A skeptic's opinion of Tivo
Written: Dec 21 '01
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Pros: Tivo service is indispensable once you start using it.
Cons: Sluggish interface performance.
The Bottom Line: Tivo may not be revolutionary, but it provides incredibly useful features that you won't want to do without.
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| albrtlee's Full Review: Sony SAT-T60 DIRECTV Receiver with TiVo Service |
Talk to a few Tivo owners and they’ll all probably tell you that Tivo has completely changed the way they watch television. I watch a fair amount of television, but I’ve never been a person to tune in regularly to a weekly sitcom. I don’t watch game shows and outside of sporting events, I rarely make use of a VCR. So naturally, when I first heard this talk about redefining how TV is watched, I was quite skeptical. But my curiosity wore away my resolve and I eventually made the purchase.
Tivo and DirecTV, a marriage made in heaven
It was pretty easy for me to decide which Tivo receiver to buy. I have been a DirecTV subscriber for a few years now and I absolutely love the service. I’m a big sports fan and the NFL and NBA packages are must-haves for me. Now, though the basic Tivo receiver can work in conjunction with a DirecTV receiver, I opted for the integrated DirecTV and Tivo receiver. Once I made that decision, the choice of brand was easy. Sony is offering a $200 mail-in rebate off the MSRP of the SAT-T60. This brings the price down to a very palatable $199. I believe the RCA receiver is comparably cheap without a rebate, but I prefer the ergonomics of the Sony remote. Plus, I have a Sony television and enjoy the convenience of being able to control both without having to purchase a separate universal remote control.
A VCR with a hard drive
The SAT-T60 is a solid piece of hardware. By solid, I mean both well built and heavy. The outer casing is brushed aluminum and the front panel is sleek and stylish. The system houses a 40GB hard drive that allows for up to 35 hours of recording. Shows are saved onto the hard disk in the same digital format as the DirecTV broadcast. I believe the broadcast uses MPEG-2 compression, but I am not 100% certain. In general, this compression scheme offers highly picture quality than standard analog TV reception. However, if you have a high quality television, like a HDTV compatible TV, you will likely be able to notice the blocky MPEG-2 compression artifacts on occasion.
The 35 hours of recording time is slightly better than what you can get from a non-DirecTV Tivo receiver. But in reality, you will never get anywhere close to 35 hours of stored TV. Or maybe you will, but I have not been able to. I have read on forums that programs with lots of action and color require the most storage space. Unfortunately, sporting events fall into this category. Because I mostly record NBA games, I find that I am only able to store around 20 hours of television.
A revolution or a Tivolution?
So has my Tivo box revolutionized the way I watch television? In a word, yes. It has not drastically changed things, but it certainly has altered my habits. The most oft used feature is the most basic feature – selecting which shows to record from the DirecTV program guide. You simply highlight the show you want and press the record button and you are done. Tivo stores the show into its To-Do list. You can specify other record options like if you want to start recording a few minutes early or stop recording a few minutes late. If you chose to record a recurring show, you also have the option of getting a Season Pass. The Season Pass gives you the option of recording every instance of the series of interest, including reruns, or recording just the new episodes. I’m one of those people who have never been able to fix their schedule around television. As a result, I miss a lot of shows simply because I forgot about them. With Tivo and Season Pass, this is no longer a problem. I can choose the shows I want and go on with life as usual. Then, when I feel like watching television, I can watch it at my leisure.
Tivo also gives you the option of letting it fill up your hard drive with shows it thinks you might like, based off of your ratings. You can give a show positive or negative ratings ranging from 1-3 thumbs up or thumbs down. Tivo remembers your ratings and will generate a list of suggestions, so when you come home, you will have a set of surprises waiting for you. The suggestions improve over time, as you make more ratings. I personally don’t use this feature, but I can see how it is appealing for some.
People can draw faster than this…
Now, of course, not everything is great with the SAT-T60 and Tivo. The interface is a mixed bag, in my opinion. The program guide has two options. One mimics the DirecTV program guide that displays a chart of channels versus time. The other mode lists the channels and when you select a channel, it offers a list of programming for that channel over the next few hours. Both modes are pretty useful, but the problem is that they update slowly. Some of the early DirecTV receivers had this problem and it looks like the first-generation Tivo boxes are plagued by poor performance as well. It doesn’t cripple the system, but it makes using it more annoying than it should be. My other big gripe is with the Tivo interface menus. Unlike all other interface menus, the Tivo are not translucent and block out the video entirely. The menu hierarchy is also far too complex. You have to navigate through about half a dozen screens before you can program a manual recording. Again, this doesn’t cripple the system. But it is bothersome.
Uh, if I pause live TV, then its not live anymore, right?
One of the big Tivo selling points that I haven’t mentioned yet is the ability to pause live TV. You may not think this is very useful, but imagine how many times you missed an important piece of dialogue because the phone rang or the dog barked or some other background noise. Tivo stores a 30-minute buffer of whatever show you are watching so you can easily pause, answer the phone, come back, and pick up right where you left off. There are also fast forward and reverse controls. A Tivo competitor, ReplayTV, has recently come under legal fire because it offers a 30 second commercial skip feature. Tivo, fortunately or unfortunately, does not offer this feature. Rather it offers a 3x, 20x, and 60x fast forward and rewind. These modes are available when watching recorded shows as well. When returning to normal speed from 20x or 60x fast forward or reverse, the system will actually start playback a few seconds before the last image flashed on the screen, eliminating overshooting. I think the delay is a bit too long, but it didn’t take long to adjust. All in all, the VCR features of Tivo coupled with digital television are a godsend.
Two is better than one
The SAT-T60 also has dual tuners. My system required a software update before I could activate the dual tuners. The software update occurs automatically overnight, but you can also force it manually. Note that you also have to have a dual LNB satellite dish and proper cable configuration for the dual tuner feature to work properly. But if your setup is ok, the dual tuners work like a dream, allowing you to watch one show while recording another, or simply record two shows at once.
For all you anti-Microsoft people out there…
The Tivo system is essentially a PowerPC based computer running a modified version of the Linux operating system. This fact has won it a huge following in the techie crowd. I mean, what could possibly be better than getting a great product and promoting free market competition at the same time? If you go online, you will be able to find dozens of sites were people have hacked their Tivo systems. People have really done quite a few interesting things, but perhaps the most useful hack is replacing the existing hard drive with larger drives to increase storage capacity. It seems to be a non-trivial but not-too-difficult process which I plan to attempt in the near future. When that happens, I will update this review to reflect any new information or thoughts.
Finally, the end is here!
Ok, it’s definitely time to wrap up this marathon review. If you’re still reading at this point, thanks for staying with me, and I hope that you found the information useful. All in all, I have found my SAT-T60 to be a great product. There are some minor flaws, but the benefits clearly outweigh the annoyances. Tivo is clearly the future. It’s not a revolution, but along with CDs and computers, it represents one of the major successes of digital technology improving everyday life. I admit that Tivo boxes and the SAT-T60 are a bit pricey, but the current promotion brings the price down significantly. And you certainly get a lot of value for your money. Go out and get yourself a Tivo unit, you definitely won’t regret it.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 199
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Epinions.com ID:
albrtlee
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Member: Albert Lee
Location: California
Reviews written: 36
Trusted by: 40 members
About Me:
"If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts." --Albert Einstein
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