Pros: Easy to use & setup; competitive subscription prices; very intuitive menus; reasonably priced;
Cons: Must use cable cards which eliminate the use of Pay-For-View channels.
The Bottom Line: Owning a DVR will cause you to wonder how you got along without one before. TIVO makes the easiest and most intuitive unit on the market. Maintains value well.
newtownbeans's Full Review: TiVo HD 180-Hours Video Recorder
This is the third TIVO unit that I have owned in the past few years. I started with the original TIVO and then upgraded to the 2-tuner Series 2 standard version and now to the 2-tuner Series 3 HD version. Each time that I upgraded, it cost me very little extra money or I sometimes actually made money. The last unit I owned was purchased for $200. with a $150. rebate. I then sold that unit on eBay for $80. when I upgraded to the present HD version, netting me a $30. profit after more than 2 years of use. These units are like Toyotas…if you keep them in good condition they have a great resale value.
The HD unit I have now is much like the earlier standard 2-tuner unit, except that it can also receive & record HD programs. It must be installed with cable cards that are available at your cable company for you to install or by their technicians. You will probably have to pay a monthly fee for HD programs from your cable company and a small rental fee for the cable cards. In my case it came to $5. monthly for HD and $2 each for the cable cards for a total of $9./monthly. However, since I no longer need a converter box, the $5 monthly fee for that was dropped. You can use a single multistream card or 2 single cable cards, depending on what is available from your cable company. There was no installation charge to put in the cable cards by Charter Cable. They did have to install a tuner adapter in order to receive all the channels when the conversion to all digital takes place in February 2009. There was no extra charge for this unit. Please note that when using cable cards, you will not be able to access Pay-for-View or the cable company guide. The absence of the cable company guide is not a big deal because TIVO has its own guide.
The remote is the most comfortable remote to use of all my remotes. The buttons are easy to discern & use and the shape fits the hand perfectly. You can also upgrade to a lighted remote for an additional cost. The lighted remote comes standard with the larger TIVO HD unit.
If you have never owned a TIVO before, you are in for a surprise when you get one. If you’re like me, you will begin to appreciate having TIVO the way you do having a television or a phone or water or air! You start to wonder how you ever got along without it. Having a TIVO or any other DVR (Digital Video Recorder) allows you to record TV programs, store them for later viewing, search for programs, stop, pause, move ahead incrementally, go back to the beginning, fast forward, etc. It’s like having a great VHS that you can program to do many things and it all fits on a hard drive, instead of on a tape. This recorder will hold up to 180 hours of standard broadcast programs and up to 40 hours of HD broadcast programs. Personally this is more than enough recording time for me, but if you think you would need more, there is a larger capacity HD TIVO available but the price is more than double. It is also possible to connect an external hard drive to this unit to expand the storage limits, but I have not looked into that.
One of the nicest features about owning a DVR is the ability to pause a live program for up to ½ hour and go back to continue viewing. So the trip to the bathroom or the refrigerator or the unexpected phone call will not cause you to miss one second of any live broadcast. This is the feature I have probably used more than anything else. The other wonderful feature of a TIVO is the ability to race through the commercials on any recorded program. I have found that viewing my favorite programs is more enjoyable if I record them first and view them while skipping through the commercials. This feature alone is worth the price of a DVR.
With the TIVO you can record 2 channels at once. They can be any combination of standard broadcast or HD channels. Or you can record one channel while watching a second one. You can also record 2 channels while watching a prerecorded show or a DVD. The design of the TIVO is very handsome and looks great on any component shelf. The User Guide is one of the best guides I have ever seen with any piece of electronic equipment. It is easy to read and follow and covers all aspects of the TIVO’s functions. You can also call a toll-free number at TIVO to get tech support and they always answer the phone promptly and are very helpful. The TIVO user screen is very intuitive and easy to negotiate for all the necessary settings and record times, etc.
Setting up is fairly easy and takes about an hour. The best connections are to use the HDMI ports on your TV and on the TIVO box. This gives you the best picture and eliminates a lot of other wires. You have to contact TIVO to subscribe and there is a monthly charge for the service,(about $13.). You can also reduce the monthly charges by subscribing for a year at a time. The TIVO Series 3 HD DVR sells for about $300. at TIVO.com, but I saw it as low as $259. at other sites. I was able to negotiate with the sales rep at TIVO and they matched the lowest price I had found online. Shipping took about a week.
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