TiVo TCD540040 Series2 40-Hour Digital Video Recorder
One of today's greatest sucessors
I've heard so much rave about the TiVo, and how it is so helpful. If you are a 9 to 5 worker, get rid of the dusty VCR, and definitely, pick this up. It is very helpful and fills the needs of anyone who can't catch their programming.  <br /> <br />Appearance: The new Series 2 DVR is a lot more sleek and distinguishes a better look then its old Series 1. It is a dark gray, with smooth surfacing. The front is a darkish white, applied with the TiVo logo, and a backlight, which has four adjustable brightness settings. Below is the color bar. On the left it is green, and when you are recording, the right is red. Also when ever you hit a button on the remote, about half of the bar on the right changes to orange, indicating you hit a button. <br /> <br />Features: Here's the goods. This thing is packed with your hopes, and they come true. The huge main feature, is recording any program you desire on TV. There are many ways of doing this. First off, you can just simply record it. You can also do a Season Pass, which records all of your show times, no matter what time it is at. It has a thumbs up, and thumbs and thumbs down, to indicate if you like the show or not. You can give it up to three thumbs down or up. This also creates your WishList, which gives it a feeling of what you like. Then it depends on which one you buy, the 80 minute or 40 minute. Go with the 80 minute, which is what I should have done. And of course, controlling live TV. You can pause, rewind, and slow-mo live TV. Remember, you can only have up to 30 minutes of live TV until the starting point starts going. <br /> <br />Controller: It is a simple controller, easy to use. The guide button to the main menu is the TiVo logo at the top of the controller. The TV power button is to the left. The Live TV button is to the right near the top. The four direction button is in the middle. Then the TV input and Info button are on oppisite sides of the left and right buttons on the four direction button. Below are thewindow and guide button. And finally, there is the select button. To the side of that are the thumb up and down buttons. Then, making an H shape are the volume up and down button. Then in the middle are the mute and record button. Then on the right side is the channel button. This button also works for Page up and dowm. Then in the middle is the central control button. The play, pause, slow, fast forward, and rewind are equipped here. Then to the sides of the slow button are the 8-second replay button, and the skip button. Then finally at the bottom are the numbers, then the clear and Enter/Last button. <br /> <br />Tips: -When fast forwarding, you can use the skip button to go to the 15 minute intervals. Works well with a long program. <br />-To reduce the info screen, use the right direction key on the four direction button. <br />-Better organization, organize your programs into folders, which is much easier to navigate.  <br />-Want to scroll through something faster? Use the page up and down buttons, which is also the channel button. <br />-To do step by step, press pause then hit fast forward. <br /> <br />