TiVo TCD540080 Series 2 80-Hour Digital Video Recorder

TiVo needs to do a better job of explaining that an 80 hour TiVo only records about 40 hours at "High Quality" and about 30 at "Best Quality." High Quality is noticeably granier than your regular television. Had I known this, I would have bought the larger capacity TiVo so as to record at Best Quality for everything. Other than that, TiVo is spectacular.

I have to admit that Tivo has made my television viewing habits different. Although Tivo could improve in some areas, it's still quite enjoyable and remarkable.

I will not explain what Tivo does or what it is. I believe you can get that from the product description provided by amazon.com. Instead I will briefly tell you what I like most and what I like least about Tivo.

HERE IS WHAT I LIKE AND YOU WILL TOO....

Season Pass Manager- With this cool feature you can record every episode of your favorite program regardless on what channel it is playing on. The best part is you don't have to search for it, since Tivo does it for you. Of course this does not come free; you have to be a Tivo subscriber for around $12 a month. For example, I like to watch "Will and Grace" and at the end of the work day all the episodes that aired that day from all five channels that air it are recorded in one folder for me to view. Best part no repeats of the same episode.

Music, Photos. And More- Okay, you have to connect your Tivo box to an internet connection, but if you do you will enjoy your Tivo much more than having it connected to your phone line. With my internet connected to my Tivo Box I can listen to thousands of radio stations on my Tivo and best part is most of them, if not all are commercial free. And I'm almost sure you will find something you will enjoy. You can also view pictures that are saved on your computer on your television. With yahoo weather you can view the weather for the next few days and also see traffic in your area. There are many cool features in the category, but the one I use most is music and Yahoo weather and traffic.

HERE IS WHAT I DON'T LIKE

Okay Tivo is not perfect, but if it was we would be in heaven..

Well one of the things I hate most about Tivo is the channel changing takes likes 3 seconds. I understand that Tivo is suppose to stop you from channel surfing but at times you will need or like to change the channel and it's horrible. I like to watch the news and for me to change from CNN to Fox News, to MSNBC it will have taken me like 10 seconds to have changed all three channels. Yeah¡ it's really annoying, so if you are going to channel surf, Tivo is not the product for you.

Another thing I hate about Tivo is you can not tell just how much recording time you have left. I know, one would think that would be one of the most important features, but its not there. You have to calculate it yourself, but it becomes difficult because if you have programs recorded at Best quality it tends to use more disk space than low quality and I have a hard time remembering what my Tivo saved as poor and high quality. Anyway, I really hate that about my Tivo¡Kand one would think that they would implement such a change soon.

There a few more things I like and don't like, but they are minor. Over all I am happy with my Tivo. I have not had the problem with my Tivo like many other people have about having their Tivo locking up. I can understand their frustration because Tivo can take up to 10 minutes to boot up, which can be very annoying.

Good luck in whatever your choice may be in this product.

A lot has already been written about this product, so I'll keep my review short. For those of you who are canadian - thanks to our oh-so-wonderful (NOT!) language laws, TIVO cannot be sold or advertised in Canada (thanks, Quebec... you screw us YET AGAIN!) However, it is totally legal to buy this box in the US, bring it to Canada, and there is full service offered in our country. Tens of thousands of Canadians do it... but most of the rest of you mightn't know it's possible. Now you do.

There are glitches here and there. Some channels get all weirdly digital/ pixilated, which can be very frustrating. Also, some shows make my tv give off a strange hissing static electricity noise when Tivo - what's that about?

Not a perfect product, but seems to be the best out there at the moment. Well done!

First off, let me admit that it is not my job to set-up the electronics in our house. So everyone who wrote that it takes hours to set-up, I never felt your pain. Even still, I would bet that anyone would be willing to spend a few hours on set-up once they realize that they will save about 10 minutes per hour by fast-forwarding through commercials. Anyway, the point is that this review is from the non-technophile in the house.

I absolutely love my TiVo. It's easy to program it to record your shows, and once you put in a Season Pass you never have to worry about it again. We have never had our TiVo not record something we programmed it to do. We have two, one in the bedroom that is just the recorder and one in the living room that also has a DVD recorder built in. At this point, I don't even know when most of the TV shows I like are actually on. I rarely watch anything live (when I do, I'm miserable). When I'm at the gym on the elliptical, I find myself reaching for the remote to fast forward through commercials. I've even asked my fiance to rewind the radio when we were in the car (unfortunately they don't make a radio TiVo yet!). That is how much TiVo will change you.

I've heard people say they don't want TiVo because they'll just watch more TV. Absolutely not true. Once you have TiVo, you will only watch those shows that you truly enjoy. No more, "This is all that's on." Also, TiVo allows you to do the things you need to do (like the aforementioned gym), without the excuse of missing your favorite show.

As for the downside of TiVo, we've haven't had the same types of problems that others have written of. Maybe it depends on what brand of box you purchase. I only have two complaints:

1. Sometimes (I'd say less than 1% of the time) we'll get a brief pixelation in the middle of a show. It's not that bad when it's during a TV show that you just watch and delete, but if you were planning on burning it to DVD you would probably want to record it again.

2. This isn't really a complaint about TiVo, but about some of the shows I watch, especially on FX- they never finish on time. We've had to set our TiVo to record for ten minutes after the show is supposed to be over in order to catch the entire show.

I would definitely buy TiVo again. But now, I'm off to watch "24." Oh, and it's Wednesday at 8:30. That's when "24" is on at my house!

These are wonderful machines!
They truly find all your great programs (and ones you never knew about). You can watch fine video & zip through the commercials.

The software is excellent, & will find & record your shows automatically.

Problems:
1) I am tech savvy, but it took me 4 hours to set this up with another DVR & a VCR. Setup is not for the faint of heart. Dealers will not set this up for you (at least in CA)
2) Sending recorded programs to the VCR is error-prone.
3) The channel changing via a satellite box is very unreliable,
with the infrared accessory being low-tech. This, after 6
months, is still a major problem, & is the reason why I cannot
give these units unconditional recommendations.

The solution is to ask Direct TV or Dish Network to exchange
for a box that has a plug in lead to change channels. I have ordered one, but it is not free!
4) I have not yet found a way to tell the software to let my 3
star favorites over-ride my 2 star favorites. Often "Reno 911"
is dropped in favor of Nova!
5) Buy the largest hard-drive possible. You can accumulate dozens
of great programs, but Tivo will delete these unless you tell
it not to (a laborious process).
6) As the TV moguls get wise, there will be attempts to control
your viewing & recording.
7) I wish there was a button to set the minutes to skip through
commercials. Fast forward is distracting.

However, for now, a great piece of equipment.

4 stars; could be 5.