I was wondering if Tivo is really worth it? I may buy it but need some input from other owners of Tivo. With the cheapest Tivo Box (the 40 hour one), can I connect it to my computer and save the shows onto it? Can you do that with any Tivo box? Are there any negative things about Tivo? Also, I have Charter for my cable, will that work with Tivo? Is there anything I should definitley know before buying Tivo. (I know I have to pay per month). Is there anything better than Tivo? And last, which is better to do, the lifetime $299 or paying monthly for the Tivo Service. Thanks!
Hey there. I can give you some feedback on my experience with Tivo. I've been a Tivo user since 2001. I own a Series 1 Tivo and this past Christmas purchased a Series 2 Tivo. I've followed some forum links and some time ago upgraded my Series 1 Tivo and it now has both a 100Gig and a 120Gig drive in it. I've also cut a hole in the top of my Series 1 to keep the upgraded hard drives running cool. Immediately after playing with our Series 1 Tivo my wife and I were sold on it and purchased the lifetime subscription. I've also done the same thing with my Series 2 Tivo. There's no doubt the lifetime subscription is the way to go because in less than 2 years you will make-up your return on investment as compared to the monthly fee (at $12.95 per month). Between now and the end of January (I believe) Tivo is also offering to credit your lifetime subscription by the equivalent of 12 months of monthly fees (about $150). Your lifetime membership with this credit will only cost you $149! The new Series 2 has several improvements missing from the Series 1 including the ability to add a USB wireless card to connect to your home network allowing the Tivo to receive its updates via your network connection. It also has some cool features to transfer shows to your computer to burn and do some file sharing (photos, MP3's etc..) between your computer and Tivo. Best to check out their site at www.tivo.com to see the specifics of the options. My wife continues to say "this is the best toy you have ever purchased" and believe me I have several toys in my home. For the record I agree with her (hence I own 2 now). Is it really worth it? Absolutely yes. I've toyed around with other PVR's (Dishnetwork) and the features are not even close to what Tivo offers. The advantage with Dishnetwork is that their PVR's do not have a monthly subscription but again the options are not on the same page as Tivo. Along the same lines as Tivo there's also Replay TV but I have no idea what the advantages and disadvantages are with their service (depending on who you talk to both camps say there's is better). So in a nutshell yes it is worth it, you can connect the Series2 Tivo to your computer to save shows onto it (and burn them), you can only do that easily with a Series2 Tivo (you can in fact do it with a Series1 Tivo by adding a network card to it and using some sophisticated conversion tools but that isn't easy). As far as Charter for your cable goes (I presume that is a cable company in the US) most if not all cable providers are supported with Tivo but best to check with Tivo first. Last but not least if you do purchase a Tivo I can accumulate points if you tell them I've refered you to them. It costs you nothing (you'll be prompted for the e-mail address when you activate your Tivo) and I will accumulate points to purchase stuff from the Tivo store. I'll check this forum to help answer any questions you might have and we can touch base on the referal thing. hardyboy
I just got a Tivo the other day, so I can't answer most of your questions, but I will try. I think that you can connect a tivo to your computer and copy the files. The only negative thing about Tivo, that I can think of, is that they support Macrovision. Which is the devil. I would say that the Tivo is definatly whorth it and I would reccomend getting one with a DVD burner built in. Hope that helps in some way or another. -Complete Newb
@hardyboy I haven't bought the tivo yet but am seriously looking to buy. I was wondering what file format is transfered to my computer if I connect it up through my network, and what program I would use to convert and burn to DVD. tivo.com is saying I need windows media player 10, and Sonic MyDVD. I really don't want to have to use those if I can avoid it.
I bought my Series2, 40hr, TiVo in November... I think it is worth it get the life time for the same reasons mentioned above. "can I connect it to my computer and save the shows onto it?" Out of the box I could not use wireless via the USB because it came installed with version 5. First off I had to hook it to the phone line and set it up and get the software upgrade, you need version 7 for USB activity. Once that was done it was a snap to connect to my wireless network. TiVo has a list of compatable wireless USB adatptors. Someone pointed out in another website the disadvantage to watching shows on your PC...you lose the control you have on TiVo, as far as fastword. But, I found program in another thread that will copy and convert TiVo recordings to MPEG, PSP, iPod, Palm, and AVI formats and strip the commercials. It can be found at this link http://www.tvharmony.com/main/products.php
