Wait!
Written: Oct 16 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Pausing Live TV is cool
Cons: Channel surfing is laggy
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| fperkins's Full Review: Philips PTV100 Video Recorder |
I actually just purchased Sony's version of Tivo. It's a typical 30hour Tivo unit so this review should fit cozily within here.
My advice is to wait! Although I really the concept of TV, I don't particularly like the technology behind it.
Gripes:
- 30hours is really 9 hours. You never want to record at low quality because you actually view normal TV at low quality too. Unless you're planning on putting Tivo on a separate, dedicated input, realistically, you gave less than 10 hours of recording time
- If you use a cable box from your cable provider, you will have to "IR Blast" from Tivo to your cable box. What this means is that we want to go to channel 30, you type "30" on your Tivo remote. Tivo THEN sends that signal to your cable box, delaying the process 1-2 seconds. Then when the channel actually changes, you have to wait an additional 1-2 seconds for Tivo to decode. Hence, a 2-4 second lag in changing channels.
- Complicated AV setup. If you have an existing receiver, DVD, cable box, etc, it will take some time to have everything working well together.
- You must have a phone jack next to your Tivo. Tivo will dial out nightly to download it's Tivo guide. They do provide you with a really really long phone line, but who wants to drape this around the room. I wound up installing a phone jack by my tv.
Pros
- TV always records what you watch. It's really awesome to pause live TV. Trust me, this works as well as they say it does! BUT, if you change the channel, you lose everything! For example, you're watching a TV show for 20 minutes. Tivo already has the last 20 minutes recorded. If you change channels, you start at the beginning again.
- Recording is a snap. You use the Tivo guide to quickly record shows
- Other Pro's that you probably already read here.
Personally, I would have waited if I would have known about the channel changing lag. As with everything, do your own research and decide how much this means to you. Be sure to check out avsforum.com 's tivo section.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
fperkins
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Reviews written: 10
Trusted by: 1 member
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