Tivo Fan?

[Ned Bulken]

Anyone else out there a fan of that neat bundle of technology sitting atop your TV that lets you control what, when and How you view televison? See http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=24991 (Directv%20Sony%20Tivo%20on%20classifieds%20board) for why I thought I'd move the discussion of Tivo units.
(Directv%20Sony%20Tivo%20on%20classifieds%20board)

[Keith Starosta]

Tivo has changed the way people watch television. Say what you will about TV, and the shows programmers are putting on these days. My wife and I like several of them. Tivo has allowed us to record the shows we want to see while not necessarily needing to watch them "live". In fact, we just bought a second factory reconditioned 40hr. unit to put in our bedroom. We like to watch TV at night in bed, and this will allow us to transfer shows between units.

It is also great for the 2 year old twins. Instead of having to deal with video tapes and DVD's of the Wiggles/Seaseme Street/etc., my wife has set up a season pass for all of their favorites and can access them whenever.

We love it! :D

Keith

[Jim Becker]

I do not currently have PVR capablity, but will likely add it once Verizon has FIOS service available and installed to my house. (Fiber to the prem) I believe the value of being able to record programs of interest "automagically" for later playback will be most useful to me over time, especially once we have kiddos in the house. We are not big television viewers, but there are some times when material is on at times we couldn't watch even if we wanted to...

[Ken Salisbury]

I have had Tivo for years. I currently have a recorder with 200 hrs storage capacity for regular digital and 40 hrs of "high definition" programing. Can record 2 stations at once or watch one while recording another.

Really great during football season :).


Greatest thing since sliced bread !!!!

[Phil Phelps]

..to watch TV. I love golf, but I think more hours of commercials are bought in a golf tournament than any other program. I can whiz through the #$@^ commercials in split seconds and really enjoy the tournament. And, I can watch slo-mo to see the technique the pro uses. You can get a "season pass" and record all programs for that particular series that season. Record old movies that are on when you arn't. Breeze through football games and such. It's the greatest invention since tv itself. Watch out though, congress may muck up the entire process with a little bribe money. Bribe, politics? Did I say that?

[Lee DeRaud]

The things that have put me off Tivo so far are the monthly fees (which also applies to the DVR from the cable company) and the need to have a phone/network line near the TV. Anybody have recommendations for stand-alone DVRs that can be "manually" programmed?

[Ned Bulken]

Lee,
Panasonic has a DVR/DVD recorder combo which you might want to look into. I went with the unit I got because I enjoyed the Directv service, and the upgrade was relatively painless. If you're technically inclined you can also get a tuner and program a computer to do the same thing.

Keith,
I presume you have a regular Tivo. That ability to transfer programs between units is the one feature that I really wish the Directivo had. Not enough to go back to cable though. If I ever move and have a friendlier cable system (local Time-Warner system was why I went with directv) I will undoubtedly get a couple of regular units.

[Vaughn McMillan]

The things that have put me off Tivo so far are the monthly fees (which also applies to the DVR from the cable company) and the need to have a phone/network line near the TV. Anybody have recommendations for stand-alone DVRs that can be "manually" programmed? Lee, it's worth the extra 5 bucks a month to me to have the TiVo service, and the need for a phone line hasn't been a big hassle in either house I've had this set-up. ($5 is what TiVo costs on top of my DirecTV bill.) I also have some experience with PC-based DVRs...I have an ATI All-In-Wonder card on my secondary machine...but it's a Yugo compared to TiVo's Mercedes. I don't know much about the standalone manual DVRs, but I recall seeing good reviews of the Panasonic units. Nonetheless, to fall back on the automobile analogy:

Folded Map::In-Dash Navigation
Standard DVR::TiVo

IMHO, of course. ;)

Ned's right, though...I sure wish we could transfer video from one TiVo to the other. That's one limitation the DirecTV TiVos have compared to the standard ones. (But then again, AFAIK only the DirecTV version has dual channel simultaneous recording, too.)

- Vaughn (the walking, talking DirecTV/TiVo advertisement)

[Andrew Ault]

I've not used Tivo, but I've used a PC based DVR and the Time Warner HDTV and regular DVR products.

For me it is great to be able to catch programs that I would ordinarily miss. I can search ahead and find old movies that I'd like to see and watch them with my wife at our leisure.

Right now I have Formula One qualifying waiting for me and soon the Shanghai race will be there. I think I also marked a couple of PBS programs this weekend. We really enjoy it. I just wish I could get the "archive" feature to work do I could burn certain programs to DVD.

Anyway, it is easy to use and enjoyable.

[Keith Starosta]

Keith,
I presume you have a regular Tivo. That ability to transfer programs between units is the one feature that I really wish the Directivo had. Not enough to go back to cable though. If I ever move and have a friendlier cable system (local Time-Warner system was why I went with directv) I will undoubtedly get a couple of regular units.

Hey Ned. Yep, we have the regular Tivo units. For our second unit, I woulda liked to have gotta the one the had the integrated DVD burner, but ultimately decided against it (cost). We have Cox cable in our area, and we love it, despite the fact that we just got done with a billing battle. :rolleyes:

Keith

[John Shuk]

I love it! It allows me to watch what I want since what I like isn't usually on when the perils of fatherhood allow me to watch tv. I can also get through an episode of Woodworks in less timme so I hear less complaining. I can't wait to see what Verizon offers when they bring FIOS to my neighborhood. I work for them but I find out about whats coming only slightly faster than our most uninformed customers.

[Waymon Campbell]

Anyone else out there a fan of that neat bundle of technology sitting atop your TV that lets you control what, when and How you view televison? See http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=24991 (Directv%20Sony%20Tivo%20on%20classifieds%20board) for why I thought I'd move the discussion of Tivo units.
(Directv%20Sony%20Tivo%20on%20classifieds%20board)

Ned - I have a ReplayTV with 300GIG drive. That allows me to record 100hrs High quality video. I also have it networked to my PC so I can archive shows there for later viewing as well. Been using ReplayTV PVR for 5+ years and would never consider watching regular TV again.

Side note: I have been exploring the use of a Windows-based PVR for future use.

[JayStPeter]

Tivo is good. I get to watch NYW now (on at odd times around here). I can also watch the races without ruining a whole summer Sunday. I just have to stay away from people and media showing the results :rolleyes: .
One of the things it's especially nice for is the kids. We use it often to get them away from the TV. Since they know the rest of the show they are watching (or want to watch) will actually be recorded, they don't really fight us anymore.

Lee, you can get a wireless USB network adapter if you happen to have a wireless network in your house. You will need to plug into the phone for initial setup though.

It was tough to sign up for another monthly bill. Honestly, if it went away I wouldn't be devastated. I certainly don't use it to its fullest. But, it is nice to have and I'll keep paying for now.

Jay

[Matt Meiser]

We have it with our DirecTV. We almost never watch live TV anymore. We set up season passes for our favorite shows, and Tivo does a decent job of recording recommendations as well, so there's almost always something on there we want to watch.

The only thing I don't like is that the DirecTV units don't support attaching a network card to the USB port like the stand-alone units, even though they have the ports.

[John Shuk]

To me the exra $5 a month makes the other $35 a month worth it. I have access to what I want when I want.