TiVo's Series2 DVR delivers more recording capacity at a lower cost and also offers the latest in networked home entertainment. TiVo DVRs record television programming directly to a digital hard drive, eliminating the hassles of videotape. The TiVo Series2 offers up to 80 hours of recording time in TiVo's small, sleek chassis (15 inches wide by 11.5 inches deep and 3 inches high).

TiVo automatically records your favorite shows.

TiVo subscribers can pay $12.95 per month or a one-time product lifetime fee of $299. Benefits of TiVo service include, but are not limited to, Season Pass (TiVo automatically finds and records every episode of a series all season long, even if the network schedule changes); WishList (TiVo finds and records programs that feature your favorite actor, director, team, or even topic); Smart Recording (TiVo detects lineup changes for you and suggests programs to match your interests, if desired); and Showcases (exclusive entertainment plus recording shortcuts from some of the most popular networks on TV).

Now, you through your home network you can access TiVo's Home Media Features. This services provides remote scheduling capabilities from anywhere you have Internet access; MP3 streaming from your PC to your TiVo so you can listen to music through your home theater sound system; digital image viewing from your PC so that you can create slideshows on your TV; and multiroom viewing, which allows you to connect two TiVo Series2 DVRs in your home so that you can record on one and watch on another.

Ok the first thing i want to do is dispel some of the complaints of other reviewers. For the reviewer who stated "However, I was disappointed in the picture quality. I record at Basic Quality so as to get the most hours of recording time", i would say that if you look at the different quality settings you will see that "Basic" is the lowest, so of course you are going to have the lowest quality. It doesn't really matter what the levels of quality are called, if you pick the lowest one, you're going to get the worst quality, try using a higher quality setting.

Next, for the reviewer who stated "This is a very cool product, but it's extremely loud. The fan and hard drive combine to create a high-pitched whistling noise that we found impossible to live with", I'm not sure what he/she is even talking about, it must have been a defective unit. Mine is silent, i really can't hear a thing. Now the manual clearly states that you shouldn't set the TiVo directly on top of another component, or put another component on it, as this maybe block ventilation. So if this person has created a "component sandwich" with their TiVo in the middle, maybe the fans are coming on frequently, I don't know, mine makes no noise.

One review states "Be sure to understand that not only do you need to buy the TiVo (the player) itself, but you also need to buy the sevice!", this is 100% false. You don't have to purchase any service at all. The service gives you access to the "Season Pass" feature where you can tell TiVo to record every showing of a certain show. But you can always set the TiVo up to do this manually, you do not have to purchase any service at all.

Another reviewer has this to say, "Another thing: no power switch. Again, for casual TV users, this is a waste of equipment lifespan & electricity." This is really quite nitpicky, if you turn the TiVo off, it cant make its dial-in call to get your updated schedule of shows, and it cant search for shows you might like based on your preferences. Besides that it doesn't use much power at all, and the only thing that would be getting any wear and tear are the hard drives and they sleep when they aren't in use. He also states "it's just a very expensive toy", um hello.... Of course it is, that's the fun of it.

Finally there is this complaint, "You need a credit card to activate the service. This is a real problem for those who do not have, or choose not to use, credit cards". Ok lets see, first of all you don't need to sign up for the service, and if you don't have a credit card I'm guessing you run into this problem all the time, it isn't just with TiVo...

This TiVo unit works as advertised, I cant really say anything else about it. One thing to realize is that, while this is an 80 hour unit, that really is only about 25 hours of recordings at the highest quality level. I know some of you are saying "25 hours is plenty", and you're right, but if you were looking at a unit with less recording time, remember that you only get about 30% of the total time at the best level. The only other problem I have with this is that recording a show while watching something else on live TV is impossible if you have a cable box for your TV. I have digital cable, and therefore I need a cable box, well you cant split a digital signal very easily and its then impossible to record on one channel and watch another. But it isn't that big a deal as one can still watch a recorded show and record another.


Degradation in picture quality....   March 17, 2003
 214 out of 259 found this review helpful

.... or, if you love something, set it free!

I have two children and only one TV. Tivo was the perfect answer for getting to watch the shows I wanted to see, when I wanted to see them -- namely after the final clip of Dora the Explorer was done and my kids were in bed. Imagine getting to watch the rest of the game (interrupted by bath time) or the Sopranos or Meet the Press, etc., at your leisure. You mocked us for years, TV, but now we are in control!

The good news... The unit was fairly easy to set up, the directions were clear and the service people very helpful. In fact, I was surprised to read of other reviewers' problems in this department. So far, I love Tivo.

So why am I returning it? (That is, as long as I can cram it all back in the box.) Well, the bad news is picture degradation. Tivo is hooked up to my very nice, new flat screen TV. DVDs look awesome on the new TV. Unfortunately, my digital cable, which goes through Tivo, looks pretty bad. Worse than it did on my dearly departed 27" Sony "round screen" TV. Tivo technology added in some very noticable loss of picture quality. The support person I spoke to said that this might be a slight problem, particularly with video that has movement. Of course, that covers pretty much all TV. Otherwise, it's called a still picture. When I want that I read a newspaper or one of those books where you flip the page and the image in the corner looks like it's moving.

So, for us, Tivo wasn't worth the overall loss in picture quality to get those few shows. Curses! Foiled again....

Another issue to bear in mind is the fact that Tivo adds in a slight delay when changing channels on your cable box. Tivo is not like another component that hangs off the TV, a la your VCR. It becomes kind of the central nervous system of the TV. Cable and your VCR must go through Tivo. This wasn't a problem, with the exception of the video degradation and the channel changing delay. My delay was not too bad but could be a problem for others.

If you can deal with those issues, then you will love the product. Hence my 3-star rating on a product I'm returning!


I love my TiVo!   October 7, 2002
 112 out of 117 found this review helpful

NOTICE: Most of this review relates to TiVo in general, not this specific hardware device, although they all pretty much work the same. I have a Sony SAT-T60 DIRECTV/TiVo combination receiver and a Hughes GXCEBOT DIRECTV/TiVo combination receiver. I've provided a few comments on these combo units because I highly recommend them if you are looking at buying a TiVo.

My wife and I became addicted to TiVo within 1 month after installing it. In fact, we bought a second TiVo for the bedroom about six months after purchasing our first one. We have gone from watching 90% live TV/10% recorded (VCR) to 90% Tivo/10% live TV! We hardly watch anything anymore at its regular time. We simply pull up the "Now Playing" menu, which lists all the shows I have previously recorded, and watch whatever we're in the mood for - drama (Law and Order or Boomtown), comedy (Friends, South Park), reality TV (Survivor, Fear Factor), or sports (Illinois basketball, cliff diving).

There are so many cool things about TiVo, but these are my FOUR FAVORITE things:
1) Season Pass, which once you set it up, will record a particular show EVERY time it's on or even all shows with a particular actor or subject,
2) Easy to record (simply choose the show, not the time and channel) and easy to find and play (scroll through "Now Playing" list of previously recorded shows and choose "Select" to play),
3) Record two shows at once (like Survivor and Friends, which both start at 8:00 on Thursday) with a DirecTV/TiVo combination receiver, which we have. The TiVo Series2 product you are shopping for will only record one show at a time, but you CAN watch a previously recorded show while taping a show that is currently being broadcast.
4) Replay button - skips back 7 seconds, which comes in handy whenever you miss something that was said, or you want to go back and pause something so another person can see it. We probably use this button more than any other on the entire remote.

HOW HAS IT CHANGED OUR LIFE?
Let me just give you 3 examples:
FIRST, we watch TV on our time. We never worry about what time, or even what day something is on. We have TiVo recording about 20 different shows for us each week and we watch them at various times, depending on our schedule. It doesn't matter when I get home from work, whether I'm out of town, or what time the kids go to bed. Our shows are on when WE want to see them.
SECOND, we have a Season Pass for three kids shows (Sesame Street, Clifford, Teletubbies). Every day, it tapes the new one and deletes the one from yesterday. So, there is always a fresh show to put on for our kids when we need to get them out of our hair. No bulky video tapes, and none of the stories get old. They're seeing and learning something new every day.
FINALLY, we pause and replay shows all the time. Want to stop and get a drink? No problem-pause. Phone call? No problem-pause. What did she just whisper? Replay it. Who was that behind Julia Roberts at the Oscars? Replay it, then pause or slo-mo. Use TiVo for a month and you won't believe that you ever watched television without it.

We started with the monthly subscription and moved to the lifetime after just a month (it's good for the life of the box, not you). I bought a 4-year warranty as a safety precaution (new technology and insurance against the lifetime subscription). DirecTV customer service is decent, but not great (they handle the TiVo side as well). The BEST resource for TiVo is the TiVo AVS forum, which you can link to from the Buzz section of the TiVo Web site. It's a "must read" prior to buying this unit (if my review hasn't answered all your questions). But I am not exaggerating when I say that this is the coolest, most liberating invention to come out since the World Wide Web. No joke! You will fall in love with your TiVo too.

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A note regarding DIRECTV/TiVo units: First, it looks like the Justice Department is going to block the Echostar-DIRECTV merger. So, any fears that subscribers might have had about losing TiVo service to Echostar's technology are likely overblown now. I've also discovered that DIRECTV/TiVo combination units rarely hold the number of hours suggested. My Sony advertises "up to 35-hour recording capacity." In reality, the data density of the DIRECTV signal is variable and you will rarely have even 30 hours of capacity. I have been maxing out at around 23 hours before things get deleted involuntarily. You can control the recording quality on stand-alone units and therefore, you can tell exactly how much capacity you're using. Recording quality is not an option with the combo units, but you should assume that you will NOT be able to retain more than 22 to 25 hours of programming before shows must be deleted in order to make room for new recordings. This doesn't change my enthusiastic view on TiVo or the combo units one bit.


Super-expensive TiVo Service subscription is NOT required!   August 14, 2003
 75 out of 78 found this review helpful

First of all, let me say that TiVo is the best thing that EVER happened to my home theater, and I would not want to live without it. It deserves 10 stars!

However, contrary to what reviewer Alan Hamilton states in his review dated April 7, 2003, the TiVo Service is NOT REQUIRED to use the TiVo as a basic digital video recorder with timer features similar to a VCR. The statement "it won't function at all without it" is utterly false and misleading. TiVo simply strongly suggests that you have to have the Service for what they refer to as "Basic TiVo functionality". Basic functionality includes things above and beyond manually initiated timer recordings. I guess that most people don't take the time to research and find the real truth, and thus agree to pay TiVo loads of their hard-earned money for what, in my personal opinion, is unnecessary functionality. That's why TiVo hides the real truth in tiny fine print.

What can you do with a TiVo without the Service, you ask? You still have all the coolest features, like pausing live TV, backing up live TV by 30 minutes, 8-second instant replay, 30-second skip ahead, slow motion, and all 3 of the fast-forwarding speeds while watching previously recorded program material or when watching the 30-minute live TV "buffer". Finally, you can watch a recorded program while another program is recording.

Also, you can schedule manual timer recordings. From the TiVo Central main menu, you can go to the Pick Programs to Record menu, and then Record by Time or Channel, then Manually Record. From there, you can schedule one-time or repeating programs with a wide variety of scheduling options. TiVo calls a manual repeating program a "Manual Season Pass". You can schedule far more events than a typical 8-event VCR.

NONE of these many basic features requires the TiVo Service.

I have been using my TiVo series 1 recorder for the past two years without the super-expensive monthly subscription or the mind-bogglingly expensive lifetime payment, and it works just fine without it. I have fully reviewed all of TiVo's documentation regarding their Series 2 product, and this requirement remains the same.

For my specific situation, I already have an electronic program guide with my digital (VDSL) cable service, and the TiVo can't change the channel of my cable company's set top box, so the TiVo's program guide information is simply redundant, and if I did use it to schedule a recording, it couldn't change the channel anyway, because my cable box's remote control is RF (radio frequency), not IR (infrared).

For me, the Service is simply a complete waste of good money. The TiVo all by itself is a stunningly awesome home electronics product!


Dissappointed with Tivo - there are options   January 17, 2004
 67 out of 76 found this review helpful

I bought a TIVO when they first came out and had nothing but trouble. The machine didn't record properly and power would go off and on. Customer service was not satisfactory, as others on this board have indicated.

Frustrated, I switched to Brighthouse. They supply the equipment. Customer service is terrific and the machine works much better. I can record 5 programs with up to 200 hours of recording time.

Tivo may have been first, but are they the best? Answer: NO!!!