TiVo TCD540080 (80 GB) 80-Hours DVR

I resisted getting a DVR for a long time, because I had always thought that if I wasn't home to watch a TV show, it wasn't meant to be. A lot of the shows I did enjoy watching were basic cable shows that rerun about 5 times a day. (Project Runway, etc.) Also, I end up waiting for a lot of my favorite shows to come out on DVD, anyway (The Sopranos, etc.) And the news is always on. So I left my TV watching up to serendipity - if a good show is on the same time I am watching TV, the gods have brought us together.

How wrong I was.

I finally decided to get a TiVo after getting satellite service. My satellite service (Dish Network) does offer DVR service, but for some reason, did not offer it to my specific group of subscribers at the time. So lame. When I called them to ask me about it, they suggested that I get a TiVo.

Buying my TiVo

I bought my TiVo from www.tivo.com. The TiVo Series-2 80-Hours Video Recorder was available for free, with activation of new service. That sounded good. I activated my service for one year at $19.95/month and placed the order.(*) (This promotional price is available if you buy your TiVo from the store. However, you would pay the price of the box upfront (about $230), and get your money back by a mail-in rebate.) By buying directly from tivo.com, I was billed for my first month's fee, and the sales tax of the cost of the Tivo, so I paid about $40 upfront. I received the box via UPS in two days.

Hooking Up The TiVo

Installing the TiVo was pretty easy. It came with very good illustrated instructions that were easy to understand. Even the cables are in labeled (A-B-C) packages that help you figure out which ones you need. Depending on your TV setup (cable, satellite, etc.) you will need set up your TiVo differently.

Changing Channels

One of the things you have to configure is how your TiVo is going to change channels. If you have cable without a box, the TiVo can control the channel-changing directly. Also, some satellite boxes (e.g., DirectTV boxes) have their own special connection, which the TiVo has a separate port and cable for.

For a setup like mine (Dish Network with satellite box), you need to use a special channel changing device. You have to attach an IR cable precisely in front of the Remote Control "eye" on the satellite box.

Unfortunately, this isn't a foolproof connection. The problem with this is that it's possible for the changer to make a mistake once in a while, and gets itself stuck on the wrong channel, or worse, gets itself stuck on a channel that's not available with my subscription. When that happens, my box can't turn to a new channel by inputing the numbers (e.g., "004" for Channel 4), but must use the Channel Up/Down button. The TiVo always changes channels by inputing numbers, so my subsequent recordings will be ruined until I manually push the Channel Up button on the remote/box.

To optimize the accuracy of your TiVo's channel-changing abilities, they suggest that you cover the device and the Remote Control "eye" with foil, black paper, or some such thing. Aside from this looking possibly ugly, it will also prevent you from using your original satellite box remote.

So it's not quite foolproof. I've had to fiddle with it a few times to try and improve the accuracy.

In addition to the not-perfect channel-changing mechanism for satellite boxes like mine, there is a noticeable lag when I change channels. When I send a channel signal to the TiVo box, it takes a second to reach the satellite box, so it is noticeably slow.

Recording Time & Quality

This TiVo is not really an 80-hour recorder, because it only records 80 hours in the lowest quality, called "Basic Quality." There are four recording qualities you can set, and this is the breakdown of approximately how long the Tivo can record with each setting:

Best Quality - 23:32
High Quality - 37:30
Medium Quality - 49:18
Basic Quality - 81:48

I've tried recording shows at Basic Quality, and the quality is definitely pretty bad, nearly unwatchable. There's a lot of pixellation that's very noticeable and distracting.

On the other hand, Medium Quality is pretty watchable, and I've made it my default setting, for shows I like enough to TiVo, but probably wouldn't watch more than once. (The news, last night's Conan.) You can see some pixellation as you're forwarding through the commercials, especially if there are a lot of graphics.

High Quality and Best Quality are for shows that are good enough to be keepers, and if you want to transfer them to another recording device.

However, the recording capacity has been pretty decent. So far I haven't felt that it's been too small, since at any given time I have up to 40+ hours of programs that I've chosen to record. But as with anything like this, more space is always preferred.

Tivo Connection: Phone & Network

- Phone

The TiVo updates about once daily using a regular phone line, and ties up your phone line at that time. Unfortunately, you can't program your TiVo to always connect during a certain time. You can, however, program your TiVo to check to see if the line is available before it dials out. I used my land line for updating my TiVo for the first few weeks. Since I use my land line almost exclusively for faxes, I haven't had a big problem with this.

- Networking

TiVo can use some USB network adapters to connect to your home broadband network to connect. (See www.tivo.com/network for a list of compatible adapters.) TiVo also sells their own brand of USB adapter, which costs $59.99 on their site. ($49.99 at Amazon.com) I didn't know if I needed this, so I didn't buy it.

I happened to have a network adapter that is on the compatible list (Netgear MA101, 801.11b) so I plugged it in. The TiVo was able to recognize and connect to my network right away, and has been working fine since.

Using the network is cool. One of the neat things you can do is transfer a TV show from the TiVo to your computer. You can also access your Yahoo! photos and other things from your TiVo. You can also program your TiVo online. And if you have more than one TiVo, you can transfer your shows from one unit to another.

Yet another new option is the ability to download Amazon's Unbox videos that you purchase. Of course, all these neat functions of networking aren't without ads. Every night, TiVo downloads various ads that you can access from the menu.

TiVo Suggestions

One of the fun features of TiVo is TiVo Suggestions. The TiVo, during its idle times, records what IT thinks you will enjoy. It tailors the suggestions based on your ratings of the shows in their guide (e.g., any show you program to record gets one "thumbs up").

Unfortunately, I can't use this feature for long, because my particular channel lineup doesn't correspond with TiVo's local Dish Network lineup. The TiVo downloads the complete Dish Network lineup, but my subscription is limited, so there are a lot of channels in their guide that I don't get. And because my satellite box gets stuck if you turn to an unavailable channel, the TiVo could mess things up while recording the one of the Suggested shows.

One option I have is to go through my channel lineup and edit it manually, but that would take forever. So I had to disable this option. But for those who don't have the problem I have, I think this could be a fun thing, to let the machine figure out what you would like based on your ratings. (For the record, during the first couple of days before I disabled this feature, my TiVo thought I would like "Dharma and Greg." TiVo doesn't quite know me, yet.)

TiVo vs. other DVR's

I've used TiVo Series 2 80-Hours Video Recorder for 1 year and 4 months. My Dish Network service finally offers DVR service in my area, so I signed up right away, and canceled my TiVo service.

There are some obvious advantages to using a Dish Network DVR that makes the switch a no-brainer. First is the cost (a DVR box costs me a $1 more vs. $19.95 for Tivo service). Also, having a combo DVR/Satellite box lets me record two shows at a time, and the channel changing is always accurate.

But using a standard-issue DVR certainly helped me see better that TiVo offers some pretty interesting services - such as network connection to your computer, the ability to download movies, its ability to recommend and record shows on its own, its ability to copy shows from one TiVo to another, and program the TiVo online. None of these extras is worth paying $19/month for, for me, but they are still very cool ideas.

Conclusion

I really enjoyed my TiVo. I'm glad I took the plunge. It was easy to set up, and works (almost) just like you think it should. I do wish that the channel lineup matched perfectly, and the channel changing mechanism was more foolproof.

Do I recommend TiVo? Yes. Most cable/satellite services seem to offer some type of DVR option these days, and it's usually more cost-effective to just go with your provider. Also, that way you know your equipment is compatible.

But if that's not available to you, TiVo is a great option. It's not perfect, but it's still really neat.

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(*) I just checked tivo.com and discovered that a 1-year commitment is only $12.95/month now. I can't believe I paid $19.95/month!