TiVo TCD652160 HD Digital Video Recorder

TiVo HD is a smart addition to any high-definition TV, combining the clarity of high definition with the smart, easy-to-use TiVo Service. It works with any cable set-up. It connects to any home network, so you get access to the best of both broadcast and broadband content. It downloads the latest movies straight from the Internet to your living room. It can pause, rewind, and slow-motion your favorite moments with razor-sharp HD clarity. Plus, TiVo HD connects to virtually any cable service via CableCARDs1, so it replaces your existing cable box.

TiVo HD Features
Search for HD movies and sports: With our intelligent search features, you can easily find a specific director, actor, player, or team among the world of both broadcast and broadband content. Prefer to see a movie in high definition? Do a WishListTM search and the TiVo service will automatically record the HD version and place it in your Now Playing List.

Record movies in HD: When recording with TiVo HD, you have the option of capturing shows in standard or high definition. Plus, when you play them back, you can easily pause or rewind HD instant replays without ever sacrificing their original razor-sharp HD resolution.

Download movies from the Internet: Don't see any great movies in your cable program guide? You can easily select a classic or new release from the world's largest movie library, order them with a click of your remote control, and have them downloaded directly to your TiVo box.

Access your music library with the remote: When you connect your TiVo DVR to your home network, your HDTV can connect right to millions of songs and playlists available over the Internet. You can now enjoy digital music on the best sound system in the house.

Schedule an HD premiere: With TiVo, you can do your TV scheduling from any computer when you are away from home. Log onto TiVo.com, click on a show, and you're done.

After many years of using a ReplayTV 3000 and later a 4500 I made the move to a TiVo S3 a couple years ago. It's operation has be smooth and stable. A year later I added a 2nd S3 in a different room. Both have been rock solid with zero issues. I have added external drives to both of them and regularly use the Netflix streaming video feature.

There are really only two features I continue to miss from the ReplayTV boxes. The first is automatic commercial advance which is the feature that got ReplayTV sued out of existence by the entertainment industry. That one is never going to appear again for obvious reasons. The second is deep global searches that to find Season Premiers, Series Premier, Season Finales, Series Finales, films by star rating, films by age rating, etc., etc.

The aftermarket cottage industry that has grown up with TiVo DVR's deserves a mention as well. Several outfits offer larger replacement drives, salvaged power supplies, main boards etc. IMO the best tech support comes from these third parties as well as the forums devoted to them. I'm not saying TiVo doesn't have a responsibility to support their product, I'm just saying that I learned with the ReplayTV product that the common issues are well known and easy to fix.

We switched to the horribly unintuitive COX DVR 18 months ago, since our original TiVo couldn't record HD channels. After a lot of cable frustration and some penny-pinching, Santa finally brought us this TiVo TCD652160. I hooked it up before the COX guy arrived to install a MultiStream CableCard into the unit. Easy breezy.

It's fantastic, great to be back using one of the most intuitive interfaces and remotes ever developed. The TiVo seems more proactive than I remember about recording suggestions it think I might like - and it's grabbing good stuff.

The Netflix Instant Queue integration is magical. Even through the TiVo 802.11g dongle, movies are streaming from my netflix account at a higher quality than they were to my XBOX 360, with fewer interruptions.

Anyway, well worth it. Now that we have a baby and spend a bit more time on the couch (breastfeeding, etc) it's great to be able to watch good stuff, avoid live TV, and skip commercials easier. Plus, my cable bill is now $15 lower per month. Only negative is that there's sometimes a little screen flicker whenever the unit changes video modes (programs record in 1080, but TiVo menus seem to be in 720).

The DVR from your cable company may seem to have some of the same features, but it's like comparing an iPhone to a Samsung touchscreen phone. TiVo has perfected all of the little details (feel of the remote, sound effects, the way the play cursor jumps back when you stop fast forwarding. It's luxurious.

I bought a refurb unit direct from Tivo with a one year subscription and the HDMI cable. It works great with my antenna only connection to my HDTV and a Cat5 wire from my router which I recommend for a fast internet connection.

The advantages over my old vcr are amazing since I could not find reliable TV guides on the web. The Tivo's subcription price is well worth the advantage of the accurate schedule guide information for TV and internet video's. I am finding more free antenna programming that I knew existed. The ease of recording one or a "season's" supply of a program is such a joy.

Then I downloaded the Tivo "Desktop" (free) software which allows you to put nearly any photo and music files from your computer on your TV screen. This works so well that I later purchased the "Desktop Plus" version that adds video transfer. However I had to find a conversion program to mp4 for video files that are jpeg from my Cannon camera. With my wireless wifi laptop connection in my home it is so nice to throw any picture or video from my computer on the TV screen for the family to watch.

I must admit that I initially had problems getting the Tivo "Desktop" software to connect until I reset my Linksys WRT54G wireless router back to the original firmware. Then it connected via plug 'n play with no special settings.

Tivo does connect direct to photo sharing web sites from Picasa and Photobucket. If others send you pictures on these photo services then you can view them easily on your TV. But if they use other photo services, most of them don't allow batch downloading to photo files; I haven't found a way to get their pictures on the TV via Tivo. I hope Tivo can add many more photo services soon.

The next big advantage is the Tivo internet connection to Netflix and Amazon Unbox for movies. I've used both and the picture quality and sound is as good as the average rental DVD. I tend to use my $8.95/mo Netflix subscription the most since I can download an unlimited number of movies (at no additional charge) for "instant watch" via the Tivo. With Netflix I select many more movies even if I'm unsure that I saw it before, or I can take more chances on unknown films since I can delete and move on to the next movie in a minute.

Also there are a bunch of internet video programs that Tivo can connect to for special interests and you can schedule them for download just like TV programs. I expect this will expand greatly in the future.

The "365" web radio programs was a disappointment since I like talk shows and none of my favorite national talk shows are available. I was hoping to listen to past shows on demand.

Tivo is leagues above your cable provider's DVR box. It is really the little things that make Tivo better, a lot of little things. First off you have the great looking interface and audio feedback. The menu system is a pleasure to navigate compared to your cable provider's DVR box. The TV Guide in Tivo is a great design providing the next 2 weeks of shows, updated nightly, to your screen. You can hook up your home computer to Tivo and have it play your home videos, pictures and music library and play them on your home theater system. Once you connect Tivo to the web, you get many more goodies such as Netflix "Instant Watch" movie downloads (if you are a Netflix member), you can browse for movie show times in your local area and buy movie tickets through Fandango. You can browse YouTube and watch the videos right on your TV. You can even order pizza off of your Tivo Series III. Another great feature is when you are going to record a live sporting event, Tivo will ask you if you want to add extra time to the recording so that you won't miss the very end and you can record an unexpected overtime. Tivo has an 8 second jump back feature that works instantly without hesitation even when pressed multiple times. It has a jump forward 30 seconds feature to help skip annoying commercials. You can record non-copyrighted TV and movies and have them transferred to your home computer and converted then put on your iPod with Tivo To Go. You can also increase the hard drive size by connecting an eSATA external hard drive so you can store more gigabytes of HD movies and HD TV. You can't go wrong with a Tivo Series III.

Now TIVO can tie into your Netflix instant queue and stream movies directly to your TV!!!

I sent my Moxi DIVO (Dumb-TIVO) right back to the cable company in trade for a multi-stream cable card and never looked back.

Pros:
Tivo tapes things while I sleep!
Picture quality is great
records two channels at once
Works with Amazon UnBox and now Netflix!
Why would anyone watch live TV anymore?

Cons:
One drawback is that cable on-demand and pay-per-view won't work with a cable card.
Your cable company will blame TIVO for any problems with your service.