Tivo, how do you like it?

[Jim]

Thinking about getting one, how is the vid quality? And how useful is it when using w/o the subscription service?

 

[Raspewtin]

its pretty useless w/o subscription but u can pay one time 250 fee for life time subscription. god i love my tivo. it totally changes the way u watch tv. go here and they'll tell you everything you want to know.

 

[badga]

TiVo is by far the best piece of consumer electronics to come out in a decade. You can watch all your favorite tv when you have the spare time regardless of your schedule. Never more will you mindlessly channel surf for something interesting. Why it has not been an overwhelming success in the marketplace will forever be a wonder.

As to video quality, at the top settings of compression it degrades original signal minimally if at all noticable, though like any compression based video source there tends to be more motion artifacts with high movement content (sports, action movies, etc). Of course with Directv already being highly compressed and all the interference with cable signals, it doesn't have much to work with.

One clarification though, the lifetime membership mentioned by Ras is for the TiVo unit rather than your lifetime. the yearly or monthly deal makes more sense, especially with potentially newer technology coming down the pipe like moxie announced at CES. The unit is pointless without the service

- TiVo changed my life - run dont walk to the store and get it.

 

[Raspewtin]

montly is 10 bucks. if your are going to keep it for more than 2 years, it makes no sense to pay monthly. yearly has been discontined was 100. so if you were to keep the unit for 3 years, it would be foolish to go with yearly over lifetime. Even if you throw it away after 2.5 years, you'd be smarter to get a lifetime subscription

 

[badga]

True, the breakeven point is 2.5 years and i certainly have got the use out of my lifetime fee but as an early adoptor i was allowed to tsf my lifetime across to a new unit (they didn't specify machine versus person in the first few months). My assertion is that the risk of better technology coming along combined with the somewhat dodgy construction of the tivo boxes (modems being shorted out, mpeg chips dying, HDD's dying) leads me to believe that something other than my HDR312 box will be sitting in my living room 30 months from now....hence it would be cheaper to go monthly. But having lived with Tivo for over 3 years now, I wouldn't waste a second debating this, the benefits of Tivo greatly outweigh either option.