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Summary: TiVo - It will change the way you watch TV forever.
Review: I bought the 30 hour TiVo, in fact two of them. This is absolutely the greatest product made for use with the television. I no longer miss my favorite shows, no matter when they come on and now that my TiVo has learned what shows I like, it suggests shows that it thinks I may like. This is great since I am now watching shows that I never knew existed. The intergrated TV Listing that shows both the DSS and cable listings makes it easy to find whats on. Also it eliminates any manual input switching. Well, thats is. It's a great product and you will have one, now or later!
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Summary: Yes, you want it.
Review: TiVo is absolutely the best piece of AV gear I've ever had the pleasure of owning. All the talk of "it changes the way you watch TV" is true. It has so many wonderful features I don't know where to begin. A lot of it's press deals with the pausing live TV feature (which is great), but I think it's real strengths have to do with it's recording capabilities and "suggestions". If you never have time to see a favorite show/movie, don't want the hassle of programming a VCR, or feel like "there's never anything good on TV" - the TiVo is for you. Everyone I've shown the unit to has wanted one. Several friends bought their own TiVos immediately after seeing mine. The price is steep, but I haven't regretted this purchase.
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Summary: I like the concept but the technology isn't there yet.
Review: I bought it. I sent it back. The equipment is not completely reliable yet. I had the system freeze up twice. I became slow and unresponsive to commands on other occasions. (Consumer Reports said they had problems with system crashes on two units.) Despite the potential unreliability of hard disks and the cost of the system, no extended warranty protection is available if you buy online (some brick and mortar retailers do offer them indepdently of Philips). You have two people to deal with if there is a problem: Philips and Tivo and they both kept pointing fingers at each other and claiming it's they other guy's problem. Hold times were tolerable when I first got the unit but had become excessive by the time I sent it back. The TV listings are not up to date -- despite the fact that new program data are downloaded daily. I also encounter occasional errors in their listings. The software still needs work. The system got better at picking programs for me at first but as I entered still more thumbs up/thumbs down data I got more garbage. The program is artificial stupidity - not artificial intelligence. I gave thumbs up to "Singing in the Rain" and started getting everything Debbie Reynolds was ever in. The Season Pass also needs work. It's OK for broadcast networks. But if I want a season pass for Homicide: Life on the Streets on Court TV, it records the same episode four times each day (same thing on any cable channel that repeats broadcasts of particular programs). Even if you're not waiting for the price to come down, my advice is wait for them to get it right. The current version should be labelled a "Beta" version.
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Summary: HDR312 revolutionizes TV and satellite viewing
Review: The HDR312 is as great as the users say it is. We've been using one for a month and it does revolutionize TV. It particularly enhances our DirecTV subscripition and makes it much more valuable.Please read the HDR112 reviews and realize that the HDR312 does everything that does and the HDR312 doubles the storage capacity. So if the added expense isn't too big an obstacle, we'd recommend the HDR312. This might be particularly important for sports fans and movie viewers. Both the HDR112 and HDR312 coupled with TiVo integate the TV tuners built into these units with the satellite input. They simplify mixing off-the-air signals or cable signals with satellite and make it easier to treat these signals and satellite as one. The TiVo guide, etc., treats both sources as the same too, so finding programs and going back and forth is seamless.
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Summary: Worth its weight in gold!
Review: I have the 30-hour Tivo unit which I purchased after considering the ReplayTV unit. Tivo has it won hands down. Setup is extremely simple and Tivo provides excellent setup guidelines and user manuals. The first setup call is lengthy but Tivo warns you of this before you start. The maintenance calls vary in length but the actual call time is short although the computer may do some "housekeeping" that takes longer. For those concerned about recording time, I made some trial recordings as suggested by Tivo and found the "best" quality (9 hours total time) to be indistinguishable from live TV. The "high" quality was still excellent and better than my VCR at SP. I now use "medium" quality for all my recordings except for anything that I wish to archive onto VCR or sporting events that may require finer detail. This gives me over 19 hours of recording time. Hopefully, Tivo will provide easy upgrades of their hardware just like they do their software. Finally, the user interface for Tivo is amazing. It is extremely user-friendly; I was immediately running Tivo without looking at the manual and the variety of ways Tivo has sorted programming makes deciding what you want to watch simple. No more TV Guides! Tivo sorts programming by channel, time, genres, showcases, and the Tivolution daily magazine delivered to the receiver every night in the update call has even more topical recommendations. And the "Thumbs up" or "Down" really works. Tivo makes fairly good calls about programming you might enjoy and records them on available space leaving you to decide if you want to watch them. If you do and tell Tivo you liked the show with the "Thumbs up", Tivo learns again! Our television viewing has never been the same. For copyright reasons though, you can't make digital archives of your recorded programs. That seems strange to me since analog copies are fine! I highly recommend the Tivo personal receiver system!
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Summary: Tivo vs. ReplayTV
Review: I have spent the past 30 days evaluating both a ReplayTV and a Tivo personal digital recorder and this is a brief review of my experience. If Tivo did not exist, I would probably tell you that ReplayTV was the coolest gadget that I have ever used. However, Tivo has done such a superior job designing their user interface and their remote control that there is no comparison between the two, Tivo is the hands down winner. ReplayTV's major problem is that they have no sorting system to help you pick the shows that you might want to record. To find the shows that you want to record you must painfully sift through an on screen channel guide one time slot at a time. Tivo in comparison gives you numerous ways to choose shows that you might want to record. You can view the upcomming two weeks of programming in catagories such as Movies, Sports, by channel, or by show name. Tivo will even automatically record shows that it thinks you might like based on shows that you have rated with their thumbs up or thumbs down rating system. At first I was skeptical that I would like this feature, but after a week I found that I loved it. I would get home from work and get a whole list of programs that Tivo went out and recored by itself while I was sleeping and while I was at work. With Tivo I can scan through hundreds of Movies on my premium channels and in minutes tell it to record all the ones that I want to record for the next two weeks. With ReplayTV it took me so long to do this that after the first few days I found myself only recording shows that were on a regular schedule, like Seinfeld or the X-Files. ReplayTV basically has a frustrating user interface that forces you to constantly look at the remote control to do every simple task. With Tivo almost all of your options are on screen, so if your sitting in the dark while you are watching TV you don't have to strain your eyes on what button you need to push. My ReplayTV seemed to often (at least once a day) have a playback glitch. The fast forward or rewind would get stuck and I would have to power the unit on and off to get it to stop. One last thing, a major one for me, ReplayTV gives you no indication of where you are when you are watching a show. You can't tell if there is 10 minutes or an hour left. I was watching Shindler's List a few days ago and I found this extremely frustrating. With Tivo you get a very helpfull progress bar that appears on the bottom of the screen whenever you fast forward, rewind or press slow motion. (ReplayTV has no slow motion or single frame advance.) I just returned my ReplayTV and Tivo 14 hour unit, I ordered a TIVO 30 hour unit. My advise is to buy a 30 hour unit, you will probably record everything in a higher quality setting, resulting in about half the recording time of either units advertised recording capacity.
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Summary: Forget your VCR - Get a Tivo!
Review: I am a heavy user of multimedia gear; sound and video. I bought a 14 hour Tivo unit after looking at Replay as well. The Tivo is bar none the best consumer device this year to hit the shelves. the User Interface is outstanding. You folks initimidated by VCRs can breathe a sigh of relief. TIVO does all the hard stuff for you and gives you the power to control how you watch television content. I love the 14 hour unit so much I bought a second 30 hr unit. I use one on A and one on B side of the cable. Basic record mode is useless, use medium level and you will be fine. This translates to 9.5 hours recording on 14 hour unit and 19+ hours on 30 hr unit. If you are a heavy tv watcher, get the 30.
Rating: 
Summary: not for everyone
Review: TIVO works for some but not for others. The TIVO system is not compatable with the DISH NETWORK better receiver that operates on an FM signal instead of infared. Also it is not compatable with all TV sets and in many cases the signal is not as strong as it is without TIVO. TIVO's advertising is misleading in that they tell you that it records 14 hours. The reality is that it only records 4 hours at a quality that is as good as normal TV reception. My suggestion would be to wait till all the bugs are worked out and the hard drive capacity is increased at an affordable price.
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Summary: The Coolest Thing Since the VCR
Review: So, what does this thing do? Well, on the surface, it's a digital VCR -- it records programs that you want to watch and it lets you see them without juggling tapes. But it's so much more: o It makes live TV as flexible as recorded TV. It's always recording, so if you want to pause live TV (yes, even when you're not specifically recording something), just push pause. You can tend to something else and come back without missing a beat. You can also rewind, instant replay, freeze frame or slow mo at any time. While you're doing all this, TiVo is diligently recording TV and you can catch up at your first opportunity (maybe during a commercial <grin>). o It's a program guide -- TiVo downloads program guides for all of your stations, so you can see what's on for the next 10 days. You can also search for program titles and record any program that you find. o Because of the program guide, it's a super VCR. Tell TiVo that you always want to record a show and it will record it whenever it plays on that channel. Special one hour show on a different day? No problem. TiVo will automatically capture that. o As TiVo gets to know you, it will even record shows that you might like (it will never erase something that you have recorded or otherwise interfere with your TV watching), but based on shows you have asked TiVo to record in the past, it will record the occasional show that you might also enjoy. And if you don't like something that TiVo suggests, you can easily let TiVo know and you'll never see it again. o The software is updated over the phone, so you don't have to worry about being left behind -- any improvements in the system will be automatically sent to you and applied to your system. It's simply an amazing product!
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Summary: Simple - Easy - Perfect
Review: If you have kids, you must have a TiVo. It's right up there with a car seat, in my opinion! Not only does it allow you to have age appropriate shows for your kids to watch, at any time of the day, but it allows you to watch your favorite shows after the kids are in bed! I used to miss part of my show when it was time for bedtime. Now I just tell TiVo to record them, and watch them on MY TIME.
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