Rating: 
Summary: Couldn't watch TV without it.
Review: When I try to tell my friends how great TiVo is they usually say something like "I have a VCR already" or "I don't watch that much TV". These people are just not familiar with TiVo and how it works. I've got a VCR too (unplugged, collecting dust). I don't watch much TV either.This is one of those rare things in life that you didn't know you needed, but once you have it, you couldn't live without it. It will change the way you watch TV. TV guides and live TV will be a thing of the past. You'll never care what channel a show is on or what time. If my favorite shows are on at 4AM or 4PM I couldn't care less. I'll watch it when *I* want. And commercial free meaning a 30 minute sitcom takes only about 22 minutes to watch! If you think that you'd have trouble "programming" it, forget that. There is no programming. If you could click on one or two buttons, you can do all you want. If you have DirecTV, get the TiVo with the DirecTV receiver built-in. The image quality will be excellent, and the subscription fee is waived or significantly reduced (based on plans) by DirecTV.
Rating:
Summary: You'll watch more TV but you'll watch better TV
Review: Tivos allow you to pick your recording quality. 80 hours refers to the lowest quality setting so bear that in mind when selecting which size DVR to purchase. What makes TIVO so wonderful?
1) Pause button on live tv - Everything you watch live is actually slightly delayed as it is streamed to the machines hard drive. It keeps a buffer while you watch, so if you need to take a bathroom or snack break, you just hit the pause button. When you get back, you resume where you left off - that means that you'll be a little bit behind and can fast forward during the next commercial break. If you didn't catch what a character said, you can rewind - while it is still recording - and play it again and again until you hear the line you missed. 2) Okay, the stuff you can do with live tv is cool, but you'll soon find that watching tv live is a thing of the past. With TIVO, you just tell it the names of the shows you like and get "Season passes" to those shows. You don't have to know what time they are on, or what channel - tivo will find them, and it will remember to record them even when you had no idea they were on. You'll come home to Tivo's Now Playing menu and there will be a plethora of shows that you told it you like. That's why you will end up watching more tv - in the past you used to just miss those shows you weren't there for or didn't set the vcr properly for, now tivo will get them all for you. But because you have this vast store of shows you hand picked, you aren't stuck watching whatever happens to be on at the time. You'll watch better TV. Cool things:
- Tivo can record new shows while you watch previously recorded stuff in the Now Playing list (your vcr can't do that)
- When you are fast forwarding through commercials, there is a nifty algorithm for stepping back a bit - so you see the show you are watching come back on and bits of it are fast forwarding past while your brain tells your thumb to push the button and more when the signal is travelling through the air to the box - tivo corrects for that and backs up from where it got the play signal so you generally start playing right at the start of your show. If there is one sad thing, it is that the Tivo takes one input at a time - that means that if you are recording a show, you cannot watch another channel live or record a show that is on at the same time on another channel. Tivo handles show conflicts by allowing you to set the priorities of your Season Passes; it will record the show with the higher priority. Also, if you get a second Tivo DVR and shell out another hundred dollars for the Home Media Option upgrade to both of them, then you get the Multi-room Viewing feature. With this feature, you could set one dvr to record show 1 and the other to record show 2 and pass the recordings between the dvrs to watch them all on either television. (Another option for watching one channel live while Tivo records is to split the signal before it goes into the Tivo). If you have an HDTV set, be aware that Tivo does not currently understand HD signal. They are working on releasing a DVR with HD support.
Rating:
Summary: A purchase you will never regret
Review: My wife and I put off purchasing Tivo for a long time. I had always assumed that having one would wind up being more trouble than it's worth, or turn into a hobby in itself, in terms of having to do routine things to make it all work. I didn't want or need another hobby. Boy, was I wrong. The software behind Tivo is it's strength, and the amount that you must do as a user is very very minimal. These guys have absoulutely nailed the execution and usability for this system. Don't think for even a split second that a plain-old DVR or ReplayTV is going to do what Tivo does. The level of operational intelligence just simply isn't there with those other systems. We have had it for about two months now, and it has totally changed our viewing habits. We hardly ever need to watch live TV anymore. We now never miss an episode of any of our favorite shows. And now, it's so easy to "grab" content...for example my wife was explaining to her young niece about early Jerry Lewis movies. We don't own any Jerry Lewis movies on tape. So, overhearing this, I told Tivo to record any Jerry Lewis movies that it could find. Within a couple days, there was something like 5 of his old movies on Tivo waiting for us. The next time our niece was over, we watched all the best parts of some of the movies. It was great to be able to do this without any effort at all. Without Tivo, would we have bothered (or even had time) to go out and rent the movies? Most likely not. We also love the fact that it now takes about 18 minutes to watch a typical 1/2 hour show. Zip right thru those commercials! We get a lot more value out of our viewing time. It's also nice to watch Saturday Night Live on Sunday morning while flipping pancakes instead of trying to stay awake through it on Saturday night. We also are now completely used to pausing, rewinding, and replaying TV or simply switching off between shows. If I'm watching one of "my" shows, and my wife comes along and wants to watch one of "her" shows, it's not a big deal- whichever one we don't watch is still waiting there for us. So, bottom line: Get a Tivo. Don't waste your time with any other half-baked DVR setup. Unless you want a new hobby...
Rating:
Summary: It has forever changed TV
Review: This little device has helped in so many ways. When I first got it as a gift, I thought it was olnly for people addicted to TV. Now I see that it has helped me reduce my time in front of the tube by pre-recording only what I want to see. If I could, I'd sell these things myself. Everyone should have one.
Rating: 
Summary: Very disappointed with Tivo product
Review: I bought a Tivo a little over 6 months ago. One day it wouldn't power up anymore. It took me two hours before I could got hold of a live person at TIVO. Then they asked me pay $99 for labor plus shipping to get it replaced. I couldn't believe it!!! A penalty for a machine I bought only 6 months ago??? I even talked with their supervisor Kyle about replacing the machine. He said - sorry, I completely understand you, but you have to pay. He said that the parts are free. Then I asked him to send me the parts. He said no and I have to send in my units. So, very disappointing... All I can say is that it is the worst customer service I have ever got.... Just be careful. Maybe buy SONY. They have excellent services. BTW, I don't work for SONY. They just have better customer service. We should reward the companies which care about their cusotmers.
Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing experience
Review: I bought Tivo a little over 6 months ago. One day it wouldn't power up anymore. It took me two hours before I could got hold of a live person at TIVO. Then they asked me pay $99 for labor plus shipping to get it replaced. I couldn't believe it!!! A penalty for a machine I bought only 6 months ago??? I even talked with their supervisor Kyle about replacing the machine. He said - sorry, I completely understand you, but you have to pay. He said that the parts are free. Then I asked him to send me the parts. He said no and I have to send in my units. So, very disappointing... All I can say is that it is the worst customer service I have ever got.... Just be careful. Maybe buy SONY. They have excellent services. BTW, I don't work for SONY. They just have better customer service. We should reward the companies which care about their cusotmers.
Rating:
Summary: greatest invention since television
Review: Other reviewers have it right, the lame thing about the 80 hrs. machine is that it is actually 40. Low-quality recording is un-watchable unless you have an HDTV reciever. So it's actually more like 20 hrs. of recording time on "best-quality". Even so, this thing rocks and I don't know what I ever did without it. Imagine the fact that when it's all said and done, you will have watched something like 7 years of commercials in your lifetime, now that 350 and 12 bucks per month afterward don't seem like much at all. The one bad thing is, now I'm spoiled and can't make it through a single commercial on tv or radio. XM Radio, here I come. Wherever you buy Tivo, they will offer you a lifetime subscription fee, bear in mind that this is only good as long as you have THAT machine. Replacing the 40 hrs. with an 80 hrs. machine NULLIFIES that deal. I got mine at Best-buy and set it up myself with a standard Cable connection. It did take a whole day, but you can do it, the tech support at Tivo isn't bad (I did have to call several times to get good techs as well as being forwarded to various different 800 numbers and account specialists) but I'm glad I did it myself and it really wasn't all that hard. If you do do-it-yourself, remeber to check whether your TV is set to channel 3 or 4 and compare with Tivo's setting, this could save you an hour. Also, remember that unless you set up Tivo NOT to record "Tivo Suggestions", you will be inundated with useless junk that takes up space. And, once in a while, Tivo will record something at the correct time, but the incorrect channel. This does'nt happen a whole lot and I'm convinced that if I took the time, me and a tech could probably figure it out (1 in every 30 recordings). All in all, worth every penny.
Rating:
Summary: Can't Live Without It
Review: My family and I have had Tivo for 3 or 4 years. We purchased the Sony 30 hour first, it had a problem after 2 years (it wouldn't call in for updates) and we sent it in for servicing, but Sony told me it could take 30 days to evaluate the problem, and I COULD NOT LIVE A DAY WITHOUT IT, so ... I bought the new 80 hour Tivo. We opted for the Philips since the Sony had problems after 2 years anyway and the Philips was 50 bucks cheaper. In fairness to our old Tivo, our family of 4 used it ALOT. We love it so much we have spread the word: I have since gotten my mother one, my sister has one, my mother in law and my sister in law. Tivo owes me a commission! And we ALL LOVE IT. It's a little pricy after you pay for the lifetime programming service (twice) but it is the best present I ever bought myself. By the way, the Sony was fixed for free and I traded it to my sister in law for another computer, so it's still going strong. Yes, the picture quality does deteriorate recording through Tivo, especially since we record everything on the slowest speed to get the most time, but for most TV it really doesn't matter to me. If I want to save something to tape or DVD I record in High Quality which is pretty good. Overall, the picture is good, the remote control functions are great, with lots of shortcuts that you can learn, and I've never regretted one cent I spent on either Tivo. The sony remote I think had a better layout but it took very little time to adjust to the new remote, and we're all perfectly comfortable with the new one. The extra 50 hours of recording time was a nice bonus for us too. As far as number of hours you want-we tend to stock up on movies which take up a lot of space-10 movies at 2 hours each is already 20 hours of your hard drive space. We also have shows recorded for 4 different tastes. If you don't watch movies or you don't have that many people in the house, the smaller hard drive is sufficient for you. Our family of 4 tends to keep the 80 hours pretty full, and we like it that way. There's always something I want to watch on TV. I don't have to watch commercials, our phone rings constantly and kids interrupt constantly, but my husband and I actually get to watch an entire show or movie. With Tivo, life is good. If you're buying this for someone who is technologically challenged, don't worry-it's totally user friendly-my 7 & 10 year have it down, but more importantly my 75 year old mother & mother in law have it down too (although I frequently have to program their shows for them). It's VERY easy to program--I think they just don't want to do it. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Just Go Ahead and Click "Add To Shopping Cart"
Review: Simply put TiVo is a life-altering product. Okay, maybe that is a tad overdramatic. But I challenge anyone to bring a TiVo into their home and not be blown away. This is simply not a VCR on steroids - but a "smart" product that organizes all your favorite programs (and even some you do not know even exist) and puts them in the palm of your hand! Here are just some of the highlights: Season Pass - As a famous infomercial goes "set it and forget it." Set up a pass for your favorite shows one time and it will record it automatically... forever! No need to worry about time slot changes, moves to a different day of the week, or special episodes (i.e. and hour long edition of a half-hour sitcom) - TiVo knows all and will adjust accordingly. Watch a recorded show while recording another show - Try that with a VCR! Watch your daytime soap opera at night, while it is recording one of your favorite primetime dramas. You can even start watching a show that you are currently recording! Also, no more piles of videotapes and stick-it notes of what is on what tape. Go to the "Now Playing" screen and all your recorded programs are neatly listed out and ready to watch in whatever order you would like. The initial wiring and set-up call into TiVo takes about 1-2 hours. The wiring is no more difficult than setting up a VCR, and the customization of your TiVo player is similar to a "wizard" on the PC (just answer the questions that pop up on your TV screen). Another cost to factor in is the $12.95/month or $299 one-time TiVo subscription fee. This might sound like a lot - but aren't you paying at least that much for other "can't live without it" services like cable/satellite and Internet? I would recommend getting this 80-hour model. The 80 hours is the maximum recording capacity at the lowest quality level - recording at the "best" quality gives you approximately 25 hours of space. While even that sounds like more than enough, it doesn't take long between both you and TiVo to create a wonderful back-log of recorded programs. This is simply one of the coolest products available for any TV viewer. Why it is not already a household staple like the microwave oven or PC, I do not know. If you watch TV, do yourself a favor and buy a TiVO now and then spread the word!
Rating:
Summary: Great Product!
Review: I heard how great Tivo is, but I never expected it to surpass the hype. I was a busy graduate student without time to watch the shows I wanted to see when they were on. Tivo's Season Pass function literally changed the way I watch TV. I can see all the shows I want to watch whenever my schedule permits, and I don't even have to keep up with when they come on. Tivo gets them all for me. I've also discovered new shows I never would have thought to watch. And the pause function is great when you get a phone call in the middle of your favorite show.
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