Tivo (dvr)

OK.. so i finally broke down and upgraded to a DVR from my cable company. for those who're not familiar with this (or lived on the moon for the past 2 years LOL) DVR records tv shows on it's harddrive which you can watch later. you can also record 'all airings' of a perticular show, and never have to again remember when it's own of it was moved in shedule or it it's running in reruns one particular week.

I got the model with 110 hours, PIP and ability to record two shows while watching a third one.

I have to tell you, my life has changed!

I'm an avid TV watcher and moviegoer. I watch TV at least 4 hours on weeknight and much more on weekends. This thing is amazing. Of course, pausing and rewinding live tv is great. but i'm now able to record shows i was constantly missing (MXC, who's line, 'the directors' on SHO) and watch them later.

I also found that i now tape my favorite shows and watch them either an hour later (to skip commercials!!!) or next day. for example, i watch american idol, amazing race, er, top model all behind an hour, and genefit from never watching a commercial again

Plus, i now tape the 'live chat' on regis and kelly, and watch it back at night LOL..

i'm happy and IN LOVE with this thing btw, i used to have a huge stack of blank VHS tapes and record all my shows. so far i haven't touched the VCR in whole 2 months!


....


anyway, who else would like to profess their love for the DVR? (and appear very geeky at the same time???)

oooooooooooooooo, i am jealous. I plan to get this when i move in June! My parents have Tivo and it is amazing~

I've been wanting to get that from my cable company but I never remember to call them for a price. I always seem to remember at 10:00 at night when they're closed.

I'm going to call right now!

definitely do it. the price difference was small: $4 for a regular box/month, $10 for tivo/month. NOT bad at all

and i haven't discovered even ONE problem with it!

We only have the dvr from the cable company that holds 40 hours... but I consider it wonderful! Catherine it really doesn't cost that much more and it's great... I don't know how I lived without it!

Originally Posted by RarePuss

definitely do it. the price difference was small: $4 for a regular box/month, $10 for tivo/month. NOT bad at all

and i haven't discovered even ONE problem with it!

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My one problem (and this might just be with the dvr through Time Warner) is that I can't specify what time I want the program to end. I record the whole season of The O.C. and so the recording ends at 8pm... and the previews for next week's show air at 8:01pm. Every time I go in to edit the settings, nothing happens, I guess because I'm not fixing just one program, I'm fixing the whole season. Oh well.

I haven't tinkered with this yet. I do notice that it's a regular occurence for some shows to end EXACTLY at hour mark or even one min. past, so i miss a preview for the next show. I'm going to tinker with mine tonight to see if i'm having the same problem. I'm with CableVision, btw.


Oh, do you also have a DVR channel? Ours is 1,000 (yes, no kidding) and i can switch between a live show and a recorded show on DVR i'm watching at the same time by just switching channel - let's say from channel 4 to channel 1000, back and forth it pauses the recording while i'm on another channel and resumes when i'm back to it. It's good for when the live show in a commercial, and you want to watch a recorded show while the commercial is on - oh, the PIP comes in handy at that time! .... boy, it's great!

Our DVR channel is 699 or something like that... and I love that I can switch from a live show and a recorded show. I also love that I can be recording Gilmore Girls... get home late and then rewind to the beginning and watch it while I'm recording it.

Ok, I just called. It's $12 extra per month. Not bad. My husband has been wanting it more than I have and his birthday is week so I'm going to get it for him. I hope I can keep it a surprise. He always finds out everything!

We LOVE our DVRs! Yes, we have two. We originally had the 20 hour one and just a regular box, but when we decided we needed another box for the computer room we just got another DVR (100 hours on that one). So hubby has the 20 hour one in the computer room and I have the 100 hour one in the living room with the nice TV.

But mine doesn't do all that cool stuff, like recording more than one show at a time, or even a DVR channel. But I can edit the time start/stop on mine. More and more networks are starting and ending their shows a few minutes later so that people with TIVO/DVR have to record the next show (to boost their ratings on both shows) to see the ending/previews.

I have a DVR that's not through my cable company. It's just like a VCR but it records to blank DVD's. It has the same functions as the others but once you buy the unit that's it, no monthly fees. It has a TV guide function that works just like TIVO. The thing I like about this one id that I can hook up my camcorder to it and record to a DVD without having to run it through my computer.

Originally Posted by RarePuss

definitely do it. the price difference was small: $4 for a regular box/month, $10 for tivo/month. NOT bad at all

and i haven't discovered even ONE problem with it!

Click to expand...

Watch out for very "action" oriented recordings. At least with ours it tends to be very "blocky" during those scenes. Lots of smoke or fire or action tends to just require more detail then their compression software makes up for or something.. But then again ours only holds 40 hours and could be a diffrent brand/model or the cable company could have higher standards out there. I notice the same thing with the "on demand" channels as well, depending on the movie. It leaves me a bit disappointed that I can not enjoy recorded or on demand stuff with the same quality as the "live" shows. Oh well!

Originally Posted by crazy4cats28

I have a DVR that's not through my cable company. It's just like a VCR but it records to blank DVD's. It has the same functions as the others but once you buy the unit that's it, no monthly fees. It has a TV guide function that works just like TIVO. The thing I like about this one id that I can hook up my camcorder to it and record to a DVD without having to run it through my computer.

Click to expand...

So basically, you have the DVD Recorder and no built-in hard drive? Do they only hold 6-8 hours of video?

I haven't noticed this. even with HBO on demand, we're not having this issue. what is your TV size? I only have a 27" model, so maybe if you have a 60", you'll SEE the difference