Tivo question.... Since AVS has you go somewhere else to ask questions.....

[CorCentral]

Am I mistaken that AVS does not have a forum that talks about TIVO?
AVS---
Digital Recorders (PVRs) General
This is for chat on digital recorders for items like Cable boxes with a PVR built in. Note that TiVo, Replay, and the MS box have their own forums. (for TiVo please see www.tivocommunity.com) Chat on hacking of service will not be allowed.


Well, I'll post the questions here because I'm done with joining yet another forum!

Okay, here are the questions..........
I have charter HD cable and have no cable box, just a cable card inserted into my 720P Panasonic Plasma tv. I'll be adding an HD DVD player (A3) very soon.

1-- Can I buy one of these new Tivo HD recorders ($300.+/-), add it to my current setup, hook it up and have zero problems?

2-- Do you just record through this thing or does it act like a cable box.....=... SLOW as ass channel changing etc?

3-- Whatever info you can add about the HD Tivo unit will be peachy. I tell the wife about adding new Onkyo 705 Receiver to the setup, and she wants this instead! Might get both, but does'nt look good!

YoYO must know! ....... RIGHT?
I have no clue on this DVR type Tivo stuff.


Direction/Questions/Answers

 

[The Boston Dangler]

http://www.tivo.com/whatistivo/tivohd/index.html

Only $299.99!
TiVo service is required and sold separately. No functionality is represented or should be expected without a paid subscription to the TiVo service. Minimum 1 year service plan required.

TiVo HD and TiVo Series3? HD may require two CableCARDs to receive two digital cable channels.

Broadband Internet connection required.


not to sound insulting, but Tivo is for morons.
your best bet is to lease a dual-tuner HD DVR box from the cable company. no cablecard required, never mind 2. if it croaks, it's not coming out of your pocket. no additional wiring required. it supports every tv-related service your cable provider offers.

the Tivo acts like a cable box, handling the tuning for the tv. i don't know if it's slow or not. i'm told it has a very nice GUI. there have been problems getting cablecard to work.

 

[CorCentral]

Originally posted by: The Boston Dangler
http://www.tivo.com/whatistivo/tivohd/index.html

Only $299.99!
TiVo service is required and sold separately. No functionality is represented or should be expected without a paid subscription to the TiVo service. Minimum 1 year service plan required.

TiVo HD and TiVo Series3? HD may require two CableCARDs to receive two digital cable channels.

Broadband Internet connection required.


not to sound insulting, but Tivo is for morons.
your best bet is to lease a dual-tuner HD DVR box from the cable company. no cablecard required, never mind 2. if it croaks, it's not coming out of your pocket. no additional wiring required. it supports every tv-related service your cable provider offers.

the Tivo acts like a cable box, handling the tuning for the tv. i don't know if it's slow or not. i'm told it has a very nice GUI. there have been problems getting cablecard to work.

I know cable boxes are crap though. I like to flip through channels quickly. So far, doing so through the tv (with cable card) is decent, but my wife wants a DVR instead of our DVD/VCR combo deal.

Is this Tivo HD box any better than a Cable/DVR box? (That should have been my first question)

 

[The Boston Dangler]

better, probably. but i take issue with the crazy price. look for a demo, and if you like what you see then it might have value to you.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

better, probably. but i take issue with the crazy price. look for a demo, and if you like what you see then it might have value to you.

 

[Genx87]

Can you get a cable box from your cable company? I dont know much about the cable cards. I have a series 2 tivo and a digital cable box.

I have heard mixed reviews about the capabilities of cable companies HD-DVRs. Many seem to lack some features, and have many reliability issues.

I'd ask around or search google to find out any opinions on the DVR Charter offers.

TiVo is nice, it works, it has some nice pluses. But I guess it depends if you find 12 bucks a month + cost of the unit is worth getting a better unit.

 

[tw1164]

Originally posted by: CorCentral

Originally posted by: The Boston Dangler
http://www.tivo.com/whatistivo/tivohd/index.html

Only $299.99!
TiVo service is required and sold separately. No functionality is represented or should be expected without a paid subscription to the TiVo service. Minimum 1 year service plan required.

TiVo HD and TiVo Series3? HD may require two CableCARDs to receive two digital cable channels.

Broadband Internet connection required.


not to sound insulting, but Tivo is for morons.
your best bet is to lease a dual-tuner HD DVR box from the cable company. no cablecard required, never mind 2. if it croaks, it's not coming out of your pocket. no additional wiring required. it supports every tv-related service your cable provider offers.

the Tivo acts like a cable box, handling the tuning for the tv. i don't know if it's slow or not. i'm told it has a very nice GUI. there have been problems getting cablecard to work.

I know cable boxes are crap though. I like to flip through channels quickly. So far, doing so through the tv (with cable card) is decent, but my wife wants a DVR instead of our DVD/VCR combo deal.

Is this Tivo HD box any better than a Cable/DVR box? (That should have been my first question)

Scanning channels will always be slower w/ a DVR.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

i went to the local BB today to check out Tivo first hand. unfortunately, the 2 different boxes they carried weren't hooked up, and weren't getting hooked up by the knowledgable and helpful staff. i try again tomorrowat a different store.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: CorCentral
YoYO must know! ....... RIGHT?

Sorry, I didn't even look in this thread until just now since I don't have a Tivo

 

[sciencewhiz]

Ever since I got a tivo, I don't scan channels. Instead, i press the guide button the on the tivo remote and a complete channel guide pops up, and the tv keeps playing in the background. That only happens the very few times that I want to watch live tv. Normally, the shows I want to watch are already recorded, and I can use the many different types of searches to find new programs.

I only use my tivos OTA, so I can't answer the cablecard questions, though.

 

[CorCentral]

Well my wife (without me knowing), bought a Vcr/dvd recorder yesterday. So Tivo is out the window. I threw my hands up on this one as I thought she wanted to record multiple shows via the Hard Drive with one unit! We have 4vcr/dvd combo drives in the house. Make that 5 now! She is in charge of all the recording so....... So be it.

Here are the shows she's recording--- Smallville, Survivor, CSI, Cold Case, Big Bang Theory, Heroes, Numbers, Without a Trace, JourneyMan, My Name is Earl, Moonlighting, ER and Ghost Whisperer....... Not sure if that's all of them but it's close. I watch all but the last 3.

Well, maybe I can get my Onkyo 705 afterall!

 

[MDE]

I just got my TiVo HD set up today, and the hardest part was listening to the Comcast "tech" on the phone trying to figure out which number they needed to activate the CableCARD. It's a very nice improvement over my DirecTiVo and a big step up from my current Vista Media Center box. Tuning is a bit slow (especially going from cable to the OTA HD tuner), but it's not that bad. Assuming it keeps working, I'd do it again in a heartbeat, especially when they enable TiVoToGo on the HD\S3 boxes.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

s i went to another BB today. they had an S3 box hooked up to a small tv, but it was locked in demo mode. i was locked out of the guide, menus and tv. i abused the ff/rew/pause/skip as much as i could, but it didn't skip a beat. based on that, i'd say it's a solid machine. then i looked at the price - $800, and still needed monthly service, 2 cablecards and an internet connection. some people have more money than brains.

 

[Deinonych]

The TiVo Community forum is really quite good -- it is run by the same people that run AVS Forums. I've received some good help there.

The biggest advantages over the cable DVRs is the variety of content you can get on a TiVo. Not only can you record local programming, but you can download video podcasts like DL.TV and c|net. The Season Pass feature is really convenient.

Downsides are the monthly fee, of course. But, you'll pay a monthly fee for a cable DVR as well. Getting the CableCARDs set up correctly can be a pain.

 

[RupTheKid]

I think HD TiVO can be great...a lot of people purchased a lifetime membership for TiVO when it first came out - the new HD TiVO box represents a tremendous value then. You can still pick up a lifetime membership for HD TiVO for $500ish on eBay.

 

[MrChad]

Originally posted by: The Boston Dangler
s i went to another BB today. they had an S3 box hooked up to a small tv, but it was locked in demo mode. i was locked out of the guide, menus and tv. i abused the ff/rew/pause/skip as much as i could, but it didn't skip a beat. based on that, i'd say it's a solid machine. then i looked at the price - $800, and still needed monthly service, 2 cablecards and an internet connection. some people have more money than brains.

The Series 3 is not a good value IMO. The Tivo HD is a much better bargain at only $300 (you can find it for less - Amazon carries it for $250 I believe). The Tivo fee and CableCard costs should not be too much more than DVR service from the cable company, so at that point you only have to decide whether the $300 up-front cost is worth it.

Frankly, I had a DVR from Time Warner up in NY that worked great most of the time. Now that I'm in VA, the Comcast DVR (Motorola box) is absolutely awful and I'm strongly considering picking up a Tivo HD for $250.

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: MrChad

Originally posted by: The Boston Dangler
s i went to another BB today. they had an S3 box hooked up to a small tv, but it was locked in demo mode. i was locked out of the guide, menus and tv. i abused the ff/rew/pause/skip as much as i could, but it didn't skip a beat. based on that, i'd say it's a solid machine. then i looked at the price - $800, and still needed monthly service, 2 cablecards and an internet connection. some people have more money than brains.

The Series 3 is not a good value IMO. The Tivo HD is a much better bargain at only $300 (you can find it for less - Amazon carries it for $250 I believe). The Tivo fee and CableCard costs should not be too much more than DVR service from the cable company, so at that point you only have to decide whether the $300 up-front cost is worth it.

Frankly, I had a DVR from Time Warner up in NY that worked great most of the time. Now that I'm in VA, the Comcast DVR (Motorola box) is absolutely awful and I'm strongly considering picking up a Tivo HD for $250.

Friends Motorola HD DVR is junk. He has 4 of them and all 4 have been replaced. It also has idiotic issues like not recording because the HD is full from shows recorded 6 months earlier. I know, he can and should delete them. However Tivo will simply write over the top of shows that are old unless you specify to keep them until you delete them. Small quirks like that annoy people.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

Originally posted by: Genx87

Originally posted by: MrChad

Originally posted by: The Boston Dangler
s i went to another BB today. they had an S3 box hooked up to a small tv, but it was locked in demo mode. i was locked out of the guide, menus and tv. i abused the ff/rew/pause/skip as much as i could, but it didn't skip a beat. based on that, i'd say it's a solid machine. then i looked at the price - $800, and still needed monthly service, 2 cablecards and an internet connection. some people have more money than brains.

The Series 3 is not a good value IMO. The Tivo HD is a much better bargain at only $300 (you can find it for less - Amazon carries it for $250 I believe). The Tivo fee and CableCard costs should not be too much more than DVR service from the cable company, so at that point you only have to decide whether the $300 up-front cost is worth it.

Frankly, I had a DVR from Time Warner up in NY that worked great most of the time. Now that I'm in VA, the Comcast DVR (Motorola box) is absolutely awful and I'm strongly considering picking up a Tivo HD for $250.

Friends Motorola HD DVR is junk. He has 4 of them and all 4 have been replaced. It also has idiotic issues like not recording because the HD is full from shows recorded 6 months earlier. I know, he can and should delete them. However Tivo will simply write over the top of shows that are old unless you specify to keep them until you delete them. Small quirks like that annoy people.

in 4 years, i've been through a dozen motorolas. they are terrible. besides reliability, the gui is crap and the hdd's are small (120GB) and loud.

genx87, your friend changed the advanced setting "keep until - space is needed" (default) to "keep until - i delete"

 

[s44]

Originally posted by: CorCentral

Is this Tivo HD box any better than a Cable/DVR box? (That should have been my first question)

Infinitely better. You (and your wife) literally have no idea what you're missing without Tivo.

The Series 3, btw, has a $200 rebate, though it's still noticably more expensive than Tivo HD.