Rating: 
Summary: What's so great about Tivo?
Review: Let me ask you a few questions...Sick of missing your favorite shows? Tired of missing important TV moments to answer a telemarketing call? Wish you knew what you were watching? Among the many problems Tivo solves, I think these three are the biggest and most widespread ones. If you want to solve these problems, Tivo is your solution. Solution 1) If you are sick of missing your favorite show, Tivo makes it easy to catch them. Simply type in the name of the show and hit 'record this showing', and the next time the show plays, you'll have it available to you. So, let's say you want to watch the latest 'Survivor' Series - no need to get home by 8pm - Tivo will have it waiting for you. No more missing your favorite shows... Solution 2) If you are tired of missing important TV moments because of a distraction (phone call, baby crying, nature calls...), Tivo makes it easy to catch them, too. Simply hit 'pause' on your Tivo remote and you can do your business. When you come back to the TV, your show will be ready to go, just where you left off. Magic! Solution 3) If you are watching some riveting show, but don't know what it's called, Tivo can help you get the name, a brief description, and names of actors. Simply hit the right arrow on your remote and your TV displays all that information instantly. No more waiting around for the slow-scrolling preview channel... To summarize, the Tivo units are really about you getting control of your TV. Instead of networks dictating when you watch things, you get to dictate this for yourself. And did I mention that you can skip commercials? If you have the cash - go buy this thing. You'll be glad you did. Feel free to email me with any questions! Additional info: The Philips units are: HDR212 - up to 20 hours of recording HDR312 - up to 30 hours HDR612 - up to 60 hours The Sony unit is: SVR-2000 - up to 30 hours There are also units that have built-in DirecTV satellite connections. If you can spend the money to get the 60-hour unit, I'd suggest you do that. We've found that we are often using all of the 30-hours of our units, and that we have to delete programs that we enjoy to make room for other shows. Also, you can see a tutorial on upgrading the number of hours on your Tivo at the following web address: http://www.cnet.com/electronics/0-3219398-8-4562148-1.html Good luck, and again, email me with any questions.
Rating: 
Summary: Hope you don't have problems after 90 days
Review: While I have had Tivo for over 14 months I am in the position that I feel I need to discontinue due to several reasons. There have been several prblems with freezing that I would have to unplug and restart the process. If it does this while you are gone obviously nothing is recorded. The main reason is the customer support. Once your unit goes pass 90 days expect no help from Tivo in getting your system working. They wil only tell you that you will have to pay $99.95 to get it fixed or replaced. Over the past year there have been 9 incidents that have forced me to call customer support, and I am not a novice when it comes to electronics, and all they could say was unplug it, wait 5 minutes and restart. SO even after 9 problems Tivo takes no responsibility for the unit and tells me they wil work with me and cover half the expenses but I wil still need to send in $99.95. Well paying $100.00/yr for service and then plan on paying another $99.95 every year when there is a problem seems like an expense I don't feel like covering. Tivo to me seems not to care about serving there customers once they get past the 90 day mark. I would think a company that is starting up and now gaining new competitors would be more interested in gaining customer support than pushing away customers but that was not the case in my situation. In conclusion, I loved the service and will miss it dearly but I am not comfortable with a company that will not stick up for its product.
Rating:
Summary: Can't go back to regular TV after you have enjoyed it!
Review: I knew from the moment I heard of the concept of Tivo and Replay, I wanted one..but I had to wait until the price came down and the recording space went up. I bought a 30 hour Phillips Tivo last August and I absolutely love it. The subscription was a concern to me but if you buy the lifetime subscription, it costs no more than a Replay which has the subscription fee built in the selling price and if you decide to sell your Tivo with a lifetime subscription, you would most likely recoup a most of that subscription fee. Yes, setup takes some time but not your time. After a few minutes of making your choices during the setup, it takes awhile to download your programming and get it setup but you can go to dinner or sleep while that happens. The modem is a weak point which can be solved by unplugging the phone line during violent storms and using a phone line surge protector. The 1.3 version software was a little slow compared to the 2.01 I have now. The 2.01 version has made the unit more more responsive. It is absolutely wonderful to watch shows at your own convenience. Tivo finds shows I have enjoyed which I never would have found on my own. I love seeing what Tivo has figured out I would like to watch.I have my Tivo programmed to go through the VCR so if I do want to watch something other than what I am recording, all I have to do is turn the VCR off and watch TV regularly. (Even though it is hard to do without the ability to pause or speed through commercials).I love pausing. I love recording something while watching something else I have already recorded. I love whizzing through commercials. I love backing up Tivo to hear what someone on TV said that I didn't quite catch. I love the hard drive recording and menus ..no comparison to a VCR. I love setting up season passes with priorities set and having the TV change channels all by itself for the week. Really could make one into a real couch potato. Finally I love my Phillips remote. It is the most intuitive ergonomic remote control I have ever known. I figured out what buttons to push in the dark the first night. Just feels good in the hand. I have to have a stand alone model for I have to watch OTA channels since network channels are not available on my DirecTV receiver in southern Missouri. I am sure I will get a 60 hour SA model when the price drops some more so I can Tivo two channels at the same time. I definitely am a member of Tivolution.
Rating:
Summary: TiVo has changed the way I watch TV
Review: TiVo is the best thing to happen to television since the VCR. I do a lot of travelling during the week and before TiVo, I couldn't catch up on my favorite shows. Now not only can I record them all (it stores up to 30 hours of shows!), TiVo also keeps track of the shows I watch and recommends other shows that are similar. Fantastic!! No more switching video tapes. No more programming the VCR. TiVo makes it extremely easy to record. I got a lifetime subscription to their service, so I pick the shows I want to watch and it records every instance of these shows. If a change to my cable lineup occurs, TiVo handles it automatically. I hardly ever watch "live" TV anymore, I just watch my TiVo-recorded shows. I think the pause live TV feature is cool, but I don't have any need for it. I do however like being able to pause my recorded shows. My one and only complaint about TiVo is that now I have too many shows to watch over the weekend. :-) If you're the type of person who's missing out on shows you'd like to watch b/c they're on when you're not home, this is for you. If you've got kids and never gain access to the TV until late at night, TiVo is for you. If you travel a lot, TiVo is definitely for you! I honestly don't know how I got along without it!
Rating:
Summary: So good, I bought TWO!
Review: Tivo will change the way you watch TV. It free's you to watch what you want, not what the networks want you to watch. Channel surfing becomes a thing of the past, bringing further family unity! I liked my first Tivo so much, I bought another for conflicts. I have recommended Tivo to everyone I know, at least 14 have bought one (I'm a salesman ;) ) and everyone of them has been completely thrilled with their purchase. A decent machine and a great company (Tivo) to deal with!
Rating:
Summary: Tivo changed my life!
Review: I think some of the folks writing reviews of this product do not completely understand it. Sure, it's nice to be able to pause live TV, but that's not what I love the most about Tivo. I used to tape a lot of shows on my VCR. My wife was always complaining because I never got around to labeling the tapes, and looking for a show I wanted to see would take a while. Once I found the tape, I'd have to search it to find the show. I had tapes piling up alongside the deck. It was a mess. Now that I have Tivo, watching TV is more fun than ever. All the shows I want to watch are right there, labeled and dated. The picture quality, even at medium, simply blows away VHS. I watch whatever I want whenever I want to. The user interface is magnificent. You can pad start times and end times (I always start ER a minute early!). I have wishlists, with which I can have Tivo look for an actor, director, or keyword, and then it will tape the show automatically. And it has an amazing feature that lets me rate any show I see with thumbs up or thumbs down (up to 3 of either), and it learns from my ratings what I like to watch and what I don't like to watch. With Suggestions enabled (you can turn them off if you don't want them, but this is a great feature!), Tivo will seek out and record shows it thinks you might like. As a result of having Tivo, I get so much more out of my television experience than I ever did before. It's like there's always something great on that I want to see. I hardly ever watch live TV any more. I saw a review here where the reviewer was concentrating on Tivo's limitations. Sure it has some limitations (and by the way, that reviewer was off the mark on several things he wrote. For example, you can pad start and end times if you expect a show to run overtime. And while it doesn't have a 30 second skip, it has a wonderful fast play forward and reverse that makes it a breeze to zip through commercials!), but as far as I'm concerned it offers so much more than a VCR that it defies comparison. My wife was never comfortable with our VCR. She couldn't program it and had trouble finding recorded shows. She loves our Tivo and operates it easily. Very few products these days can claim to be life changing. Tivo has completely changed the way we watch television, and we can't imagine life without it. It's been a solid and reliable piece of equipment as well. If you do a lot of taping, or if you just like to watch television, I heartily recommend this item.
Rating:
Summary: I could never live without them
Review: I love my Tivos - both of them. I havn't used any of my VCRs (I have three) since I got the Tivo's. Recodring quality is I love my Tivos - both of them. I haven't used any of my VCRs (I have three) since I got the Tivo's. Recording quality is excellent - even when viewed on a 73" digital TV. NO PROBLEMS AT ALL with system crashes. Being Linux based these units are solid - wish my PC's were this stable. Tivo is already WAY ahead of either Replay TV or UTV, so the suggested improvements for the next models are biggies: Networkable Tivos - One Tivo server with multiple tuners and several Tivo clients so I can watch any program wirelessly in any room in the house. HDTV Tivo
Rating:
Summary: Awesome! Save Time And Get Better Viewing!
Review: If you want to save significant time watching TV and want to watch a variety of higher-quality shows when YOU want to, this is the product to get. The "pause" feature is very handy, but the big seller is the Season Pass (below). If you have to put your child in bed, you don't have to miss a part of your show -- just hit Pause and then Play when you come back. Same for the telephone or when Mother Nature calls. This is a great stress reducer! Season Passes are even better. No more fussing with tapes and figuring out which has what show on it (not to mention that it would take 10+ tapes to do what we do with TiVo). For example, we set a Season Pass for "The West Wing" just once, and now it will record every show that comes up (you also can choose only new shows instead of reruns). It will keep track of time changes and day changes. When you come home, you look at Now Playing and it shows you what shows are available. Ours has things like "The West Wing", "ER", "Boston Public", "David Letterman" and "Whose Line Is It Anyway". Who cares when they were shown live, we can watch when WE want to. My wife watches soap operas again. With tapes, she got tired of putting in new tapes, accidentally recording over shows, forgetting to rewind before recording, etc. All of that is history. Now the shows come up in the list and she can hit Play or Delete (if she has several days worth, she is more inclined to hit Delete). While viewing, she can skip through sections at 3x, 20x or 60x. She typically watches 90 minutes in 15 minutes or less (she only cares about one or two story lines in a show). It will almost certainly change your viewing habits -- for the better. You may watch shows, again, that you used to watch. You are not required to watch crappy shows because that is the only thing on at the moment. More shows, higher quality, less time. That is what makes a great consumer product.
Rating:
Summary: Had one for over a year, best thing for TV since color!
Review: Well we all see the reviewer below. I hope you don't base your purchase decision on what he tells you about what Tivo doesnt do. If you watch one show a week, of course it is not for you. At least not until it becomes the norm and you can't buy a VCR (about 5 years away). However, no more commercials, oh you missed that line in live TV, just hit replay, and you never have to care when anything is on. Also for all of you without Satelite, you get a full program guide with everything on every channel you get for the next two weeks, and every day it updates itself with a short local call in the middle of the night. Tivo records suggestions that you train it (very easy thumb up shows you like thumb down shows you dont), and these suggestions can be saved for longer, deleted right away, or deleted when Tivo needs the space. Ever watch crappy TV that was the only thing on. Tivo gives you basically a lot of channels with only things that you and your family like. If it is something you love, you can always send the show or movie to VCR and keep it for good to free up room on Tivo or you can keep it on Tivo if you have the room under save until I delete. There customer service is excellent compared to most other tech comps, and they have the backing of some of the biggest in the business such as AOL, CBS, NBC, and HBO. No more oh, Sopranos is on at 8/9 I need to go home. Forget you can watch it when you want and in much better quality than that grainy VCR. This is the future, and it is here now. True, DVD recorders will be coming, but unless you got a chance to burn $2000 for one during the course of the next two years, Tivo is the best way to view TV. It doesnt take long to setup, if you can hook up a vcr, you can hook up Tivo. And there is loads of help out there on the web. A lot of sales clerks don't really know much about the machine, but take it home give it the 30 day trial, and you probably will never be able to remember the days before you had it! Everyone who has seen it in action at my house loves it and wants one for themselves. It is not a gimmick, everyone from my little nephew (4 years old) to my grandmother figured it out in less than 20 minutes, and now they keep on telling me I am going to be hit up for one when their birthdays roll around if they dont take the plunge before hand (obviuosly the nephew cant buy it himself, my brother already got two for the whole family). Give it a chance if you have the means. You will not be disappointed!
Rating:
Summary: This Amazing Recorder Has Changed My Life
Review: I purchased the Tivo 14 hour recorder and love it.. When I go to my freinds house and they don't have one its hard to watch TV. This recorder is great for us busy people.. I don't have the time in my schedule to watch TV when the show is on and now Tivo record my favorite programs 24 hrs day. I found www.digitalrecorder.tv website and had my 14 hour upgraded to 91 hours for only $325.00 and now I can record all my programs in the BEST setting and have plenty of room to spare. They offer 1 day service and give you a 6 month warranty on the upgrade. I now have a 91 hour Tivo, WOW.
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