All you TIVO fans

[Megan's Mom]

I have a few questions to you TIVO owners. I would like to purchase one for my dH for Christmas. Can you buy them at places like Best Buy or is there somewhere else that would be better. Do they work with cable or do you have to have a dish? I have heard so many of you rave about them and after setting two vcr's while we were gone I think this is the way for us.
Thanks

 

[ead79]

I have TiVo, and it is wonderful! All the hype about it is really true! Yes, you can buy them at places like Best Buy and Circuit City. They will work with cable, a dish, or even an antenna. When you first get your TiVo, you set it up and tell it what kind of service you are using. I got mine for Christmas 2 years ago, and I LOVE it! Feel free to ask if you've got any other questions.

 

[TerryKitten]

an you buy them at places like Best Buy or is there somewhere else that would be better.

Best Buy works... Really anywhere that offers them. When you by them you just buy the machine. Then you need to buy the service which you do though TIVO on the web or phone.

Do they work with cable or do you have to have a dish?

They work with cable or a dish, just besure to buy the right one. <technical Jargon> the ones for the dishes do not have the mpeg encoding card in them since the stuff from the dish is already encoded. But he ones for the cable do have the card... </technical Jargon> Just besure to get the right one you need.

I have heard so many of you rave about them and after setting two vcr's while we were gone I think this is the way for us.

We enjoy ours. The season pass thing is great. It records all the shows of your choice and if the network moves them, (with some notice) it adjusts. The only really bad thing is if something happens on the network ie the president speaks or breaking news, the tivo has no clue that it happened. You can't record 2 channels at the same time, but you can schedule a bunch of things on the TIVO and it all gets done.

Your going to need a phone line near the box or some kind of network connection so it can talk with TIVO everyday to get updates. We have ours wirelessly connected to our broadband connection so it "talks to the mother planet" with out wires. Although we did need to string a phone line (there was a 30ft line included) for the inital setup.

I hope I made sense

 

[MacGyverTDS]

We have Direct TV with a TiVo box and absolutely love it! We bought it directly from Direct TV, they came out and installed it for us. This one does allow you to tape 2 shows at once, however if you want to watch tv, you have to watch one of the 2 shows you are recording. I love the option to record one show and watch another one! Season's Pass is the best, set it once to record one of your favorite shows and you're all set, it will record each time the show is on until you remove it from the Season's Pass menu!

For us it was definitely money well spent!

Juidy

 

[CBRorBust]

I do not have TIVO, but I have been begging for it for 2 years now. So I'm hoping that the 3rd times the charm!

Well,

If you have Direct TV and you have the Total Choice Package, the monthly fee is FREE! Otherwise it is $4.99/month!

 

[JetMom]

We also have Direct TV with TiVo and we love it! We bought ours right from Direct TV and they installed it. It was definitely worth the money. In fact, I can't imagine not having it and we've only had it for 2 months!

 

[Jen D]

Do make sure your cable company doesn't already offer one for free. They have been very quiet about it, but Time Warner Cable has been offering a free DVR for a few months here-- we had one delivered and just pay a $6.95 per month fee on top of our cable bill. I have heard other cable companies are starting to do this as well.

We had been planning on getting Tivo, but were delighted not to spend the extra money. We read some online reviews- there are a few things better about Tivo, particularly the search functions, but for the no-price we are delighted with our dvr, and also we can record two things at once-- and the picture quality is great.

Ours records about 35 hours, which is fine for us. We usually carry about 15 saved hours at any given time.

 

[olena]

Do not use Dish Network with Tivo!

Ours worked fine together until last month. Then Dish Network uploaded new software to their customers' Dish receivers. The result is that the Tivo receiver can no longer change the channel on the Dish receiver. Major inconvenience.

At first, Dish said it was a Tivo problem, but we began noticing that other Dish Network customers with Tivos were voicing similar complaints on the internet.

In our case, and in others, we were told that Dish Network has their own version of Tivo, the Dish PVR, and we should be using that anyway.

We finally found a Dish Network employee who acknowledged the many angry calls and that the Dish software upgrade was to blame. What were they going to do about it? Nothing.

As a result, many customers in our position are firing Dish Network. I do not recommend getting a Tivo, if you are a Dish Network customer. Even though they offer their own PVR, it is an inferior product. Tivo has many more options such as Wish Lists and Season Passes.

 

[Otto's Doll]

Another Direct TV and TIVO user here... my DH absolutely loves it... (I am too busy on the DIS to watch it much ). He loves old movies and can get the ones that show at 3:25am now without having to search the tvguide and program the vcr anymore. You can just put in the name of the actor you like (William Powell, Spencer Tracy, James Stewart) and the TiVo does it from there. It is worth it!

 

[olena]

Just to clarify my earlier post. We have a Dish Network 6000 series HD receiver. We know for sure about this model's incompatibility with Tivo. Other models may work fine for now.

By the way, we LOVE our Tivo for all the above mentioned reasons and more.

 

[Beast]

Can you record onto VHS off of the recorded TiVo material? In case you wanted to record an entire season, "back-to-back"?

Did this make sense?
Thanks

 

[ead79]

Beast, you sure can record off of TiVo onto VHS tapes. I haven't personally done it before (I don't have a VCR in the same room as my TiVo), but I know it's a feature of TiVo.

 

[olena]

It makes sense. Yes, you can! Under program options, you select 'Send to VCR'.

 

[Megan's Mom]

Thanks for all the great information. I know now that I will be purchasing one for Christmas. Now to get to best Buy and get one and hide it from DH. I like to have my research done before I go. Our Best Buy doesn't always employ the brightest people.

 

[CBRorBust]

Our Best Buy doesn't always employ the brightest people.

We must shop at the same Best Buy!

 

[Megan's Mom]

One more question. Is it better to pay the service fee up front or do it monthly? Seems like it is around $14 a month something like that but $250 for a one time payment. Just wondering.

 

[Otto's Doll]

With Directv, we paid 199$ for the receiver and installation (as well as moving our other 2 receivers to where we wanted them) and now we pay $4.99 for the 3rd receiver, and $4.99 for the Tivo service every month. Well worth every cent!

 

[Megan's Mom]

Okay I lied I have another question. I was looking over the Best Buy site and do most of you have 40 or 80 hours. For $100 more you can double your recording time. Thoughts?

 

[trishy]

We have Direct TV with our Tivo system (which is actually a Hughes model Digital Satellite Recorder) which has 35 hours of recording. We love it!!! My dh had it installed for me when I was recuperating from knee surgery - what a gift - I'm hooked. The best part is when you come home and click on List and find out what got Tivo'd - it actually records shows that IT thinks you will like. I was shocked to find out how accurate it is (kinda scary, huh?). Season pass is awesome - now dh can always get his fix of Inside Winston Cup every Monday and I get Survivor. 35 hours is plenty - I've never run out of room and we record a lot. The VHS function is very easy to use. I'm not sure why, but on the bill it says DirecTV DVR Premier Bonus: You save $4.99 - so dh must have signed up for some special promotion because we're not paying that monthly charge. Go for it...you're gonna LOVE it.

 

[ohanafamily]

Megan's Mom, The BEST TIVO is with Direct TV, and the Built In Direct TV tuner into your Tivo. It has Digital quality, and blows away the cable signal. I would like an 80 Hour one, but they only make the Direct TV version in 35 hour. I asked why; It seems that the 35 hour Direct TV is the same size HD as the 80 hour cable version, it just records at a higher resolution. I went to Our best Buy, and tracked down the one employee there who understood the technology (I got his name as well). He confirmed this. I will say that we lost a Tivo to lightning, while we were on a trip, and it makes an excellent boat anchor. To fix it would have been $50 more than a new one.

If you don't have/want Direct TV, I would try to get a free one from your cable company. You can also ask Best Buy online with your specifics.

Best Feature...Gotta be Pause Live TV. I saw the commercial and laughed. My cousin bought a Tivo and told me to stop laughing, it saves marriages. If my wife walks into the room while I am watching a show, I can give her the attention she deserves/requires, When you pause the TiVo, the sound goes off. You can rewind a few seconds and Voilà, you have room to skip a commercial...

Which unit to buy? The one that went out was a Sony. We replaced it with a Hughes. The units were virtually identical, except :note to Beast) The Sony has an IR link to automatically start and stop your VCR. The Hughes had the plug in the back, but would not support the remote IR. If you have a Sony VCR, the Sony would even start and stop your VCR for you. If you will be archiving, I recommend the Sony, if you won't even have a VCR in the same room, well, the units are virtually identical.

HDTV. There are Tivo Units that support HDTV, but none with the Direct TV tuner built into them. I am still waiting. If you have an HDTV, this might be an issue.

Up Front VS Pay Per Month? I paid it all up front, and when my first Tivo Died, they transferred the service to the new one. I am happy with it.

Buy one and hide it...I understand your desire for this to be a holiday present, so why don't you order it directly from Direct TV and schedule them to come out during the day on the 24th to install it? Or better yet, give it to him early but tell him he can't play with it until Christmas (or whatever Winter Holiday you celebrate) It is not Life Changing, but it is incredibly convenient and easy to use. (Gosh, I sound like a commercial; no, I don't work for them, but I am a satisfied customer. The only regret I have is about 12 hours of shows that were supposed to record when it went out. The Tivo worked so well up to that point that we thought nothing could go wrong.