How did I ever live without this thing?
Written: Feb 29 '04
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Pros: You will never miss a favorite TV show again
Cons: Missing a TV show, now and again, can be a good thing
The Bottom Line: 30 hours is more than enough record time for your average viewer, but if your planning to keep the whole NFL season you may want to upgrade.
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| skillz's Full Review: Philips DSR7000 (40 GB) 35-Hours Video Recorder |
I’ve had my Phillips DSR7000 Tivo with DirecTV for about 4 months now and my couch is beginning to show signs of wear.
I’m kidding of course, but I must admit that I’m definitely watching way more television than I was 4 months ago. I know for a fact that I’m watching at least 5 new shows that I never had time to watch, or the energy to stay up so late to watch, before. This isn’t necessarily a good thing. Sure I’m catching all my favorite television shows (and then some), but my pants all seem to be shrinking and I’m having a harder time bending over to tie my shoes for some unknown reason.
One of my favorite shows is Survivor (along with half of America), but CBS decided a long time ago to give that particular show the 7 o’clock slot in my area. I have a fairly unpredictable quitting time at work, seeing as how I never leave for home at the same time each evening, so I can’t always guarantee that I’m gonna make it home by 7:00. Tivo to the rescue!
Plus… I know that there are hundred, possibly thousands, of viewers out there that are torn every Thursday evening when it hits 8pm. “Do I watch Friends or do I watch CSI”? Well, how about you watch Friends and then watch CSI next, or visa versa.
I might be getting ahead of myself. There still could be a few of you readers out there that have absolutely NO IDEA about what a Tivo is, so without further ado I’ll break it down for you.
The basics of the box
Tivo is a type of cable or satellite box that sits on top of your DVD player (at least that’s where mine sits). You can set yours anywhere you like it so long as its close enough to the television that you can run a cable to it.
All Tivo systems are different in size and memory capability. I’m writing a review on the DSR7000 model, so you’ll have to settle with information on said model.
The box, which happens to be silver in color, is 15 inches wide, by 12 inches deep, by 3 inches thick. It has a memory of 30 hours.
What the box can do
Tivo can pause and record LIVE TV without the need of a videotape or DVD. How does it do this you ask? It uses a hard drive just like the one on the computer that you are using right now to read this excellent review ::snicker::
Here’s how it works… the very second that you turn on your television or change to a new channel, Tivo begins recording. It keeps a rolling record of the channel that you’re watching for a 30-minute period. Meaning… if you are watching a show, such as Friends, that is only thirty minutes long you can rewind the show all the way back to the beginning as long as you haven’t passed the shows thirty minute period. Now lets say that you finished watching Friends and you are now five minutes into the next show (on the same channel). You can still rewind but now you will start five minutes into Friends. Get it? You can only rewind up to 30 minutes (unless you have recorded Friends). We’ll get into that later.
There are two reasons for the 30-minute rolling record.
Reason 1: If you need to use the restroom, answer the phone, let the dog out, change a diaper, get a beer, or fight off a band of renegade Ninjas… You can PAUSE live TV for up to thirty minutes while doing said tasks.
Reason 2: Lets say you just sat down to watch a movie on HBO, Showtime, or one of the other movie channels. You get 15 minutes into the movie and the phone rings. You hit pause on your remote and answer the phone. It’s your best friend on the line, his/her car has broke down and he/she is stranded on the other side of town. You, being the great friend that you are, say that you will be right there to give them a ride home. All you have to do is hit the record button and the movie that you intended to watch will be recorded for you right from the beginning, since you haven’t passed that first 30 minutes yet.
Recording
There are several different types of recording procedures.
Number 1: You can simply push the record button when watching a movie that you want to keep for a while.
Number 2: You can go to the Wish List and find a particular show name, artist, director, or show type that you want to record and then set the Tivo to record it for you.
Number 3: You can get a Season Pass to your favorite shows and never worry about missing another episode again. Even if said show changes nights and time slots.
One of my favorite Tivo features is the Wish List. I’m a big fan of Danny Kaye movies and they are fairly hard to find. All I had to do was type Danny Kaye’s name into the search criteria and set the record feature to record anything that pops up. The Tivo will show me right away what movies over the next two week Danny Kaye will be featured in. Most of the time a two weeks search equals zero, but since I set the Tivo to record whatever pops up in the future, I don’t have to keep checking back every two weeks to see if any shows are coming up. So far, over the last four months, I’ve caught 3 Danny Kaye movies and 1 episode of The Cosby Show where Danny plays a children’s dentist. Tivo has recorded that particular episode on several different occasions.
My second favorite thing about Tivo is fast-forwarding through commercials. Sometimes when a start watching a show I will intentionally pause the show for 10 or 15 minutes while I get a soda or something and then start the show back up. Now that I have a 10 or 15 minutes back up I can fast forward through 10 or 15 minutes worth of stupid commercials.
Let me tell you about a little feature you can turn off and on (I turned mine off). Tivo will keep track of the types of shows that you watch and then record shows for you that IT thinks that you might like to see next time you turn it on. So, if you watch too much ‘Will and Grace’ followed by ‘Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’, your Tivo might think you're gay and start recording figure skating and such. I only say this because I saw a sitcom that used that very same scenario and I about died laughing. It might have been Seinfeld. I forget.
By the way… my wife and I both watch ‘Queer Eye’ and ‘Will and Grace’, so don’t leave me any gay rights comments. I’m a free thinker. If how a person lives and what that person does isn’t physically hurting anyone, then it’s nobody else’s damn business but the participants. Nuff said.
Recording Options
Anytime you decide to record something you get a recording options screen. On this screen you can tell the Tivo to record the show exactly as scheduled or you can set it to record 1,2,3,4,or 5 minutes early. That option also applies to how long to record after the show is scheduled to end.
After adjusting the recording time you should decide how long you want to Tivo to hold the show for you. You can set it for just a few days or Keep Until I Delete. I almost always choose the latter of the two.
My single complaint
I almost forgot to put this little complaint into the review. It’s funny actually… the only reason that I remembered is because tonight is the Academy Awards. Let me explain.
Tivo records whatever you tell it to record as long as the show runs in the time slot that it was originally aired for. The reason that the Academy Awards reminded me is because it is supposed to be aired from 5:30pm to 8:30pm. Now, as we all know… The Academy Awards almost ALWAYS runs long, so if I told my Tivo to record the Academy Awards for me tonight and didn’t tell it to run (let’s say) 1 hour longer, it would stop recording promptly at 8:30pm even though the show will probably still be going for another 30 minutes to an hour. This same problem applies to most major sporting events, so you’ve been warned.
The price
On top of the purchase price, which happened to be only $100 at BestBuy because of a sale, there is a monthly fee of $12.95. That comes to about $ 0.43 a day which I figure isn’t too bad.
In addition… if you want the ability to watch a show on one channel WHILE recording a different show on a different channel you will have to invest in a cable or satellite splitter. I’m not talking about those cheap little splitters that you can pick up at any Radio Shack for under $5. I’m talking about a digital splitter better known as a multi-switch. This little do-dad will set you back about another $70. You don’t have to have the multi-switch to use the Tivo’s record features; only if you want to record something on one channel while you’re watching something else on a separate channel.
To finish up
What’s good for your viewing pleasure might be bad for your waistline. I guess you could put a stationary bike in the living room and pedal while you watch, and watch, and watch, and watch….
-skillz-
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 100.00
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Epinions.com ID:
skillz
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Member: Steve Black
Location: Ceres, CA
Reviews written: 52
Trusted by: 12 members
About Me:
There is just not enough time in the day.
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