Rating: Summary: At last I can watch great shows when I want to see them! Review: TiVo is, in my opinion, one of the great electronic inventions of all time. It's 1000 times easier than a VCR to program, and without the worries of recording over previously taped shows or having the tape run out before the program ends. With TiVo I can customize my viewing list, select favorite actors and automatically tape all their movies, pause live TV when the phone rings without missing the rest of a show, and SO much more! Zipping past commercials makes viewing prime time shows (at 6 pm instead of 9 or 10) a real pleasure, and cuts 15-20 minutes off the viewing time. I LOVE my TiVo!
Rating: Summary: Changes TV forever. Review: TiVo has become one of my absolute favorite pieces of equipment. There's just no going back once you learn all the ways it can change television. Watching shows at any time, never worrying about when and where they come on is incredible. Say for example you want to watch some movie you know is coming on next week. You simply enter the name of that movie into TiVo and it will find when and where it's on. Just tell TiVo to record it, and it'll check and make sure it doesn't conflict with anything else. If it does conflict, You can overwrite the old recording or simply have TiVo look for another showing. Then TiVo saves it for later viewing. Or say you want to record a series. Again, simply search by title but this time get a "season pass". You can then set TiVo to record every single episode no matter when it airs, or just the new episodes. You'll never have to worry about missing an episode again. The programming is simply amazing. With TiVo, you control what and when you watch. Depending on the storage of your unit, programs could be stored from days to weeks before needing to be cleared. You're in complete control over the TV for a change. You'll never have to watch another commercial again if you get used letting TiVo record everything you watch. And really, there's no reason not to. TiVo will never slip up and miss a recording. Soon you'll forget that your favorite show comes on at 7:00pm on sundays. You won't really care, because you'll know that when you feel like watching it, TiVo will have it ready for you. You'll almost completely stop watching live TV. If you do still want live TV though, TiVo offers plenty. From rewinding, to pausing, program listings, information, ratings, a ton of options. TiVo also keeps a constant back-buffer of the live feed from the channel you're currently watching that runs 30 minutes. So, at any time during the program you could rewind up to a full 30 minutes. You could also pause for a full half hour. One really sweet benefit of this back-buffer is recording the start of shows late. If you're 15 minutes into a movie and decide that you just aren't going to be able to sit down and watch it, hit the record button and TiVo will not only start recording from that point, but also take everything it has from the back-buffer. You can actually save from the start of programs after they've already started up to 30 minutes ago. One of the less hyped but still cool features of TiVo is the TiVolution Magazine that comes free and is updated constantly. This isn't some sort of lame E-zine but a listing of movies and other programs coming on this week. So for example you can click "action" and see just about every single action movie coming on this week, on every single channel. This is actually incredibly handy, because you'll be able to record great old movies on channels like TNN that play these movies all the time. Since you don't have to worry about when they come on and you can skip all the commercials, you won't care in the least that it's on a cable network. Just the other day I used this to watch The Hunt for Red October. Without the TiVo listings, I would have had no idea it was playing at all. TiVo has more features than I could list here. It can be set to do just about anything to the TV you can possibly think up, and you'll never look back once you get started. I can't recommend this product enough, I really can't. Even if you don't watch much TV, TiVo is still perfect for you. The little TV you do watch can now be ad free and viewed any time you feel like watching it. Not to mention you never have to think about when your favorite shows come on again, just sit back and let TiVo take care of it. If your schedule has you far too busy to watch daytime TV, now it doesn't matter at all. Tuesday's daytime TV can easily be viewed on Saturday night. The video quality and sound quality is every bit as good as the original, it's just plain incredible. Full surround sound as deep and rich as your speakers can possibly handle. You won't lost a single hint of quality even on just the medium setting. In fact, the medium setting is so perfect I never bother with the high and highest recording qualities. TiVo is a wonderful company who is highly supportive of it's customers and will do everything they can to make sure TiVo users are pampered beyond belief. They send free stuff, they release firmware upgrades with new features, and never once since I've owned my TiVo have they put down my now older series one 14hr unit. (Series two units go up to 80 hours now.) They have never once made it sound like my unit is worse than any other unit or outdated. There's absolutely nothing to dislike about this company. TiVo has become one of my favorite companies and one of my favorite electronics. I just can't say enough good things about it. TiVo absolutely changes TV. You really must see it for yourself. - Rirath_com
Rating: Summary: Best DVR on the Market Review: I've had now 3 different DVRs. The first was the Dishplayer from Dishnetwork which worked pretty good. The second was Replay TV model 5040, which failed after 2 returns to the company with defective units, and I had to pay the shipping charges both times even though the first time it worked less than 2 weeks, and the second one had too many problems right from the beginning. And ReplayTvs tech support and customer support were the worst I've seen in any business. After returning the ReplayTV I bought the TiVo, and it is by far superior to both the other DVRs. It installed eaily, got activated easily, and has numerous great features. I haven't had any problems with it and would recommend it as the best DVR you can buy. Don't waste your time or money on the other ones, this is the one to own.
Rating: Summary: TiVo 80Hr review Review: It will change the way you view TV. The best feature is the user interface, ease of use and the recording of all live TV so you can stop whenever and never miss anything. The 80 hours is a little misleading since this is at the lowest quality, which you will not want. I use medium quality and this works fine for almost everything. At that level you get between 50-60 hours. not a problem since it's easy to delete old stuff. They did a great job with he interface.
Rating: Summary: What VCRS should have been - but never were... Review: Years ago, we bought a VCR and thought we'd learn how to program it to tape shows when we were out of the house. But we never got the hang of the instruction manual (does anyone?!). But Tivo is like a VCR taken to the next level- easy to install and use, allowing viewers to watch their favorite shows anytime they want...while skipping those annoying commercials. Plus, there are features that VCRs NEVER had. Feel like watching a marathon of West Wing or Law and Order shows? Simply use Tivo's "Season Pass" and it will record those shows every week for you, so you can play them back in one giant sitting - if you want. You can even save them on Tivo or transfer them to videotape for more permanent storage. Other major advantages of Tivo: 1. Before getting a Tivo, I missed some of my favorite shows because many came on BEFORE My kids went to bed but I rarely got to see them because I was busy cooking dinner or helping the kids with homework or other activities. But with Tivo, I can simply record what I want to see and watch it when I want. I can spend nights with my kids yet know I'm not missing anything I might want to watch on television. 2. Far too often, it was hit or miss as to whether I'd find shows I truly wanted to watch when I turned on the television - even though we have both cable and regular tv. With Tivo, I can count on having a selection of shows I want to watch at the touch of a button. I look at the week's schedule of tv programs, tell Tivo what I want to record and have the shows ready when I'm ready to watch them. 3. Some of the best shows come on early in the morning or during the workday or late at night - not good for a working person's schedule. But Tivo records what I want while I'm working or sleeping and I can watch the shows at times that fit MY schedule. 4. I can keep a few kids' shows pre-recorded and ready to use if I really have to get some housework done and the kids are bored out of their heads. While I rarely use the tv as a "babysitter" it is nice to have a few shows on hand for times when the weather is bad, the kids are stuck inside with nothing to do and I have work that has to get done. 4. Finally, I like to work out while watching televsion (well, sometimes..) and I can record shows that hold my interest while exercising. With Tivo, I feel like I have more choices about what I can watch. If nothing is on that I like on "live" Television, I'll simply go to my Tivo "library" and select what I want.
Rating: Summary: Give more facts about what also is needed for Tivo Review: I noticed looking at all the info on the web sites that nothing is mentioned about needing a satellite dish. The product doesn't come with one. It has to be ordered in addition. Also, nothing is mentioned about needing a second cable run from the satellite dish. Normally this is an additional fee because houses 99 percent of the time are not wired to accomodate two feeds to the back of a dual recording receiver. Two incoming feeds are necessary to get picture-in-picture or to be able to record one thing and watch another.... I also noticed that nothing is stated about additional multiswitches being needed if more receivers are being added. I think that more information should be included in the product decription
Rating: Summary: Simply Amazing Review: I just got my first TiVo last night. I can already see how it's going to change everything. Pausing and playing with live TV? very cool. I would recommend this to anyone.
Rating: Summary: Change the way you watch television Review: This thing is far more than a rewind live TV device. It instantly felt like I had purchased a video store. It honestly does change the way I watch TV. You have to try it to see the difference. It is awesome.
Rating: Summary: Perfect gift include your installation! Review: TiVo is the best DVR out there in terms of features and services (far better than Replay TV) but the biggest hurdle to its uptake by the consumer has been the initial installation. It's not as simple as a VCR and we already know the problems that some folks have with that. So we bought TiVo (having owned three personally for over 3 years) as a Christmas gift for my in-laws who are fairly literate electronically but would have had problems with its initial installation and I spent the time installing and setting it up for them. I set up some initial season passes and selected some movies for Tivo'ing. This way they got to get going immediately with watching Tivo at work and viewing programs without having to figure it all out right away. As they used TiVo, they got more comfortable with it and now from what I've been told, it's indispensable...
Rating: Summary: Got a lemon Review: I like the concept of the TiVo, but the Series2 60-Hour recorder I bought from Amazon.com turned out to be a lemon. TiVo wouldn't agree to replace and Amazon.com was showing it out of stock, so mine is going back and I'll have to figure out what I want to do. Kudos to Amazon.com, though, for really being very good about this and even calling TiVo for me to find out what the warranty situation was.
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