All of that AND a bag of chips!

Its really amazing how much love there is for Tivo and PVR's in general, and I know most of us here are more technical than the regular users, but you know the VCR is dead at this point, I am sure sales are nothing.

The newer PVR"s that will be out soon if not already with the built in dvd recorder are a great idea, if Tivo had one of those I would be all over it, the ability to dump shows to DVD from the tivo all in one unit would be excellent.

December:

http://biz.yahoo.com/djus/030821/1731001108_1.html

It's not a DirecTivo however. Just the standalone.

Third.

Actually, i've never used a DirecTiVo, but i do have 1 TiVo and 4 ReplayTVs. Due to the dual tuner, i'd get a DirecTiVo if i had a DirecTV. Otherwise, ReplayTV is the way to go for me.

Easy...

Yes, you can get a guide in the newspaper that will tell you what is on. But the Sunday paper cost $1.50 (atleast), so that right there is $6/mo. TiVo will then automatically record those shows (with a simple setup). You are going to sit there and tell me that that feature is not worth another $7/mo.?

And yes, you can get guide info on the net, but what is your monthly net bill? Moot point my friend.

You could argue pricing structures and poor analogies ad infinitum. Quite simply, the service provided by my TiVo makes scheduling/watching/deleting recordings en masse so quick and simple, not to mention the very solidly implemented conflict resolution and suggestions, that I'd gladly pay twice the monthly fee to use it. I timeshift anywhere from 50-100 hours of programming a week. Avoiding the hassle of shuffling a removeable system (tapes, discs, whatever) is worth the price alone.

Of course, I also enjoy having over 300 hours of immediate access storage of data that is a direct transfer of the DirecTV feed and not a re-encode, plus the ability to easily save that data to my PC for manipulation or archival and the ability to schedule recordings from a remote location over the Internet. Hell, I could go to a sporting event, and when I see myself on the Jumbotron, call up my TiVo and record myself (factoring in the live dumping plus the satellite delay plus the TiVo buffering delay, and you've got possibly 30 seconds to do it ... more than enough time).

Let's see your Sunday paper do that.

das

I personally wouldn't be so sure. If Joe Moneysaver goes to the store and sees a VCR that he can buy for $100 (or less), or a TiVo/ReplayTV that he can buy for (when all is said and done) $400+, I can see a lot of people choosing the $100 VCR.

The only thing my Tivo doesn't do is go down on me.



Maybe the next model?

Moot? Not really. I use the net anyway. I'm just taking advantage of what it offers and avoiding another monthly bill.
For those who own certain capture cards -
http://www.sage.tv/index.html
No monthly fee attached. However, this is likely not a good option for those who bought tivo because they could not program their vcr.
Panasonic DMR-E80H Progressive Scan DVD Player/RAM Recorder
is getting great reviews and I understand does lossless recording from the HD to dvd-r or dvd ram. Oh FYI- dvd ram can be recorded on approximately 1000 times.
I guess the tivo market must be saturated. It appears that Pioneer and (I think) Toshiba will manufacture dvd player(s) with "basic tivo" (read no monthly fee) which I took to be all hardware features but no guide. They can be upgraded (if you can call it that) to "full" tivo at any time. Now I wonder, if you upgrade and then change your mind will these just revert to "basic tivo" or turn into bricks?

100 hours? Fourteen hours of TV a day?
Well, you sure get full value. I see why you want it.
I shift five or six programs and a couple of football games per week starting in the fall. In the summer - NOTHING. Do I need tivo? Nope. What I do need is a HDTV DVR. I only know of one model and it is just a bit pricy. Soon, very soon.

In a perfect world...

I got my girlfriend hooked on TiVo (she bought my old Series 1 from me), and she goes down on me......so have I found ultimate bliss???

the SA8000HD should be available in several markets within the next 1-2 months if you have Time Warner Cable. and it's less than $10/month. it will make a nice addition to my replaytv boxes for timeshifting HD.

• Quoth Easy •<HR SIZE=1>100 hours? Fourteen hours of TV a day? <HR SIZE=1>

Welcome to TV Talk.

das

Me thinks I need to be lookin for one

Once you have used a DVR, it is hard to go back to a VCR.

I am about to be a ex-owner of a Dish 501 DVR receiver. (Sorry, not for sale, has to go back to Dish). Even through the 501 has fewer features than a Tivo, it still kicks the butt off a cable/VCR combo (which I had until July, 2001). The VCR could only hold four timers, and the cable box could hold up to 10, but could not control the cable box. You are limited to 8 hours at EP speed, and if the power goes out and you don't have a UPS, you're SOL.

The 501/508, if you know what the limitations was, was still a pretty good DVR that got better over time as they added features. While it was timer based, it was easy to go into the nine day guide, select a program, and then select the recording options. My 501 could hold aproximately 30 hours, and had about 50 timers available. If there was a power failure, the 501 could recover from the outage without the need to set the time or resetting all of your timers.

So, why am I dropping Dish and going with DirecTV? I was looking forward to the 510, which would have had a 120gb hard drive. (Trust me, once you get a PVR, you'll find out that no matter how large the hard drive is, it is never big enough.) Then, the bomb hit: Dish Network would be charging a monthly DVR fee on the new receivers for software that is considered inferior to the TiVo. Needless to say, it was a hot thread on www.dbstalk.com .

Right now, sitting in the garage, is a box that contains a HDVR2, two HBH-SAs, and a triple LNB Dish. An installer will be in Tuesday afternoon to do a swap out.

Fees? As it currently stands, for Dish, it will be $9.95 per receiver at the AT-50 level, $4.95 per receiver at the AT-100 or AT-150 level, or free if you have the everything pack. For DirecTV, DVR service is $4.95 per month unless you have a total choice premiere.

Also, if you don't mind voiding your warranty, you can replace the original 40gb hard drive in a HDVR2 (or any TiVo unit) with two 120gb hard drives. (The limitation is 137 GB). Dish Network has locked down the receiver so that hard drive swaps are impossible.

So, I'm saying goodbye to the superstations and the encore theme pack and hello to Total Choice Plus.

(And, BTW: I think the premium channel packages are mostly a waste of money, especially if they don't show the movies in their original aspect ratios.)

Like Geofferson, I have the Time Warner DVR, and to answer the original posters' question...

YES

Tivo rocks!! I have 3 Tivos and life wouldn't be the same without 'em. I don't even watch live TV any more except for football games.

As the FCC chairman said about 6 months ago, "Tivo is God's machine."

Tivo is amazing; it kicks so much butt; I think the replayTV owners are jealous that Tivo gets so much coverage while replayTV doesn't get much. But Tivo is great because it's user-friendly, and easy to upgrade. Plus you gotta love coming home and finding that the show you forgot to record was recorded by TiVo because it thought you might 'like' it.

I've have both Tivo and Replay TV, and while both are 2 of the best inventions ever, I find Tivo to be far superior in terms of interface and conflict resolution. Replay TV has a better search function, however I am rarely recording shows based on a subject search - I know the name of it already.

Jealous? Yeah - a little bit. However, after having extensive experience with both, Replay scores higher marks on: channel guide (far easier to read), interface (to-do list and recorded list in the same place), commercial advance & quick-skip, and ability to jump to any point in a program thanks to the jump feature. TIVO (I am talking stand-alone models) definitely has them beat for conflict resolution and the search function although Replay is getting better on this.

I have both. I've had the Replay for shorter a time than the Tivo but I really don't care for it much for the fact that it has a larger capacity. I don't use networking. And really, I hate the guide/grid. It's too large and it takes too long (it's slow) to navigate in it and often truncates the names of the programs. Jump works but the little time line on the Tivo is simpler and you can easily skip around in 15 minute increments. Returning to the beginning of a program when you're in the middle or end is another annoyance of the Replay.

When you stop a program in Replay and come back to it later, unless you go to 'Play from Beginning,' it starts back up where you left off.

When you turn on Replay while it's recording and then try to watch the program, it starts where you last saw it. I want it to start from the beginning. Default on Tivo is the beginning of the program. Of course, you can go to the beginning of Replay but with more button taps. The Replay interface is way too clunky and far less intuitive than it should be.

I see what you are saying. If you hit 0-Jump that takes you to the beginning.

I guess everyone has different tastes. I find Replay far easier to navigate and use and I was so accustomed to TIVO when I bought my first Replay.