Topic: So, I'm getting TiVo...

[UncleBob]

Well, my wife has recently gotten addicted to Law & Order (and, to be fair, I occasionally find myself getting drawn into it as well).

If you're not familiar with Law & Order, the original series has been on for seventeen seasons and has had three direct spin offs, two of which are still on the air.  Basically, what it comes down to is there's a whole lot of Law & Order out there.  And what does that mean?

There's a whole lot of Law & Order reruns on cable.  It seems like there's *always* Law & Order on.  So I was wondering and looked it up... During the week, or basic cable (that we get free with our Apartment) has 77 episodes of Law & Order on this week.  This means, in theory, one could spend about half their life doing nothing but watching reruns of Law & Order on cable TV.

Anywhoo, to continue my investigations, I decided to see how many hours TiVo would record...  And while checking out the site, I was impressed!

An 80 Hour box with dual tuners runs you a mere $30 with a one year ($20/month) commentment.  Talking with my wife about it, I managed to find an offer that lets me get the service for $12.95 a month, free shipping, and still get the box for $30.  Pretty darn good deal, I'd say.

Anyone else ever had TiVo?  What's the Good and the Bad about it?

[ShyGuy]

You shouldn't be spending money on Tivo. >

[UncleBob]

Why can't I spend money on TiVo?

[Ceric]

I have a Moxi.  It's like a TiVo but does Hi-Def and I have to rent it for $10 per month.  Its great.  I had a friend who had a TiVo.  He said that you should just go ahead and get the lifetime subscription because it will last long enough to make it cheaper.

Funny thing is My wife is also addicted to Law and Order.  All the deferrent(sp?) ones their not bad on occassion but she will watch one after the other.  In fact she will no longer watch non-recorded shows for the most part because she likes to fast-forward through comercials.  Actually she became a real couch potato and the variety of shows you watch will go down the tubes initially while your catching up on series.  Its harder to find new series.

Suffice it to say it makes sharing the TV easier and is nice.  So you don't have to miss shows.  I mean on Saturday I can watch cartoons and my Sci-Fi Friday stuff and not bug my wife.  By the time she gets up I'm done.  It's nice.

[UncleBob]

TiVo no longer offers a lifetime subscription.

[Ceric]

Really... I didn't realize I was that out of touch...

[BlackNMild2k1]

I don't have TiVo but I have DVR trough Comcast, and now watching TV anywhere but on my box is too frustrating unless they also have DVR. I record all kinds of shows and watch them at my convenience with out having to sit through commercials, unless I see on that I want to watch. I feel so spoiled, and no one else in my house knows what they are missing out on.

A few of the other things I like about it though, is
-even if there is a power outage or something and you recording messes up, it will record it again next time it comes on.
-If your favorite shows season has ended and you completely forget to catch the next season opener, you don't have to worry as long as you have it set as a series recording, it will be recorded.
-I can pick the shows I want to record up to 2 weeks in advance that way if I get busy and don't make it home in time or just outright forget about it, I will still be able to watch it.

The only thing I don't like is that I can't save everything or just burn them all to disc and make my own season collections. I've got my box hooked up to the computer with capture programs, but they just capture at too large of file sizes to make it practicle(1 ep. of Robot Chicken<12 mins> = 515MB).

So TiVo or DVR or whatever gets a thumbs up from me. Worthy investment.
I find myself not just sitting mindlessly infront of the TV anymore just surfing channels to see what on all the time. I can just watch something I recorded or turn on an On Demand movie(or netflix), its great.

[BigJim]

I have 2 Tivos. Considering that most cable/satellite companies offer their own DVR's for less, the main reason to get a Tivo is for the interface. If you're REALLY tight on budget, you'd probably find the cable co's DVR is adequate. But Tivo will offer a number of conveniences the cable co's DVR doesn't, and it screws up less. It just works.

Also keep in mind that the "80 hours" is when recordings are set to the lowest quality. An 80 hour box is about 23 hours on "Best Quality", 37 hours on High quality, 48 hours on Medium, and 80 on Basic. Your mileage may vary, but I don't go any lower than High quality. 37 hours is nothing to shake a stick at, though. Hopefully you can keep up with all the Law and Order episodes.  

[MaryJane]

TiVo is the shiznit!

There's only 3 problems with it and someone mentioned one before.

Once you have it, it sucks watching "normal" t.v.
I have it with DirecTV and it has 2 in signals, so if i'm watching something live, and want to watch something else (and they both have commercials) i can pause one, watch the other till commercials hit, pause that one, watch the other one till commercials, go back to first one, fast forward through commercials, and repeat the process until 90 minutes later I've watch 2 supposedly hour long programs, WITHOUT commercials. Which makes it that much harder to watch normal T.V.

The other problem is sometimes my friends will call me or text me, or im me about a show i've put on pause, and ask me something or want to talk about something that happened and I have to curse them out and explain that i'm not as far ahead as they are becuase I don't want to watch commercials.

Third problem, when people talk about the newest commercials i'm almost always just like huh? The only commercials I watch is if while fast forwarding I see a girl in a bikini, or a movie preview I haven't seen before.  

[Ceric]

37 Hours is less than a Day in the Law and Order Universe...  ;P

[vudu]

I don't watch TV.