TiVo TCD658000 HD XL DVR

Oh, my God, I had a series 2 Tivo with my regular tube TV, but when I upgraded to the Bravia 40", I knew I wanted the HD Tivo. This thing has a MASSIVE capacity that I haven't come near to filling (thank God, too, I'd be a total couch potato if it were.) You get the same ease of use, fantastic listing of upcoming titles, but with some very cool new features.

The price is steep, but I had gotten a promotional $100 off coupon via E-mail from the Tivo folks, and that made it easier to pull the trigger. Also, the lifetime membership pays for itself in the end (wish I had known about that option when I had my series 2 all those years paying monthly!)

All in all, so happy with this purchase, and for any newbies, I cannot say enough wonderful things about the folks at Tivo tech/customer support. They are very knowledgeable and courteous.

My local cable company was giving me major run-around setting up installation of the cable cards (bad/false information, totally clueless staff.)

Tivo actually CALLED MY CABLE COMPANY FOR ME, set up a three-way phone call with the cable installer, and was there in the background of the call to clarify/assist if I or the cable guy needed clarification of what was to be installed.

All in all, a great product that I don't know how people live without!

The first unit failed to recognize the cable cards - fortunately the Verizon tech was with me as Tivo tech support were not willing to accept a hardware fault initially. Amazon return policy (on line, emailed UPS sticker etc.) was a delight. The faulty Tivo went back while Amazon sent a replacement at no additional shipping charge to me. The new unit works fine ..... oh, so much better than the Motorola DVR.
This is the first item I've ever needed to return to Amazon for any reason, and my experience with the process was simply excellent. Kudos Amazon!

I had a generic DVR from my caable company for several years before I decided to make the leap to TiVo, and I'm glad I did. I am seriously in love with this machine. I'm even considering marriage, though I think such a union would only be legal in Massachusetts.

Let me begin by saying that a DVR (regardless of the brand) will change the way you watch TV. And if you have one with a dual tuner, it means you never have to choose between two favorite competing shows. As a result, I pretty much stopped watching "live" TV years ago. With a DVR you can just record everything, save it for later, and then scan through the commercials.

And the beautiful thing about the remote with this unit (not sure if this is true all TiVo remotes) is that you can scan through the ads at three different speeds. When you hit play, it automatically backs up the recording several seconds, This is great if you overshoot the end of the commercials. It can be annoying if you're trying to pinpoint a very specific scene you just saw, but there's a great slo-mo button for that. The pause button also provides a very stable freeze frame image. A separate button automatically backtracks the action eight seconds. And if you're watching TV in the dark, the backlit remote with this particular TiVo is great.

My previous DVR from the cable company limited me to about 25 hours of HD recordings. If you follow several weekly series, and then add a couple of HBO HD movies, that 25 hours can fill up surprisingly quick. Keeping ample available recording space sometimes became a challenge.

TiVo's HD XL, on the other hand, gives you over 150 hours (according to the unit's diagnostics screen, it's 157 hours) of HD storage. Looking at it another way, that's the equivalent of over six seasons of "24". And if that's STILL not enough, you can purchase a separate expansion unit that will add another 75 hours of storage.

There is a Season Pass Manager that enables you to record either every single episode of a show on a particular channel, or just the first run episodes. And if the time slot changes, the TiVo (like any DVR) will make the schedule changes for you. A separate screen allows you to record specific weekly timeslots. This is great if you want to record, say, the 8 PM Sunday showing of The Simpsons regardless of whether it's a rerun WITHOUT also recording the additional 12 showings of the series during the week.

Another great feature: You can use the Season Pass Manager to add an additional minute or two (or more) to your recordings. This is handy, since some networks let their shows run long. NBC often does this with Heroes, and you would otherwise end up losing the last scene.

The unit has two tuners, so you're limited to recording (or recording and watching) two channels at a time. Again, the Season Pass Manager allows you to "prioritize" your recordings in case conflicts between three or more potential shows arise. You can, however, record two shows while watching a third that has already been recorded.

If you have a Netflix account, TiVo allows you to access it through the Videos On Demand screen. Of the 60 or so movies in my Netflix queue, about 10 or so were available for streaming at no additional charge. You can also rent (or even purchase) downloads from Amazon (you have to watch the rentals within 30 days). Both these features require an actual broadband connection. You can either use an ethernet cable or the separately available wireless USB connector. While setting it up is a cinch, its effectiveness will also depend on the location and range of your router.

TiVo--like most electronic equipment--generates a lot of heat. There is a fan on the back of the unit, but you still have to be careful about putting the machine into tight, enclosed entertainment centers. Again, there is a diagnostics screen that tells you the internal temperature and whether it's "normal." There is no actual power button; however, you can use the remote to put the unit in "standby" mode. This reduces the heat buildup somewhat if you're not actually using the TiVo.

I enjoyed the HD XL so much, I ended up also buying a TCD652160 for the bedroom. Though that model only holds 20 hours of HD recordings, you can network the two machines through your broadband router and transfer most recordings back & forth between the two machines. Though I haven't run into a problem with regular broadcast network shows, the Amazon recordings will be locked down to the specific machine that first recorded them. I've also run into this with some shows on the History Channel.

if you want, you can also place two machines near one another and share the same TV. There is a switch on the remote that can actually distinguish between TiVo 1 and TiVo 2.

Finally, the cablecard set up can be a major pain in the neck. Though a single multi-stream card can handle both tuners, my local cable office only had the single stream cards available. That meant TWO cards for each machine. The installer went through his entire stack of 20 cards before he found four that worked properly. The big hangup was with the premium channels for some reason. It literally took him almost three hours of trying, with several calls to his tech support office.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to call Massachusetts about a marriage license....

We recently dropped DirecTV in favor of Verizon FIOS for television service. Unimpressed with Verizon's HD DVR offering, I did a good bit of checking with all signs pointing to the Tivo HD XL (and non-XL) DVR.

It's easy to get addicted to Tivo and there's a reason why. The interface is VERY user friendly and they (Tivo) are great about pushing out software updates to the units. The XL offered a TON of HD storage capacity and even more standard definition capacity. The Verizon Tech attached this unit to a single cable run in the house, popped is credit-card-like decoder card inside a slot on the Tivo unit and I was off to the races receiving content over both built-in tuners. After a few days, the Tivo unit pulled down a software update and I was then able to stream Netflix and Amazon On Demand video, which I found uber-cool. You can even watch some YouTube videos through this thing. These on-demand features require a fairly speedy Internet connection I believe so your mileage may vary. The guide and interface is virtually the same as past Tivo units. The other cool thing I noticed is that both my Tivo HD units can see each other on my home network, allowing me to transfer recorded shows between Tivo units over my home network. The only nice-to-have feature I found missing is a caller-ID option, which I enjoy having. It may be there and I just haven't found it.

As for deducting 1 star, I have to attribute that to two things - the cost of the unit and the annoying advertisements they're now running on various menu screens/actions. Considering the cost of the box, the monthly Tivo subscription and any kickback for on-demand sales they may get, I would think they could spare you from the annoying ads. Part of the reason people buy a Tivo unit is so they can fast forward through commercials.

Amazon delivered my Tivo HD XL quickly and offered the best price at the time of my purchase.

2008-12-22

Until a few days ago, I had never owned or used a TiVo. Oh sure, I'd read the reviews. Everyone said they were better than the cable DVRs, but I had my doubts. I only bought one because I'd upgraded to an HDTV. A VCR just wouldn't cut it anymore and a DVD recorder was too expensive when you add in all those DVD writable discs you'd have to buy. So, I bit the bullet.

Am I ever glad that I did!

The TiVo HD XL is a remarkable piece of equipment. It has a slim, simple design, which doesn't take up much space. Unlike your VCR, there's no time displayed on the front, either, just a little green LED light to tell you it has power. It has a nice set of connections, including HDMI, and a generous recording time. Setup is easy. I mean REALLY easy. I popped in a multi-cable card in one of the two front slots (which has to be activated by your cable provider) and was quickly setting up the channels I wanted to watch and how I wanted the TV guide to display. It's a snap to record any show, or series of shows you want. The "season pass" is a particularly clever feature, as you can tell it you only want new episodes or all of them, and let it know whether to keep them or delete them after awhile. Downloading the show information is fast if you have a way to connect to the internet--it's probably much slower by phone line.

I've used a variety of on-screen TV guides before, but this one is more detailed and configurable than I've run into before. It's very useful.

What are the surprises? I love the remote. Someone put some thought into this. It really feels good in your hand. And it only took me about 30 seconds to set it up to control both my TV and my home theater sound system. That one remote controls it all.

Another surprise is how much I love streaming music from my computer to my TiVo. This requires three things. You need to download the free version of TiVo desktop, have music mp3 files on a computer, and have a connection (either wired or wireless) to your computer. Rather than deal with yet another wireless system in my house, I ran 50 foot ethernet cables (which you can buy very inexpensively on Amazon) from my wireless cable gateway router in the computer room, to the TiVo in my living room. The TiVo instantly saw my desktop and those music files that I "published" to my TiVo desktop program. Voila. Instant jukebox. You don't get visualizations like you would with Windows Media Player, but unless you have high end computer speakers, the sound quality will be a great deal better!

This unit has a number of features I haven't tried yet, including the ability to play photos and video from your home computer. I also have not yet tried letting it make suggestions of shows I might enjoy watching. Apparently it takes it awhile anyway to figure out what you'll probably like. However, it could be an interesting feature. If you can shoot home video, you can apparently have those files show up on the TiVo's of friends and relatives--a great way to share footage of the kids with the grandparents.

What do I dislike? Not a lot. I think the cost for the lifetime service of your unit is high, especially considering they hit you up with all kinds of product placement and advertisements. Although I suppose some folks might love ordering a pizza from Domino's on their TiVos, a lot of their advertisements are just plain annoying and inappropriate given how much I'm already paying for this service. The music playing has a banner with the title and artist that jumps around on the screen as it plays (probably preventing burn in for plasma users). The movement is jerky and distracting. Personally, I'd rather it turn off after a few seconds or give me a fantasia-like visualization the way Media Player does, but that doesn't seem to be an option.

All in all, I really have to recommend this unit. First-timers needn't be afraid of it. Experienced users will probably like the extra space. Just remember to mentally add in the service fee to your total cost. Without TiVo activation, it's nothing more than a very expensive (and large) paperweight.