Unfortunately the first one of these I tried was defective – no picture or sound. The 2nd one however works fairly well for the price and was fairly easy to install. It’s takes a while to get the hang of using it though – the user interface needs work. It would be nice if the UI were more windows like.

The program guide may be the weak part compared to a dedicated Tivo (I have two), but then again there is no $13 a month fee for the guide. If you’re lucky Titan will have your cable system listed and you’ll be all set – otherwise you’ll have to build your lineup which takes a while. Setting a show to record just takes one click which is nice – but there’s no season pass ability (which Tivo has).

Picture quality is good, but on full (18”) screen it looks a little fuzzy. I doubt it would be acceptable on a large screen TV. (My Tivo looks fine on a large screen TV).

Still at $100 it’s good enough for time shifting and its nice that you can save a show to disk and then permanently save it on DVD or CD (can’t do that with Tivo). You can also watch the shows on any PC that can play an MPEG movie- you don’t need the Haupauge card installed for viewing previously recorded shows. So you could take a few shows with you on your laptop and watch them on the plane or whever.


Recommended: Yes