ping: TiVo

[QuikSand]

I bought your machine. I like it.

I bought the lifetime service deal. I like that too.

I understand you are now wondering if your business plan was a wise one, and you find it hard to maintain revenues.

Please stop trying to sell me a second or third TiVo, or one with a coffeemaker or whatever bells and whistles you're pitching now. I am content.

[Schmidty]

How long before someone registers as TiVo and gives QS his comeuppance?

[Passacaglia]

Can I ask what you like about the TiVo?

[QuikSand]

Bring it.

[Bee]

You really should reconsider the tivo with the coffeemaker..it's definitely worth the upgrade.

[QuikSand]

You really should reconsider the tivo with the coffeemaker..it's definitely worth the upgrade.

Maybe I'll look into that... I have been drinking a lot more...

WAIT!

NO NO NO NO NO!
NO NEW TIVO!
NO NO NO NO NO!

[Raiders Army]

So this is how two machines fall in love.

[Kodos]

How many Tivo's / regular boxes can you run from one dish?

[primelord]

How many Tivo's / regular boxes can you run from one dish?
It depends on the Dish. With a 3 LNB dish you can string multi switches together to have really as many as you want. I currently have 4 Tivos in the house with two lines running to each. So 8 feeds coming off the the multi switch.

[VPI97]

It depends on the Dish. With a 3 LNB dish you can string multi switches together to have really as many as you want. I currently have 4 Tivos in the house with two lines running to each. So 8 feeds coming off the the multi switch.You need to get out more.

[gottimd]

You need to get out more.
Its like that commercial from a few years back where the guy has a TV everywhere (I think he is watching a soccer match). He has one in the shower, in his dresser...etc

[primelord]

You need to get out more.
I can't argue with that. Although in my defense my wife was the one who was really pushing for the Tivo in every room situation. :)

It does allow me to record virtually every NFL football game. :)

[VPI97]

It does allow me to record virtually every NFL football game. :)You win.

http://www.fof-ihof.com/phpBB2/images/smiles/icon_bowdown.gif

[Honolulu_Blue]

Can I ask what you like about the TiVo?
It's simply the greatest technological advancement in entertainment since the internet.

[Bee]

It's simply the greatest technological advancement in entertainment since the internet.

and Mr. Coffee if you have the one with the coffeemaker.

[Honolulu_Blue]

I can't argue with that. Although in my defense my wife was the one who was really pushing for the Tivo in every room situation. :)

It does allow me to record virtually every NFL football game. :)
Did you happen to record the first two Blues' games of the season on one of your four TiVos? If so, would you mind burning them onto DVDs for me? Thanks! :D

[primelord]

Did you happen to record the first two Blues' games of the season on one of your four TiVos? If so, would you mind burning them onto DVDs for me? Thanks! :D
You are an evil man. The only thing that gives me any comfort is knowing you have to watch Joey Harrington lead your football team every Sunday. :)

[Draft Dodger]

My Tivo thinks I'm human

signed,
QuikSand

[Honolulu_Blue]

You are an evil man. The only thing that gives me any comfort is knowing you have to watch Joey Harrington lead your football team every Sunday. :)
Touche.

[Ksyrup]

I haven't found a compelling reason to get TiVo. And we have 3 VCRs that I haven't used for recording anything in over 5 years.

[KWhit]

TIVO > VCR

Just in case you hadn't heard.

[Subby]

You don't really need a compelling reason. You just do it and then you wonder how you did without it all those years.

Like the first time you spanked it.

[Barkeep49]

Primelord: Can your TiVos send shows from one box to another? It seems like it would be annoying otherwise.

[QuikSand]

I haven't found a compelling reason to get TiVo. And we have 3 VCRs that I haven't used for recording anything in over 5 years.

Read Subby's post.

Well, the first part, anyway.

[Schmidty]

Like the first time you spanked it.

Mmmmmm......how I miss you Momma's Family....

[Ksyrup]

But if I don't need a VCR, why would I need TiVo?

I'm kind of an "of the moment" TV watcher. Either I make a point to see it when it airs, or I simply miss it. Shows I really like, I buy on DVD so I can watch them whenever and wherever I want. Shows I don't care enough about to clear my schedule to watch, I don't bother with, unless I happen to catch a repeat. And I am unable to watch a sporting event that is not live.

[Kodos]

Tivo rocks da house.

[VPI97]

But if I don't need a VCR, why would I need TiVo?

I'm kind of an "of the moment" TV watcher. Either I make a point to see it when it airs, or I simply miss it. Shows I really like, I buy on DVD so I can watch them whenever and wherever I want. Shows I don't care enough about to clear my schedule to watch, I don't bother with, unless I happen to catch a repeat. And I am unable to watch a sporting event that is not live.I thought the same thing about myself prior to getting a DVR. Now I find myself scheduling recordings for the 11:00am showing of History's Mysteries.

[Kodos]

But if I don't need a VCR, why would I need TiVo?

I'm kind of an "of the moment" TV watcher. Either I make a point to see it when it airs, or I simply miss it. Shows I really like, I buy on DVD so I can watch them whenever and wherever I want. Shows I don't care enough about to clear my schedule to watch, I don't bother with, unless I happen to catch a repeat. And I am unable to watch a sporting event that is not live.


But you can start watching a live sporting event 45 minutes late and catch up to it at the end while blasting through inane commercials and half-time shows.

Also, the 30-second skip makes watching football games real quick if you like. Watch play. Skip ahead. Watch next play. Skip ahead. Helps eliminate the horrors of bad announcers.

[JeeberD]

I want TiVo but I have to save money for a goddamned wedding... :(

[Ksyrup]

I cannot watch sporting events that are not live. Period. I would not bother with catching up, I would just pick up where it was when I started watching. It's just a waste of my time. I'll jump online, figure out what's happened in about 30 seconds, and pick up in the here-and-now.

As far as scheduling shows, I would probably do that. Problem is, I would never find the time to watch them. I've got NFL Sunday Ticket and the baseball and hockey season passes, so every night is pretty much filled with watching live sporting events. And the rare instances when I want to watch something else, I pop in a Columbo, Family Guy, or Curb Your Enthusiasm DVD. That just about takes up all my TV viewing time.

So, I'd end up with a TiVo full of shows I'd never watch. I'd rather spend that money on CDs.

[primelord]

Primelord: Can your TiVos send shows from one box to another? It seems like it would be annoying otherwise.
Yes they can. Although they are not capapble of that out of the box. It requires some hacking of the Tivo's, but they are all setup to transfer shows between one another now and to my computer as well.

[primelord]

But you can start watching a live sporting event 45 minutes late and catch up to it at the end while blasting through inane commercials and half-time shows.

Also, the 30-second skip makes watching football games real quick if you like. Watch play. Skip ahead. Watch next play. Skip ahead. Helps eliminate the horrors of bad announcers.
Kodos first point is one of the huge advatnages for me. It allows me to start recording the Rams game and then go outside and mow the lawn or do some otehr things around the house to make the wife happy. Then I can sit down about 45 min to an hour after the game starts. Zip through the commercials as they come up and generaly catch up somewhere in the 4th quarter. So I managed to get some things doen around the house and watch the game all in the same block of time it would have taken just to watch the game.

Kodos - In addition to the 30 second skip button I have found that right after a player is tackled if you hit the fast forward button twice and then the reqind button twice right in a row it generally will take you right from tackle to the next snap every time.

[Draft Dodger]

I cannot watch sporting events that are not live. Period. I would not bother with catching up, I would just pick up where it was when I started watching. It's just a waste of my time. I'll jump online, figure out what's happened in about 30 seconds, and pick up in the here-and-now.


on the other hand, I can barely watch watch sporting events that aren't live. being able to watch a 4 hour football game in 2 hours is like heroin.

[Passacaglia]

Okay, so I'm with you guys about live sporting events. I tape sports all the time, so it would be a huge advantage to me. But does that really justify the cost of it? What else is there that makes it so much better than a VCR to justify the cost?

I ask because for a while last week, lurker and I were seriously considering getting one, but when we found out how little storage space there is, we backed off. So we kind of want to be convinced, but if I recall, it was $50 for a box with 20 hours -- that seems like a lot. We'd like to have it so that we can keep lots of shows on the TiVo, and just have something fun to watch at random times, so we'll want to keep a lot of stuff on it. That seems like it'd be expensive.

[VPI97]

Okay, so I'm with you guys about live sporting events. I tape sports all the time, so it would be a huge advantage to me. But does that really justify the cost of it? What else is there that makes it so much better than a VCR to justify the cost?

I ask because for a while last week, lurker and I were seriously considering getting one, but when we found out how little storage space there is, we backed off. So we kind of want to be convinced, but if I recall, it was $50 for a box with 20 hours -- that seems like a lot. We'd like to have it so that we can keep lots of shows on the TiVo, and just have something fun to watch at random times, so we'll want to keep a lot of stuff on it. That seems like it'd be expensive.If you have Comcast, just get a DVR. The hardware is free....the service is $10/month

Edit - and the model they provide has 40 hours worth of storage.

[Passacaglia]

I have RCN, not Comcast, but they have a DVR kind of thing, too.

Oh, the other problem is that we have no internet access and no phone line. Well, we piggyback some neighbors wireless network, but that's all. I don't know if we can even use it, then.

[primelord]

Okay, so I'm with you guys about live sporting events. I tape sports all the time, so it would be a huge advantage to me. But does that really justify the cost of it? What else is there that makes it so much better than a VCR to justify the cost?

I ask because for a while last week, lurker and I were seriously considering getting one, but when we found out how little storage space there is, we backed off. So we kind of want to be convinced, but if I recall, it was $50 for a box with 20 hours -- that seems like a lot. We'd like to have it so that we can keep lots of shows on the TiVo, and just have something fun to watch at random times, so we'll want to keep a lot of stuff on it. That seems like it'd be expensive.
Well if you are comfortable following instructions and working with the insides of a computer you can expand the tive to 200 hrs or more of recording time pretty easily. This will obviously cost you the price of additional hard drives, but it is fairly staright forward to do.

Setting up seasons passes is really the otehr big thing for me. Any shows you watch you just set up to tape and the tivo will record every one (only first runs if you want, or reruns as well) and if a show switches time slots or even days the Tivo knows that and will tape it automatically. It just makes recording things far easier. The being able to pause live TV is a big one as well. You are now free to go take a dump in the 9th inning of the game and not miss anything. :)

[Passacaglia]

So when football games run over, does TiVo know that?

How much is it for the additional hard drives?

[primelord]

So when football games run over, does TiVo know that?

How much is it for the additional hard drives?
No, when you setup a recording you can setit up to record longer than the program guide says it will run if you want it to. For sporting events you are best off recording an extra hour afterwards.

You can use almost any hard dirve that you want. Although it takes some extra work if you want to use a hard drive bigger than 120 gig. You can stick two 120 gig hard drives in there and get about 200 hours.

You can usually find 120 gig drives for les sthan $100 these days.

[Draft Dodger]

So when football games run over, does TiVo know that?

How much is it for the additional hard drives?

no - you just set them to record an extra hour or so to be sure.

I just put a 140 hour in my Tivo. I got it from weaknees and paid about $160.

[Passacaglia]

Cool, I'm getting a bit more convinced. I saw lurker lurking in this thread, but she didn't post -- I don't know what that means! Anyway, are the DVR boxes as easy to install hard drives in as TiVo boxes? And, what about net access/phone line?

[lurker]

That means I'm reading the thread and telling myself it doesn't count as goofing off since Excel takes forever to save, so I can't work during that time anyway! :)

[Easy Mac]

Eh, just get a cheap motherboard, case, average video card, a couple of hauppauge PVR 150's, 512 mb of ram, dvd writer and a 200 gb HD. It ends up costing the same as Tivo with lifetime service, and you can burn stuff on DVD's (I have last season of Entourage on 1 DVD, and you can't tell the difference). I'm getting ready to buy a Dvico Fusion HDTV card, so I can just plug a cable cord into my computer and get HD channels, record in HD. Granted, that will cost you $150, but an HD Tivo is ungodly expensive, let alone one with a DVD recorder.

edit: and I have 56.5 hours of TV programming on my computer right now.

[Bee]

I don't think anyone has mentioned one of the things I really like...pausing and rewinding. If I'm watching something on a network that doesn't have commercials (like HBO), I can just pause the TV and go take a piss without missing any of the show...or if the phone rings or someone comes to the door or I am hungry and want something to eat....you get the idea. Also, if I'm watching something and one of the actors says something I don't quite catch, I can just rewind it. Or if I'm watching a game and there's a play I want to see again and they don't show a replay...I do my own replay.

Of course, the season pass is pretty sweet. When there's a new show on I am interested in, I watch it at my leisure (without waiting half a year for it to come out on DVD).

Before I had a DVR, I had 3 VCRs and 2 weren't even hooked up and the third was never used. I wasn't expecting the DVR to make that much of a difference in my viewing habits. Now, I would say about 75% of my viewing is DVR. The other 25% is sports which is enhanced with the DVR (pause, rewind, fastforward, etc).

[jbmagic]

there hidden codes for the tivo remote to get 30 sec skip. great if you want to skip the commercial and perfect for watching football fast. after the play hit the 30 sec skip and it will be ready for the next play.

[primelord]

Eh, just get a cheap motherboard, case, average video card, a couple of hauppauge PVR 150's, 512 mb of ram, dvd writer and a 200 gb HD. It ends up costing the same as Tivo with lifetime service, and you can burn stuff on DVD's (I have last season of Entourage on 1 DVD, and you can't tell the difference). I'm getting ready to buy a Dvico Fusion HDTV card, so I can just plug a cable cord into my computer and get HD channels, record in HD. Granted, that will cost you $150, but an HD Tivo is ungodly expensive, let alone one with a DVD recorder.

edit: and I have 56.5 hours of TV programming on my computer right now.
This option is not as cheap as a Tivo. The PVR cards you mentioned run for $100 a pop at Best Buy (I imagine you can get them a bit cheaper elsewhere) A DirecTivo is $99. Not to mention if you have satellite you are going to see a big difference in quality since you can;t get a satellite tuner card that works in a PC in the US format. So you have to capture through RCA cables or something along that lines and going from digital to analog like that will make a big difference.

It's also not that difficult to hack the Tivo to allow you to transfer directly from the Tivo to your PC and you can then burn them to DVD from there.

[RPI-Fan]

Cool, I'm getting a bit more convinced. I saw lurker lurking in this thread, but she didn't post -- I don't know what that means! Anyway, are the DVR boxes as easy to install hard drives in as TiVo boxes? And, what about net access/phone line?

My DVR box, I just plugged it in and away I went!

Costs only $5/mo extra, also (moving up from digital) from what I had earlier. We have TWC up here.

[Daimyo]

People without TiVo always make the mistake of comparing it to a VCR when in reality they're really not even close to being similar. Comparing the functionality of a VCR to a TiVo is kind of like comparing recording music off the radio with a cassette to downloading the music you want off the internet.

My parents are pretty inept in a technology sense. I wanted to get them a TiVo for christmas two years back and tried explaining how it worked to them around Thankgiving... they told me it sounded like a waste of money and they weren't interested -- they said they never recorded anything with their VCR and couldn't imagine doing so with TiVo. I'm pretty stubborn so I bought it for them anyway. In less than a week they were TiVo zealots and they now name it as the one technology/entertainment item they absolutely couldn't live without. Its really that good.

[Daimyo]

DOLA, the other thing myth I always hear from the non TiVo initiated is that they don't watch enough TV to justify it. In reality it doesn't really matter how much TV you watch... its all about quality and efficiency. With TiVo any time you sit down there is stuff you want to watch waiting for you... you never have to channel surf or get stuck with whatever crap happens to be on.

If you only watch 4 hours of TV a week, with TiVo you get to watch the best 4 hours of TV from that week instead of a random 4 hours... actually you get to watch the equivalent of the best 5 hours since can skip the commcercials.

[ctmason]

I bought a Tivo system from HiFi Buys a few months after they first launched their PVR product. I don't recall it being that expensive even back then (four years ago? more?).

I ran it for about a year I suppose before I realized I watched less than five hours of TV a week and wasn't watching anything I recorded. The only thing I used it for was when I would be watching a program and my dog would sense I was enjoying it, and immediately threaten to take a dump on the floor. The "pause" feature is great.

It was after I let it lapse that I realized I didn't have much use for cable either, and that I could be far more productive if I didn't have it at all to distract me. I've since held down two jobs at varying degrees of success, moved to Arizona and completed a Master's degree. I've been able to volunteer my time to several noteworthy organizations and really feel like I'm contributing a lot.

So, in a sense, letting my TiVo lapse has been the reason I haven't been happy in years, feel like I'm pulled in 18 different directions, and believe that no matter how hard I work no rewards will be forthcoming and I'll die alone.

Now all I want to do is just be left alone and watch TV all day. The wheel does turn, doesn't it?