TiVo TCD649080 Series2 80-Hour Dual-Tuner Digital Video Recorder

This is the second TiVo DVR I've owned. I really like the dual tuner feature. I prefer using the TiVo DVR to the DVRs my local cable company rents. One of my favorite features is that when you fast forward or rewind, this DVR compensates for that split second it takes from the time you recognize the end of a commercial and the time you release the fast forward feature. TiVo builds in a slight "jump back" feature, which the Comcast's DVRs don't have. I also like the TiVo Desktop software which I've installed onto my home computer. With my home network, I can transfer shows from the DVR to my computer's hard drive.

I've used multiple DVRs provided by cable providers before, and now I've used TiVo. I've gotta say, TiVo wins, hands down. You pay more for the service, and you have to buy the box (cable companies "loan" you the box), but they make sure it's worth it. They have to, to continue to compete.

One big, BIG plus: Internet content. If you connect to the TiVo service over a broadband internet connection, you can download videos from the internet and watch them directly on your TiVo. Even better, you can transfer your recorded TV programs to your PC using TiVo Desktop.

The show rating system and viewing pattern recognition work really well. I haven't even watched anything of the sort yet, but it recorded an episode of Mysterious Journeys set in a haunted prison. That's just the sort of thing I love (it turned out to be a lame program, but I don't blame TiVo for that). It also recorded the Daily Show, making me realize that I still needed to set up a Season Pass for that show.

Lots of options on how to record shows and how long to keep them, plus great extras like live weather and games make this a worthy purchase.

For added value, you can purchase your service package up to a year in advance, and get a better rate. Plus, you pay once and don't worry about a monthly bill all year.

(IF YOU CAN, BUY REFURBISHED. I DID, FROM AMAZON, SAVING A L-O-T OF MONEY, GOT FREE SHIPPING, AND I FOUND OUT FROM A TIVO TECHNICIAN ON THE PHONE THAT IT WAS ACTUALLY A BRAND NEW UNIT!)

We were really excited to finally switch from DVR to Tivo, but when our tivo came and we plugged it in, the video quality was awful. Way way worse than the TV ever was. We tried everything, got new cables, called tivo, did the software update. Nothing made it any better. It was so obviously worse than our cable ever looked, we had to return it :( We decided it wasn't worth the effort to try to get a new one. So back to DVR!

Tivo worked for two weeks using the tivo wireless adapter. All of a sudden it stopped working giving a "network adapter not found error" Did the usual resets of the router, tivo, etc and nothing. Called tivo and they sent out a new adapter. Plugged the new adapter in and same problem. Called Tivo again, wasted a bunch of time with people who were clueless. Now I have to wait up 10 business days for a new tivo unit to arrive.

To sum it up:
-clueless customer service
-no way to record at a given time without a network connection
-froze often

It seems like Tivo is a company that has gotten ahead of itself.

For the price, you can't beat the Series2 DT Tivo. We owned two single-tuner Tivos before buying this one. Watching one live show while recording another was a real pain. My only complaint with this Tivo is that the subscription plans are going up in price and may end up being out of reach for our budget. We're able to swing it now, but if they raise the rates next year I'm not so sure.

I'd still rather own the Series3 HD unit, but since I'm not upgrading my cable service anytime soon, this was a fine investment. I've upgraded it with a Seagate DB35 750GB hard drive, giving us more than 200 hours of best quality recording space.