Rating: 
Summary: TIVO is Great, Phillips takes more patience
Review: Let me first start off confessing that I am addicted to the TIVO service. I bought the TIVO lifetime membership...and it is the best investment I have made in the home entertainment area. I had problems with the Phillips TIVO player about 7 months after I bought it; it just completely crashed. Unfortunately, the way Phillips structures the warranty, after 6 months you can get free parts, but have to pay for the "labor" of shipping you a replacement.It took a lot of time to get the replacement. I had multiple (>10) interactions with customer service and ran into the same headaches time and again, until I found one good representative. Long story short, I got my replacement. Additionally, I wrote a complaint letter to Phillips and had my...labor fee refunded which was great, so I won't knock them too hard on the customer service. My new recorder has been working great. I am very busy during the week, without the opportunity to watch much TV, and there is nothing better than having all of my favorite shows on tap every Friday night. One note about the rated hours...this model does not have a 30 hour capacity if you record on "best quality" (which, trust me you will want to do), it is more like 10. And 10 hours goes quickly, because your shows tend to pile up until you can really sit down for a nice, long, TV marathon. And that's what its all about, isn't it.
Rating:
Summary: Tivo is changing the way we watch TV
Review: Boy do I love my Tivo. I've had my Tivo for over a year now and I hate watching live TV. Tivo does an excellent job of finding the shows that I'm interested in watching and then saves them for me so i can watch them when it's convenient for me. No VCR in the world could do it as easily and quickly as my Tivo can. Can your VCR search for shows starring a particular actor? How about movies by a particular director? Can your VCR search the next two weeks of listings for shows that match key words you set up? No...it can't. VCR's can't compare to Tivo. I don't watch more TV. I watch better TV.
Rating: 
Summary: The WORST customer service experience EVER
Review: There has been something wrong with the modem in the three units I have owned. Calls to customer service take over 45 minutes to get through. I love the TiVo when it works but the customer service experience was the WORST I have experienced.
Rating:
Summary: Does not work returned
Review: Would like to know when the Phillips HDR 312 will be in stock?
Rating:
Summary: Great concept but deeply flawed hardware
Review: I loved my TiVo from the moment I installed it (which takes a little while, but then it's over). However, I have had three units fail because of the extensively discussed TiVo modem issue. If you have not had a hardware problem yet, then you are fortunate. Please don't take my word for it--evaluate the hardware issues for yourself by browsing the excellent TiVo forum ... prior to purchasing a unit, for very helpful advice. Read the FAQs and try searching for "dead modem." Apparently the modem is highly sensitive to any power fluctuation in the telephone line, and is very easily burned out. Because the modem is built as part of the TiVo chip, it cannot simply be replaced with a better modem. If you decide to purchase a TiVo unit, be sure to buy from a reliable merchant (reports about Amazon are good) and also purchase an iron-clad extended warranty. Otherwise, after 90 days, all Phillips TiVo repairs are $99. Sorry to be so negative about the hardware, but I will repeat that the TiVo service itself is terrific!
Rating:
Summary: Love it!
Review: I have had it for a little over a year and have not been disappointed. It really is the best thing. Tivo's customer service is excellent also.
Rating:
Summary: it will change your life
Review: this is the best thing that i have bought in the last ten years.
nomore missing shows because its on at a different time than normal,season pass keeps track of when they come on.i love the wishlist where you can just enter keywords like "robin williams"
and tivo will record any show or movie with him in it.i have recomened tivo to 4 of my friends and each is as happy withit as i am.get it get it get it!
Rating:
Summary: The best gadget I've ever purchased!
Review: I've bought a few electronic gadgets over the years, some more useful than others. Tivo is by far and away the best gadget purchase I have ever made. It is so bizzare to watch live tv now. After skipping past commercials with Tivo, watching live tv is unbearable, with all of the commercial interuptions. Skipping the commercials reduces a 30 minute sitcom to 20 minutes of viewing time, and a 2 hour movie on TNT to about 1 1/2 hours. Being able to watch what you want, when you want to, and not wasting time watching commercials is invaluable. Once you experience Tivo, you will never want to go back to watching live television ever again.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't let your expectations get too high
Review: Yes, TiVo is great! We've had it for less than a month and definitely love it. BUT, we already had digital cable with the on-screen menu, so TiVo didn't exactly knock our socks off. That aside, the convenience is remarkable. It's especially nice with a baby in the house because we can put on her favorite show within 5 seconds -- no fumbling for tapes and rewinding or fast-forwarding through the tape. My favorite feature is that you can start to watch something already recording and catch up to it live. One major drawback is that you can't record one show and watch another on live tv at the same time, but you can record something while watching something already recorded. (has something to do with the cable box) And if you have a cable box, be prepared for slow channel changing because the TiVo uses infrared to tell the cable box to change the channel - very irritating! The only other thing that's strange is the "membership" follows the piece of equipment, not you. So, if your TiVo breaks and you get a new one, unless the warranty specifically covers it you'll have to pay the sign-up fee all over again. All in all, it's great and I would definitely recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Yes, it will actually change your life
Review: As another reviewer has noted, you don't have to be a TV junkie to get a lot of value out of TiVo. It will raise the quality of what you watch by making it really easy for you to record and watch the shows that interest you, not whatever's on. As for recording time, we own the 30-hour unit and right now we have 20 hours of "basic quality" programming and 3 hours of "medium quality" programming. There's no "full" indicator, so I don't know if there's room for anything else. We seldom notice the quality difference between basic and higher-quality recording, so most shows are recorded at "basic". The machine is really simple to work with, and new features are added transparently. There's no other way to watch TV.
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