TiVo TCD652160 HD Digital Video Recorder
by TiVo
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List Price: Our Price: $39.98 You Save: $210.01 (84%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Home Theater See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of TiVo TCD652160 HD Digital Video Recorder
Customer Review: HD recording from antenna is a breeze.
Summary: 5 Stars
First, I need to inform you that all of my home television programming comes from an antenna on my roof. No cable or satellite whatsoever.
When the Series 3 debuted earlier this year, I contacted TiVo about recording two HD channels at the same time from an antenna and was told that would not occur. That one would be in HD and the other in standard definition. That, along with the price made me pass on this unit.
When the TiVo HD came along, I contacted TiVo again and was told by one technician that it WOULD record two HD shows and by another that it would not. With the cheaper price, I decided to give it a try and am glad that I did so.
I am happy to report that this unit will definitely record two high definition programs at the same time from an antenna. No splitters, amplifiers or other hardware. Just plug it into the Antenna connector on back of the box.
Setup and activation was easy. The most difficult part was figuring out the maze of cables behind my TV and Stereo amplifier, but that is hardly TiVo's fault. I already had it set up when I called to activate the box. When I got off the phone and turned it on, it was ready to download the Guide. Very hassle free.
The remote, while nothing fancy, has a good layout of buttons and is programmable so that it will turn my TV on and allow me to change its inputs while the volume and mute buttons control my amplifier. About the only other thing I need for it to do is actually turn the stereo on. But getting up once to turn on the stereo is a small price to pay for being able to record HD programs and pause live TV.
On some forums users have been reporting macro-blocking and pixelation when using some cable cards. I have no experience with that, but can report that I have not seen this problem using an antenna. In fact, I see no difference at all in the quality of the broadcast than I did when the signal went directly to my television.
After a bit over a week's use I have no complaints at all with the product or service and would recommend it to others.
Customer Review: Expensive, but worth it
Summary: 5 Stars
Ever since I bought an HDTV several years ago and discovered just how pristine over the air (OTA) programming can be, I've wanted a solution for recording high definition. Unfortunately, there aren't many solutions to choose from, especially when a) you don't want to pay for cable or b) pay a monthly service fee. I have some friends who use MythTV on their PCs to achieve this, but that solution seems like a hassle and is about the same cost as a Tivo with a lifetime subscription. I've also used EyeTV on my Mac with success, but getting a second Mac in the living room seemed like overkill.
Finally, when Tivo brought back their lifetime subscription ($400), I decided to take the plunge. With the hardware (Tivo + Wifi adapter) and subscription, it came to about $650, which is expensive, but worth it. It does it's primary job well and has some nice extras to boot.
Favorite features:
* The dual tuners are essential.
* The Netflix "watch instantly" feature works well and is a nice bonus for Netflix subscribers. The instant library is still limited, but growing, and great when you're waiting for a new DVD in the mail. The quality is near-DVD with my 3 Mbps internet connection.
* The remote is well designed and easy to use.
Minor annoyances:
* Slight lag when navigating certain menus
* A larger internal hard drive would be nice.
* Links to adds appear when you pause and as an item in some menus. They're easy enough to avoid, but come on, I'm paying for this already!
* The Tivo is on and recording at all times, by design. I kinda wish it was in standby when not recording something I explicitly asked for.
* You can speed through commercials, but there's no automatic commercial skip.
* If you pause or leave it on a menu for too long, the Tivo begins playing. I don't know if this is related to the 30 minute buffer or to prevent burn-in on some displays or what, but I'd prefer is this behavior could be disabled.
Customer Review: We finally bought Tivo HD !!
Summary: 5 Stars
We purchased a new 42" HDTV nearly two years ago but couldn't afford the high priced Tivo Series3 HD DVR so we just used our Series2 during all that time. We were getting NO HD to the TV, just 480i although our Cable provider was sending HD.... well along comes TivoHD at a price we finally can afford so we bought one. I can't believe we went so long without HD Tivo, but we did. Let me point out that although the TivoHD unit provides true High Def. it's major restrictions is that it does NOT use the Cable BOX but only two HD CableCards supplied by your Cable provider which are not "two-way", meaning you can no longer purchase movies or events from your Cable provider (this is a function of the CableCards and not the TivoHD). It is also NOT compatible with Satellite at all, but it does have an Antenna input. When I was setting the TivoHD unit up, I re-used the Linksys wireless adapter from my Tivo Series2 and I got an error message it is "incompatible" with TivoHD and I must ONLY use the "Tivo Brand" wireless adapter which Tivo sells as well as other retailers. Tivo cleverly "designed" the TivoHD that it ONLY uses their own adapter so I had to purchse one. I purchased one from Amazon, it arrived a few days later and works fine. TivoHD has an "e-sata" connector for an external Hard Drive which also is a "special unit" made by Western Digital (cannot use just any external e-sata HD) that is compatible, endorsed and approved by Tivo. I noticed that when using my Computer and Tivo Desktop software to "bring over" and store Tivo programs from the TivoHD onto the computer, ALL the High Def. programs and many others (non-HD) I recorded said they were "copy protected" and we NOT allowed to be moved off the TivoHD. I guess this too is another "clever design" Tivo has incorporated to force you to buy the special WD "DVR Extender" external Hard Drive, to store programs that exceed the native TivoHD internal capacity. Other than that, I am very pleased with my new TivoHD unit.Customer Review: It's a TIVO
Summary: 5 Stars
After suffering with the Comcast provided HD-DVR (crashes, lost programming, hard to use) I was "called" back to TIVO by the Tivo HD.
Best Features - The Interface - Familiar and friendly makes it easy to search, set up season passes and a Wish List of favorite shows by title, actor, or other search word.
Dual Tuner and HD - this unit has two tuners so I can watch or record two shows at the same time. Either or both can be HD shows and the usual Tivo functions, Pause, REW, FF are available. I programmed a 30-second skip into my Tivo remote control (this is awesome for watching recorded Football games).
Tivo Home Media - I can view my Digital Photos and listen to MP3 on my TV by adding the Tivo wireless (or a wired) network adapter that connects to my home PC via my home network. Viewing my digital photos on my HDTV was a real wow feature at Thanksgiving this year.
Of Note: The bundled Tivo Desktop software requires an upgrade to listen to other audio formats. Also, additioanl software is needed to view any video files (like home movies or other downloaded videos from the web).
Tivo ToGo allows you to transfer Tivo recordings to your PC for viewing on or burning a DVD.
Lastly, despite the price drop, it's not cheap to buy and subscribe to Tivo. Fortunately, with a three year subscription, it brings the cost per month to around $8 which is about $[...] less than Comcast and Amazon has it priced at about $[...] lower than [...], at least as of early Nov 2007.
I'd like to see Tivo improve the process of transfering and watching mpeg and .avi and other video files stored on my PC. It would also be nice to compete with Comcast's OnDemand service, if there were more Free choices via Unbox, like older movies, kids shows and other HD programming.
I do enjoy my Tivo HD and encourage Tivo to continue to update the service, provide new features and stay ahead of the competition.
Paul - Sammamish, WA
Customer Review: Smarter Than Your Average Video Recorder
Summary: 5 Stars
Having been totally disillusioned and disappointed with three Panasonic DMR-EZ48V DVD/VHS Recorders that failed well within their one year warranties, one after the other (yeah, three; just call us eternal optimists), we were desparate to find another product that would provide off-the-air recording and archiving. We had looked at Tivo many years ago, but written it off as a cable-only device. I was very surprised to learn that this product had a built-in digital tuner that could receive digital programming with our rooftop TV antenna. Not only could it receive and display a TV program for viewing, it could also record two other TV programs at the same time! It took the place of two DVD recorders right out of the box!
I was less than enthusiastic about paying an annual fee until I learned all that it could do. Somebody worked overtime to anticipate all the functionality and more that an owner might want. After a week in operation, we ordered and installed a second one - in the kitchen - so that my wife can watch her "soaps" and Oprah while there. Both are connected to our wireless network and DSL for interconnectivity.
Its recording capacity sounded endless - 180 hours of standard TV or 20 hours of HDTV. I didn't account for just about everything being transmitted in HDTV - whether or not you intend to view it that way. It didn't take long for the first "out of memory" alert message. Our safety net was found in the form of the Western Digital "My DVR Expander" with 1TB 600 Hours of Digital SD or 120 Hours of HDTV capacity. We purchased one for each TiVo and haven't seen that warning again (yet).
Our only problem with picture quality is that we are using these TiVos on standard analog TVs and everyone looks tall and slim. This has not been a deal killer, as they are designed to work with flat panel or widescreen TVs. We'll get there.
It was well worth the initial "sticker shock". We love 'em!!