TiVo TCD658000 HD XL DVR

I was a DirecTV customer for years and used their own TiVo receiver and was always happy with it. It's what actually kept me from going to cable HD. Now that this fantastic unit has been released, which is compatible with most major cable providers (via a CableCard), this is the best TiVo ever created. With a ton of space for recordings (HD or Standard Def) and the ability to expand the storage via external hard drive this unit will never run out of room. Hook it up to your home network and this thing really shines! You can program your unit via the internet from anywhere in the world. Amazing. I highly recommend having this connected to your high-speed internet connection to make use of all of it's amazing features. The only negatives I can come up with is that the supplied remote is not backlit (but it is incredibly easy to navigate), and that for the price, they should have built in the wireless network connectivity. In any event though, this is a total winner that's worth the price of purchase. Make sure you get yourself a network adapter to make the package complete! TiVo AG0100 Wireless G USB Network Adapter for TiVo Series 2 and Series 3 DVRs

I upgraded my TiVo TCD648250B Series3 HD Digital Media Recorder recorder to this one. I was very happy with my series 3 but due to a lighning strike I was able to get a new one. That being said I really like this one more than my old one. My older series 3 was a very good tivo but could not hold the amount of HD content as this one. I could only get 35-40 hours on my old one.

If you are comparing both you should go with this one. The reason is that this one holds up to 150 hours! You may think you would never fill that up but just realize that once February rolls around there will be even more HD content out there.
This model does NOT support satellite, so be careful BEFORE you order.
Save up to 150 hours of HD programming at one time. I use it with Time Warner Cable and 2 cable cards. Until switched video becomes the norm I am unable to get all of the HD channels. I am assured that this will not be an issue come February. I'll update this review later once this time comes.

I have my 10baseT (ethernet) directly connected to my router. This allows for faster movie downloads, updates and searches. Youtube looks awesome considering the low quality of the source.

Specs:
TV signal sources: digital and analog cable, digital and analog antenna. Satellite NOT supported.

Replaces your cable box using one or more CabeCARD decoders available from your cable company.

Video output modes:
*480i 640x480 (vga)
*480p 704x480 (svga)
*720p 720x1280 (a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9, a vertical resolution of 720 pixels and a horizontal resolution of 1280 pixels for a total of 921,600 pixels)
*1080i (a high-definition television (HDTV) video mode. The term usually assumes a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9, implying a horizontal resolution of 1920 pixels and a frame resolution of 1920 × 1080 or about 2.07 million pixels)

native(normal), hybrid 1080i/720p depending on source (auto resize)
TiVo Series3 architecture

Connectors
*Phone line
*Digital audio
*S-Video out
*Component video out
*Composite video and stereo out
*HDMI out
*Ethernet
*2 USB ports
*E-SATA
*Cable In
*Antenna in
*Dimensions 16.5" x 12.63" x 3.38"
*Weight 13.52 lbs.

Pros/Cons:

Pro:
>> Huge hard disk for recording your shows
>> Fast searches
>> Internet scheduling (you can schedule a show to record from home)
>>Saving movies on your personal computer and then burning or exporting to iPhone, Sony PSP, DVD and so on. (tivo desktop and Direct Show Dump Utility)
>> Great interface
>> Hackable if you dare (will void warranty)

Cons:
<< Initial startup takes nearly an hour from first turn on until you watch tv you cannot skip this.
<< Doesn't play nice with cable cards from my provider. This is my providers issue and NOT Tivo (hence still 5 stars IMHO)
<< Sometimes acts flaky when watching 1 cable card and a show wants to come on when that card is used.


A great Tivo upgrade for your DVR viewing. Maybe contact your cable provider to see what they will do about this in lue of their box. I have found them to be semi amiable, but from time to time they jump in and mention I would not have these issues with one of their boxes. The benefits outweigh the problems IMHO.

Thank you for reading my review.

I've been using MythTV (open source settop box) for about two years now but with the digital broadcast switchover, my box is no longer going to function as a tuner so I turned to TiVo as the cheaper alternative to rebuilding an entirely new system.

PROS

TiVo is an appliance. You plug it in, connect it to your TV (I use HDMI) and network the device. Thats it. SIMPLE. This has a high "wife usage" factor which pleases me greatly. The remote is very intuitive and easy to use. Even my 5 year old has figured it out

The User Interface (UI) is decent. It's not perfect but it is intuitive. Recording a program has never been easier. Just hit the red record button and its done.

The XL has a TeraByte of storage. WOW! Thats a lot of HD shows to record. You could basically do the entire Olypics in one shot!

CONS

No commercial skip. Gross. MythTV had a commercial detection system that would accurately skip ALL commercials from every show. It's WEAK that TiVo does not employ this method to their product. In fact, there is nothing but "fast forward" to skip commercials. That sucks. This is a big drawback for me. I was so spoiled of commercial free TV for so many years that this makes it very difficult to go back to.

The UI is not perfect. Looking up programs on a remote is tough. Looking up programs using a non qwerty ABC grid that is only 4 columns wide is horrific. C'mon! Seriously? I would rate this 3 stars if it were not for the fact that you could use the web to establish program recording.

It is difficult for me to upload my family movies to this thing. They should make the interface easier to get to when uploading home movies. I know it can be done but using a 3rd party web site to upload my flicks only for them to download back to my machine is wasteful. Plus now this 3rd party has copies of my personal videos. TiVo needed to have a network "jail" portion of the disk that allows access to the drive via the network using file sharing protocols found on all of our computers. Or perhaps a "custom" USB thumb drive that works only with TiVo to transfer video files.

Overall, TiVo is a good appliance. It's ease of use and setup makes it a good product.

It gets 4 stars though because it is not perfect. Perfect is MythTV which is FREE to obtain and has NO monthly fees with MORE functionality. It just required more system resources on a computer than I happened to have budgeted for so TiVo was the better alternative for this year.

Two years from now, I promise I will be dumping TiVo for MythTV once I get a rocking computer set up but that is another story and review.

A perfect companion to television. Plenty of storage in HD. Easy to use and set up. I have been with tivo since 2000 and this is a nice upgrade to the original.

This is the ultimate video recording device with software that is simply unrivaled in the industry. The box itself offers huge capacity which you always want in a Tivo as you can never have enough space. If you've never owned/used Tivo, you won't regret dumping your cable DVR to experience this. Whatever small stuff is wrong with this unit or the software is disproportionately outweighed by everything that is great about it.