roll your own tivo
 

A homegrown TiVo can do a lot more than a $299 TiVo box. Weather, ROMed games, media center, meta lookups for DVDs, etc. Check out MythTV for a full rundown of the features.

But, yeah, I would have a tough sell with my wife too. As we were saying this weekend, my wife would rather sit on a $3000 couch and watch a $300 tv while I would rather sit on a $300 couch and watch a $3000 tv. :)

For an even better experience, I suggest using a Hauppauge PVR-250 along side BeyondTV (www.snapstream.com). The BTV program is amazing and the developers are constantly adding new features to it, and the PVR-250 card does hardware MPEG-2 encoding, so you can record fantastic quality video while only using about 2% of your processor. Oh, and unlike the pvr boxes, there is no subscription for the BTV program. Just a one-time purchase price and upgrades are free.

TIVO
 

I have both Tivo & replay TV. I definately recommend the Replay TV. I like the software interface much beter and the menus are less confusing.

I have two Directv Tivo units. One is one of the older Phillips units and the newest one is an RCA. The kids keep one full of their stuff and the other one is for "parents" use.

On advantage of being a Directv Premier subscriber is that there's no monthly fee for the Tivo. They waive the fee if you have that package.

We have 4 TiVos in our house.

My family will never watch TV without one ever again.

i have tivo and love it....i cant stand watching tv without it....

TIVO
 

I got my fiance a TIVO for xmas so she would quit saying shhh shhh shhh and making me watch dumbass shows. But now she's asking how to record 1 channel and watch the other and skip commercials.

Its the TIVO series 2, and she has a cable box. First, I'm pretty sure since she's got a cable box that watching one and recording another isn't possible, unless she had a signal for regular tv. But, if there is a possibility, could anyone help, PLEASE?

The other issue is much simpler. Is it possible to record a show and have the unit automatically skip the commercials?

Please help me if possible, she's driving me nuts:crazy:

The only answer I'm sure of is that there is no way to automatically skip commercials. However, there is a way to program a 30-second skip, which is basically just as good.

http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/a...387539,00.html

She can record a show the same time she's watching a previously recorded show. I know that with the DirecTivo, you can record two different shows while watching a third previously recorded but that's DirecTV (satellite) not cable.

The above responses give you all the answers you have asked for.

However, you should also read the following links, in order to answer the questions you didn't even know you had:
Before you ask—please check these top answers for TiVo questions! - TiVo Community Forum
Advice from a veteran to a newbie (consolidated) - TiVo Community Forum

ah thanks guys