33 Comments Add your own

• 1. Anonymous  |  March 25th, 2008 at 9:52 pm

  Myth TV would be fun if you’re up for the challenge of the initial setup, but barring that I don’t think there’s anything that would make your pregnant wife happier than a TiVo.

• 2. adm  |  March 25th, 2008 at 9:53 pm

  if you want something that “just works,” then Tivo is the way to go.

  if you want something that has other advantages, use a computer-based solution. i like BeyondTV for Windows and EyeTV for the Mac.

  Fanboys will get on here and tout MythTV, but in my experience it is bloated and unintuitive. (I am impervious to your flames, fanboys.)

• 3. Anonymous  |  March 25th, 2008 at 9:53 pm

  I forgot to add: If you shell out for the Series 3 you can get two CableCards from comcast to handle all the authentication within the TiVo, giving you two-channel simultaneous recording, HD, etc.

  I’m a very happy TiVo user.

• 4. Karl  |  March 25th, 2008 at 10:48 pm

  Soon Comcast, as well as other HD providers, are going to switch “Switched Digital Video”. It has something to do with only providing a channel when you request it, as opposed to it always being there. I hear that Tivo is not compatible with this, so you might want to wait or contact them.

• 5. Anonymous  |  March 25th, 2008 at 11:20 pm

  Click on my name for a thread on the Comcast/SDV/TiVo issue from the folks at Tivo Community.

• 6. Bo Link  |  March 25th, 2008 at 11:22 pm

  My money would go for a used ReplayTV. These things are awesome. With commercial skipping, in-home streaming, Internet sharing, and the ability to download the shows to a PC/Mac, what else do you need?

• 7. Darrien  |  March 25th, 2008 at 11:24 pm

  Amen to hating the Motorola box. Don’t FF in the last 3 mins of a show on that thing!

• 8. Greg  |  March 25th, 2008 at 11:36 pm

  Is satellite an option? I have the DirecTV HR20 and sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s not. I don’t have DISH but I heard awesome appraise for the DishDVR. You could do a MCE (Media Center Extender) but you got to get input cards, hard drive, IR blaster to change channel, CPU with Core 2 processor, etc.

• 9. PBrown  |  March 25th, 2008 at 11:47 pm

  We have the Dish DVR and it is awesome! Two tuners, intelligent programming, and an easy to use interface. It’s smart enough to know that when you select a sports event it should always add 60 minutes in case the game runs long. If there is a show that you know will be on sometime in the future you can put in a “DishPass”, and if that show comes on in 9 months it will rememeber to record it for you, even if you forgot about it. If you choose Dish in Seattle, you’ll have to live without Q13 in HD via satellite, but there’s a pretty good chance you can get it OTA, which is cool because the Dish DVR has a built in OTA tuner that can record just like the satellite tuners, so it’s actually 3 tuners in one box. The thing just works really well. Hopefully you live in a place where you can hang a dish off your house… and one last thing, make sure you get a seperate dish for the 129 satellite, it’s hard to recieve in Seattle because we’re so far north.

• 10. Greg  |  March 25th, 2008 at 11:48 pm

  @ Bo Link

  The commercial skipping feature still exists in TiVos, it’s just not enabled by default. This was done to avoid the lawsuit wrath of the networks.

  To enable, while a recorded show is playing, press “select” “play” “select” “3″ “0″ “select”

  That’s it. Now the 30 second skip button is enabled on your tivo.

• 11. Nate  |  March 26th, 2008 at 3:58 am

  Ironically, I have a Motorola box, but a Moxi, not the junky TV Guide Interactive interface. I get it through Charter and it does pretty much everything except thumbs up-thumbs down recommendations, and runs smoothly. And it has 30-second skip, so you can’t beat that.

  I had a TVGI Motorola box for two days while they tried to find me a new Moxi when my old one in the bedroom broke down in December…never, ever again. I don’t know how Comcasters can stay sane having to suffice with the junky TVGI interface; I only have one box with it right now, but to output HD for my computer (which has component cables into the monitor so I can watch HD in the kitchen). It’s barely tolerable on there.

• 12. Hussman  |  March 26th, 2008 at 5:54 am

  My Signature 2000 VCR that I bought back in ‘92 and still works just fine today.

• 13. Dave  |  March 26th, 2008 at 6:21 am

  I’m poor and gave up DVR for food money…

  It’s not easy but I spend less time watching TV because I don’t have it… which is good.

• 14. tdc  |  March 26th, 2008 at 6:27 am

  as an avid reader of seattle chic and lr i am pissed that evidently i’m the last to find out your wife and you are expecting.

  like they said when you announced your engagement-” ’bout time bergman”.

  Congrats!

• 15. steve Garfield  |  March 26th, 2008 at 6:46 am

  You could try to upgrade your Comcast DVR with TiVo software if it’s available in your area.

  The TiVo interface is a lot better.

  There are issues which I hope will be fixed in a software update.

• 16. Mark  |  March 26th, 2008 at 7:30 am

  The DirecTV DVR has improved.
  The 700 and 100 units “appear” more reliable of late.
  This is my 2nd and so far it’s been stable.
  Why are you watching junk like American Idol anyways?!!!

• 17. Kent  |  March 26th, 2008 at 8:07 am

  TiVo. Even the older series 2, which I have, rocks. The interface is good–a little slow on the program guide sometimes, but it’s solid and intuitive. And the WiFi connection works like a charm, although it’s VERY picky about the wireless adapter (after a couple of failed attempts with cheapos I bit the bullet and bought the TiVo branded adapter).

• 18. JimNGeorgia  |  March 26th, 2008 at 8:35 am

  I was a very happy TiVO user when I initially installed DirecTV (via Bellsouth). The TiVO interface is the best of any. I needed to upgrade to HDTV and switched to DISH Network for a better rate. I’m still getting used to the DISH DVR, but it seems passable if a bit clunky (compared to TiVO).

  I wish TiVO would get out bed with the cable companies and offer a solution that serves BOTH cable and satellite customers. There were rumors about DirecTV ‘rethinking’ its DVR last year and re-establishing a relationship with TiVO. In fact, the TiVO software version used by DirecTV was not going to upgrade for DirecTV users. Then they did do an upgrade early in 2008. I was hopeful, but couldn’t find any news to support a TiVO resurgence at DirecTV.

  Has anybody had any experience with the AT&T U-verse IPTV system? A friend of mine (who works for what used to be Scientific Atlanta now Cisco) is a test customer here in the Atlanta area. He said it took seven installers (three working inside and four working outside because of union rules) to get it working. He’s moderately happy although I haven’t spoken to his since Super Bowl night which was shortly after he’d installed.

• 19. Anonymous  |  March 26th, 2008 at 8:37 am

  It’s because Comcast’s DVR’s are powered by Microsoft.

  I still use my Tivo (powered by Linux) with DirecTV, and I refuse to change because of the consistent instability of competitive DVR’s.

• 20. Gorman  |  March 26th, 2008 at 9:02 am

  When we switched from Dish to DirecTV, it forced us to switch from Tivo to DTV’s DVR du jour.

  It has some things that are very counter-intuitive, but being able to watch a movie, pause it, and being able to then resume it in another room is verrrrry nice. Heck, we could be watching the same pre-recorded show at the same time and both rooms still have full ability to rew, ff, etc.

  There are still a couple things I miss from TiVo, but six months later, we’ve adapted pretty well. And we don’t get the annoying “booka-booka” sounds every time we push a button.

• 21. alex  |  March 26th, 2008 at 9:03 am

  My scientific american dvr sucks too. It’s the cable company’s handout. It especially sucks with HD, viewing or recording but mostly recorded. When playing back HD it sometimes has audio issues and goes in and out for the entire episode or movie. I can’t even watch it at that point - I can only hope the show or movie comes on again. I also have the cut-off issue too. As a result I have set it to record a few minutes after it wants to. Ooooh I was so pissed watching Lost and especially season finales when this occured. On top of that, the damn thing locks up once a week. I can’t do anything about it except unplug it and wait 20 minutes for it to boot up.

• 22. Daniel  |  March 26th, 2008 at 9:44 am

  Scientific Atlanta 8300 HDC is a disaster too.

• 23. Aaron  |  March 26th, 2008 at 9:54 am

  I set up a TiVo HD for my mom over Christmas. And by “set up” I mean “plugged it in.” The cable guy plugged in two cablecards, and the thing just worked. I came home to my Comcast DVR and cried a little.

  Unless Comcast significantly speeds up their SDV rollout, TiVo is the way to go. Sounds like TiVo’s on board to get a USB dongle working with SDV, so that will work eventually. Comcast’s HD on-demand offerings are so poor, you’re not missing anything by leaving their box behind.

• 24. metz  |  March 26th, 2008 at 10:26 am

  Get a series 3 TiVo. I’ve had a ReplayTV unit, tried various PC based solutions (Sage, Myth, others), various comcast motorola boxes with both MS and Gem guides.

  Go buy a Tivo. Get either a TiVoHD or a series 3. You’ll love it. Other than the initial cash outlay, it’s a cost wash with the Comcrap box because you can turn that puppy back into the cable co. TiVo has already announced external hardware that will work when cable moves over to switched packet. About the only thing it currently lacks is OnDemand (which I don’t use anyway).

  You can hook up to Amazon unbox for movie and tv rentals, watch podcasts, download music videos, view pictures, etc. The new boxes now support TiVo to go so you move shows to your laptop or stream to other Tivos in your house as well as move programs to external storage. If you need more than 30 hours of HD you can hook up an external SATA drive to the boxes now for more storage space.

• 25. Rob  |  March 26th, 2008 at 10:39 am

  Just wondering … when your DVR cut off the end of the Super Bowl did it switch to Heidi?

• 26. colleen  |  March 26th, 2008 at 10:54 am

  i love my TiVo and my TiVo loves me.

• 27. Matt  |  March 26th, 2008 at 11:04 am

  Amen to Tivo… and honestly, this meltdown isn’t even close to the punishment a young man like you deserves for watching American Idol.

• 28. Olsen  |  March 26th, 2008 at 11:31 am

  I have a Moxi through Tim Warner and I think I’m against it.

  The main problem is that the browse menu only shows what’s on during one time slot. So if I am scrolling through channels, I only see one thing. I have to stop on that channel to see the next few programs.

  The advantage of the Moxi is that if you know what you’re looking for, it works well — BUT if you like to sit down and browse after a long day of rewriting VOs and complaining about your station’s coffee maker, Moxi is not for you.

  do NOT want.

• 29. Alyssa  |  March 26th, 2008 at 1:09 pm

  I miss my old TiVo!

  I’m having the same problems with my Comcast DVR. It think that I’m actually on my 4th DVR in the time I’ve had Comcast cable (a little over 2 years).

  I was going to try out the new Comcast TiVo stuff that they offer here in Boston, but have heard troubling things about it. ((Not too surprising that Comcast could find a way to screw up something like that.)

• 30. Safran  |  March 26th, 2008 at 6:25 pm

  I bought the original Series One TiVo back in the day. It has never, ever broken. I cracked the case and added another hard drive to it. The unit responded flawlessly, simply going from one drive to the next without missing a beat.

  It is the first (and possibly only) example I can think of in the convergence media era of a product that got it right the first time, both in the hardware and the software.

• 31. Mark  |  March 27th, 2008 at 10:24 am

  “… and because it’s Comcast and they’re almost giving away their DVR’s….” What? I don’t know the exact prices I’m paying off hand, but I think it’s about $12 for DVR 1, and $16 per additional, per month. Granted… you don’t buy the box as required by Tivo, –(which when added to the Tivo monthly fee makes that option way more expensive), but Comcast’s fees are far from “giving away”. Especially when paying for a box as flakey as it is!!

  –But for some stupid reason, I keep paying for it!

• 32. Jackie Huba  |  March 30th, 2008 at 9:22 am

  Cory,
  I understand your DVR hell. I have had many DVRs but the best is definitely Tivo. DirecTV High Def DVR is a close second.

  Agree that Comcast Motorola is crap. But it has NOTHING on the disaster that is the Scientific Atlantic 8300 that I have from Time Warner. The user interface looks like it was programmed in 1999 by a 1st grader.

• 33. Mikey  |  March 30th, 2008 at 8:46 pm

  As a DirecTV customer, I had one of the old series 2 TiVo units and when it died last year a little piece of me did too. Our new DirecTV HD-DVR has prettier lights and waaaay more storage but I still miss the TiVo. It was just… friendly. And until it fritzed, it was the most reliable piece of electronics gear I ever owned.

  Just wish DirecTV would come back to their senses. Licensing couldn’t have been THAT onerous.

  Anyway I stuck with DirecTV because their HD signals, while nowhere near the quality of OTA broadcast, still shame that of Comcast. I don;t even know how those guys can call it “HD”– it’s just awful, especially higher up the dial.

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