Any Tivo geeks in here?

[jammin]

Just became aware of the world of Tivo this past weekend. I saw it at a friends house and I was just amazed at its versatility.

What have been your experiences using it? It is worth the price.

I use Dishnetwork so I would need to buy a separate unit($50 at tivo website) and pay the monthly $12.95 service fee. I am still debating whether its worth it or not. I have heard that once you go Tivo, you never go back to VCR's again.

I know that Dishnetwork has its own DVR system and I was curious how good it compares with Tivo.

[djrosen1]

Re: Any Tivo geeks in here?

If I could afford the monthly fee, I'd get one in a heartbeat.

[j-kid]

Re: Any Tivo geeks in here?

I have had Direct-TIVO for years. Yes, the saying is very true, "once you get TIVO you never want to watch TV the old fashion way again". There is no comparison between TIVO and other DVR's. The other DVR's have some of TIVO features, however with TIVO you get a lot more features and flexibility that the others dont have. There are only a couple of features that i would like to see TIVO add , such as batch play and barch transfer of your saves recording, but all in all, if you can think of it the TIVO will do it. There are two kind of TIVO's. The stand-alone TIVO (analog) and Direct-TIVO (digital quality). The Direvt-tivo works only with the satellite dish. The stand-alone will work with either satellite or free-air antenna base TV and cable.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

[jammin]

Re: Any Tivo geeks in here?

I did some additional research and found some interesing things.

Dish Networks most expense DVR cost a whopping $699 plus a $5 a month DVR fee.

Two things it can do that Tivo cannot do are

1. It can record two separte TV shows showing at the same time while watching a third show. Its a dual tuner DVR. This will prevent a TV fight with the wifey(lol)

2. Also, the DVR can record in HDTV.

Since I am thinking about getting a big screen HDTV in the near future, the above two features will be important.

That $699 price seem a bit scary though. Dishnetwork has cheaper DVR's but they don't offer the versatility of the more expensive one.

[Dr.Dudd]

Re: Any Tivo geeks in here?

The solution would be to get a cheapie that is expendable now and wait until the 699 one price is reduced.with all the cut throat in the business,it is more than likly will be affordable in the not too distant future, or about when you decide to buy the HDTV.

[j-kid]

Re: Any Tivo geeks in here?

jammin, your statement is not quite correct. DirecTV has a HD DVR with TIVO function built in. You are talking about the stand-alone model only.

HD signal is digital, which is what DirevTV satellite puts out. DirecTV bought out the DirecTIVO portion of the TIVO company a few years ago and now owns that former portion of the TIVO company. DirecTIVO is the one you want not TIVO , as I said before DirecTIVO is used only on the satellite, NOT on cable or antenna based TV (TIVO is used for that). Be warned however! HD recordings eats up a lot more space than standard digital recordings.

Both Tivo and DirecTIVO can also record two separte TV shows showing at the same time, while watching a third show. Tivo and DirecTIVO was the first to implement this function and does it better.

[jammin]

Re: Any Tivo geeks in here?

Originally posted by J kid:
[qb] jammin, your statement is not quite correct. DirecTV has a HD DVR with TIVO function built in. You are talking about the stand-alone model only.

HD signal is digital, which is what DirevTV satellite puts out. DirecTV bought out the DirecTIVO portion of the TIVO company a few years ago and now owns that former portion of the TIVO company. DirecTIVO is the one you want not TIVO , as I said before DirecTIVO is used only on the satellite, NOT on cable or antenna based TV (TIVO is used for that). Be warned however! HD recordings eats up a lot more space than standard digital recordings.

Both Tivo and DirecTIVO can also record two separte TV shows showing at the same time, while watching a third show. Tivo and DirecTIVO was the first to implement this function and does it better. [/qb]

Thanks for the clarification. Not sure if I can part with my Dishnetwork however. I have seen Directv but Dishnetwork has a few channels I watch that Directv does not carry and I have had it for many years.

I am not sure what I'll do but I will probably end up with the "budget" separate Tivo unit for $50 and try it for a year and see what happens. The only bad thing about is that I will be locked into a one year contrac paying $12.95 a month. I'll see

[j-kid]

Re: Any Tivo geeks in here?

OK.

However, if you do decide to go with DirecTV in the future, their DVR service is $5.99 per month (which covers every DVR in the your home), unlike the TIVO $12.95 per month so you would have a savings there.

Right now DirecTIVO is Free with a $99 instant rebate, they usually sell it for $49, which is even a better deal than the $49.99 for the TIVO.

Also ALL DirecTIVO unit can record two programs, you don't need a special high priced receiver as Dish Network requires you to get. Have a great day!.

[jammin]

Re: Any Tivo geeks in here?

Originally posted by J kid:
[qb] OK.

However, if you do decide to go with DirecTV in the future, their DVR service is $5.99 per month (which covers every DVR in the your home), unlike the TIVO $12.95 per month so you would have a savings there.

Right now DirecTIVO is Free with a $99 instant rebate, they usually sell it for $49, which is even a better deal than the $49.99 for the TIVO.

Also ALL DirecTIVO unit can record two programs, you don't need a special high priced receiver as Dish Network requires you to get. Have a great day!. [/qb]

Do you know if you can easily tranfer Tivo recorded programs to a DVD recorder or VCR?

[j-kid]

Re: Any Tivo geeks in here?

Yes, it is much easier to tranfer to a VCR. It is a one button click process. If you have a stand alone DVD burner you could feed the signal same way as you feed it to a VCR recorder and then burn it to the DVD. If you only have one on your PC, it becomes a little more involved. You will have to feed the signal into your PC via a converter or use software to convert it to one of the video formats. I convert mine to Quicktime or WMV, which produce much smaller files size than AVI or MPEG2.

[jammin]

Re: Any Tivo geeks in here?

Thanks Jkid.

I think I am sold on Directivo. I just checked the Directv website and roaming through their specials, I see that I wouldn't pay anything to switch to Directv from Dishnetwork. Also, a free DVR is included in the package. The DVR monthly fee is also waived if I subscribe to the Total Choice premier package. I already subscribe to a similar package with Dishnetwork.

I also plan to buy a dual deck DVD burner/VCR. I saw a Panasonic version(dual format) on sale this weekend for $249.

I will probably upgrade to the HD versions of Directivo/Directv receiver in the future.

[j-kid]

Re: Any Tivo geeks in here?

I forget to mention that there are ways to increase the recording capacity of both DirecTivo and Tivo units. However, the process is NOT as simple as replacing the hard drive in either unit.

And, congratulations on your new love affair. Warning! You may get the urge for a cigarette after your first use! [img]/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[BIGRED]

Re: Any Tivo geeks in here?

Tivo also has "Tivo To Go". Software that allows you to connect the tivo box to your home network and transfer saved content to your computer, program tivo from a remote location, burn dvd's etc. But that's if you love techie stuff.