I love my TiVo. It has completely changed the way I watch television. Now, when I want to veg out in front of the tube, I am no longer at the mercy of whatever happens to be on. I watch what I want, when I want -- it's a beautiful thing.
No more missed Sex and the City episodes. No more wondering what happened last week on Survivor. I've got the TiVo Season Pass feature set up for all my favorite shows, so it automatically records them. It even skips repeats. I can also program TiVo to record shows based on my favorite actor, director, sports team, or even by topic. TiVo can also analyze my viewing habits and record suggestions.
One of the coolest features is being able to pause or rewind live TV. Sports fans will particularly enjoy the slow-mo and instant replay features. Being able to fast forward through commercials is a real plus, too. A one-hour show only takes about 40 minutes to watch!
The 80-hour recording time is deceiving though. If you want to record on 'Best' quality, which I recommend you do, then your recording threshold is actually only 24 hours.
One other minor downside is that channel changing is a little bit slow. When you change the channel from your TiVo remote, it sends a signal through sensors that you attach to your cable box. The sensors transmit a signal from TiVo to your cable box telling it which channel to change to. This process creates a slight delay in channel changing. But the benefits of TiVo far outweigh this slight shortcoming, in my opinion.
Setting up TiVo takes about an hour. There are several steps involved, but it's all pretty straightforward. If you get stuck, TiVo customer service is quite good.
You can set up TiVo with the included RF coaxial or composite a/v cables, but I recommend investing in s-video cables, particularly if you're going to be hooking TiVo up to a high-definition television and/or home theater system. The quality of s-video cables is much better.
You need a phone connection to set up TiVo service for the first time. After initial setup, you can hook it up to your broadband or DSL connection. TiVo connects to a server for a few minutes each day to update the programming guide. TiVo supports wireless networks, too.
Service costs $12.95 per month or $299 for a lifetime subscription. The lifetime subscription is only good for the lifetime of the TiVo box though, not your lifetime. So if your box kicks the bucket three months after you buy a lifetime subscription, you're out of luck. I recommend starting out with the monthly subscription first and see how it goes. You can always upgrade your plan later.
For another $99, you can get the TiVo Home Media Option. This upgrade will let you play MP3s that you have stored on your computer and create slide shows from digital photos.
