Anyone have a Tivo? Questions...

[DCLuvinit]

I want to get a TiVo, and I am just wondering if 40 hrs. is sufficient recording time? I am just worried that once I enter the types of shows I want to record it will fill up quickly - and not neccessarily with things I want to watch. I don't really watch a lot of TV, but when I do it always seems like there's nothing on, which one reason I want the TiVo. What do you think?

 

[CBRorBust]

I think 40 hours is enough, but if you want to keep the shows that you record on your Tivo forever, then yes you will eventually need more space.

But if you are going to delete most of the stuff you watch after you watch it 40 hours will be more than enough.

 

[Growin'upDisney]

I agree that 40 is probably sufficient. Make sure you set the Tivo on med quality if you aren't going to keep the shows.

For example. I Tivo All My Children, One Life to Live, and General Hospital everyday. I also Tivo Las Vegas, The Apprentice, Firends, ER, West Wing, and Celebrity Mole. We were gone the last week of January and the Tivo held everything with some room to spare.

i cannot say enough about the Tivo - it has changed the way I watch TV.

 

[CBRorBust]

i cannot say enough about the Tivo - it has changed the way I watch TV.

I could not agree more. I know that all the people out there who don't have a Tivo think we are all Tivo Freaks because we always talk about how great this little box is, but I can promise they would do the same if they had it.

My mother HATES to watch TV without it being Tivo'd now. This is a woman who watches MAYBE MAYBE MAYBE 4 shows a week at most!

Go Tivo and don't look back!

 

[WDWguru]

We have a Directv/Tivo combo unit so ours is always set on highest quality, but we still get about 30 hours. We record a LOT of stuff... at last count we had about 25 season passes, plus some other things we record here and there. We've never run out of room. One thing you can do, which we have done, is to turn off the auto-recording of suggestions. Tivo will still keep track of your suggested programs and you can view the list at any time, but it just won't automatically record any of them. Even if you do have it on, those programs are considered the lowest priority and will be deleted before anything you have actively recorded if things do fill up.

We've had Tivo for three years and own 350 shares of stock. I've successfully recruited three people in my office, so I'm not officially known as the Tivo cheerleader!

 

[DCLuvinit]

Thanks for the replies - I can't wait to join the TiVo club! I'm beginning to feel that 40hrs will be the way to go. I am so excited!

 

[TheButlerDiditt]

Originally posted by DCLuvinit
Thanks for the replies - I can't wait to join the TiVo club! I'm beginning to feel that 40hrs will be the way to go. I am so excited!

I DISAGREE!! 40 hours is NOT enough! It slows everything down considerably. We have many "season passes" which records a number of shows each day. We then pick and choose between them what we want to watch. It is always nice to have a choice. The irritating thing is that when you go to select a new show to record, TIVO must warn you that others will not record or will be deleted earlier and the process seems to take forever. We are always wishing for a larger memory on the thing.

 

[The Duchess]

We definately opted for the 80 hour Tivo, especially to record for DS who is five. No Commercials. He only watches what we Season Pass for him.

FYI...there's also a book out called
Hacking the TiVo
by William Von Hagen
which allows you to hook your TIVO up to your computer and do all sorts of weird cool things.
You an check it out on www.amazon.com

 

[joats]

We have the 40 hour tivo and would never need more. I tivo a few shows a day with my season passes. I've never run out of room. Also, If I want to keep something instead of taking up space on Tivo, I'll transfer it off tivo onto a video tape which tivo takes you thru step by step.

My name is Joats and I'm a Tivo-aholic! I don't know how I survived without it!

 

[k&a&c'smom]

We just became Tivo addicts, and we have a DTV/Tivo unit. I can't remember how many hours but not more than 40, for sure!!
(I was thinking 25.) This has been plenty for us.

When you set your "Season Pass" for recording your favorite shows, you can tell it to keep only 1, 2, 3, 4 , or 5 shows. We set ours to only 1 for weekly shows like "Everybody Loves Raymond" and 2 for daily shows like "The Ellen Degeneres Show." This way, if you still have last week's episode, it just tapes over it. Ours has never had to ask us if this is what we want, as we have set it up to do just that.

We have never filled ours, and we have Tivo'd several movies, and have tons of Season Passes (the kids have all their favorites on as well!!)

You also get to specify the order of importance of your favorite shows - that way, it deletes your least favorite first, if deletion becomes necessary!!! And if you do allow Tivo to tape it's suggestions for you, as WDWguru has stated (BTW, love your Arrowhead!), those will be the first to be deleted, your preferences come first.

Good luck, and welcome to the Tivo cult!!!!!!!!!!

 

[DCLuvinit]

What are the Season Passes?

 

[joats]

Season passes are great!
Here's an example: I set my tivo to tivo Survivor. It will tape it whenever it is on regardless if the day changes or it's a special 2 hour show. I'll never miss it again!

Season pass is so that you never have to miss a show. I have mine set to tape Survivor, DOOL, CSI, Real World, Newleyweds, RW/RW Challenge, etc. etc. I'll always have them tivoed automatically. I have mine set for new episodes only, so i don't get repeats.

LOVE MY TIVO!

 

[Pamlur]

I have been looking at those, too. But I see something about it "making a phone call" and our televisions aren't anywhere near a phone jack. What would I do about that?

 

[Duchie]

Yep - TiVO will totally change the way you watch TV. We love being able to pause live TV to answer the phone or whatever. We have the DirecTV/TiVO combo that originally came with 40 hr capacity. But DH bought a bigger hard drive and upgraded, so now we can hold about 130 hours (not that we ever need that much!)

 

[Daisimae]

We have a DTV/TiVo 40 hr unit too. It's wonderful! But we do need more space, esp because the DirecTv unit can't record two shows at once.

There are companies out there that will either upgrade your TiVo or send you an upgrade kit which consists of a large harddrive and brackets, connectors, pictured directions, etc, so you can add more storage time. This does void the warranty, but we are going to do it as soon as the machine's warranty expires.

If you want more info about upgrading or just TiVo try www.tivocommunity.com. The boards there have loads of info from extremely experienced users.

 

[cherylp3]

I have an 80 hr tivo in my living room and I just got a 40 hr for my bedroom.

Both are great!

Cheryl

 

[KaterBell]

Another Tivo-aholic checking in.

We have a Phillips Series 1 Tivo that we upgraded to 180 hours of storage and TivoNet (to use broadband for updates instead of the modem).... We bought that in Sept. 2001. This past Christmas, we purchased a Tivo Series2 80 hour unit. So Tivo upstairs, Tivo downstairs. All on the home network.

40 hours is NOT enough. If you are spending the money on the TiVo , get the best one you possibly can. You'll be glad you have the extra space.

I am also a member on TivoCommunity.com and it's THE site to go to get info about TiVo -- those people are geniuses.

Also - get the "lifetime" subscription" and not the monthly. You'll thank me in 2 years when the cost evens out.

 

[CBRorBust]

Can you get the "lifetime" thing if you have a Direct TV/Tivo combo?

 

[DCLuvinit]

Thanks for the info. Hmmm more to think about..... I'll check out the Tivo community board too. I have been looking on Ebay for one recently.

 

[oceanluvn]

If there is something you want to keep forever, Tivo lets you send it to your VCR and you can make a tape of it also.
Love my Tivo