape. Now I have a Comcast DVR. Is there anyway to save recorded programs to video tape on the DVR?
When I arrived in Canada I ordered the Shaw cable TIVO-like PVR. It was the biggest pile of junk I’ve had the pleasure to use in a long time. Everything from the menu system down to the remote was badly designed. It only collected the schedule a few days out. I hated it so much I took the device back and canceled my cable television service.
Now I have a Bell Satellite PVR. Much better. Still not as nice and clean as a TIVO, but pretty close.
