Rating: 
Summary: Nice product, bad service
Review: This is a clever product that will be much improved in subsequent generations. Perhaps dolby digital output, and a larger drive for the money would be something for them to focus on. Presently, the hardware works very well. From time to time, it sticks on operations for a few seconds, but other than that it is very smooth and efficient, and it provides a television convenience that I really appreciate.On the other hand, the company is not very interested in correcting problems. I have several channels that are mixed up. I have called them many times to get them to fix the problem, yet they are still mixed up. When I call them, the people who answer the phone have no ability to help. They have to transfer me somewhere else. The average hold time on the transfer is between 10 minutes and never. You would not believe how long I have sat on hold. From what I understand, Replay doen not cherge for their programming and you get more storage for the money. I feel kind of stupid for having spent more money and ended up with mixed up programming and a company that seems to have no interest in getting it right. I am returning mine, and thinking of short-selling Tivo stock. A company that acts this way is unlikely to be around for a long time. Thanks for listening, I hope it helps.
Rating: 
Summary: TIVO - Get it !
Review: TIVO is excellent. The quality of the slowest speed gives me 31.5 hours on my 30 hour unit and neither I or my wife can tell the difference between the TIVO recordings in the slow speed or live TV on out 36 inch TV (unless I sit inches from of it and switch back and fourth from TIVO to live. The issues others have brought up regarding low recording time in high quality mode are a moot point for us. I have used both TIVO units, the 14 hr and the 30 hr, and they are both excellent. In fact I was suprised how much the 14 hour unit held and what it allowed me to schedule for recording. Once I have my schedule set up, I don't have to change it except to check for new movies I want. I can look and program for 2 weeks in advance of what is coming on. It is also very ease to record using a specific time, much easier than any VCR I have used. This unit in fact is everything I expected, and I am amazed that something as good as this just suddenly appeared on the market. In fact I would have paid much more for what it offers. The only problem I have found is that when you schedule recordings as the unit is close to being filled up, it tells you it will have to delete some other recordings prior to there scheduled deletion (which is 2 days after recording unless you tell it otherwise). The date of the new deletion is reads 11/... 3:00 PM, and you can't tell the date. The TIVO tech tells me this will be corrected in the new software upgrade. They are also offering an option for people who have the 14 hour unit to upgrade to a 30 hour unit. The main problem is that in having this unit, I am getting sleep deprived, but this is a choice I make. Buy and enjoy, you can't loose. As far as I know, and I have investigated both TIVO and the competition extensively as I am invested in TIVO, TIVO is a no brainer. The other does not have all the channels, you can't record by time slots, and the picture quality is not as good as TIVO's. My wife just told me we have 23 shows recorded. Gotta go! BTW TIVO will impliment the software addition in the next upgrade or soon after that lets you choose what type of commercials to record. The new commercials will replace what commericals your show normally had in it! If you don't watch them you can FF through them in seconds at one of the three FF speeds. I was suprised when watching a slow point of one movie that I could FF on the slowest speed and still easily read the closed captions! Soon the TIVO will fill the advertising slot on my recorded shows with computer and electronic ads <G>. Any service that deletes ads entirely makes no financial sense. The company must have the backing of the TV industry to succeed, and TIVO does with SONY, Direct TV, Showtime, AOL, etc etc invested in it.
Rating:
Summary: Tivo is great!
Review: The new "digital VCR" is a big step forward for TV. I only watch 2-3 shows a week, if that. Tivo lets me record these reliably, watch them in a very easy manner, and sadly has sucked me into watching even more TV. There are some merits to both Tivo and ReplayTV. But I will say that for anyone who is not technical, Tivo is a hands-down winner. Very clean and easy interface. And, techincal thought I am, I prefer Tivo as well. My friends with ReplayTV agree that their relatives will prefer Tivo. I wish Amazom had the 30-hour unit for sale, and I am sure they will, but I have to buy a Christmas gift and can't wait. Amazon is listed as a 30-hour unit seller by the Tivo website, but Amazon customer support doesn't know when it will become available. Tivo has promised an upgrade plan for 14-hour units but the plan is not in place and has no pricing yet. They should correct this, it has been the one sore point in an otherwise exemplary pre and post-sales support ssytem. I am sure it is due to the rush to get 30-hour units into the hands of new customers during the holiday rush. Philips has done a great job listening to customers. I think they will continue to improve this unit, most of which can be done with software downloads in the middle of the night. Support is very good, and the system works well.
Rating:
Summary: I Want My TiVo TV!
Review: From the moment I held the TiVo remote in my hand, I knew this was the future of television at my service. The days of endless channel surfing to find my likes in television viewing are gone. I can only see TiVo improving with time and the one-time lifetime fee assures reaping the benefits of their new technologies over the years.
Rating:
Summary: I'll never go back
Review: Once you get used to Tivo you will never go back. No more looking for videotapes, labeling, rewinding, etc. My wife who is no electronic toy wiz says get rid of the big TV, lose the satellite, but "Don't take my Tivo". I had 60% record success rate at best with any of my 3 VCR's. I've had the Tivo a month and have yet to miss a program I meant to record. Truly a great way to optimize your viewing time. I was leary of the price but well worth the every cent! If you are a sports fan you will never be happy watching a game on regular TV again!
Rating:
Summary: So many good things to say...
Review: ...that I don't know where to begin. The UI is very well designed. It's obvious and intuitive how to navigate the menus. My only complaint is that I sometimes they err towards providing too many navigation and confirmation screens. While this makes each screen less intimidating, it does make navigation a bit more tedious. But this is really a minor complaint in an, overall, brilliantly designed interface. The features are explained well enough in the Amazon comparison guide and elsewhere. I'll just say that they work as advertised and are extremely cool! TV serves my schedule instead of the opposite. The quality in the best mode (the one used for viewing and pausing live TV) is nearly indistinguishable from the source. If you have a really big screen and high end audio equipment you may notice the difference. I find it fine for general TV viewing though I do bypass it for PPV movies. I generally use the medium (second lowest out of four) quality setting when recording. It's a lot better than VHS but is a noticable dropoff from the original. My biggest complaint is the box's sluggishness in changing channels and responding to user commands. It takes about a second to change channels and, sometimes, several seconds to go between menu/guide screens. There are two misperceptions I constantly see in user and professional reviews regarding TiVo vs. ReplayTV. First, ReplayTV's service isn't really free. They just build it into the base cost of the unit. When factoring in lifetime service from TiVo, the prices have remained comparable between the two products. TiVo was a cheaper when the products were first introduced and now ReplayTV is cheaper. But they're in the same ballpark. The second misconception regards TiVo's automatic suggestions that are based on user preferences. Where's the negative in this? If you don't like it you can turn it off and it'll never record anything you don't explicitely ask it to record. But what's the harm? If there's extra space on the drive why not use it? It'll never take space away from the programs you've asked it to record. It's hard enough to sift through and find quality programming to watch. I'll take any suggestions I can get. The biggest problem with TV is too little quality programming at the time I want to watch. The box is just trying to fill itself with stuff I might want to watch. And sometimes it works. The other day I came home and TiVo had recorded The Truman Show. This is a movie I like but wouldn't have thought to mark for recording. It was nice to have a good movie waiting for me when I wanted to watch it. Every time I turn on the TV it's like I have a little surprise waiting for me when I check what the TiVo's recorded for me. I like the serendipity of channel surfing - of finding something I wasn't expecting. That's why I like the TiVo's suggestions in addition to it allowing me to specify exactly what I want to record. I haven't used a ReplayTV. It's probably an excellent product, too, but the number of technical complaints is troubling. TiVo seems to have a higher satisfaction/lower complaint ratio. And TiVo's usage model is more to my liking.
Rating:
Summary: I Want My TiVo T.V.
Review: All it took was holding the TiVo remote in my hand and I knew this was the future of television. I was amazed at how easily live t.v. could be paused and re-played. I will never miss the annoyance of having to channel surf to find my likes and dislikes. The one-time life time subscription fee with TiVo will pay for itself time and time again. A very satisfied customer!
Rating:
Summary: The most useful device I've bought in years
Review: I bought mine about three and a half months ago. Even my fiance, who groaned when I brought it home and told me she wanted no part of having more technology in the house, uses it regularly to record her favorite shows like Ally McBeal and ER. The following is my own Top 10 (in no particular order) favorite features: 1. Pause Live TV: That's it. Just push pause and it'll pause up to a half-hour's worth of live TV. Great for answering the phone! And when you take it off pause, you can fast forward through the commercials until you catch up to the live broadcast! 2. Point and Click Recording: See a show you want to record? Just click on it and tell TiVo to record it once or every time it comes on. If the time it's supposed to come on changes, TiVo will automatically correct for it and record it at the new time! 3. Live Rewind and Instant Replay: Miss something? Just hit instant replay for a quick jump back 8 seconds or hit rewind and go back up to a half-hour! 4. the "Live TV Guide": a transparent screen that you can bring up while your watching TV to see what else is on the channels you receive for up to two weeks from then. Get names of the shows and descriptions of the episodes! 5. TiVo's Suggestions: Give shows up to three "Thumbs Up" or "Thumbs Down" to tell it how much you like or don't like it. TiVo will record shows that it thinks you might like when it doesn't have anything else to do. (you can turn this feature on or off as you prefer!) 6. Software Updates: During the time I've owned it, TiVo has updated the software during one of the nightly calls to add a bunch of new features and plans to continue to provide this service so that your TiVo never becomes obsolete. 7. Price: The cost for the service is about $10 a month, $100 a year and $199 for a lifetime subscription. The price of TiVo with lifetime subscription comes out to the same $699 that ReplayTV is asking for their box and it's "Free" service. 8. TiVolution Magazine: There's even an area in the menu where they put together different themes of shows coming up so you can see things you might not have known where going to be broadcast. Some recent themes included "Spotlight on Michael J. Fox" and "Just for Kids!" 9. Different Recording Levels: you have four recording levels to choose from (I think ReplayTV has three). Basic gives you 14 or so hours of recording and Best gives you a couple hours of recording. Medium (just above basic) is great for most everything and will give you about 9 hours of recording time. You might want to use the next one up (about 6 hrs. recording time) for action shows like sporting events. 10. Great Customer Service: The staff at Tivo has always been extremely pleasant and helpful with any questions I had. I've talked to them by phone (they have an 800 number) and by e-mail. They also encourage customers to send them suggestions for future software updates! What features would you like to see added? Send them an e-mail and let them know! Isn't that nice? Anyhow - I'm not saying that ReplayTV is bad. I haven't even tried one personally, although I've read a number of reviews from people who said the TV listings weren't always up to date or that the remote was a little hard to use (TiVo's remote is great!). My experience with TiVo has been top notch - I strongly recommend this as a purchase to anyone who is interested. Be warned: Now that I know TiVo will have things I want to watch ready for me when I want to watch them, I do find myself watching more TV! But at least I don't have to set up my schedule around my favorite programs - they'll be there when I can fit some TV time into my schedule!
Rating:
Summary: It tried to tell me what to watch
Review: I am returning my TiVo after finding out about a few surprises. First the monthly fee. What? Second it records and tries to guess what I might like to watch. Ok , ummm I share a TV with three people, so who does it think is watching it anyway. I'm getting a ReplayTV. No monthly fees. It only records waht I want and it will give me six more hours of storage all for the same price. Plus I think the company has a straight-forward honest approach. Tivo is all glam with their bubbly TV guy everywhere.
Rating:
Summary: Makes VHS Obsolete
Review: What a product! I purchased one directly from TiVo early on, and it has been great. Easy to set-up and even easier to use. Video quality at the medium level or higher is better than videotape. Search function makes finding and recording easier than you would think possible, and the suggestion option really begins to find interesting items after awhile. And the Season Pass option is in a word, SLICK. Buy it and you'll find your VCR collecting dust.
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