ebertofsmut

I tape a lot of things from TV. I usally go through one vhs tape a week. So I'm thinking should I get a TIVO? Is it really worth it? I saw the Sony SVR2000 on TIVO's website for $299 it can only record 30 hours but i hear you can upgrade it easily.. Let me know your oppinions. Thanks

mikehunt

I do tech support for sony tivo's, if you get the svr2000:
1)don't use the included 50 foot phone cord, use one as short as possible
2)plug it directly into the phone jack, no splitters
3)no DSL, if you have dsl make absolutely sure you have a dsl filter or you'll fry the modem
4)if you have a cable box/satellite receiver, don't get mad if none of the codes will get the tivo to change channels correctly on the cable box/satellite receiver
5)if ever calling tivo, don't press the menu option saying you own a sony. they will make you call sony's number and we only do the hardware, nothing to do with the tivo account

when they work customers report loving the tivo, but almost all the calls I get are for broken ones, but I have no idea how many never have problems since the nature of my job is to only take calls from customers with broken tivos

RandyC

Getting past which model. The answer is YES.

Tsar Chasm

Absolutely. Love Tivo.

http://www.tivocommunity.com for all your questions including upgrades

Jeremy517

Everyone with a TV should have a Tivo or ReplayTV

Shay

I have 2 ReplayTV's and love them so I would highly recommend you get a pvr whetever it be a Tivo or a ReplayTV.

skar

I have a TiVo. I also have a DVD player and 60 DVD's.

I would easily give up the DVD player and DVD's before the TiVo.

As for mikehunt's suggestions:

1. My 50 foot cord and the 50' cords that came with the 4 TiVo's I have installed have worked for up to 20 months with no problems. I would only switch to a shorter cord if your TiVo ever has trouble dialing.
2. Most of my installs have used splitters. Again no problems. I would only remove it, if TiVo stops dialing.
3. True, use a DSL filter if you have DSL.
4. I don't know. All of my installs didn't need a cable box except one and the code works. All codes have three speeds so sometimes a slower will work better.
5. Sounds like good advice.

I don't mean any disrepect mikehunt. You sound like you know your stuff, but tech support often hears about worst case situations. I wanted to give a more average type of view.

TheKobra

I don't know how I lived soooooo long with out tivo. I've had my DirecTV Tivo for 20 months and its the best. I would have to say go for it now!!!

mikehunt

none taken, and you are totally correct about us only getting calls when it's not working. also glad it has worked with the long cord and splitters, but those are always the first things to be replaced when a customer has a problem dialing

Red Dog

I use my Replay-TV constantly.

broadwayblue

ditto. i bought a 20gb model and upgraded it to an 80gb in an afternoon for $99. i haven't missed a single world cup game yet this year! and as for the games that i'm not that excited about i watch it in fast forward until someone scores and then watch the goal. in my opinion it's the greatest product to come out in the last 3 years.

pmark

I always wondered the same thing is a TIVO was worth it. How much different is it from just taping a show with a VCR? Is it that much more convenient?

Brian Shannon

I guess I am in the minority here.

I do not have enough time to watch TV when something is on. I surely will not watch it after it has been recorded.

broadwayblue

then that might be why you need a PVR. it enables you to be much more productive with your tv viewing time. most people take an hour to watch a show like Friends or West Wing. but what's the point when the show is only 38 minutes long? have Replay or Tivo record it. then you can start watching it 22 minutes after it starts, quick skip through all the commercials, and see the credits with the rest of the country. you just found 22 minutes to do something else with! read a book, surf the net, whatever. and the beauty of a pvr is that it saves you more time the longer the show is. i no longer have to spend 3 hours watching a baseball game. i can see every single pitch in 60 minutes! the whole key to maximizing the potential of a PVR is learning how to stop watching live television. once you become a master time-shifter you realize how amazing the product really is.

Brian Shannon

I understand your point and used to try this with a VCR. I found that I would sometimes not watch something for weeks after it had been recorded. When the moment passes . . .

Cheddarmuff

Sounds like everyone else beat me to the praise that surrounds TiVo. Very nice....get one today!

GatorDeb

But it doesn't do digital cable

JLB

I don't know how I lived without my TiVo.........

Getting beyond the quick-grab trick plays like pausing live TV, it has so much to offer. I cannot get them all into one post, but as suggested above, definitely go to www.tivoocmmunity.com to read up:

1) The "my daughter goes to bed at 9" phenomenon. Example, I want to watch CSI which airs at 9pm. In the old days, a tape goes in and records from 9-10. But even if she falls asleep at 9:15, I still have to wait until 10 to watch it. One of the amazing things of a TiVo is that you can start watching before it is finished recording.

2) The aformentioned "no longer watch live TV". Sitting at dinner soon after getting TiVo, my wife was looking nervous. I asked why and she said Survivor was on in 5 minutes. I said, no its not. It starts when ever we want it to. We can relax and wait to start it. And if we start it at app. 8:20, we'll still be done by 9.

3) Ease of setting up recordings:

No tapes, no messy menus, no worries. Browse for a program alphabetically to find a show, say for example, Alias. Select it, then ask to "get a season pass". That's it. TiVo will now record Alias for you whenever it is on. You can tell it to record first runs and repeats or First run only.

4) Season Pass Manager

This allows you to prioritize your shows. Very important for Standalone TiVos with only one Tuner. DirecTV/TivO combo boxes have two tuners in them which eliminates a lot of conflicts for you. Example of how prioritizing simply is really neat. My wife and I like to watch Ed on NBC. Now with TiVo and not having to mess with VHS tapes every week, I was also looking forward to watching ST: Enterprise. These shows conflict. But via the Season Pass Manager, I found that Star Trek re-airs on the weekends. So, by putting Ed just above ST in the Season Pass Manager it will get Ed on Wednesdays and pickup ST on the weekend. And during the Olympics, when Ed wasn't on, TiVO was smart enough to grab Star Trek for me on Wednesdays so I would get them sooner.

5) Our own personal TV network.

In the old days (prior to January 2002 when I joined the TiVOlution), we would come downstairs from putting my daughter to bed and say "what's on". Either there was junk or we might disagree on what to watch. Now, all our favorites are recorded (within reason....for instance next season CSI Miami will conflict with Crossing Jordan.....we'll have to pick one up the following summer in reruns). We come downstairs hit "now playing" and ALWAYS have something to watch. Plus, we are able to watch things we never had the time for or could not watch due to when shows are on. For example, we love This Old House. But before TiVO, we would never catch many episodes, pain to "tape" it every time its on. And disjointed when you don't get to watch a whole season. Now, we watch it all the time, and TiVO allows us to record the airings that are in the wee hours when we are asleep and not recording anything else.

6) Easy to upgrade

I choose not to upgrade as my drive is large enough for my needs. But over at www.tivocommunity.com in the "upgrade" forum, you will find step by step directions for upgrading a TiVo. They are standard IDE drives and upgrading should be easy.

7) Kid Factor

My daughter for a while, was on a kick of waking up before six am and asking to watch Sesame street. Pain in the you know what as its hard to fall back asleep, even for a bit, when she's watching. Now, she knows that TiVO always keeps one episode of Sesame Street for us (each day overwrites the previous...setup choice). And now she actually sleeps longer......

8) Just plain cool

9) The Wife Factor

No longer does my wife get at me for surfing during the commercials of one show. There is no longer a need. I can always watch a prerecorded show while another is being recorded....and re: DirecTiVOs, you can watch a prerecorded show while two others are recording).

10) TiVO is TV your way.

I could go on and on about it. However, sometimes people just don't understand it until they sit down and see one in action. A lot of people just think its a fancy digital VCR, but TiVO is so much more than that. It really does change the way you watch TV and, at risk of sounding silly, it does change your life. I would stress out coming home from work, trying to get my kid to bed at a reasonable time and also have quality time with my wife. Now I have it all........


Please, please, please, feel free to call me, e-mail me, or reply post for any questions you may have. I would love to answer any questions........

I cannot stress how important this is. I used to look forward to getting the SUnday paper to get the TV guide and look through and see what is on during the week.

GatorDeb

JLB: I would LOVE to get one. When do you think they will have a version that works with Digital cable? Thanks!

Red Dog

My Replay-tv works with digital cable. All you need is an IR-blaster which is included in the package. I presume TIVO also includes a IR-blaster with their units.

Music

Why do you think that it doesn't work with digital cable?

It works fine with mine - AT&T Digital Cable - Motorola Digital cable box.

skar

Maybe they are refering to models that can record a digital cable signal without decoding/recoding it, sort of a digital cable box/TiVo combo unit. It heard that both TiVo and Replay have been working on models for over a year now.

mikehunt

yes, and the joke at work is that if you're lucky it will even control the cable box (usually if the brand is listed in the setup menu you'll do ok if you try a bunch of different speed settings and the other setting you can change)

mikehunt

code 93 per chance?

mikehunt: bored on a lunch break

Music

Probably... its one of these 3 : 00093, 10006 or 10042 - medium setting.


Just got it friday night - AT&T Series 2 - just waiting for the new 3.0 software update.