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Anyone Replace Their CableBox W/ HD Tivo Box

#1
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5/31/08 at 7:42pm
  • Joined: August 2001
  • Post Count: 1,191
Has anyone bought the $299 Tivo HD Receiver to replace their HD Cable DVR Box? Is it worth it? I know i have to get a cable card from my cable company but it beats paying to rent the box every month right? Any help/ advice greatly appreciated.


Thanks,
Dalton
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#2
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6/1/08 at 4:23am
  • Joined: June 2006
  • Location: Burlington, MA
  • Post Count: 678

Re: Anyone Replace Their CableBox W/ HD Tivo Box

There are advantages and disadvantages.

First, the deal is really $698. $299 for the TiVo HD, and then $399 for TiVo service. That's typically the three-year service price, but you can now get lifetime service on the TiVo HD for $399. Then, on top of that you pay the CableCARD rental to the cable company.

The TiVo is a great device, but note that a small percentage of folks have a very hard time getting CableCARDs to work. Also, while many features of the TiVo are substantially better than most cable company DVRs, there are some features where the cable company DVRs are better. (Which ones depend on which cable company and which DVR they're using.)

Generally, I'm pretty pro-TiVo, but I just want you to realize that no one is giving anything away, in this marketplace. TiVo is better roughly in line with how much more expensive it is; it is not cheaper.
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#3
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6/1/08 at 6:21pm
  • Joined: August 2001
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Re: Anyone Replace Their CableBox W/ HD Tivo Box

Thanks Brian. I figured there would be some tradeoffs. I am going to have to ponder it further.
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#4
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6/2/08 at 1:01pm
  • Joined: April 1999
  • Post Count: 1,573

Re: Anyone Replace Their CableBox W/ HD Tivo Box

It takes a really long time to come out economically ahead on the Tivo. But it is a better box. The main things I like:
- expandable storage (crucial, I was always running out of space on the Comcast DVR)
- much better searching & auto-record features
- can transfer shows to PC & back (though this can be blocked on certain channels)
- HD downloadable movies coming soon, SD already available
- can play MP3 & display photos from connected PC.
- generally more reliable

The only big drawback is lack of VOD (I don't care, at least how it is now, the free stuff I'm not interested or have seen, the new stuff is too expensive vs. going through Netflix), and issues with areas using "SDV", switched digital video, until their companion USB box comes out to deal with the SDV.
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#5
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6/2/08 at 2:17pm
  • Joined: June 2006
  • Location: Burlington, MA
  • Post Count: 678

Re: Anyone Replace Their CableBox W/ HD Tivo Box

I agree that the TiVo HD is a better box, but to be fair, we need to keep a few things in mind.

The expandable storage doubles the risk of loss of data. Also, many of us have noted that pixelation, one-minute (truncated) recordings, and similar problems are more prevalent with the eSATA drive engaged. (And some people report that they have no such problems.)

The ability to transfer recordings to PC (TTG) and between TiVos (MRV) is great, but there are a lot of things to know about those features as well. First, for many of us, the transfer from PC back to TiVo simply doesn't work. This is a long-standing, known bug. There are some hacks you can apply to each file, manually, on your PC hard drive, to get over the problem, but that's pretty complicated and annoying. Also note that TiVo will not transfer Copy Once flagged programming, not even once. For many of us, that means we cannot transfer anything off the Travel Channel (ADS version, and presumably HD version when that arrives), Science Channel, and several other channels.

The downloadable movies is another neat feature that there are things new purchasers should know about. Amazon Unbox doesn't support closed captioning for the hearing impaired. Furthermore, they've made not commitment to do so, nor any commitment to prompt content suppliers to provide closed captioned versions of content once they do support closed captions.

There is nothing about the TiVo search and auto-record features that is not better than everything else out there.
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