 "Think twice" | 2009-06-08 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1KKUMD9Z4FCD5 |
The TIVO HD is a piece of junk. It's sluggish, channel changes are slow, and the Internet features work poorly.
What's worse: I bought it, returned it, canceled the Tivo service (if you don't call to cancel they will keep charging you $14/mo!), but they kept charging me even though I haven't owned the hardware for 5 months! I called to cancel again months later and they want to charge me a $150 early termination fee. For what? They gor their hardware back 5 months ago and I'm paying for nothing! Avoid. Go with DirecTV HD DVR! |
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| "Unreliable. One unit died after 1.5yrs, another after 9 months." | 2009-05-12 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1KE2JCSP37SQJ |
| Multiple units have proven unreliable. We ordered this product and transferred an old lifetime service (for $150 tranfer fee) to this machine. The hard drive died in about a year and a half. Tivo replaced with a refurb. model (for ~$100 fee) and transferred lifetime service. New unit lasted about 8 months and Tivo now (as of 5/09) charges a $200 "transfer fee" for lifetime service that they will not waive (plus $49 +s/h for the replacement unit), even though the reason for the transfer is a substandard product. Have been very happy and long-term Tivo customer (have 3 other non-Series 3 units in the house) until now, but are switching the Tivo HD DVR to a DVR provided by our cable provider. Tivo sells an unreliable product that breaks down in <2 years and has the audacity to charge the customer additional fees to obtain the same service on the same unreliable product. Disappointing. |
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| "A PREVIOUSLY loyal TIVO customer..." | 2009-01-31 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2LM6OJSZE8YNH |
We bought a HD TIVO in November 2008. We have 3 standard definition TIVOs, networked, throughout our home, and LOVE the interface. But I had always wanted one capable of recording in HD. We finally saved up enough money, and....
TIVO HD was nothing but a nightmare from day one. Half of this was due to the cable company and CABLE CARDS. CABLE CARDS ARE A HORRIBLE WAY FOR THE MOVIE/TV INDUSTRY TO "PROTECT" THEIR CONTENT. The CABLEVISION (NJ) tech that came out was cynical about how the card would work, and he was right. 50% of the HD channels simply did not work with the TIVO HD. We returned the useless CABLE CARD, and sent back the TIVO HD unit.
TIVO (the company) was the other half of our problem. Once I had returned the TIVO HD, I forgot about the 1-year service contract. HUGE MISTAKE. Three months later, I remembered to cancel the service. Because it was outside the trial period, THEY COULD NOT REFUND ANYTHING, and they did us a "favor" by not charging us an early cancellation fee. After an hour on the phone, we finally got 41 dollars back. They kept 59 dollars, for nothing.
Every day now I think about cancelling ALL our TIVO service and living with the lousy CABLEVISION DVR. At least I know they're going to screw me... |
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 "Will never go back to the cable company boxes" | 2009-01-16 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2GEJKL68K1PWS |
I purchased the Series3 a few months after it was first released.
It took a few days of waiting for Comcast to arrive to install the cableCARDs (at the time, they required a service call), and some initial trouble when the technician clearly didn't understand how to install cable cards. But once it was up and running, the TiVo is an amazing device.
The search, scheduling and recommendation functionality is just amazing and much better than the standard DVR's being offered by Comcast.
Never again do I need to wait around for a show to air - in the 2+ years I've been using this, it has never "missed" a show - it always records them reliably.
I expanded my unit by buying and plugging in an external 1TB eSATA hard drive. Now there is MUCH more storage and my recordings are saved for longer. A highly recommended and easy upgrade.
The only downside is that some menus in the system are a little slow to load (i.e. when searching), and TiVo seems to insist on sticking little advertisements in various menus which shouldn't be there (I'm paying a monthly subscription fee - I don't want to see advertisements on a subscription-based system!).
Keep in mind that in addition to buying the TiVo, you'll need to pay a monthly or annual subscription fee to keep it running (the fee is for guide data and online account management).
Also, on-demand services from your cable company are not currently supported, but this is something that I have never personally wanted to used. TiVo (in partnership with Amazon and Netflix) now offers many on-demand services at more reasonable prices than the cable company, so this is not a problem. |
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 "TiVo - Love / Hate Relationship " | 2008-11-19 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3KYAFM00BDH1W |
Ok - here goes !
First - The Love:
* TiVo's best feature- its great being able to watching programs on "your" schedule and not the "TV program" schedule.
* Skipping thru the junk and commercials is heaven.
You can watch 2 or 3 programs using TiVo in the same time you watch
one live show.
* Menus are easy to use and it's "smart" ! TiVo can find your programs, advise if you have recording conflicts, has a program recommendation feature based on your preferences, can download movies from Amazon and Netflix, watch You Tube, and a whole list of great feature that is growing.
* Dual channel HD is very nice and Tivo is addictive !
It will drive you nuts to have to watch a "live" program once your use to Tivo and you will soon be buying another unit once the other family members horde in on "your TiVo" - lol.
Now the Hate:
* DO NOT purchase the lifetime subscription service !!
Unless you're a addicted gambler or a fool - there is a very very good chance you will be parted from a huge (400.00) chunk of your wallet. The service subscription is for the life of the "unit" and
--- TiVo reliability is abysmal !!! ---
Some research on diff web forums as well as TiVo's 30 day replacement (no charge) and 1 yr limited replacement (min of 40.00 charge) will attest to the this.
* I bought 2 TiVo HD units and both have failed in the first year. I have read a lot of reviews about folks having units for years with no problems - but beware..
there are also a LOT of units that have had problems, been replaced multiple times, and or just become useless after the 1 year limited warranty is up.
* And if you are thinking - Wow what a great rebate !
O-boy... another disaster ! Several calls to customer service, rebate service, tech service, and the janitor and you may finally get it. Let me know cause I'm still waiting.
As much as I love the Tivo when its working,
I would not recommend this unit to anyone due to very lousy warranty and reliability. And PLEASE don't get sucked into buying a "lifetime" Tivo subscription unless you like just love to gamble or waste money !!!
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 "Great But Caveat Emptor!" | 2008-10-01 |
| - Reviewed By rjoseph@erols.com |
I am an early adopter and bought the HD Series 3 when it first came out. For programming, it can't be beat. Tivo, and particularly the online scheduling feature, make the cable company provided DVR's look pathetic. Picture quality is great, everything great. However....
You must be aware that some cable companies broadcast certain HD channels in what is called Switched Digital Video (SDV)format. This is a two-way format designed, in theory, for interactive operations between the viewer and the channel. Tivo does not support SDV! That means that on my cable system, Cox, I cannot receive many HD channels including NFL Network and about 6 or 7 more.
Tivo has created and is testing a device that will interface between the Tivo USB port and the cable line to solve this problem. It was supposed to be available early this year. However, as of this writing (October 2008) it is still being tested according to Tivo tech support.
So buy an HD Tivo by all means. You'll love it. But be prepared not to be able to receive certain HD channels until the dongle is available if your cable provider broadcasts those channels in SDV. |
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