Let's Talk TiVo

[Frank Grimes]

Warning!!! Once you get a TiVo (or DVR) you will wonder how you lived without it. Pros....too many to list. Cons....DVR rental, etc.

I remember when Tivo first came out and the ads said you will never watch tv the same way. I though "yeah right".

But now I know....have had a DVR (from Comcast - no problems) and I hardly watch anything when it is actually on.

[Darrell Green Fan]

I remember when Tivo first came out and the ads said you will never watch tv the same way. I though "yeah right".

But now I know....have had a DVR (from Comcast - no problems) and I hardly watch anything when it is actually on.

Yeah remember the ad where the guy is watching his team line up for the winning FG and he pauses, goes to church and prays, then releases the recording to see the kick? I watched that as if I was seeing men from Mars landing in my living room.

I give up, WTF is OTA HD?

[DenverViking]

I remember when Tivo first came out and the ads said you will never watch tv the same way. I though "yeah right".

But now I know....have had a DVR (from Comcast - no problems) and I hardly watch anything when it is actually on.

The biggest difference for me has been Viking games. I'll start watching a game 90 minutes after it starts just so I don't have to sit through commercials. By the time I catch up, I'm back in real time. And I only need to invest 90 minutes on a Sunday instead of 3 hours.

[Lofaw]

And the new DirecTV DVRs allow you to record 5 shows at once.

Yeah the Whole Home DVR. I'm not a big fan for the sole reason that if you have 4 or 5 TVs you can still only DVR 5 shows in the whole house. When before you could DVR 2 show per DTV Box. Which means in reality if you had 5 TV Boxes you could record 10 shows at once. My family likes different type shows. So I'll be DVR'ing 2 Shows, my wife 2 Shows, and then my daughter because you can only DVR 5 shows at once is stuck only being able to DVR 1 show. Now this is a small family, but what about those who have 3 kids all who have TVs in there room? That's the reason I'm not that big fan of Whole Home DVR. I do like that you can DVR in one room and watch in another though. As for the DVR'ing issues in a home like mine where everyone is constantly DVRing we have only 2 DVRs connected (Living room & master bedroom) and my daughters room and the family room have separate DVRs. None are considered Whole Home because we wanted the ability to DVR 2 shows per each DTV box and it works out very well. Although to be honest I wish I could DVR more programs at once because on some nights I have to find out if someone can DVR shows on that I can't because I'm already DVRing 2 shows at a time.

As for TIVO the local cable company offered it and when we switched from DTV for a while, big mistake by the way, we had TIVO and we hated it. I can't remember everything we didn't like, but I do remember it sucked that when you looked at the TV guide on the TV it didn't mark the shows you were recording in any way. So you always would have to go in and double check you set the show to record. I think we also didn't like the way you had to set shows up to DVr for the season. Such a hassle to have to go through like 4 screens to set it up. Unlike DTV when it's 2 clicks and it's set. TIVO might have a little quicker response time, but for me it has more negatives then positives for my liking. We ended up going back to DTV after what seemed like 5 months of hell of having TIVO with the local cable company.

[KickSave]

I don't know if this is still the case, but in the past what DTV advertised as Tivo was actually a neutered version of Tivo. The neutered version was about as crappy as Time Warner's POS DVR. I would be nervous because the best thing about Tivo is the interface. It just works.

My first DTV DVR, around 2005, was a TIVO interface, but I don't know if it was neutered or not because I can't compare it to anything else. The next DVR that DTV sent me was NOT a TIVO interface. Took me a few weeks to get to like it, but I did eventually. But tons of people complained and some time last year or so, they brought back a TIVO interface. DTVs DVRs have always been pretty much the leaders of the pack, and their new one figures to maintain that - record 5 shows at once, record in one location, watch in another, tons of storage, good search and shortcuts, great guide, the works.

Another example of DTV actually listening to their customers: Their DVR originally had two buffers. Watch one show, buffer the other, and switch back and forth and rewind them to where you want - both buffers were 30 minutes. Around 2007, they dropped this feature and only gave you one single 90 minute buffer. If you wanted to flip between two buffered programs, you had to record them, which farked with your ability to channel surf. Tons of people complained, and after getting beaten up by their customers, DTV issued a patch to the existing DVRs which restored the two buffer solution - but both buffers are now 90 minutes each. Pretty solid IMO.

As for DaveKn having a bad experience with DTV, that sucks, because my experience has been the opposite. I've never had any equipment fail, the customer service has always been good to me, but obviously YMMV. One thing about changing channels, DTV passes a lot of channels through in their native format, so some that are 720p or 1080i need to switch TV resolutions to show properly, this always takes a few seconds. Even more so when switching from Standard Def to HD channels. When switching from a 1080p to 1080p channel, the change is lightning fast though. The new DVRs also do this much better than the older DVRs did. Maybe I'm just used to the delay so I haven't thought about it, but I'll measure it tonight and let you know.

Bottom line, we all got preferences.... as my GF tells me a lot, do as you feel.

[Hyped]

OTA = Over The Air

You can get HD signals with digital rabbit ears...pretty damn good. I'd do it if I lived in Boston (where the local teams were always on) and didn't need ESPN/TBS/TNT/NBA TV/NFLN....damn cable companies....

[Frank Grimes]

The biggest difference for me has been Viking games. I'll start watching a game 90 minutes after it starts just so I don't have to sit through commercials. By the time I catch up, I'm back in real time. And I only need to invest 90 minutes on a Sunday instead of 3 hours.

I do the same thing. It's great.

And when the Red Sox play a Friday West Coast game I watch it the first thing in the morning. When the other team is at bat I put it on the first fast level.

[Kilmer]

OTA = Over The Air

You can get HD signals with digital rabbit ears...pretty damn good. I'd do it if I lived in Boston (where the local teams were always on) and didn't need ESPN/TBS/TNT/NBA TV/NFLN....damn cable companies....

Exactly. OTA HD is basically getting NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX and PBS through "rabbit ears" in HD. Its a beautiful thing. I can record anything those channels broadcast, transfer the recordings to my PC and save them to a Media server. No archive tapes or DVD, just files and BIG disk drives.

I admit the average person will not go to those lengths, but I am not average when it comes to TV. I was nicknamed Tom TV after Mike TV of Willy Wonka fame by my sisters, when I was little and I just like to fuss with technology, which means I get into the whole on demand TV without actually streaming it.

I keep thinking about getting a TiVo Premier, Amazon Instant Video and forsaking cable/satelite forever. Sunday Ticket is what has prevented that so far.

[Breed]

Yeah the Whole Home DVR. I'm not a big fan for the sole reason that if you have 4 or 5 TVs you can still only DVR 5 shows in the whole house. When before you could DVR 2 show per DTV Box. Which means in reality if you had 5 TV Boxes you could record 10 shows at once.

Thanks for that little nugget, Lofaw. That's how we roll in the Breed household. Recording things we like to watch on different tvs in the house.

Being able to record 5 shows at once loses a lot of its luster if you can only rfecord those 5 shows on all your tvs.

[Big Pink Monkey]

Your endorsement of TiVo is pretty good to read. But I gotta say no On Demand movies or the ability to watch old episodes of shows we like is a huge drawback. We always run into conflicts because of only 2 channel inputs, especially during football season. And of course the old box we just got has very limited storage and that sucks.

I meant to respond to the On Demand thing. I haven't found it to be a problem. Between Netflix and Amazon Video, we don't miss much. The only thing is HBO because they have their own thing with HBO Go. But I get that through my Xbox. I keep hoping Tivo will make a deal. One good thing is the new Tivo Premier will direct you to where you can get what you want to see. So, just find the episode and it will say when it is being broadcast and what other vendors have it, such as Hulu or Amazon, so you can choose to record it or buy it immediately.