FailedEagle

I'm really considering getting a Tivo unit. Does any one have it? What are your opinions? Pro's and Con's are wanted please.

Redlemon

Short answer: it is godly.

Longer answer: there's been a bunch of discussion already, take a read through the following, and if you have any further questions, feel free to post in this thread again, or one of the others.

TIVO or Cable company DVR?
TiVo
Tivo?
TIVO- Good, bad...any advise

ps: If you do decide to get one, there's a referral bonus going on right now. I'd love if you would use my email address when you sign up for the service. PM me if that is cool with you.

pps: My advice would have been the same with or without the referral bonus thing, but free stuff is free stuff...

stonegrody

TiVo RULES!!! Just make sure to get at least Dual LNB so you can watch one thing and record another at the same time. I have yet to hear anyone I know complain about TiVo. You can record, pause live TV, have it record stuff it thinks you will like based on what you watch, vote like or dislike on stuff, and it's pretty cheap.

My suggestion: GET IT RIGHT FRIGGIN NOW!

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1slOwCD8

I was considering getting Tivo when it was like $99, but then i noticed that you have to pay monthly for service. I guess now that i think about it, it kinka makes sense that it isnt free. My cable/internet bill is already over $70, dont need to spend more. Ill polly end up caving in in the future and buying it just cuz its $99.

Redlemon

There's a 'product lifetime' option, which is presently $299. The monthy fee is $12.95/month, so if you plan to keep the system for more than two years, get the lifetime. I also dislike monthly fees, and I've had the TiVo for 2.5 years now, so it was the correct choice for me.

grendel

that is, of course, if you're talking about tivo w/satellite tv. i have the directv/tivo combination (with the 2 lines coming in from the satellite to my receiver) and it rocks!

the prices that redlemon is giving (and this is probably pointed out in one of the links he provided) are for the stand alone tivo (if i'm not mistaken), which you would use with cable.

with directv, there is no lifetime option for tivo as far as i know, but the monthly service only costs $4.99. WELL worth it, IMHO.

bitrunner

There used to be a limetime option with Dtv but not anymore. Also if you get DirecTVs full package with all the movie channels they through in Tivo service for free..

Missy

I have one and its great! I could never get the VCR to work right but I love my tivo!

bendsley

I used to watch TV maybe 3 hours a month. Period. I got a TiVo and life just went downhill from there. I love it. It's wonderful. They tell you that it will change the way you watch television, in truth, it most certainly does. Get one and have fun.

I would suggest getting the month-to-month option just incase something happens. If you read the fine print, the lifetime subscription is for the life of the unit. If something happens say 13 months down the road, then you will have to resubscribe.

__________________
"You hear the one about the fella who died, went to the pearly gates? St. Peter let him in. Sees a guy in a suit making a closing argument. Says, "Who's that?" St. Peter says, "Oh, that's God. Thinks he's Denny Crane."

agball

I would check out Replay TV as well, I have had both TIVO & RePlay TV and both are great. I perfer the software interface of the Replay TV.

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"A friend with weed is a friend indeed"

Cynthetiq

Tivo...

I can tell Tivo to record something within 2 hours of a show via internet. Replay doesn't do that that fast.

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I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

agball

true, but keep in mind that is part of the TiVo multimedia package & they charge extra for it!!

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"A friend with weed is a friend indeed"

Redlemon

That is no longer correct. It is now included.

pixelbend

or you could just build your own. You only have to pay once in that case. You have to be a little bit of a geek to get it going (it's linux based), but it pulls listings from free sites on the internet and will do everything a TiVo box will do plus a lot more (ftp server, stream mp3s, console emulation, etc.)

check out mythtv.org

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But I don't want ANY Spam!

Cynthetiq

right if you haven't tried it because you thought it's a paid part... just go to the website and register your tivo it's great!

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I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

Cynthetiq

very true... but it's not as easy as one thinks. There are lots of people who've moved from Tivo to that and just moved back.

here's my take on it...

When Tivo breaks...wife says,"It's broken! We have to buy a new one..."

When MythTV breaks... wife says,"It's broken! You have to fix it..."

I'd rather not be responsible for yet another PC on my home network.. already have waaay too many things to keep running.

__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

grendel

now i guess i have to get my tivo box on my ethernet network...

pixelbend

Well, I don't have one running at the moment, but because it's a closed system (meaning you are not messing around with the settings all of the time) once it is setup, you really shouldn't have to touch it again, unless you have a hardware failure.

Another good thing is you can choose the size hard drive you want. Slap a 200GB drive in there and you can record 24 hours a day for a month (I might be exaggerating, I havn't really calculated it out)

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But I don't want ANY Spam!

Cynthetiq

you can do all those same things with Tivo... some people have expanded to 700 hours and done other impressive hacks.

__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

quadro2000

I have both a TiVo and a cable company DVR. The pro to having the TiVo is that it has a brain - it gets to know your viewing habits and starts to pick up things it thinks you would like (some people don't like this "Big Brother" capability, I like it, even when it's wrong), and it also can search zillions of programs for keywords that you enter. I've got it set up to record movies starring Jack Lemmon.

However, the DVR that my cable company offers is dual-tuner and I really like that. With the single-tuner TiVo, you can only watch from your saved programs while something is recording - you can't watch live TV, or change the channel from what is recording.

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You have to laugh at yourself...because you'd cry your eyes out if you didn't. - Emily Saliers

DDDDave

As long as you have an existing cable box, you can watch one thing while recording another. You do have to use two remotes but for the flexibility it gives I think it's worth the trouble.

TiVo rules !!!

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grendel

also, if you are a directv customer, the directv receiver with tivo built in has 2 inputs from the dish, so you can watch one channel while recording another, record two channels at the same time while watching something off the harddrive, etc.

phobs2

had a Tivo for a year, shut it off for two months, went running back. It really changes how you watch tv

Cycler

Oh man do I want one of these. Get it networked and I am set. Here is my question and I will go throught the TiVo forums and such as well but I am at work so I'll fire it out here initially. I have no phone landline at home can I do the initial set up from a phone line elsewhere and then bring it home to run off the network from that point onwards?

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"I'm not even supposed to be here today."

"I assure you we're open."

Redlemon

You are correct. For more information, see Do I Need a Phone Line for Guided Setup?

Cynthetiq

I did quadro2000s guided setup at my house and then brought it over to him when it was done and reconfigured it for his network.

__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

Cycler

Sweet, thanks I will start looking seriously at getting one now that I know I can set it up in such a fashion.

__________________
"I'm not even supposed to be here today."

"I assure you we're open."

quadro2000

True, and I do have the instructions somewhere on how to do this...you also need a cable splitter, I believe.

My thought is that if my cable company's DVR can have a dual tuner automatically, why can't the TiVo?

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You have to laugh at yourself...because you'd cry your eyes out if you didn't. - Emily Saliers

Cynthetiq

cable co's work with the box manufacturers to produce the box to specifications. that was one of the specifications that they required.

even if tivo had dual encoders, you'd still need 2 cable boxes to record things like HBO and other premiums.

the answer looks to be cable card technology, but that is still far down the line.

__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

Devilinmypants

Has anyone heard about TiVo's forcible upgrade to appease advertisers? It is supposed to force banners and ads on customers who try and skip over commercials. Perhaps it is time to start a thread called TiVo alternatives.

Redlemon

I'm not worked up about that at all. You will still be able to fast-forward; it is just that as you FF through a Pepsi ad, a banner telling you that it is a Pepsi ad will show up, and perhaps a message telling you to hit a button and they'll send you a Pepsi coupon. I think it will make it even easier to figure out when the ads are over!

LIMilf

TiVo is one of the best things I have ever bought. It changes the way you watch TV. I reccommend greatly. I have seen so much tv that I never would of watched before. The only thing I wish is that I could watch one show while Tivo'ing another. But that simply could be fixed if I had two inputs on my TV

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My goal is to be rookie of the year...

godzilla23

I've got a regular television, and a regular cable setup. No phonelines, no digital cable boxes... just a line that goes into my TV. Can I get a Tivo? What kind of setup do I need?

Also, I live in Canada - does Tivo even work here?

Redlemon

1) Yes, that's my setup. You can also easily put a splitter on the cable feed if you need to watch something live while recording something.

2) Canada? I have no idea, check out tivo.com .

(if you sign up for service, can you give me the referral? I really want the replacement remote... )

Cynthetiq

There are people up north and down under who hack the tivo to use in their respective countries.

__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

alpo

Tivo is perhaps one of the greatest inventions known to mankind. It has totally changed the way I watch TV. My TV watching is much more efficient (as if TV watching and efficiency can actually coexist in the same sentence ). No more commercial watching, replays whenever you want them. It doesn't get any better!

alpo

I forgot to mention it in my post above. There's a great forum available at Tivocommunity that was invaluable in helping me learn more about Tivo.