HELP! I'm DVR ignorant...

[richmond282]

I would like to buy my husband a DVR for Christmas. I know nothing about them! Can I use a Tivo w/ my basic cable package? Do I just subscribe to Tivo and it will work or what? Does anybody have any other suggestions for DVRs or companies to use?

 

[Shutterbug]

I would like to buy my husband a DVR for Christmas. I know nothing about them! Can I use a Tivo w/ my basic cable package? Do I just subscribe to Tivo and it will work or what? Does anybody have any other suggestions for DVRs or companies to use?

What cable company do you have? Mine provides me with a DVR for a small cost each month I dont know how much off the top of my head.

 

[lovemygoofy]

I have had TIVO for a year now and just recently purchased another tivo machine, a HD tivo. I LOVE it. Very user friendly. I'm not very electronically coordinated and I can even use it.

We have basic cable from the wall plugged into our tivo with no problems. You can purchase a month to month plan, a yearly plan, or a lifetime subscription.

 

[OneDisney]

Which TiVo are you planning on getting? Do you have HD?

Also, TiVo is the best DVR I've come across.

 

[bicker]

If you are a cable subscriber, you do have two choices. Cable companies typically offer their own DVR service, and also typically support customer-owned DVRs, of which there is only one, currently on the market: The TiVo HD (and the premium TiVo HD XL). The TiVo is the better device, overall, with a better user interface, on average better reliability, and many advanced features not found in the typical cable company DVR. By comparison, cable companies generally do a better job supporting their own DVR, and since you rent instead of buy, if something ever goes wrong with a cable company DVR, you can get another one without too much trouble.

Note that, in most areas, there is no such thing, these days, as plug-it-in-and-go. Most cable networks are broadcast by cable companies encrypted. Therefore, you must rent some cable company equipment to receive those services. Today, that's typically a CableCARD. The typical cable company DVR has one inside it, while the cable company installs one into the TiVo HD (with fees for installation, and for monthly use of the CableCARD). Without a CableCARD, there are other limitations imposed on the TiVo HD.

 

[richmond282]

Thanks guys! I have just regular basic cable. My cable company says I would have to "upgrade" my package to HD cable to use their DVR services (with aonther fee on top of that for the service and one to rent the DVR.) I guess I was just trying to find out if there was anything I could use w/o having to go through all that trouble.

I looked on the Tivo website and it looks like I can use a Series 2 (?) w/o HD. Does that sound right? Will that work w/ my basic cable?

 

[lovemygoofy]

Thanks guys! I have just regular basic cable. My cable company says I would have to "upgrade" my package to HD cable to use their DVR services (with aonther fee on top of that for the service and one to rent the DVR.) I guess I was just trying to find out if there was anything I could use w/o having to go through all that trouble.

I looked on the Tivo website and it looks like I can use a Series 2 (?) w/o HD. Does that sound right? Will that work w/ my basic cable?

We used the basic tivo with our basic cable and had no problems and needed nothing other than the tivo, the cable, and the plan we wanted to buy through tivo. It is addictive though and you might want the hook the tivo up to the ineternet at some point.

 

[bicker]

Be careful: The TiVo HD (and the TiVo S3 before it) operate differently from earlier TiVos. The TiVo HD basically will only operate as a TiVo with CableCARDs installed. That represents a big difference. Some cable companies will insist on the subscriber having a digital package in order to get CableCARDs (though many people feel that that requirement is not technically legal).

So yes, stick with the TiVo S2 if you don't have an HDTV and don't plan to get one anytime soon. That will get you all unencrypted linear channels that your cable company provides you via analog signals.

Note that encrypted channels (channels that you cannot tune in directly on your television, but instead you need their cable box to tune them in) will not be accessible through a TiVo S2 hooked directly up to cable. (You'd have to set things up differently, with a cable box you rent from the cable company in between the cable and the TiVo, and if you're going to do that, you may prefer to just go with the cable company's DVR instead.)

Also, be forewarned that most cable companies have firm plans to phase out analog signals over the next three years, for everything except your local broadcast channels (ABC, NBC, CBS, etc.) Comcast, for example, will switch 20% of its subscribers to "all-digital" service by the end of this year (2008), and in such cases TiVo S2 DVRs will become quite limited in their usefulness.