Pros: All the basic DVR capabilities to record shows and fast-forward commercials.
Cons: Shows interrupted with suggested channel-changes to other channels with TiVo 'content'; poor picture quality.
The Bottom Line: Disappointed! Picture quality is everything. The picture is grainy but not 'washed out' and I can work around the problem by recording DVD on TiVo's DVD drive, then playing DVD.
holosys's Full Review: TiVo Series2â„¢ (80 Hours) (80 GB) 80-Hours Video ...
Tivo has been a hellish experience. As a serious 'technophile' it deeply disappoints me to feel so frustrated about my terrible Tivo experience, that I want to warn others through this review.
After suffering with TiVo for almost two years, I decided it was time to write a review during one of its 'black-outs' where it suddenly shuts-down and spends 10+ minutes installing new software. I just made a pledge to KQED during the last 12 minutes on endangered whales, and asked a question to a famous explorer and researcher. Just as I hung-up to hear the answer to my question, the screen went blank. After a minute of darkness the screen turned bright orange and a series of TiVo installation messages promised to restore my TV image 'in a few minutes.'
After 12 minutes the show is over. The worst part is that TiVo deleted the memory so I cannot rewind to watch what I missed.
Over the past few years this 'rebooting' of TiVo without warning occurs at the worst possible times. It conveniently occurs during the last 10-15 minutes of a show, almost as if some programmer thought it would be funny to create a rule that states 'if rebooting system, start reboot between 10-15 minutes before top of the hour' (or something like that). Some people tell me it's 'coincidence.'
Besides learning that TiVo records all shows and channel-changes for each unit out there, it seems they don't like late-night talk shows. For some reason, during late-night talk shows (like Letterman, Leno, O'Brien) the show is interrupted with a message: 'Switch channels to TiVo content' or 'Leave on current channel' with a note that the channel will automatically change if no selection is made.
Often I will come back from the kitchen or restroom to discover Tivo content in the form of an infomercial playing on a different channel! Sometimes I will try to tell TiVo not to change the channel but it will change channels to the infomercial anyway, and I must change the channel back to the talk show. Adding insult to injury, when I change the channel back to the talk show, a TiVo message asks if I'm sure that I wish to perform this action? I gave up screaming "Yes!!!" followed by expletives directed at TiVo and its money-grubbing executives about a year ago, and just do the drill of changing channels back to the show I was in the middle of watching.
I have the TiVo connected to a Sony 36-inch Trinitron that adjusts to regular or digital HD content, playing Blue-Ray discs at the 1080 resolution and yet playing regular broadcasts at the lower resolution. TiVo has always displayed the image in a very low-resolution, semi scrambled image that took a while to get used to watching. If I want to watch anything at normal resolution, I must record it to a writable DVD disc and then play the disc on TiVo. I can also play movie DVD's on TiVo that play in crystal clear regular TV resolution. (In contrast my Sony PS3 is capable of seamlessly switching from regular resolution to HD resolution to Blue-Ray resolution within a distorted picture, so I know it's not my TV with the problem, it is the TiVo.)
Not able to get through to TiVo customer support, I learned at their support web site that TiVo has problems playing on HD televisions. They never told me this before I bought it. They're clever because by the time I sent in my $100 rebate form, locking me into the purchase, I started to realize the picture quality as transmitted through the TiVo was poor. After getting used to the poor picture quality (or recording a favorite show or movie to the TiVo recordable DVD, and playing it from the same TiVo DVD to see crystal clear picture quality) all of the other problems I just described unfolded over a two year period!
Finally, when I get up to use the restroom in the middle of the night, I will notice TiVo recording something (because I see the orange recording-in-progress light on the TiVo control panel). This recording also occurs when TiVo tries to switch channels in the middle of a late night show. You know what's interesting? When I look at the shows TiVo recorded in its memory, none of these infomercials appear!
What's even more interesting is TiVo has a setting you can turn ON or OFF that allows you to receive TiVo 'content' (their infomercials) or not. I turned OFF this setting, of course! I keep checking and it remains OFF. If the setting is turned ON, then TiVo will record its 'content' for you to see at your leisure. Since I have it turned OFF, no content is recorded. Nonetheless, I can see TiVo recording something in the middle of the night! Once I turned on the television to sneak a peak at what TiVo was recording. Lo and behold, it was recording a TiVo infomercial. (By the way, these infomercials are everything from selling land in retirement communities to other products or services willing to pay TiVo for airing their commercials.)
However, although it recorded the informercial, when I went to see what it recorded, there was nothing recorded! Then it occurred to me that if everyone turns OFF the automatic TiVo recorded 'content' setting, companies that pay TiVo to broadcast their infomercials will go away. What is TiVo to do? My theory based on observation is TiVo is recording these infomercials on customer TiVo units in the middle of the night, to make it look as if the customers are receiving (and watching) Tivo 'content'! What a marketing racket, if true! That's why, even though I have the setting on OFF to avoid recording TiVo 'content' that my late night shows are interrupted as TiVo tries to switch channels. Because once TiVo switches channels it starts to record the infomercial even though the infomercial never appears in my TiVo's memory. Since I turned OFF the TiVo 'content' setting, they cannot very well leave infomercials taking up valuable TiVo memory, or I would have grounds to complain. So it appears TiVo switches channels, records the infomercial on the customer's unit (so they can charge their sponsors based on number of units receiving infomercials). Then TiVo erases the infomercial on units such as mine, where the setting is OFF (because I don't want commercials recorded on my TiVo). Otherwise, if most people set TiVo 'content' to OFF then TiVo would have no basis for charging companies for their infomercials (since TiVo's own software would show that nobody was watching these commercials).
Maybe a more responsible company will eventually buy-out TiVo and clean-up this mess, I keep hoping.
People swear by TiVo because many have nothing by which to compare its quality. Whereas I had the Panasonic Showstopper with Replay TV for several years, a service very similar to Tivo's (and a service that preceded TiVo I believe). Replay TV and the Panasonic Showstopper (with 80 hours of high resolution recording capacity) was not only flawless. There were features that put TiVo to shame. When my Panasonic DVR unit broke down, I made the mistake of taking advantage of a 'special offer' from TiVo with their 80 hour Humax DVR. As a professional working lots of hours, I don't have time to mess around with TiVo over this unacceptable product, so I have put up and shut up (at least the latter part until now). Knowing what really good DVR television is all about, is all the more reason I'm so disappointed with TiVo.
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