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Move over VCR, let TIVO through!
Pros
Watch Television with no commercials, pause live TV. Great addition to any home AUDIO system.
Cons
Degraded video quality. Not really 80 hours if you record at high quality.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Overall, this is a GREAT buy, once you have a TIVO, you can't live without it.
I love the fact that I can record my shows while away, so the Digital Video Recorder gets major points for it's basic functionality. I'm used to the old VCR days and I must say, "boy have we grown."
The SONY SVR-3000 TIVO has GREAT Audio, there are no Optical outs, but I don't really use them anyway. I was worried that the audio would not sync perfectly with the video, this is not an issue.
The picture quality is slightly degraded, but you have to keep in mind what you are doing here. You are getting a signal (Direct TV, Satellite, or Cable Box) and putting it through the TIVO first; the signal is converted from Digital to Analog, then back to Digital again before it is displayed on your screen.
I am very particular about picture quality and I have no problem with a slightly degraded picture quality. If your picture quality is anything more than slightly degraded, take the unit back and get another one, that's what I had to do. I took one unit back for an exchange and the second unit performed fine. You are not going to get the same quality from TIVO recorded Television as you do from watching straight Cable/Satellite, but it's good enough for me. I use S-VIDEO for my Video and the RCA for my Audio.
The remote is great, upon first appearance, it seems a little basic, but it is multifunctional and does a GREAT job, as an added plus, it also controls my SONY XBR Television without having to program the remote.
I use a SONY Direct TV Receiver, so I use the serial cable to control my channel changing, it works GREAT. Essentially what you are doing is, when you change the channel on the TIVO, it changes the channel of the Satellite box via the Serial Cable. The channel guide VIA TIVO is MUCH better than any I have used before.
You can view just the channel information, a basic channel and information screen, or you can view an entire display of channel guide displaying your show, start time, stop time, channel, etc.
The TIVO can record your favorite shows with a "Season Pass" or you can pick by channel. Imagine sitting in your chair at home watching one show, then during the commercials, you see an add for a show coming on next week… with the TIVO, you can choose to record that show, then forget about it…
You can rate shows on the TIVO guide, and if you leave the TIVO suggestions feature on, your TIVO will pick shows that are like your preferred shows so you ALWAYS have something to watch. This feature can be disabled, but I keep it, it allows me to diversify my television. The shows you choose to record take priority over the "suggested shows" that TIVO records.
The SONY SVR-3000 TIVO has GREAT Audio, there are no Optical outs, but I don't really use them anyway. I was worried that the audio would not sync perfectly with the video, this is not an issue.
The picture quality is slightly degraded, but you have to keep in mind what you are doing here. You are getting a signal (Direct TV, Satellite, or Cable Box) and putting it through the TIVO first; the signal is converted from Digital to Analog, then back to Digital again before it is displayed on your screen.
I am very particular about picture quality and I have no problem with a slightly degraded picture quality. If your picture quality is anything more than slightly degraded, take the unit back and get another one, that's what I had to do. I took one unit back for an exchange and the second unit performed fine. You are not going to get the same quality from TIVO recorded Television as you do from watching straight Cable/Satellite, but it's good enough for me. I use S-VIDEO for my Video and the RCA for my Audio.
The remote is great, upon first appearance, it seems a little basic, but it is multifunctional and does a GREAT job, as an added plus, it also controls my SONY XBR Television without having to program the remote.
I use a SONY Direct TV Receiver, so I use the serial cable to control my channel changing, it works GREAT. Essentially what you are doing is, when you change the channel on the TIVO, it changes the channel of the Satellite box via the Serial Cable. The channel guide VIA TIVO is MUCH better than any I have used before.
You can view just the channel information, a basic channel and information screen, or you can view an entire display of channel guide displaying your show, start time, stop time, channel, etc.
The TIVO can record your favorite shows with a "Season Pass" or you can pick by channel. Imagine sitting in your chair at home watching one show, then during the commercials, you see an add for a show coming on next week… with the TIVO, you can choose to record that show, then forget about it…
You can rate shows on the TIVO guide, and if you leave the TIVO suggestions feature on, your TIVO will pick shows that are like your preferred shows so you ALWAYS have something to watch. This feature can be disabled, but I keep it, it allows me to diversify my television. The shows you choose to record take priority over the "suggested shows" that TIVO records.
