Rating: 
Summary: Degradation in picture quality....
Review: .... or, if you love something, set it free!I have two children and only one TV. Tivo was the perfect answer for getting to watch the shows I wanted to see, when I wanted to see them -- namely after the final clip of Dora the Explorer was done and my kids were in bed. Imagine getting to watch the rest of the game (interrupted by bath time) or the Sopranos or Meet the Press, etc., at your leisure. You mocked us for years, TV, but now we are in control! The good news... The unit was fairly easy to set up, the directions were clear and the service people very helpful. In fact, I was surprised to read of other reviewers' problems in this department. So far, I love Tivo. So why am I returning it? (That is, as long as I can cram it all back in the box.) Well, the bad news is picture degradation. Tivo is hooked up to my very nice, new flat screen TV. DVDs look awesome on the new TV. Unfortunately, my digital cable, which goes through Tivo, looks pretty bad. Worse than it did on my dearly departed 27" Sony "round screen" TV. Tivo technology added in some very noticable loss of picture quality. The support person I spoke to said that this might be a slight problem, particularly with video that has movement. Of course, that covers pretty much all TV. Otherwise, it's called a still picture. When I want that I read a newspaper or one of those books where you flip the page and the image in the corner looks like it's moving. So, for us, Tivo wasn't worth the overall loss in picture quality to get those few shows. Curses! Foiled again.... Another issue to bear in mind is the fact that Tivo adds in a slight delay when changing channels on your cable box. Tivo is not like another component that hangs off the TV, a la your VCR. It becomes kind of the central nervous system of the TV. Cable and your VCR must go through Tivo. This wasn't a problem, with the exception of the video degradation and the channel changing delay. My delay was not too bad but could be a problem for others. If you can deal with those issues, then you will love the product. Hence my 3-star rating on a product I'm returning!
Rating: 
Summary: This TiVo is great: Dispelling some other reviewers issues
Review: This product is great, i love TiVo, but I'm not going to concentrate on reviewing TiVo itself, rather this TiVo brand DRV. People need to understand that TiVo is really just a service and software, too often these reviews are filled with info on the service, which is fine, but doesn't help the reviewer make a decision on which DVR unit to buy. Ok the first thing i want to do is dispel some of the complaints of other reviewers. For the reviewer who stated "However, I was disappointed in the picture quality. I record at Basic Quality so as to get the most hours of recording time", i would say that if you look at the different quality settings you will see that "Basic" is the lowest, so of course you are going to have the lowest quality. It doesn't really matter what the levels of quality are called, if you pick the lowest one, you're going to get the worst quality, try using a higher quality setting. Next, for the reviewer who stated "This is a very cool product, but it's extremely loud. The fan and hard drive combine to create a high-pitched whistling noise that we found impossible to live with", I'm not sure what he/she is even talking about, it must have been a defective unit. Mine is silent, i really can't hear a thing. Now the manual clearly states that you shouldn't set the TiVo directly on top of another component, or put another component on it, as this maybe block ventilation. So if this person has created a "component sandwich" with their TiVo in the middle, maybe the fans are coming on frequently, I don't know, mine makes no noise. One review states "Be sure to understand that not only do you need to buy the TiVo (the player) itself, but you also need to buy the sevice!", this is 100% false. You don't have to purchase any service at all. The service gives you access to the "Season Pass" feature where you can tell TiVo to record every showing of a certain show. But you can always set the TiVo up to do this manually, you do not have to purchase any service at all. Another reviewer has this to say, "Another thing: no power switch. Again, for casual TV users, this is a waste of equipment lifespan & electricity." This is really quite nitpicky, if you turn the TiVo off, it cant make its dial-in call to get your updated schedule of shows, and it cant search for shows you might like based on your preferences. Besides that it doesn't use much power at all, and the only thing that would be getting any wear and tear are the hard drives and they sleep when they aren't in use. He also states "it's just a very expensive toy", um hello.... Of course it is, that's the fun of it. Finally there is this complaint, "You need a credit card to activate the service. This is a real problem for those who do not have, or choose not to use, credit cards". Ok lets see, first of all you don't need to sign up for the service, and if you don't have a credit card I'm guessing you run into this problem all the time, it isn't just with TiVo... This TiVo unit works as advertised, I cant really say anything else about it. One thing to realize is that, while this is an 80 hour unit, that really is only about 25 hours of recordings at the highest quality level. I know some of you are saying "25 hours is plenty", and you're right, but if you were looking at a unit with less recording time, remember that you only get about 30% of the total time at the best level. The only other problem I have with this is that recording a show while watching something else on live TV is impossible if you have a cable box for your TV. I have digital cable, and therefore I need a cable box, well you cant split a digital signal very easily and its then impossible to record on one channel and watch another. But it isn't that big a deal as one can still watch a recorded show and record another.
Rating:
Summary: User-friendly, great utility -- some minor shortcomings
Review: We love this thing! Setup was a snap. I really expected it to be much more cumbersome than it was, but they obviously did a lot of usability testing on the product. I had it hooked up in 10 minutes, and within 1.5 hours, I had signed up for the Tivo subscription AND downloaded and processed the entire guide. Unfortunately, there are some limitations for certain AV hookups -- we had to make some tradeoffs with ours, but it was worth it. Using it is a snap. My wife has never been able to record a show with a VCR, but with 5 minutes of explanation, she was able to record a show through the guide, setup a season pass to record every upcoming episode of her favorite show, and setup a wishlist to record every show that had her favorite actor in it. The on-screen prompts and instructions are crystal clear -- I would, however, prefer more shortcuts. I can imagine that always following the prompts will get old. Picture quality was very good. I braced myself for some degradation in quality, but there's minimal on our set. The unit hums a bit, but the sound is easily masked by the normal TV volume, and ours is in a closing entertainment center, so we don't notice it. The pause between channel changes is generally 1 to 2 seconds, but I never notice it because I generally use the guide to move around. That's my favorite part of the Tivo -- I don't waste time channel switching any more. I use the guide -- if I see something I like, I watch it; otherwise, the TV is turned off. And I always pause the shows I like for 15 minutes so I can fast forward through the commercials. The fast forward and rewind are fantastic, too -- too much to write here, but you will like it. No more anticipatory button pressing!
Rating: 
Summary: My Love-Hate Relationship With Tivo
Review: I was an early adopter of Tivo. I have a 30 hour by Philips, and an 80 hour by Tivo. I love my Tivos . . . and I hate them. In short, the software is great, the hardware is awful. My first 30 hour, I got from Amazon. It died within a few days, and Amazon rapidly sent me another one (thanks, Amazon!). That one died within a month, and Tivo sent me another one. When that one died a few months later, I had to pay a substantial amount of money to get a refurbished unit from Tivo. That one's still alive, knock wood. I did figure out after the first one died that the Tivo cannot be put into a component cabinet - it overheats. Undeterred, I got the Series 2 80 hour. This time, I went to a local retailer, anticipating problems. 9 months later, I'm still on my first unit, BUT . . . . In February, the fan became noisy (like jet-about-to-take-off noisy), so I took it in for repairs. A month or so later, I got it back. It was DOA!!! How do they fix a fan, and kill the thing, without noticing? I took it back the next day. A month or so later (yesterday), got it back again. STILL DOA!!!! My retailer is in the process of asking Tivo to swap it out for another unit. I'm astonished at Tivo's repeated display of incompetence and its flagrant disregard for quality control. Can't they even plug the thing in and see if the little light and fan come on before they ship it back to the customer?? I'm done spending money on Tivo. I have heard that my cable company is coming out with its own PVR product. Can't happen soon enough for me.
Rating:
Summary: BEWARE! DirecTv users MUST READ
Review: We were quite excited to receive our Tivo, but it wasn't until AFTER we'd paid the "lifetime fee" on the machine that we discovered a MAJOR problem. Apparently, our DirecTv box does not have a serial cable connection so we had to use the Infrared (IR) set up (basically two little prongs that stick out in front of the IR window on the DirecTv box to "beam" the signal--as opposed to it going directly through a serial cable connection between the two machines). We have roughly a 70% margin of error (i.e., FAILURE RATE) in changing the channel. We've used every troubleshooting tip suggested by Tivo, but none have improved the situation (including one that involves building a cardboard "tent" around the prongs--simply lovely for interior decorating. When we received this gift (through Amazon), the combined DirecTv/Tivo machine was not available so we were not able to return the machine and "upgrade" (which we'd considered doing before we actually gave in and paid the $300 "lifetime of the machine" fee). If you have DirecTV, DO NOT BUY THIS MACHINE unless you are SURE that you have the ability to connect via serial cable. We look forward to one day seeing what is supposed to be so "great" about Tivo, but for now we are left wanting to go "Office Space" on our machine. Hope you have better luck!
Rating: 
Summary: You've heard it before...will change the way you watch TV
Review: We had always talked about getting TiVo, but it wasn't until we visited a friend's house who had TiVo that we decided we had to have it. We purchased this 40 hour model and have been very happy so far. Set up was very easy. I followed directions on the TiVo website to add a cable splitter so I could watch live TV while recording something else. This is easy to do and only costs about $10. In order to get 40 hours of shows, they need to be recorded at "basic" video quality. This level is not the greatest, but after watching it for a while, you get used to it. If there is anything we really want to see in a higher quality (such as new episodes of our favorite shows) we will record those in medium quality - which seems almost perfect to me.
Rating:
Summary: It uses Broadband too.
Review: One review states that ReplayTV is better because "tivo doesn't use broadband". That's wrong. I have both Tivo and ReplayTV, and both can use Broadband to get their schedules.
He must be thinking of a Series 1 tivo, which only could use a modem to dial out. Series 1's are gone, all the stores sell Series 2s now.
Rating:
Summary: Plasma TV with AV receiver & HD Digital Box READ UP
Review: "When your system is more toward the cutting edge TiVo falls a little short." Note that there is little written about how TiVo works or doesn't work when your AV system is more complex than television-vcr-straight cable. We bought the Series2 140 hour DVR thinking it would be perfect for our new plasma tv supported by it's hd digital cable box and cinema surround sound system. What we've found after approximately five hours of moving wires and cables from here to there with three different TiVo representatives is that TiVo doesn't seem to be compatable with systems like ours. It seems that if TiVo is not hooked up directly through the television (BOTH audio and video), there are profound delays between the picture and the sound - - if you get both the picture and the sound. In other words, you cannot watch live television through TiVo where the picture and sound match each other if your entertainment system is complicated, and, although we could get it to record, we have not been able to get the recording to play back with any sound whatsoever. We've tried every wiring configuration with every type of wires the representatives at TiVo could come up with without a desired result (I'm pretty good with wiring myself, too). I suspect it would work if we were willing to eliminate the AV Cinema sound system, but we've already spent a tidy sum on extra equipment with the intention of using it. The concept is wonderful! The telephone service center at TiVo did have a rather long waiting time (about 1/2 hour on hold), and the reps were helpful, all things considered. But I believe that when your system is more toward the cutting edge TiVo falls a little short. One of the customer service reps I spoke with confessed, when asked, that most of their customers did not have equipment comparable to ours and therefore did not have difficulties in getting their TiVo into working order. With the remote, the newer equipment (HD cable boxes, HD televisions) come with a 24-pin, not 9-pin port, so the remote control system leaves a lot to be desired. We found that it began to change our channels in a seemingly random fashion and at its own will so it needed to be disabled. Overall, the experience has not been favorable in this household and the equipment will have to be returned. We're very sorry it won't work out for us.
Rating:
Summary: TiVo Connection Required
Review: One of the earlier reviewers stated that you could use the TiVo without subscribing to their "TV Guide" service. That is not correct for the Series 2 units. If you don't subscribe, after 30 days the unit will cease to record anything. You've spent $300 for a boat anchor. Don't think about changing the software just because you know Linux. You'd have to unsolder the eprom, burn a second one and install it before you could start to change the software. It ain't worth it. Buy something else.
Rating:
Summary: Replay TV Better
Review: There is one reason why Replay TV is better and that is because you can connect to the service via broadband. As the only most sophisticated and tech savy people have broadband, this oversight by TIVO is a real slight to us who have more on the ball than the average dial-up user.
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