Anyone Have Tivo?

Does anyone here have a Tivo (series 2 mainly) if so, I got some questions,

1. When the Tivo dailups to do the daily updates does it use a tollfree number or local number, or does it cost each time it dails up?

2. How long would you say are the updates when Tivo dails up?

3. If you have a 40gig one or 80gig, about how much time is that in recording time? I know it says 40hrs for 40gig and so on, but someone told me its only 40hrs on low quality, is that true?

4. Is there a way to manually record a show, say I want to watch a sports game and its info says to record from 1:00pm to 2:00 but the game goes on to 2:30 is there a way for the tivo to continue recording?

5. I saw there is no network port in the back of the Tivo, so I guess that means you have to use dailup, but what are the usb connectors for and can you hook them up to another say Tivo or PC and transfer recorded shows?

6. What are some Pro's and Con's of the Tivo?

Thanks if you can answer any of those questions, I'd appreciate it.

#45964

TiVo Series 2 - 80 GB Here...

@ 1 - Not Sure, I Think It's Free.

@ 2 - Updates Take Merely A Few Minutes, And Then It's Done. Has Never Tied Up The Phone For Me.

@ 3 - Yah, That's True. I Have An 80 Gig, And Use High Quality. It Will Delete The Oldest Programs, Unless You Till It To Save It. This Feature Works Great Though, Although It Sounds Kinda Bad.

@ 4 - Hrmm, Yes Kind Of. Usually TiVo Will Know If It's Overtime, But You Can Always Tell It To Start Or End Like 30 or 45 Minutes Later, Although If You Are Recording Something After The Football Game, It Might Have A Conflict, But Shouldn't Unless It's Right After The Football Game, On Another Channel. But Once Again, One Of The Dreaded Things That RARELY Happens.

@ 5 - Yes I Beleive You Can Transfer Shows To Your PC. Someone Also Told Me They'll Be Used For Future Features. Not Sure About Transfering Between TiVos.

@ 6 - Well Cons, Somewhat Of A Channel Switching Slowdown, Because I Use Digital Cable. But I Don't Ever Notice It, Because I Rarely Watch TV. Heh. Umm... TiVo is really great. I Love The Season Pass! Records All Episodes Of A Show Thorought The Season. Umm.. It's So Great, I Love It, And Know You Will To!

* Hope That Helps!

#45967

awesome, since you got the 80gig one, about how much recording time can you get with it on highquality and how does the highquality differ from high and normal?

thanks though, all this helps

#45969

TiVo is F#$%ing great!!! Best thing since sliced bread. Yeah...sometimes if a show goes long it'll cut it off but it's so much better than a VCR. I"ve probably recorded 3 shows in my entire life with a VCR, with TiVo, I have a Season Pass recording all sorts of stuff...just in case I might want to watch it. I say....go for it.

Oh...and a really cool feature is the ability to pause/rewind a show you are recording.

#45970

Unforunately, in our country, they don't do Tivo. But one thing I know about is recording video to drives. High-quality (broadcast) recordings are about 10 gigs per hour of video. DVD or Mpeg2 standards are about 5 gigs per hour of video. Lower quality means that you will see a lot of artifacting or larger pixels more often. I do believe though that the 1gig/hour low quality setting might still be similar to VHS recording which is still better than what you see if you were watching from a white-book VideoCD.

#45972

You should consider encoding compression in regard to source material.

For example, H.264 (did get these numbers right?) hardly make sense for normal TV or even DVD, since its better... So the question of time/quality should be calculted from case to case .

Have fun,

McTrinsic

#46008

techtv has some tivo hacks you might want to read timan

also many MANY people have modded their tivo (aka taken the hard drive out...put in a 200 gig or something like that...)...so you might want to think about doing this if you want high quality and a big storage space

and this smiley :rant: is fricken hilarious

#46433

You may wish to check out the Tivo Community Forum for just about anything.

#46458

Got a TiVo here.

Put a 120GB HDD in it too (since it originally had 40), was well easy to do, there are specifically written apps to help lock/unlock the drives etc.

It will keep recording a show if its duration is extended.

PROS's: Excellent, basically. HDD can be upgraded. If you start recording a show mid way through, if the TiVo has been on the same channel it will jump back and record from 30 mins before. So handy when watching a footy match, you'll never miss any goals again...

CON's: Production of them has stopped, so no new drivers / updates will not be released. If Thompson decide at any point support may dissapear also. Takes AGES when flicking through the channels via the TiVo, you increment the channel on Sky and it literally takes a few seconds (believe me it gets VERY annoying).

Also, you may want to consider getting a Hauppage USB Digital TV 'card' (external). It costs £150 and has all of the features of the TiVo, but does it through your PC. My mate has one and its a great piece of kit.

#46461

Why someone would PAY for TV, and to watch on a small screen is beyond me..

#46505

Originally posted by Timan@Aug 7 2003, 08:14 PM

awesome, since you got the 80gig one, about how much recording time can you get with it on highquality and how does the highquality differ from high and normal?

thanks though, all this helps

not sure, i just always record on high quality, and it deletes old shows (from like weeks before) when its nessacary...

#46508