TiVo TCD540040 Series2 40-Hour Digital Video Recorder
Beware of TiVo Hardware
We have a TiVo in the media room that has worked fine since day one.  The TiVo in the bedroom is another story.  We're on our fourth exchange unit.  To top it off, they are having warehouse issues (referenced in several other review that I've read) that have cause exchanges to take 2+ months (they will swear to you it's only 14 business days but don't believe it).  My most recent return was lost and I had to provide a UPS tracking number for them to even figure out that they had received it. <br /> <br />The problems with the units have ranged from freezing (1st one) to not even powering on (2nd exchange) to not being able to connect to a wired network (3rd exchange) and now the 4th unit is in a continuos reboot cycle.  TiVo has some very serious hardware quality control issues that they need to fix.  I can't speak for other brands that offer TiVO serice - these are TiVo branded units that I'm referring to. <br /> <br />A couple of other nits: <br /> <br />1) No HDTV recording capability.  HDTV recordings admittedly look superior to regular TV recordings, but are not in HD. <br /> <br />2) Some actions in the menus, particularly managing wish lists, are painfully slow (as in you have to wait 2+ minutes while TiVo processes the command).  While addressing their hardware issues maybe they should consider re-writing some of their software code as well... <br /> <br />When it does work, TiVO is great as a service - it truly will change the way you watch TV and you won't be able to live without it.  Fortunately, many cable companies are waking up to this fact and offering their own DVR/cable box combos.  I think I'm about due to check one of those out since I am running out of hair to pull out after exchanging so many TiVo boxes.