TiVo Series2 Digital Video Recorder (*TiVo Service Fee Not Included)
This will change your viewing habits
I absolutely love having TiVo.  With the TiVo service it's a snap to record the shows you want.  It's great being able to pause live TV.  I will delay watching a show so I can skip over the commercials.<br />There are a few caveats with TiVo though.<br />The TiVo service keeps track of what you are watching.  This information is used to automatically record programs that you may like.  Don't worry though, the TiVo suggestions will be overwritten if it runs out of space.  They also use this information for analysis of viewer habits but this used collectively(like Nielson ratings) and they don't appear to track individual data.<br />Another caveat is the recording quality.  For regular TV viewing it is ok but with HDTV and rising customer expectations it may not be good enough.  I recently got HDTV and I'm a little disappointed that I won't be able to view it in the same quality as a recording.  Even at the highest quality recording setting there is still a significant loss of quality.  In defense of TiVo I don't know of any other method of recording HDTV..yet.  On their website they mention that as HDTV becomes more prevalent they may develop a TiVo capable of recording it.  You could wait for the next generation of DVRs but I wouldn't hold my breath.  Personally when I can, I'll watch HDTV presentations live.<br />If you have a busy lifestyle and you like watching TV I would definitely suggest getting a TiVo.