Tell me about TIVO........

[alacazander]

I need help! Someone posted about a refurbished deal on www.tivo.com and it sounds like the perfect gift for my dh but I'd love to hear what you'all think about it. Do you have a DVR? Do you recommend TIVO? Any other deals I should be looking for? How hard is it to install? We have an HD tv so I think we'd need a cablecard decoder.

 

Is this easy to set up?

 

Any help would be much appreciated! I'd love to hear your thoughts and recommendations!

 

Thank you!

[debbieshops2003]

We don't have TIVO, but we have the multi room DVR from Verizon. We also had the PVR from Dishnetwork. I love being able to record what we want and scan through the commercials. No interruptions and you can watch an hour tv show in 40 minutes. I like that.

 

But we have Verizon and the system came from Verizon. I don't know anything about after market systems and how they work. But not having to watch live tv is the GREATEST. It would be a GREAT GIFT!!! I know I'm not giving you much information that you need...but I would say it is DEFINITELY worth looking into. You will love it!!!

[beccasbank]

I bought my DH Tivo last year for Christmas and we loooove it. You can buy Tivos from the Tivo website or for even cheaper on ebay, which is what we did. You have to pay for the service. I paid for 1 year about $129. I had to buy a wireless adapter for mine since I have my phone, internet and cable through Comcast cable company. It's a pretty self explanatory set up as long as you can install all the cables and stuff correctly. It comes with a diagram and a map thing, (it took me a while to get it hooked up properly) but I'm not very good at that stuff. Ours is the dual tuner so we can record 2 shows at the same time. If you are recording 2 shows at one time, you can't watch a different channel while recording the 2 shows. You have to be watching one of the recorded shows. It also holds alot of shows before it deletes them. You can set up season passes to record every episode of a certain show. You can set it to only record new episodes, or every singe show with reruns, repeats, etc. You can set it up to hold 5, 10 or more of the same saved show before it deletes them. I figured that out the hard way after my saved shows started deleting while I was on vacation. One thing I dont like is that if football or any other sport is on and the game goes into overtime, Tivo doesn't know that and it will record at its scheduled time. But, you can set it to record on time, as well as run over like 15, 30 60 mins etc. Also figured that out the hard way. Overall, we really really like it. But you can get one that is HD for your TV. I don't know anything about a cablecard decoder. Any other ?s just PM me.

[daisyforyou]

The TIVO is probably the best electrical item I own. I've had mine for about 5 years now. It's so much better than a DVR. It's about the same price per month compared to the DVR but it does more than your normal DVR.

[alacazander]

Thank you! Much appreciated!

 

 

I'm going to give it a try!

[rockpzazz]

So I was ready about a Tivo a couple days ago and it sounded good until I saw a line that went like this:

 

80 hours of SDTV or 20 of HDTV

 

So would that mean that after the switch in February I could only get 20 hours out of my Tivo? If so than this doens't sound too great of a deal. I think it was at Best Buy on sale this week.

[alacazander]

So I was ready about a Tivo a couple days ago and it sounded good until I saw a line that went like this:

 

80 hours of SDTV or 20 of HDTV

 

So would that mean that after the switch in February I could only get 20 hours out of my Tivo? If so than this doens't sound too great of a deal. I think it was at Best Buy on sale this week.

What I think that means is:

you would get 80 hours of non-hdtv - you can still record and watch it but it wouldn't be in hd - just standard plus you'd also get 20 hours of the hd storage. A total of 100 hours of storage. (if I understand this correctly)

 

I haven't purchased one yet. I can't decide on which one. Now I keep looking at the Tivo site and love the prices on the reburbished ones but if they are refurbished I do not want a lemon so i'm scared that is what will happen so I haven't pulled the trigger on that!

[MidwestMama]

What I think that means is:

you would get 80 hours of non-hdtv - you can still record and watch it but it wouldn't be in hd - just standard plus you'd also get 20 hours of the hd storage. A total of 100 hours of storage. (if I understand this correctly)

 

I haven't purchased one yet. I can't decide on which one. Now I keep looking at the Tivo site and love the prices on the reburbished ones but if they are refurbished I do not want a lemon so i'm scared that is what will happen so I haven't pulled the trigger on that!

Just a thought... we have DVR from Dish Network, but it was also available when we had cable. I LOVE IT!!! We too have the two channel record, so you can record something and watch something else, record 2 things at once etc... We go through the cable channels and tend to record things that play overnight and thenm watch them later. Plus I record my soap opera. I love that.

 

So, it is $10 per month to have DVR with our package, and that is what it cost to have it with the cable company here too. There is no equipment to buy, you get it with that $10 per month, and if it breaks, you aren't out anything, they just give you another.

 

I can have it record a whole series, or just one show too, so it may make sense to go this route instead of the TIVO route... not sure what benefits TIVO offers that we dont have, but I am so happy with what we do have!