TiVo Series2 Digital Video Recorder (*TiVo Service Fee Not Included)
Changes TV forever.
TiVo has become one of my absolute favorite pieces of equipment. There's just no going back once you learn all the ways it can change television. Watching shows at any time, never worrying about when and where they come on is incredible.<br />Say for example you want to watch some movie you know is coming on next week. You simply enter the name of that movie into TiVo and it will find when and where it's on. Just tell TiVo to record it, and it'll check and make sure it doesn't conflict with anything else. If it does conflict, You can overwrite the old recording or simply have TiVo look for another showing. Then TiVo saves it for later viewing.<br />Or say you want to record a series. Again, simply search by title but this time get a \\"season pass\\". You can then set TiVo to record every single episode no matter when it airs, or just the new episodes. You'll never have to worry about missing an episode again. The programming is simply amazing.<br />With TiVo, you control what and when you watch. Depending on the storage of your unit, programs could be stored from days to weeks before needing to be cleared. You're in complete control over the TV for a change. You'll never have to watch another commercial again if you get used letting TiVo record everything you watch. And really, there's no reason not to. TiVo will never slip up and miss a recording.<br />Soon you'll forget that your favorite show comes on at 7:00pm on sundays. You won't really care, because you'll know that when you feel like watching it, TiVo will have it ready for you. You'll almost completely stop watching live TV. If you do still want live TV though, TiVo offers plenty. From rewinding, to pausing, program listings, information, ratings, a ton of options.<br />TiVo also keeps a constant back-buffer of the live feed from the channel you're currently watching that runs 30 minutes. So, at any time during the program you could rewind up to a full 30 minutes. You could also pause for a full half hour. Onereally sweet benefit of this back-buffer is recording the start of shows late. If you're 15 minutes into a movie and decide that you just aren't going to be able to sit down and watch it, hit the record button and TiVo will not only start recording from that point, but also take everything it has from the back-buffer. You can actually save from the start of programs after they've already started up to 30 minutes ago.<br />One of the less hyped but still cool features of TiVo is the TiVolution Magazine that comes free and is updated constantly. This isn't some sort of lame E-zine but a listing of movies and other programs coming on this week. So for example you can click \\"action\\" and see just about every single action movie coming on this week, on every single channel. This is actually incredibly handy, because you'll be able to record great old movies on channels like TNN that play these movies all the time. Since you don't have to worry about when they come on and you can skip all the commercials, you won't care in the least that it's on a cable network. Just the other day I used this to watch The Hunt for Red October. Without the TiVo listings, I would have had no idea it was playing at all.<br />TiVo has more features than I could list here. It can be set to do just about anything to the TV you can possibly think up, and you'll never look back once you get started. I can't recommend this product enough, I really can't. Even if you don't watch much TV, TiVo is still perfect for you. The little TV you do watch can now be ad free and viewed any time you feel like watching it. Not to mention you never have to think about when your favorite shows come on again, just sit back and let TiVo take care of it. If your schedule has you far too busy to watch daytime TV, now it doesn't matter at all. Tuesday's daytime TV can easily be viewed on Saturday night.<br />The video quality and sound quality is every bit as good as the original, it's just plain incredible. Full surround sound as deep and rich as your speakers can possibly handle. You won't lost a single hint of quality even on just the medium setting. In fact, the medium setting is so perfect I never bother with the high and highest recording qualities.<br />TiVo is a wonderful company who is highly supportive of it's customers and will do everything they can to make sure TiVo users are pampered beyond belief. They send free stuff, they release firmware upgrades with new features, and never once since I've owned my TiVo have they put down my now older series one 14hr unit. (Series two units go up to 80 hours now.) They have never once made it sound like my unit is worse than any other unit or outdated. There's absolutely nothing to dislike about this company.<br />TiVo has become one of my favorite companies and one of my favorite electronics. I just can't say enough good things about it. TiVo absolutely changes TV. You really must see it for yourself.<br />- Rirath_com