Ask Engadget HD: To TiVo, or not to TiVo?
By Darren Murph 
posted August 27th 2008 12:00PM
posted August 27th 2008 12:00PM
"I'm using an HD DVR provided by my cable company, and most times, it works well enough. I've heard that TiVo boxes are superior, though I'm having a tough time justifying the additional monthly cost. I'd love to hear some pros and cons from current / former owners, as well as whether or not they think it's worth it."
Time to take a stand for your box, TiVo owners. What makes it so worthwhile? Is now a good time to buy one?
Got a burning question that you'd love to toss out for Engadget HD (or its readers) to take a look at? Tired of Google's blank stares when you ask for real-world experiences? Hit us up at ask at engadgethd dawt com and keep an eye on this space -- your inquiry could be next.
I forgot to add that a lot of people have complained about the cost of the box itself. And while $300 isn't bad if you love TV you could get a refurb for $200 from TiVo or get lucky like I did. I got mine for $204 brand new. It was $215 at 6ave but they had a 5% off coupon with free shipping. Between that, the 500gb HDD ($85 at newegg) and 1 year of service I paid about $400. And when I move and get DirecTV again I can sell my box and recoup at least half of my cost. My buddy got a similar deal ($215 for the box and he got a 640gb HDD for the same $85). Of course last I saw its back at regular price at 6ave, but you could get lucky.
I currently have 3 Tivos in my home...2 Series2 and 1 HD. I don't know of any other DVR that compares. The ability to transfer programs from one Tivo to the other is invaluable in my household. Because some programs air at the same time we may have to record it on separate TVs. Being able to transfer them to another tv to watch is a major plus in itself. I love being able to download videos, update my Blockbuster.com queue, check the weather, watch YouTube, listen to my music library stored on my PC, look at pictures stored on my PC, etc. The interface is still the best. My daughter had a MOXI DVR and we had to return it because it kept crashing. We had a hard time with the cable cards due to the fact that Charter in our area did not have a large stock of them. They sent out the right person who knew what he was doing and we were off and running. Haven't had a problem since. Yes there are always some things that I wish they would improve or enhance but by far Tivo is still the best choice.
I have two Motorola DVRs(One for Comcast and one for RCN, sadly my condo association doesn't allow Satellite the other DVR is for the GFs apartment). They are the exact same hardware, and to tell you the truth, the RCN software hands down is the better piece of software (not including on demand, RCN on demand software is horrible). I've had nothing but problems with the Comcast software, fast forwarding(buggy, jittery), records a few seconds of a show instead of the whole show, records the wrong channel, pain in the ass. I definitely would love Tivo but I don't want to lose some of the options I have with my DVRs. All in all it's all about the software thrown on these boxes, not the boxes themselves.
Reasons Why I Love My TiVoHD:
1. High Definition mixed with the TiVo Interface. Pure Genius!!!
2. TiVo to Go: The ability to watch shows on my iPod, to me, it's just as important as life it's self!
3. Duel Tuners: Being able to record one show, while I watch another. Or not being limited to recording one show at a time.
4. Cable Cards and Monthly Service Fee:
Believe it or not, I am a huge fan of TiVo's Service fee (let me explain) :
I live in the state of Vermont. In my state for Cable, their is only Comcast. Comcast (In Vermont) only offers Single Tuner Cable Cards. So I have to put two cable cards in my TiVo HD. Comcast provides one cable card free, and charges me $5.00 extra a month for the other card. Now factor in the $12.95 monthly TiVo Service fee, which allows me to transfer shows to my iPod, Burn shows (even HD ones) to DVD, Watch YouTube Videos on my TiVo. Get Video Podcasts on my TiVo. Listen to music on my TiVo! Thats alot, and I actually do use all of it. That's not to bad considering everything I get. On and yeah, I payed $300.00 for my TiVo HD. But think of this I OWN the TiVo (DVR) does your current cable company allow you to own the box, I didn't think so.
And the only thing I don't own are the two cable cards, but if anything that gives me freedom (If I move) to go with another cable company. Think about it... TiVo actually gives you freedom! My TiVo HD gives me much joy and I love it and will never go with any other box!!!
My experience is with DirecTV and I have all three variants of DVR. Standalone TiVo (Series 2), DirecTV w/ TiVo, and DirecTV's own DVR. Out of all three I like the DirecTV w/ TiVo the best. The standalone TiVo has a 2 second delay in changing channels (using the IR), then there is the long wait (2-4 seconds) wait for the loading of the TiVo menu, however the menu's and guides are far superior to the DirecTV DVR. The DirecTV DVR is quicker holds more and is all inclusive, meaning I don't have to have two components. As for the menu's they aren't terrible but getting it to record my favorites by using the whole double click the record button, which doesn't tell you if it's actually set it up to record the entire season. I would gladly wait another second for the confirmation that I'm recording the whole season rather than checking the listing to see that it's set to record. The other downside is their "Recommended" shows, it's not as indepth and has yet to record anything from the recommended list. With TiVo I'm always surprised by a new show it recorded for me, and most of the time they are spot on with my likes, when it's not it's because the wife puts in her shows as well. Lastly if I'm trying to find a specific show, let's say curling for example, DirecTV only has the option (without doing a title search) for showing Sports channels in general, whereas TiVo let's me filter to Curling (well I think it would if it has it in there). So the DirecTV w/ TiVo has the best of both worlds, faster menu's and the better menu's. Unfortunately it doesn't have the networking hook up like the stand alone, that would allow me to rip shows to my computer. So if I had to choose, not including DirecTV w/ TiVo, I'd pick the DirecTV DVR, just for the speed, I can overlook the recommended shows, turns out I hardly have enough time to watch the shows I already record, and checking once per season that the show is set to record, is far less annoying than the 2 second delay with changing channels and cycling through menus on the stand alone.
I currently have three Tivos, a Tivo HD and a couple of DTs. The DT in the bedroom will likely get replaced with an HD sometime soon. The HD has a single multi-stream cable card and has been working fine for about a year. I bought a couple of these units, including the HD, from WeaKnees with bigger than standard drives in them.
For me, there isn't any question, the Tivo is the best choice. Its easy enough for anybody to use, and it offers an evolving feature set over time. Personally the most important features to me are TivoToGo, which allows me to automatically transcode various shows and put them on my iPod for when I travel, and TivoToComeBack, which allows me to watch various web-sourced videos like Top Gear on my TV, again without any transcoding efforts on my part.
I do occaisionally use the Amazon Unbox service--watched a good chunk of Battlestar Galactica that way since I didn't get into it early on. And an occasional movie rental. Taking them a while to get HD rentals going though, so I'm using this less than previously now that I've got an Apple TV as well.
I agree that a Tivo is better than my Comcast HD DVR.. BUT I am not interested!!!!!! paying for a Tivo then having an additional monthly fee on top of it. (Plus-Tivo HD's are not cheap) and it's a pain having to drive to my comcast office and turn in my HD DVR and get a pair of cable cards.ugh.
I am hoping than the rumored Tivo software eventually comes to Comcast. Tivo make this easier for us.. It's a pain right now.!!!
I love my HD Tivo. It just works.
I stuck one M-Cablecard into it, and now I get close to 200 channels, and maybe 20 in HD. Everything works fine, LOOKS GREAT, and above all else, very intuitive and fast.
I tried a Moxi and it was just terrible in every aspect. I was thinking about a HTPC, but leaving a PC turned on all month ends up costing more in electricity than the monthly fee of the Tivo itself.
I really want to buy a TiVo, but I'll wait for the 4 series first.
It's like the who Mac/PC thing. A PC gets the job done, but a Mac will give the superior usability. TiVo's aren't perfect, but nothing else comes close. You just have to try one for a month to 'get' it.
I switched to HD Comcast and a new LCD HD TV at the beginning of this year. I had already been using the Comcast SD DVR and was used to it, so my preference was to stay with the Comcast DVR for HD. I tried it for a grand total of 2 weeks. It was completely unworkable. The main issue: The DVR completely ignored (or was missing) all information for "first run" vs "repeat" episodes on the guide. So, when I would schedule a weekly TV show to record its 1 hour per week for each new episode ... what I actually ended up getting was on average about 6 hours per week per show! New episode recorded .. PLUS all the re-runs ... and even repeats of the exact same re-run. So, in HD, this filled up the hard drive in a matter of days!
So, I went with Tivo HD.
I got the duan-channel cable card from Comcast, installed it myself, and had extremely user friendly install process on the TiVO. Seriously, I was shocked at how well the Comcast/TiVo integration worked.
And now, I have to say, there are 2 features that I would never consider not having again:
- Some solution to view my recorded HD content in another room (on TV or PC)
- Some solution to remove my HD recording from the DVR and store it in a more permanent place (e.g. home server, backup, as well as re-format for mobile or laptop use).
As far as I know, Tivo is the only DVR offering these features.
Yes, I think I could also accomplish those with Windows Vista Media Center (and a dual-cable card capable digital tuner card) ... but I want my TV recorded with a fairly high chance of success .... and right now my Tivo has never missed a show due to uptime .... I just don't think Windows+Media Center is quite there yet.