Question for Tivo Owners. (1 Viewer)

[Nick]

I was just wondering if you could use the Tivo without subscribing the service. Can you manually program the show or it just can't be done that way.
Does Tivo has Hi def recorder ?

 

[Stephen Tu]

Yes, for DirecTV only at this time. The cable compatible model is probably coming out within a few months. It's probably going to be rather expensive though. For the time being, if you have HDTV, I recommend renting DVR from cable company rather than getting a Tivo.

 

[Robert_J]

Technically no. The DirecTV HR10-250 (HD DirecTivo) is not a Tivo. It is a DirecTV DVR that runs Tivo software. You get most of the Tivo features but not all. On the other hand, it is the only thing that is close right now. The Series 3 Tivo will be coming out soon. It will record via digital cable using CableCard technology and OTA using ATSC tuners. It will not be compatible with any of the satellite services. Also, Comcast should have their DVR powered by Tivo software out soon. No one has seen it so we don't know if the features are scaled back from the true Tivos.

-Robert

 

[Nick]

Thanks guys.
Well, I have Sony DHG-HDD500 model and I love it. It uses TV guide to program the show. It's free so you have to tweak it a little bit (I have to put an indoor antenna pointing to PBS analog station in my area. For some reason guide don't get loaded fast enough with cable). Now the guide is loaded 7-8 days in advance. Manual programming is not a big issue for me. You pretty much do it once anyway if you are recording weeky show. TV guide menu is very easy once you get used to the features.
I was thinking of getting Tivo for my parents but I don't think they want to pay the monthly fee thing though and DHG-HDD500 is way too expensive and it's very hard to find nowaday.

 

[dany]

I have a basic Hughes TiVo and can program it just like a vcr. Day,time and ch. and how long.

 

[Stephen Tu]

The question was "manual programming without paying for the service", not just "manual programming". Current Tivos are basically doorstops without the service, all you can do is pause live TV. Buying Tivo is buying the service; they are giving away the hardware these days.

$399 gets you an 80hr dual tuner Tivo + 3 years prepaid service, after which you have to pay monthly to continue usage. This is competitive with what I'm paying for my cable DVR, $15/month extra. It mainly boils down to whether you need HD or not in that timespan. For strictly analog the Tivo solution is cheaper, better, more powerful. For HD, we'll have to wait and see how much they are going to ask for the series 3.

It's too bad that Tivo did away with their lifetime service options, good for the consumer but I guess bad for the company since no continuing revenue. They probably didn't anticipate their boxes would remain in service so long, my series 1 from 1999 is still chugging along nicely at my mother's house.

 

[dany]

No. I dont need any service to get to the menu, put in sat,10am,channel 4 1hr,30min. Am i misunderstanting?

 

[Stephen Tu]

Yes, you are misunderstanding. You *do* have service. You are paying for DirecTV service aren't you? You are paying a "DVR service fee" to DirecTV of ~$4.99/month (think it recently went up to $5.99/month). Tivo gets a cut of this fee for DirecTV subscribers using Tivo DVRs. If you stopped paying this fee (assuming your account flagged appropriately), you wouldn't be able to set up manual recordings, you'd only be able to watch in live TV buffer mode, and watch previously recorded shows.

Current Tivo standalone DVRs & DirecTV w/Tivo DVRs won't do recording without these service fees (much higher for standalone than DirecTV). Only the oldest standalone Tivos, series 1, the old Phillips + Sony models, can function (beyond pause live TV feature) without the service.

 

[dany]

Well heck,i didnt know that.

 

[Michael_K_Sr]

Seems like yesterday that I got my first TiVo unit (Series2) even though it's going on four years now. I've justified not getting an HDTV up until now because I laid out a nice amount of cash to upgrade the Series 2 box after I got it. But I'm salivating over the Series 3 units. Those alone will get me into the store to buy my first HDTV. Once I have both HDTV and a Seires 3 box, my existing TiVo unit will go to my mom as well.