TiVo is one of the best things I own. I've been using it for the last year and it's worth the monthly (or in this case, yearly) fee. I don't even remember when the shows I like are on anymore, I don't pay attention to when new episodes are airing, I just set it and forget it until I want to sit down and watch TV and I find I have new shows to watch. Plus, the 30-second commericial skip feature you can program (it's not turned on by default) into your remote makes all the difference in your sanity when watching shows. Five or six clicks and you're back to your show without dealing with ads. My Mom keeps asking me "Have you seen that ad where..." and I'm happy to answer "No."
I've played around with the TiVotoGo feature where you can transfer shows to your computer and watch them there, but I haven't yet tried burning them to a DVD and watching them on a player. My Dad has done this successfully, however. Transfer rates over an ethernet network are about 1-1 for minutes, i.e., a 60-minute program takes about 60 minutes to transfer to your PC, but you can queue them up. Wireless takes probably around the same.
Erm, I know that posting *links to* referral sites is forbidden here, but if anyone goes in on this deal, I'd be much appreciated if you used my email address as your referral if you don't have someone else already lined up. The TiVo Rewards program is pretty generous with the number of referrals you need to get some good merchandise like a new TiVo unit, an iPod, or a bunch of other nice things. Plus, if anyone has some questions for a TiVo user over the last year that you'd feel you'd need to justify using me as a referral, feel free to email me your questions--I don't normally check my forum messages.
EDIT: I might also add, I'm using a factory refurbished 80-hour unit, and I've had zero problems with my box. My Dad's got a factory-refurbished 40-hour unit, and he hasn't had any troubles, either.
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