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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
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Nothing like a TiVo, no one comes close
Tivo is a brnad name. Like Band Aid, the name should only apply to the product that bears its name. Too many people say they have a Tivo, but in reality it is a watered down dvr from a satellite or cable provider.
Over the last 5 years, we have had DVR's from Dish Network, DirecTV and now, Fios from Verizon. We first experienced Tivo with the DirecTivo receivers.
It is amazing how intuitive the Tivo interface is. How easy it is to use. My mom came by to babysit her grandchild a few days ago and had no problem not only using the Tivo remote to change channels, but to also, on her own, figure out how to watch recorded shows or use the program guide.
We have three Tivos in our home. The one HD unit in the living room, and two other SD units in two bedrooms. For me, multi room viewing and Tivo-to-Go all work for all three tivo units. In addition, I added a My DVR Expander to more than triple my storage capacity. Another reviewer wrote that these features didn't work with hers. But their review was written over a year ago. Since then, Tivo must have activated those services.
We ordered our Tivo a few days after we got Verizon Fios TV service. Sure, the Fios is great; Fast internet, great tv quality, low price. But it also has a half baked dvr. I say that with all respect, compared to Tivo, it is only half complete. After using the Tivos of DirecTV, and even DirecTV's own HD DVR, the Motorola from Fios was awful. Changing channels was a chore. Soemtimes you pressed the buttons and it responded, sometime s it didn't. Thinking I had a bad dvr, I tried my neighbor's unit. Same thing. I guess Verizon spent all their R&D money on developing how to get the signal to my house....but not how to manipulate it once I got it here to my home.
I was seriously considering dropping the Fios TV and going back to DirecTV. Doing some research, I found that Tivo had released a lower cost HD Tivo, this one. The first HD Tivo was over $600. Sorry, at that cost, I'd have to sleep with one eye open for quite a while until my wife settled down. At the cost of this HD Tivo, only about $240 when I bought it, I don't have to worry about the wrath of my wife.
I got the Tivo and called Verizon to install the CableCards necessary to make it work. Here in North Jersey, Verizon has S-card CableCards, which means I had to order two CableCards to use both tuners. The Tivo will also accept M-Cards, but my guess is that Verizon likes to charge their customers for two separate cards, rather than one. I am paying $7.98 for the two cards, $3.99 each.
If you are going to add CableCards to your Tivo, use google to read up on getting prepared for the installer. You will need to perform a guided setup BEFORE the installer arrives. From our experience, the Verizon installers don't see a lot of these Tivos yet, so they are not very familiar with them. Make sure you have all the instructions out for them. Tivo's customer service will also work with the installer to get your Tivo activated.....when was the last time anyone said some thing good about an American comapny's customer service?
Using Tivo is a breeze. It just works. Recording shows, adjusting times so it doesn't miss the end of recordings. it even tells me if I am recording something live, like a football game and asks if I want to extend the timer....how is that for intuitive? I can watch the shows recorded from my Tivos upstairs, and the upstairs SD tivos can watch all the non-HD recordings from the HD Tivo.
And here's a really great feature. I recently traveled overseas on business. I used the Tivo Desktop software to record hours and hours of shows to a portable hard drive. I then instaleld the Tivo Desktop software on my laptop and watched all the shows on my computer while I was away. Here's a quick bit on how it works....tivo has file protection on it's Tivo recordings. You cannot share them over the Internet with others (Legally, that is). When you install the Tivo Desktop software on your computer, it adds some type of decyption key to allow you to play the files. Oh, one more thing, you must have DVD playing software on your computer like WinDVD or PowerDVD. I cannot remember exactly what, but I seem to recall that Tivo Desktop uses some codecs from the DVD players.
Overall, our Tivo works, works well, and is an important part of our home entertainment system. It never sleeps, and it has yet to miss a scheduled recording.
Ron
Rating: -
Wish I had purchased sooner!
I went from a cable company DVR to the TIVO and I love it. I never knew how much I was missing. The one sent out had an issue requiring a daily reboot, I called TIVO and they replaced it quickly and I now have no issues. The customer service at TIVO is the best I have ever dealt with, they even emailed me the UPS label for the return.
Rating: -
TiVo HD
I love TiVo. And this HD box takes cable cards, so you don't have to have a cable box AND a TiVo box just TiVo. It's a great product.
Rating: 
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I didn't like that I needed to get a CableCard from Comcast...
When I purchased this item I don't recall seeing information in the product description or specifications stating that I would require a "single or dual channel CableCard" from my cable company to use the HD function of the DVR.
I don't happen to like my cable company. When I told them I needed this they promised to get one for me, but never delivered. This is not unusual behavior for Comcast, and so I wasn't surprised.
We currently have a Series 2 DVR that I upgraded with a 500gb WD drive and it works just fine with the new Samsung 51" HD LCD we bought from our favorite electronics store - Amazon.com.
I'm disappointed that Tivo didn't just charge me an extra $20-$50 for the HD DVR and include the CableCard in the DVR. This is the fatal flaw in the product, in my humble opinion.
Rating: 
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TiVO FAIL
The hard drive on the first unit I had failed within 7 months of purchase. So, you pay to have it replaced...about $50...and TiVo sends you a refurbished model (never mind that they hold the cost of a brand new model on your credit card until they receive your old one in return). The refurbished model they send out crashes and reboots every 10 minutes or so for no apparent reason...just not long enough to download any software patches that may be necessary for it to run smoothly (why they ship the items with old software, who knows?).
TiVo FAIL.
This product totally blows.
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