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Question about TiVO...
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A series 2 Tivo will not work without service according to a thread at Tivocommunity.com and according to tivo.com
Find a Series 1 Unit and you'll be fine.
Find a Series 1 Unit and you'll be fine.
Wellington
BAAAALLLINNN'
Wait, you can use it in some way other than a VCR?
Wellington
BAAAALLLINNN'
Cooper said:I don't know about you, but I've never had a VCR with Season Passes or recommended shows.
My VCRs just rock harder than yours, is all. ;p
I always thought of season passes as akin to just setting my VCR to program at the same time every week, or whenever the program is shown.
There are third party boxes from the likes of Toshiba that include a DVD player (or the more expensive DVD writer model), as well as Tivo's free service.
It is, but the one trick a VCR can't do is let you watch something you previously recorded while recording something that's currently on, nor can it let you pause/rewind live TV, which is probably the best feature ever.
Wellington said:
It is, but the one trick a VCR can't do is let you watch something you previously recorded while recording something that's currently on, nor can it let you pause/rewind live TV, which is probably the best feature ever.
Wellington said:
It's even better! For example, I have a season pass for CSI. Last week, CBS showed a Rudolph cartoon instead of CSI. Tivo didn't record anything, whereas a VCR would have. Also, sometimes shows have "special" versions that are an extra half hour or so. Tivo will catch these also and record the extra time. A VCR will probably miss the additional footage if you don't intervene. Me luv Tivo.
Marty Chinn
Member
I don't even know why one would bother with a Tivo without service. It's not much more than a VCR at that point so why not stick with the VCR? You'll still have to program it like a VCR. Maybe you should just get a better VCR? The whole point aobut the Tivo service is never needing to program it once you've set it up. It does everything for you once everything is good to go.
Marty Chinn said:
Because Tivo's functionailty still does a lot more than what a VCR can do. Please see my post a few spaces up. Also, the "programming" is easier, and you can set a repeating schedule with much more ease than you can a VCR, and without dealing with tape. The only true downside of the free service is that you can't get a Season Pass, so if a show's time slot switches, you can get fucked.
Marty Chinn
Member
I'm not sure what VCR you use, but my VCR can easily set a repeating schedule. You just set the start time, stop time, date and then it asks if its one time, or weekly. It's more or less the same as the Tivo. Even though you don't have to deal with the 6 hour limit, you still have to deal with a capacity and depending on what he gets out there, it could be as low as 14 hours, which really is an 8 hour Tivo. Even the 40 hour units really are only 20 hours which is less than three tapes. I really think there isn't much of a point if you're not getting the actual service. Just stick with a VCR and swap tapes every couple of days.
Marty Chinn said:
Can you watch something you recorded while recording something else on one VCR? Or use it to pause live TV while you take care of whatever business is keeping you away from the tube? Tivo Basic has all of the core features of the pay service, you just miss out on the stuff that makes it convenient, like a 3-4 day program guide instead of a 2-week one, and the ability for the system to track TV shows (which, in my mind, is only really useful if you're after stuff in syndication; normal programming tends to stay in the same spot most, if not all of the time.)
https://www.s2gstore.com/index.cfm?curcatID=36&fuseaction=browse&action=&homepage=0;homepage=0
Those are series 1's, right? The prices on Ebay seem to be a tad lower but shipping and harddrive space balance it out...
Those are series 1's, right? The prices on Ebay seem to be a tad lower but shipping and harddrive space balance it out...
karasu said:
More or less, it depends on how you're feeding it, what kind of connection you're using (e.g., S-Video, component, composite), and what quality setting you're using. At the "Best" setting, my DVD/TiVo hybrid can only do about 23 hours of recording, so I keep it on "High" (which bumps it up to ~40 hours) and that's more than enough for what I use it for, which is basically a high-capacity, non-linear VCR.
How much did you pay? I've been toying with the idea of getting that Toshiba DVD/Tivo, SD-h400 I think? Bestbuy has it for $100 after $100 rebate fairly often. It has the Tivo "basic" service, basically vcr functionality with no sub.
Nevermind, the ones on the site are $70 and philips, you got that? Hmm.. Not bad.
Nevermind, the ones on the site are $70 and philips, you got that? Hmm.. Not bad.
Wellington
BAAAALLLINNN'
I have a question. I am extremely close to buying a TiVo but I want to know this.... If I am wathicn something else and a favorite comes up, does it flip the channel? If not, and I continue watching what I am watching, will the TiVo record the other show, or do I need two inputs?
I don't have the service but when I'm watching and my recording is about to start, it asks me if I want to switch the channel. If I choose not to switch, it'll start recording the current channel. That's not the case if you have the subscription though cos there's a "Watch Live TV" option that I can't access while recording w/o forking over $12/month
Wellington said:
I don't know about the standalone units, but the DirecTivo we have (DirecTV receiver with a Tivo unit built in), has two tuners, with one input from the satellite going to each one. With this setup, you can watch live TV while one show is recording on the other tuner, but if you have two things set to record at the same time, then it'll tell you a few minutes in advance that it needs to change the channel soon, and will give you the option to cancel the upcoming recording. If both tuners have something recording on them, then you can either watch what's being recorded, or watch something you've recorded previously.
There are one-tuner TiVos and two-tuner TiVos. If you have a two-tuner TiVo, you can:Wellington said:
-watch "Live TV" (watching live while being able to pause, slow-mo, etc.) while recording something else; or
-watch a pre-recorded program while recording two other programs
With a one-tuner TiVo you can only:
-watch "Live TV"; or
-watch a pre-recorded program while recording one other program
Stand-a-lone Series 2 TiVo's are typically one-tuner. DirecTiVo's (combo DirecTV tuner and TiVo) typically have two tuners.
Wellington
BAAAALLLINNN'
I have Directv, would I need another line with the satellite feed running to the box to be able to record another channel while I am watching other shit? I mean i would want to record PTI, but my brother would likely want to watch something else.
iapetus said:Don't know how these things are in the US, but I just paid up for a lifetime subscription with my TiVo - best £200 I ever spent.
Ooh, brave boy!
Next, you need Turbonet and CCXgui servers on your Tivo to rip stuff, schedule recordings remotely and stream to XBMC - that really rocks (even while recording/watching something on Tivo)
Rorschach said:
Just so you know it's the lifetime of each particular unit and they're not transferrable so if the unit dies, you're kinda screwed unless you get it repaired (there are places to fix them). They're supposedly pretty durable and the lifetime sub usually pays itself off but it's something to think about...
Tivo is hosed... DirecTV is offering their own units and Tivo put most of their eggs in their DirecTV basket. Stand alone Tivo users have been getting shafted... no HDTV units, no dual tuner units, and outrageous subscription fees.
I do like the Tivo interface... it's tons better than my Comcast HD-DVR, but still not worth the $12.95 a month fee, especially when my dual tuner HD unit from Comcast is only $5 a month. Not to mention the $200 you spend on the Tivo unit itself (minus a $100 rebate, which I'm still waiting for).
As soon as I get my rebate back, I'm going to cancel my service. The only way I'll keep it is if they offer me the $6.95 a month rate as described here.
I do like the Tivo interface... it's tons better than my Comcast HD-DVR, but still not worth the $12.95 a month fee, especially when my dual tuner HD unit from Comcast is only $5 a month. Not to mention the $200 you spend on the Tivo unit itself (minus a $100 rebate, which I'm still waiting for).
As soon as I get my rebate back, I'm going to cancel my service. The only way I'll keep it is if they offer me the $6.95 a month rate as described here.
I've been avoiding getting a Tivo and looking at DVD recorders/HDD recorders. Only reason i haven't bought a DVD recorder/HDD recorder is because I'm too lazy to get down to Best Buy or Circuit City and get one. I have a TV with picture in picture so I have always been able to tape something and watch another show, even with my VCR. All the other junk Tivo offers, ie pausing live TV, don't really need, and TV guide, I have my direct TV.
Curse this board. A couple weeks ago I wondered int a thread in the gaming forum about Z.E.O 2 and made me go out and hunt down a copy. Now after reading this thread, I fucking got the itch to blow 100 bucks on a new DTV reciever with TiVo. Curse you GA and your mind controlling threads. *shakes fist*
Cerebral Palsy
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I <3 tivo
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