TiVo Series2 Digital Video Recorder (*TiVo Service Fee Not Included)
I Couldn't Survive Without Tivo Now!
OK, maybe I could survive without Tivo, but man, would it be hard!  I loved my first Tivo so much that I bought a second unit for my bedroom.  The ease of use of this great gadget is its best selling point.  Just type in a name of a program or an actor or a director or even a keyword and a list of programs corresponding to that movie, etc. are presented.  You can get Season Passes to record all episodes of your favorite shows, making the use of VHS tapes obsolete.  You can tape several shows and watch them later and fast forward through the commercials, which will allow you to watch a one hour show in 45 minutes.  The time saved adds up!<br />One thing you do need to note is that the \\"40 hour\\" or \\"80 hour\\" devices signify the amount of time you have at the lowest quality setting.  There are four different quality settings (normal, medium, high and best) with the higher quality settings reducing the amount of time you have for storage.  The \\"best\\" setting, which I use as I transfer a lot of programs to DVD via my Sony DVD Recorder (read my review, it's great, too), reduces the 80 hours to less than 40 hours, but it usually isn't an issue as I watch, record and delete programs very quickly.<br />As you no doubt know, in addition to the cost of the unit, you have to buy the service which downloads programs to the Tivo.  You can pay a monthly fee or a one-time fee (I've done the latter on both).  In addition. you can buy their Home Media Option, which allows you to, via your home network high speed internet connection, view pictures, play music, schedule programs remotely and transfer programs between Tivos if you have more than one.  I bought this option as well, but for the price, I don't know if it is worth it as I don't use it much.<br />If you get an 80 hour unit with the one-time service fee and the Home Media Option, you are looking in the high three figures, which isn't a cheap date, but it is so easy to use that it is well worth it!