Okay, so we had HD hooked up through Time Warner -- this is our first foray into HDTV -- even our first generation Sony Trinitron HDTV looks great. We've had the TV for 5+ years, just now hooked it up. Sad, I know. Our Pioneer 50 inch will be hooked up next week -- by hlaustin's crew btw (hornfans poster). Anyway, to the crux of the matter -- I freaking love TiVo, not DVR, but TiVo. Problem, with HD, I can't stand the picture quality of my Series 2 TiVo anymore. It may be the component cables I hooked up last night, but I doubt it. Anyway, the TiVo HD box is an unbelievable $800. I'm not sure the format is worth that much to me. So, I'm thinking Time Warner's DVR... what do people here think, especially in light of the quality of the HD signal??
A good alternative (and one I'll be going to when we move to our new house in August) is to get DirecTV, and then search ebay for the HiDef DirecTV TiVo. You can get them for around $300-$400 or so, and it's a real TiVo, only with two tuners for satellite. In the meantime, I'm using the TW DVR (which sucks, btw) in the living room on the HD set, and my regular TiVo in the bedroom on our TV there.
The TW HD DVR is a decent unit. There's room for improvement, but it does the job. And, you can add an external hard drive and extend the recording time up to more than 80 hrs of HD content if you want. The good thing is there's no initial investment or long term obligation. Just sign up for a month and see what you think. Be sure to get the HD package, too.
The problem with the DirecTV HD Tivo units is that they will soon be obsolete when they change to different satellites. I'm not looking forward to switching to a crappy non-Tivo DVR.
I was in the same situation you were in a month ago. Had a Tivo for two years (non-HD TV). We bought our first HD TV before the b-ball tournament and couldn't figure out what to do about DVRs. Bottom line: the TW DVR approaches OU levels of suckitude. It gets the job done (HD quality TV that you can pause and rewind) but the interface is just absolutely horrible. I can go into more detail if you want, but just realize it's a major step down from the greatness that is Tivo. Unfortunately, I can't bring myself to spend $800 on a series 3 Tivo.
If there is any way you can justify splurging on the Series 3 TiVo, I'd do it. The Time Warner HDDVR gets the job done but definitely sucks *** in comparison. You can probably get a Series 3 TiVo for under $600 on eBay BTW.
I loved tivo too... I still have it on my bedroom HD tv with directv... The problem, like someone said, is that they'll be switching to new satellites and all signals will be on MP4... the tivo receivers can't handdle that... you'll get the channels, but not all of them, and not at best picture... I gave up and finally upgraded to the newest HDDVR (HR20 I think) and it's growing on me... it has some good features. The one thing that bothers me still is the lack of "dual buffer"- thats when it temp. records the live program on both tunners, and you can switch back and forth and be able to rewind...
wow. I'm completely depressed now. It seems like I should go with the TW DVR for HD quality but losing TiVo and its greatness as confirmed here is like losing a loved one. I just can't justify $800. I guess I'll go month to month with TW and if the prices go down, maybe I'll pick one up for $400 to $500 later. Plus, I noticed TiVo uped their monthly rates. $12.95 per month now requires a 3 year committment.
Guys, I'm in a similar boat. I am moving to Colorado, and am keeping my subscription to DirecTV. However, I haven't had DVR or TiVo or anything. My options are thus: 1. Sign up for HD/DVR from DirecTV. This requires a "lease" of the equipment for $299. Plus a monthly fee of $5.99. 2. Buy a TiVo receiver and pay the monthly fee to DirecTV. With the change in satellites pending, does it make sense to lease the receiver so you automatically get the right equipment? Or should I take a chance and buy?
If your going with Directv, lease the new DVR so you can get the new HD channels which are scheduled to launch within the next few months. They have worked out a lot of the bugs in the new DVR and it does the job for me. BTW, Directv's new satellite is scheduled to launch July 6. The Link
The S3 Tivo uses cablecard tech, which means you are going to get screwed in austin with TW. You won't get all the TW HD channels, and in the future, as more of the feeds switch over to SDV, its going to be even more of a headache. The best solution right now is to just go with the TW HD DVR. I have an 8300 and does the job. Nothing fancy, but gets it done. As much as I hate TW and am looking for an exit strategy, it really is the best/only option for me right now.
Man, I'm still using my DirecTV HD Tivo, but the more I read about the new HR20 HD DVR they are going to unleash on everyone, the more I'm convinced that its a total piece of ****. Very depressing.
Time Warner DVR is pretty crappy. I sorely miss the TiVo feature where you fast forward and then hit play and it bounces back a few seconds. I sorely miss the searching features of TiVo. I miss the quarter hour breaks on a recorded show. I sorely miss the feature where the current show records for 30 minutes whether you're watching a recorded show or live TV. The positives are I didn't pay hundreds of dollars for HD recording and it has solid capacity.
I have both of these units -- the Series 3 Tivo and the TW crappy DVR. Setting price aside for a moment, there just is no comparison. TW DVR is like using MS DOS, and the Tivo is like using MS Windows. The search functions, automatically recording things I like, plus the simplistic and intuitive user interface make using Tivo a joy. With the TW DVR, I kind of have to hack my way through pressing "A" "B" or "C" to get it to do what I want. It is one of the least friendly consumer products on the market. Yes, Tivo Series 3 does use cablecard technology, which does not allow you to watch switched video technology. I live in Austin, and there are only a couple of channels I can't get, and I'm not that worried about it. So, that leaves cost. Costco has Series 3s for $600 if you're interested. Still expensive, but not that bad.
got rid of the DVR and have been using firewire from the standard Time Warner HD box for about 9 months now. I can record all the HD channels including the premiums. MCE and Vista MCE have the greatest interface out there for tv. Great solution that I knew nothing about a year ago.
