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[Malleymal]

I am hearing about this TIVO thing and it sounds like a good Idea... but what do i need to get started...

I have a TV(HD at that, so can i record HD shows??? or do I need a HDTIVO??)
I have Optium IO cable

now what else do i need to get this going?? also do I have to pay monthly fees or anything??

thanks in advance..

 

[pnjtony]

I don't have Tivo, but I do have the Comcast DVR. Pretty much the same thing. I've got 60 hours worth of recording on it. I never miss any shows cause I have em set to auto record and I just watch em later and fast forward through commercials.

If you have comcast, give em a call and see if they have em. You wouldn't have to buy the unit and it's only like $9.99 a month. Tivo is something like $12.99 a month after you buy the unit.

 

[DarienA]

Tivo is God.... God is Tivo...

Think of it as a VCR that uses a harddrive to record shows.... but even that sells it short. If you use suggestions it will record shows you might like based on how you rate shows you watch regularly. In addition you can set up searches... so say you're a big Steven Seagal fan... you can create a keyword search using his name and then anytime a show comes on starring him? Boom it records for you.

Simply put(and a friend commented on this during our BBQ yesterday) 1% of my TV watching time is spent watching Live TV, everything else are TV series that I like that I've recorded so that I can watch at my leisure.

And whatever you are watching is also being recorded so you can pause live TV as well... but once the show is over that passive recording is erased.

In addition you can set it to record a full season of whatever show you watch... set it and forget it.

The thing I don't know is... do the standalone Tivo's come with 1 tuner or 2? I think only 1. The Direct TV Tivo's come built in with 2 tuners so you can watch something while recording something else... or record two different channels at the same time... in addition I think the monthly fee for standalone Tivo's is more than than the Direct Tivo versions.

Go to www.tivo.com... and become one of us....

And don't let anyone who says they have some cable company's DVR kid you.... some features like suggestions aren't gonna be found in any other DVR.

While I think you only get 1 tuner with non Direct TV Tivo's you gain the ability to schedule online and watch items recorded on one Tivo on another in your house(if you have multiple ones).

DirecTTivo's can be "modified" to do this... but the standalones have the features up and running.

In addition you can in some models install larger HD's, etc...

 

[ToxicAdam]

An awesome thing I do is tape a baseball game, then watch the 4 hour game in about 20 minutes. It's the perfect way to watch baseball.


Also, I will just scan through my 10 HBO channels and pluck out things I MAY watch when I get free time. Then I will let them sit on my HD for a few weeks or until my "autodeleter" does its job. It's a great way to watch movies that you may have missed in the theatres or on tape.

 

[AirBrian]

What DarienA said.

The thing I don't know is... do the standalone Tivo's come with 1 tuner or 2? I think only 1. The Direct TV Tivo's come built in with 2 tuners so you can watch something while recording something else... or record two different channels at the same time... in addition I think the monthly fee for standalone Tivo's is more than than the Direct Tivo versions.

Standalone TiVo's (Series 2) only have 1 tuner. I have a 1-tuner TiVo through Comcast. 1-tuner's allow you to watch Live-TV or watch a prerecorded show while recording something else. However, since I have cable I can run an A/B switch before the TiVo box, so I can watch the direct cable feed while TiVo is recording something else. The only drawback to that is that you lose the TiVo functionality (pause, rewind, etc.) while watching the direct cable feed.

 

[pnjtony]

Wow, my comcast DVR is billed as dual tuner, which means I can record two shows at the same time, but I have to be watching one of them, I can't just change the channel. Although I got enough junk on the HD that I can be recording two things and just watch something I've already recorded.

Currently the DVR is being overrun by my GF and toddler. It's full of Dr Phil, Charmed, Inside the Actor's Studio and Spongebob Squarepants. It's okay though cause I rarely record stuff...untill fall when 24 and LOST starts up again. 60 hours goes a long way though.

 

[Meatpuppet]

Since Thompson stopped producing the STBs over here, Tivo is essentially off the market in the UK. They still provide the service to subscribers, but thats it.

I wish I'd had the forsight to realise how awesome Tivo is back when it first came out. Tivos now go for crazy money on Ebay.

 

[HokieJoe]

Listen up dude. All you need to know is that Tivo is off the hook!

Just get it and you won't be sorry.

I don't have a Tivo, I have Dish Network's Tivo-like device. For instance, the past two days I've been burning it up. I've recorded the Tour de France, F1, American LeMans Series, Speed GT and Touring car series.

You can go back and watch it all at your OWN convenience. As well, you can slow-mo replays, rewind, fast forward, and best of all- fast forward or skip commercials. Skipping commercials is worth it all by itself.

 

[Phoenix]

The dual tuner features of the Comcast/Motorola HD DVRs surpasses - greatly, that offered by even the series 2 Tivos. The series 2 Tivo's however have the advantage of people actually writing homebrew applications for them (http://tivohme.sourceforge.net/) and the list of cool applications is growing QUICKLY. Nevertheless, until they get a solid 2 tuner HD unit, Tivo is going to be the lesser choice.

 

[DarienA]

The dual tuner features of the Comcast/Motorola HD DVRs surpasses - greatly, that offered by even the series 2 Tivos.

What features specifically?

 

[LakeEarth]

Blantant Tivo advertisement in War of the Worlds. Don't even pretend to not smack me in the face with it.

 

[Malleymal]

Thank you all for your feedback, I will read all this when I get home from my office, I have to call Cablevision and see if they offer this in my area... anyone have DVR service with Cablevision in NYC/NJ area??

 

[Phoenix]

What features specifically?

Being able to record two shows at once is the biggie. Being able to record a show while watching another show on a different channel being the other.

 

[Malleymal]

I just called my cable provider and they said I have to wait a couple months for this... i guess I will do just that....

 

[Link]

I had a Comcast DVR briefly, but ended up giving it back. It hinged on having digital cable, which for whatever reason, kept freezing and dropping signal. I had techs out twice to fix it, but they didn't find anything wrong, plus they actually charged me for the visits. I finally decided it wasn't worth all the extra cost per month.

Tivo just hooks up to your tv without the need for anything else, right? All I want is the simplicity of a VCR but with the added features of Tivo, while keeping my standard cable setup.

Also, does it need to use the component connection?

 

[Mashing]

Being able to record two shows at once is the biggie. Being able to record a show while watching another show on a different channel being the other.

Correct me if I'm wrong (maybe this is a flaw in the HD models), but don't you just need a dual LNB satellite and a TiVO with dual tuners? I know I do exactly that on my series 1 TiVO recorder. The reason I ask is that I'm considering getting a HD TiVO receiver and if you can't record two shows at once or record and watch another show on the other tuner then what the fuck is the point for having dual tuners?

Edit: Link... you will have to subscribe to a DVR service through your cable/satellite provider. Setting it up is a snap though, couldn't be eaiser. Pretty much plug and play.

 

[Phoenix]

Correct me if I'm wrong (maybe this is a flaw in the HD models), but don't you just need a dual LNB satellite and a TiVO with dual tuners? I know I do exactly that on my series 1 TiVO recorder. The reason I ask is that I'm considering getting a HD TiVO receiver and if you can't record two shows at once or record and watch another show on the other tuner then what the fuck is the point for having dual tuners?.

To the best of my knowledge Tivo doesn't have any dual tuner receivers. Maybe some of their dual tuner satellite partners produce some.

 

[Mashing]

Interesting, I guess that's the case since I have a Hughes TiVO receiever (3 to be exact) in my house. Although that may be simply DirecTV version or something (it as DirecTV branding on it).

 

[Phoenix]

Interesting, I guess that's the case since I have a Hughes TiVO receiever (3 to be exact) in my house. Although that may be simply DirecTV version or something (it as DirecTV branding on it).

Yep, those are actually made by DirectTV, not Tivo.