I love my Tivo!

[MizzouRah]

Just cancelled Direct TV and got Dish Network installed in 4 rooms plus a PVR 508 reciever, which has a Tivo like HD to record up to 80hrs. of programming.

I can honestly say, "How did I live without this?" No more VCR tapes, digital quality playback, pause, etc..etc...

It's nice falling asleep, waking up and rewinding the baseball game so I can see what happened in the 5th inning. Watching the Blues game tonight, baby wakes up, hit the pause button and resume when I get her back to sleep.....

Oh how I love technology!


Todd

[mckerney]

bastard...

[Samdari]

Just curious, why did you need to switch to Dish Network. DirecTV has both TiVO and UltimateTV available.

[primelord]

Yea I have to agree. It is hard to imagine how I got by without the Tivo now that we have had one for awhile. It just makes everything so much easier. It also means my wife and I watch a lot more television which maybe isn't such a good thing, but it sure is convienent.

[Aylmar]

MizzouRah...you don't have a TiVo...you have a tapeless VCR. The Dish boxes aren't even in the same league (as far as software/features) with the DirecTivo boxes put out by DirectTV.

I work with a guy who had the Dish PVR boxes and liked them..and then he switched to DirecTV and got TiVo boxes. Now he says the same thing you're saying. "How did I live without this?" ;)

[Radii]

You should try electrocuting yourself with your TiVo to see if you have any cool flashbacks.

[GrantDawg]

Originally posted by Samdari
Just curious, why did you need to switch to Dish Network. DirecTV has both TiVO and UltimateTV available.

And direcTv charges you extra to use it. The Dish box does not. Also you can get the Dish one for next to nothing rihgt now, the DirecTv one cost big bucks.

[SegRat]

I have had my Digital Video Recoder from cable for about 6 months now. I love this thing. I like to tape Packer games. If they win I put the game on vhs, if they lose I just delete it.

[Samdari]

Originally posted by GrantDawg
And direcTv charges you extra to use it. The Dish box does not. Also you can get the Dish one for next to nothing rihgt now, the DirecTv one cost big bucks.

You do not pay a monthly service charge to use TiVO?

[digamma]

I don't think it is Tivo, but rather a "PVR" or personal video recorder. I guess it is kind of a generic Tivo, but it is scaled down. I don't think it has the features Tivo does and I don't think it is as easy to use.

I have Tivo and my parents have Dish with the PVR. I personally prefer paying the extra 9 bucks a month for Tivo.

[Aylmar]

You're right, digamma. The Dish PVR does not have the same feature set as TiVo. It's not a TiVo box. It's closer to UltimateTV, actually.

[Samdari]

UltimateTV is essentially the same feature set as TiVO, is it not?

[Aylmar]

No. They don't have the same features. It's closer to being a TiVo than Dish PVR, but not the same. TiVo does things quite a bit differently in the manner that it schedules shows (among various other things). I'll try and track down a more complete list of differences and link to it here, if I have time this afternoon.

[GrantDawg]

I wouldn't pay ten dollars a month more for Tivo. If it records digitally, that is all I need.

[MizzouRah]

Sorry, a Tivo it is not, although I thought Direct TV called theirs Tivo and Dish - PVR. I'm wrong.

Direct TV pissed me off when I called them to replace my 6 or 7 year old reciever. I paid $500 for Direct TV when it first came out. :( They basically told me to call them everytime it locks up and after a few more times they would see if I could get a new reciever. Funny, when I called them to cancel my service, they wanted to give me all new recievers. Bastards!

Anyway, Dishnetwork has a special going, up to 4 rooms installed and a 1 - PVR 508 reviever for $50. I now pay $69.00 for 4 separate TV's instead of $59.00 for 2 TV's with Direct TV.

They are about the same, I just really wanted a PVR reciever!


Todd

[Aylmar]

Here's a detailed rundown of the differences between DirecTivo and UltimateTV...

http://www.pvrcompare.com/tivoutv.html

GrantDawg, my TiVo service is free (I'm a Premier subscriber). Even if I weren't a Premier subscriber, it would still just be $5 a month for the TiVo service...regardless of the number of TiVos you have operating in your home (I go to a message board where people have banks of up 5 or 10 recorders). This is a significant departure from the financial model that TiVo uses for standalone boxes ($12.95/mo/box, I believe).

-- I'm not trying to convert or sell anyone here. I just love my TiVo. :)

[primelord]

The basic functionality of all the PVR's (Tivo's are PVR's too) are the same. The difference is just the bells and whistles.

For example I have a Tivo and an Ultimate TV. If I setup a season pass to record all the episodes of 24 and for some reason they move the episode to Monday night at 7 p.m. the Tivo recognizes that and will still record it. The Ultimate TV only recognizes if a show changes hours on the same day so in that example it wouldn't record it.

It's little things like that that make the Tivo overall a better product, but for the basics they all do about the same thing. The series 2 Tivos have better processors and more ram in them so they also run faster when scrolling through menus etc.

To be honest the only reason I bought a Tivo was because I found an open box Series 1 DirecTivo at Best Buy for $80. I can't see spending the $400 they want for a brand new Series 2. Especially when Ultimate TV's are $99. And like I said do essentially the same thing. With that being said I do like my Tivo better than the Ultimate TV.

Also there is a very large community that supports hacking the TV's. So you can add extra hard drives, network cards so you can control your Tivo over the web etc. A lot of that stuff is possible with the other PVR's too, but there isn't nearly as large of a community for it.

[bbor]

My tv has rabbit ears :(

[MizzouRah]

Originally posted by bbor
My tv has rabbit ears :(

With foil on them?


Todd

[Samdari]

Originally posted by bbor
My tv has rabbit ears :(

How many hours of recording time do they have and how much do you pay a month for the subscription?

[bbor]

I have the foil on my ears.

ya...uhh...in case Kodos is trying to read my mind.

[tucker342]

Tivo is so cool. I wish my family would get it, the only problem is that then I would watch to much t.v.

[primelord]

Originally posted by bbor
I have the foil on my ears.

ya...uhh...in case Kodos is trying to read my mind.

I figured you just unfolded it over your eye to avoid having to watch the Leafs choke again in the playoffs. :)