Life Has a New Necessity
Written: Jan 10 '03 (Updated Jan 13 '03)
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Pros: A great value and time saver.
Cons: Fear of bad reviews coming true.
The Bottom Line: Saves time and allows for more TV when you want it. Wonderful to use, with a response time and interface twice as good as the standard DirecTV unit.
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| jms7's Full Review: Sony SAT-T60 DIRECTV Receiver with TiVo Service |
This is the next thing you should buy if you ever watch TV. I would recommend getting TiVo before you upgrade any other component including your TV. It not only changes the way you watch TV it changes how you spend your free time.
The TiVo/DirecTV combo is a super space and connection simplifier. For best effect, you need a digital input into your TV, 2 Sat.TV connections, and a phone connection. All you need is a single cable/Sat. connection and a coax connection to your TV. The phone line needs to be connected once a month to tell 'them' what pay-per-view you have used and to update software and the channel guide. My unit came with a 50' phone cable so, if you want to, plug it in once a week or so and tell it to download the updates. You need the 2 Sat.TV connections if you want to record one channel and watch another channel or record 2 different channels at the same time. However, you can record and play a previously recorded program. DirecTV gives you East and West coast broadcasts of the networks at their live time and most cable channels re-run everything so I have never needed to wire up the 2nd DirecTV line.
The all digital signal makes TV like a DVD. I can X3 fast-forward and still read text on screen if it is displayed long enough. X3 FF translates into 4 hours in 4-5 minutes. Wanna just watch the crashes in an auto race but do not want to spend 4 hours on Sunday afternoon, this is the answer. Whatever you are watching the HDD is recording. So, if your mother calls in the middle of CSI you can pause and pick up where you left off. Now you have a time buffer built up so when the next commercial comes up you can fast-forward through it. When you see the show has returned you hit play and the TiVo backs up 8 secs, which is about your response time at X2 FF, to about the fade-in from commercial point. This is part of the replay feature that lets you go back 8 seconds and see a sports play again or Rusty Wallace go hard into turn 3 one more time. Since it is always recording the channel you are on, for the last 30 minutes, if you decide your kid might like the show you are watching on Discovery about man-eating sharks, you hit record and it starts from the beginning (or 30 minutes ago). Now, you still might want a VCR and here is why. My friend selected a 'season pass' of 'The Wiggles'. He set it to 'record new and repeats' on the appropriate channel. It will not record repeats if it has previously recorded and you have deleted unless you set it to 'record all'. Once he had amassed 6 hours worth he selected 'send to VCR' all at once. Now when the kid wants to see her show she has 6 hours of it on tape at the push of a button and it took him about 5 minutes to do (other than the VCR recording and waiting for 6 hours of the show to be captured by TiVo). You might even be able to rig it up to burn to a DVD if you are savvy and have a DVD burner.
The time saved is fantastic. Besides not ever having to hope you programed the VCR, you just 'get a season' pass for all the shows you watch and whether you are home to see it or not, it has been captured for you. I have not watched a commercial in 3 months and watch 2 hours of TV a day. You are saving 20 minutes per hour of TV (except HBO etc). I do get to see many more HBO movies as it is so easy to record. I just look up the name and find a time that does not interfere with another scheduled recording.
It does emit a little noise but no more than my DVD player when it is playing a DVD and usually less.
The reviews who say the HDD failed should be upset but at the customer service not the box. Shipping should be free. I have seen computer HDDs last 10 years and some are dead in a month. By the way, you can add or replace your own HDD but it does void the warranty. The 35 hour record time is OK but I have found that it does require some space management. My next unit will have 70 . Really the problem is the wait for a fixed one to ship and receive. Most dealers do not give you a loaner car why would they send you a loaner TiVo that is a crazy notion? My unit was $250 and should it die I'll send it in for repair and order another one as a back up. If you are paying $50 a month for DirecTV, this is worth $25. So, if it only lasts a year it has paid for itself.
If my TiVo died I might have to pay the Best Buy premium to replace it that day instead of waiting for one to ship.
It sounds crazy, but it is that good!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 250.00
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Epinions.com ID:
jms7
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Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 0 members
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