I just got it about 2 weeks ago. I went looking for a second DirecTV reciever, and noticed they had one with integrated Tivo, I figured "What the hell". Got it, put it in the living room and moved the old RCA one into the bedroom.

I have to say that it was the single most coolest purchase I've ever made.

I couldn't be more happy with it!!! I never miss any cool shows, it records cool stuff for me even if I don't ask it to. It's not all that often that I watch TV, but it's nice to sit down and go right to Tivo's "Now Playing" list and watch anything from a list of about 30 movies/shows that it has selectively recorded based on my tastes. No more sitting down to watch TV only to find that the show I wanted to watch has already started. The pause, rewind, and fast forward are cool and all, but for me, that's not what sold me on it!

It's great! I highly recomend that every household invest in one of these!!!!

------------------
jim
Beauty is in the eye of the Beer Holder
< Brews and Cues >

The unit records show in much the same way that ASF and other streaming media files are created. It actually records the difference between one frame to the next. Not each frame individually. This creates much smaller files without image loss. This is why they say "Up to 35 hours" The more action packed show you watch, the more information it must store per frame. I also selected the option to record in Dolby Digital, so that takes up a lot of space as well. Instead of recording one anolog audio track, it records up to 6 per show. 2 for Dolby Digital 2.0 and 6 (5.1) for Dolby Digital AC3.

The fucking thing rules!!!!

------------------
jim
Beauty is in the eye of the Beer Holder
< Brews and Cues >

Oh, and I heard that it has a custom chip that compresses and decompresses graphics on the fly, but that might have been what you were talking about already...

------------------
Have a nice day, because monkeys don't.
-< PersonGuy >

Also keep in mind, that mine has built in DirecTV satelite reciever and optical AC3 outputs for my home theatre.

Mine is a < Sony SAT-T60 >. I bought it at Best Buy for around 踰 I think. Which looses translates to 赨 for Tivo and 赨 for DirecTV. Now Tivo is also a subscribtion service which costs ű.90 a month, or ๳ annually, or [b]赨 for the life of the reciever[b]. I choose the lifetime service.

I'm telling you once again. Buy this product!! Sometimes if you are watching TV, like Fox or something, and they run a commercial for... umm... I don't know, "When nuns attack." or some shit. A little Tivo guy will pop on the screen and if you select him, it will record that show no matter when it's on. You don't have to remember to watch it. I never hockey games, I never miss the Simpsons... Oh that reminds me. If you have a show that you watch all the time, like The Simpsons, you can get a Season Pass to it. What it does is then records every episodes of The Simpsons. But it doesn't stop there, you can even tell it to only record new episodes, and to NOT record re-runs... How fucking cool is that!?!?!?!

------------------
jim
Beauty is in the eye of the Beer Holder
< Brews and Cues >

quote:

---

Originally posted by PersonGuy:
How much do they cost? Is Tivo the brand, or the service

---

Oh, and in my ever-lasting praise for Tivo, let me also mention it's Wish List. You can create lists of things for it to record, even if they don't currently exist. Say you put in a Wishlist for The Matrix 2. When it comes on TV, Tivo will record it. You can also create wish lists by genre, actors, actresses, diretors... Same with searching. I can create a Wish List for Harrison Ford, one day I'll sit down to watch Tivo, and low and behold. Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Air Force 1, all these shows magically recorded just for me... I'm in love.... (with Tivo, not Ford!)

You can also tell it how long to keep recordings including a setting for never delete. You also get an option to automatically tranfer to VHS while you watch something else on TV.

Hmmmmmmmmm, what else.... Oh and for those that haven't ever really heard about Tivo. What it does, is when your watching a program, you have a Thumbs Up and Down button on the remote. You can give each show you watch up to 3 Thumbs up or down, or just remain neutral. It uses this information to guess at what other movies/shows you may like but just don't know about.

------------------
jim
Beauty is in the eye of the Beer Holder
< Brews and Cues >

Anyhow, I've been thinking about getting < Starband >: 2-Way Internet satellite service @ 500kbs d/l and 150kbs u/l, with DISH Network cable programming (or other TV satellite service), to boot.

I guy at work has Starband, he doesn't really like it that much. It was only choice for broadband though. I didn't talk to him to much about it, I'll ask him later what he doesn't like about it.

------------------
jim
Beauty is in the eye of the Beer Holder
< Brews and Cues >

However, the day of the Superbowl, he (and everyone else) got a message. It said, in big bright red letters on an otherwise black screen:

GAME OVER.

That's pretty fuckin funny. Since then, no one I know has pirate cards that work.

p.s. - I'd like to hear what your friend has to say about Starband...perhaps I'll hold out on buying it.

------------------
They have cats in the future?

------------------
All that I know there was no God for me
Force that shatters all, absence of mortality

You see, you either have to have the equipment to re-program the card, or know someone who does.

The person I know who does it, lives about 2 1/2 hours away from me. Not worth the trouble. [EDIT] In case you didn't know, DirecTV sends out a signal about once a month that erases hacked cards. So then I have to drive out and get the guy to re-program it... Fuck that... [/EDIT]

------------------
jim
Beauty is in the eye of the Beer Holder
< Brews and Cues >

This message has been edited by jim on April 04, 2001 at 01:21 PM