December 18, 2005

  • It's been a little over two months now since I started using a TiVo.
    The main reason I even got one (two actually) was because one of my
    VCRs finally broke.  TiVo was also offering a $150 rebate offer
    that made the decision easier to make. In many cases there are lots of
    advantages in owning a TiVo, but at the same time there are obvious
    improvements that still needs to be done in the future to make the
    product perfect. The whole "pause, rewind, slow mo live TV" bit
    though?  Yeah, it's as
    cool and convenient as it sounds.  It's proven very beneficial
    when I
    watch live TV.

    At first, it took a little bit of installation per my personal
    preference on how I wanted things set up.  I had my cable line
    split up between the TV, one VCR, my broadband modem, and the
    TiVo.  The reason I did that is because I wanted each equipment to
    be able to act independent of each other. That brings to mind one
    problem TiVo still has, the inability to watch live TV and record
    something else at the same time.  You are able to watch pre-recorded
    programing while recording something else, but that's about it (hence
    the setup I did). But if you are like me, you hardly ever watch live TV
    anyway, so it's hardly a huge issue.

    Programming your timer recordings can also be a bit of a chore too, as
    you are dependent to TiVo's guide, which in theory makes things move a
    lot slower than you would have on a standard VCR.  Now, there are
    many other ways to make life easier in programming your TV shows. 
    There's this thing called a "season pass" which programs the TiVo to
    record your TV shows whenever it's on or simply all the new episodes
    that show up. With the season pass, you literally do not ever have to
    timer program that show ever again.  Well, there are some
    imperfections to that system, but it is exceptionally convenient.
    Depending on the TiVo box you purchase also determines how many hours
    of programming you can record.  Just consider 1 hour worth of
    "high" quality recording to be about 2gigs, and you'll be able to guess
    how much you should be able to hold.

    So is TiVo the life altering device that a lot of people make it out to
    be? No, not really to tell you the truth. Some of the benefits that
    TiVo has should already be familiar to those (of us) who really
    utilized a VCRs capabilities, but there are definitely more advantages
    of owning a TiVo over a VCR. With the price of a TiVo though, as long
    as you take advantage of any rebates / sales that are being offered, I
    give it a recommendation.

    Ofcourse before you jump on that chance of getting a TiVo, I'd like to
    inform you that you should check with your cable company first about
    whether they have their own DVRs for lease. You should also know that a
    TiVo is useless without the subcription. Also keep in mind that at this
    time, TiVo is not HDTV capable just yet.