Tivo


ABE

ABE

Running and Gunning
Man does anyone have this? I am thinking about upgrading my directv receiver and if I do I might want to get ahold of this new feature.. I read I can upgrade the box to increase recording time up to 80 hours of digital quality tv....

And I also wonder is it worth the 9,95 a month subscription?
 

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It's soooo cool...that is, if you're willing to pay...

TiVo is basically a hard drive for your TV. It can hold up to 20, 30, or 60 hours of programming. I think it's got a 30Gb drive (60Gb coming soon) and it connects to the Internet via a phone line to download television programming in your area (cable, satellite, even reg. antenna I think). The beauty of it is you basically have a VCR with NO TAPE and a much FEWER limitations. Here's what I mean:

1) you can record more than one show at a time.

2) you can "pause live TV" - meaning you can record up to 30 minutes of a show and watch it while the TiVo records the rest. So you can start a show late or pause in the middle of it & not have to wait for the whole thing to record before you start watching it from the beginning.

3) give TiVo a show's name and it will look for all the times that show comes on for you. Plus, you can enter a genre of shows you like (like sports or scifi) and it will look for all the programs under that genre & record them for you.

4) ooh, one more thing - if you wanna keep a show, you can record from the TiVo to a VCR. Or you can save shows on the hard drive. Get a whole season if you like!

All this & more for only $300+ for the system (I think that new one is $350 at Best Buy) and $9.95/mo. for the service OR $250 for lifetime service (if you like it, go for lifetime - you'll have paid more than that after 2 years' time). It seems like smooth stuff if you're willing to plunk down the cash.

Anyway, check out TiVo's website for more details. Microsoft has Ultimate TV which does the same, but I think TiVo is more versatile - Ultimate TV only connects with satellite (at least that's what the Best Buy salesperson told me). I think I'll be gettin TiVo soon, but the wallet's pretty thin right now :(
 
I have read that you can buy the first generation units for the low and increase the hard drive space yourself.. (if you are crafty) the hard drives are standard hard drives that you would see in any computer...
 
So there are a total of 3 coach potatos on TSPN? I think not.. what is everyone else waiting on? I would have thought there would be at least 10 people with the service by now...
 
More harddrive, baby!!

I thought I'd see if anyone on the Web was talking about adding more harddrive space to TiVo units. I found this:

http://www.digitalrecorder.tv/tivo.htm

They sell new TiVo units that record up to 200 hours!! :eek: Looks like that one has a 2 80Gb hard drives in it, cause if you scroll down further on the page, you'll see offers to buy additional hard drives, up to 2 80Gb drives that hold 100 hours each. That's a whole lotta TV watchin, lemme tell ya :D But if you got the dough, there it is. Looks like you have to buy drives specially designed for TiVo, though.

If I find any more info, I'll let y'all know. Tell me if you hear anything - once the money's right, I'm hookin this up!!! :nod:
 
I'm a couch potato, I ain't 'fraid to admit it!!

Now that I've been looking some more, it seems you might not need to have a special hard drive after all. According to one site that goes into a LOT of detail about "hacking" your TiVo:

TiVo uses standard off the shelf IDE hard drives. This makes the hard drive upgrade easy, since you can go to any computer shop and buy an IDE drive.
Click to expand...

This info was updated as of late last year, so it's probably relevant. Still, you might wanna do your homework before trying anything. You can go to Yahoo (or I'm sure any search engine) and look up TiVo. There's lots of info & sales offers out there. Boy, who knew being a couch potato was such hard work :D :D :D
 
yeah you can use any ide hard drive...

the upgrade companies use maxtor because they are relatively cheap....

I am hoping to find a a good unit out there so I can get this tivo to working for me.. I saw one at the pawn shop a while ago.. I am gonna go back and see if they still got it....
 
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