TiVo TCD652160 HD Digital Video Recorder
by TiVo
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Category: Home Theater
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Digital Photo Product Details
Manufacturer: TiVoBrand: TiVo
Edition: Electronics
Model: TCD652160
Color: Black
Publisher: TiVo
Studio: TiVo
Music Label: TiVo
Product features:
- Controls cable TV with record, pause, rewind and fast-forward in HD
- Records two HD channels at once, while watching another recorded show
- 160GB internal hard drive records up to 20 hours of high definition programming (or 180 hours of standard definition)
- Video output modes include: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i
- Sources supported , Digital cable, Analog cable, Digital antenna (ATSC), Analog antenna and broadband content.
- AmazonBasics High-Speed HDMI Cable (9.8 Feet/3.0 Meters) [Supports 3D + Audio Return Channel]
- AmazonBasics High-Speed HDMI Cable (6.5 Feet/2.0 Meters)[Supports 3D + Audio Return Channel][OLD MODEL]
- AmazonBasics Ultra-High-Speed HDMI Cable Braided (9.8 Feet/3.0 Meters)
- AmazonBasics High-Speed HDMI Braided Cable (6.5 Feet/2.0 Meters)
- AmazonBasics 3RCA Component Video Cable (6 Feet)
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of TiVo TCD652160 HD Digital Video Recorder
Customer Review: Multi-room viewing, closed captions, same easy interface, and quick, easy installation make this DVR a gem
Summary: 5 Stars
Summation first, exposition last (if you want to wade through the wall of text, I promise to make it interesting, as best I can!):
1. A few users have complained about the DVR freezing up. I haven't had it long enough to speak to this issue, but some have complained that this is endemic with TiVo in general. Having had two Series 2 boxes for several years, and never a problem with either, I would say that any failure falls into the "acceptable failure percentage" of any product. Nothing is perfect. Even the best made cars malfunction, infrequently, five miles out of the lot.
2. That said, the TiVo dual tuner I bought a couple of years back didn't work. Neither did the three replacements they sent. Obviously, that was a poorly designed and released piece of hardware.
3. Read the material before the cable installer comes out. You'll want to have gone through the Guided Setup first. If you don't, you'll make the cable tech late for the rest of their appointments, and we all know how much we love it when the cable tech is late for *our* appointment.
4. Quick and easy pre-setup (before cable tech comes to install card).
5. Quick and easy cable card setup.
6. Multi-room viewing is immediate--all I did was plug in my TiVo wireless adapter, enter the encryption code during setup, and it recognized the box in the other room the first time I pulled up the "Now Playing" list.
7. It does a better job of providing closed captions than the cable box did (as I detail below, captioning is not available through the TV on the component or HDMI inputs). You can change the size, font, foreground and background color, and more. I wish there was a selection for a transparent background so that I could use yellow (I've found that yellow vs. white subtitles on DVDs are usually easier to read), but I'm not complaining. For the first time, I have *options* as to how I want to view the captions.
8. The "save to" function that one reviewer complained or wondered about isn't only for VHS, it's also for saving to DVD, if you have a DVD recorder. That reviewer wondered why this was an option, and I think the answer is obvious. If you're a Boston Red Sox fan, you might want to have all of their World Series games on DVD--or even VHS--for posterity. I know that I record certain sporting events. Others might choose movies.
9. There is a very, very small lag when returning to the "Now Playing" screen, but it has more to do with the TiVo interpreting/converting the incoming signal (480p, 780p, 1080i, 1080p). Really not a big deal, and hardly worth complaining about, although in a perfect world, there would be no lag.
10. Make sure to specifically request a multi-stream card (M-Card). The rep on the phone probably won't know what that is, so you may need to speak with a supervisor. My installer didn't know the difference between a single stream and multi-stream card, but luckily the card he had said M-Card in big, bold letters, so I knew what I was getting, even if he didn't know what he was installing. I didn't chalk that up to his incompetence, btw. Rather, inexperience. This is, to many people, brand new technology.
11. I like that the lights on the front tell us if one show is recording (one red light), if two are recording (two red lights), or if a show is transferring from one box to the other (one blue light). Native or Hybrid image selection is also displayed, along with the appropriate screen resolution. It's too small to see if you're sitting six feet away from the TV, but having that information available is helpful. It allowed me to troubleshoot the only problem I had with TiVo, and that was making the choice between Native or Hybrid, as the TV manual didn't provide me with the necessary information. Time and date would be nice, but as we kept our cable box for OnDemand functionality, and it displays the time, it's not a big issue.
12. My only real complaint is storage space. We'll have to pay close attention to any series that might have a "marathon run", like some of those ridiculous reality shows, and make sure that the Now Playing list is tidied up. There's only 20 hours of High Def recording space available. TiVo restricts our ability to expand by forcing us to use only one specific external storage unit made by Western Digital (that isn't, frustratingly, available on Amazon). Western Digital makes several of these units. Why limit your customers to one? I'm sure it's a support issue, to make their jobs easier, but choice would be nice.
Exposition:
Our 46" Sony TV manufactured in 1995 and that survived a flood, and which I stubbornly held onto even though the picture quality left much to be desired, finally gave up the ghost a couple of months ago, so we used the Amazon gift cards we received for birthday and X-mas presents to buy the Samsung HLT5076S 50" UltraSlim 1080p DLP HDTV. We immediately fell in love with the picture--of course--but bemoaned that because we only had a Series 2 TiVo, that we wouldn't be able to get the full use of the television. That immediately led me to look at this TiVo DVR, but some of the reviews here scared me off, even the positive ones. Specifically, that there was no multi-room viewing, and the cable cards were giving people problems. Also, and most importantly, when I spoke to Comcast about the cable card that they were required to provide by law, I was informed on at least three separate occasions, by three different people, that the cards only allowed access up to channel 99. This seemed collusive, as well as counter-intuitive. Do they really make that much of a profit renting boxes? I would imagine that they spend a fair amount of money--if not a LOT of money--replacing, for free, boxes that are destined to either fail or become outdated as technology moves full speed of ahead, disregarding, it seems, the laws of physics. The cable card issue was also a concern that I had seen posted here on Amazon, and so I decided to wait.
Then on a lark, I called Comcast one last time to check into the functionality of the cable card. It just didn't make sense to me, for the reason I noted above. The representative I spoke to said that I could get all regular and high def channels (high def all being above channel 100), but that I couldn't get my premium channels, HBO or Showtime. Frustrated, I asked her to confirm this with a supervisor, and when she came back she said that ALL channels were available through the cable card with the exception of OnDemand. THAT made sense, as OnDemand is something offered specifically through Comcast.
And it sold me. I used the rest of our "account" to buy this DVR.
We had a few problems with HDTV, the biggest being that closed captioning was unavailable on any device hooked up through component or HDMI inputs. As I'm hearing impaired and rely heavily on captions, this was fairly disastrous. To think that we had spent so much "money" to take a step backwards...but then we found out that the cable box itself can provide closed captions, but better yet, when the TiVo was delivered, I thumbed through their manual and found that this TiVo box translates digital closed captions and transmits them to the component or HDMI inputs (which are really the only ones you want to use with HDTV). I was overjoyed.
When the Comcast tech arrived to install the cable card, I was sure that something would go wrong, because with so many different answers it seemed predestined. But nothing went wrong! The only cable cards they're using are the multi-stream cards (M-card) which allow the TiVo to function as a duel tuner. Within ten to twenty minutes, I was up and ready to go. Everything worked as advertised. Two shows recorded at the same time. I was able to watch one show while another was recording. Frankly, I'm not even sure that we need the other Series 2 in the bedroom, but we're keeping it because sometimes shows that *should* have digital captions don't. Most of these seem to be ABCs HD channel. (Shame on them!) So we're recording those shows in analog mode on the other DVR.
The closed captioning was just as good as the TV provides for the "lower-end" inputs, and it had all of the functionality of our old Series 2. We could even transfer shows from one box to the other, so ***multi-room viewing is absolutely possible***.
Ever single concern I had was alleviated, and I remain, as I have been for several years, an extremely satisfied TiVo customer (excepting the week I spent on phone with their tech help folks trying to make a dual tuner box work a couple of years back).
There is no DVR that comes close to TiVo. As any TiVo user knows, TiVo will search and find the programs you tell it to record, regardless of when they are on. So, if Law & Order is moved from Friday to Wednesday, you don't have to remember to tell the DVR that there has been a lineup change, which you do with Comcast's DVR, and other DVRs that I'm aware of. Either DirectTV or Dish is advertising a box that's better than TiVo, but I'll believe it when I see it.
Description of TiVo TCD652160 HD Digital Video Recorder
Introducing TiVo HD, the digital video recorder that combines the intelligence of the TiVo service with the razor-sharp clarity of HD recording. Designed as a universal cable box to work with any cable provider, the TiVo HD box also offers network connectivity, delivering the best of broadcast and broadband TV, right to your living room.Digital Cameras and Photo Categories
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