TiVo Series2 Digital Video Recorder (*TiVo Service Fee Not Included)
A purchase you will never regret
My wife and I put off purchasing Tivo for a long time. I had always assumed that having one would wind up being more trouble than it's worth, or turn into a hobby in itself, in terms of having to do routine things to make it all work. I didn't want or need another hobby. Boy, was I wrong. The software behind Tivo is it's strength, and the amount that you must do as a user is very very minimal. These guys have absoulutely nailed the execution and usability for this system. Don't think for even a split second that a plain-old DVR or ReplayTV is going to do what Tivo does. The level of operational intelligence just simply isn't there with those other systems. <br />We have had it for about two months now, and it has totally changed our viewing habits. We hardly ever need to watch live TV anymore. We now never miss an episode of any of our favorite shows. And now, it's so easy to &quot;grab&quot; content...for example my wife was explaining to her young niece about early Jerry Lewis movies. We don't own any Jerry Lewis movies on tape. So, overhearing this, I told Tivo to record any Jerry Lewis movies that it could find. Within a couple days, there was something like 5 of his old movies on Tivo waiting for us. The next time our niece was over, we watched all the best parts of some of the movies. It was great to be able to do this without any effort at all. Without Tivo, would we have bothered (or even had time) to go out and rent the movies? Most likely not.<br />We also love the fact that it now takes about 18 minutes to watch a typical 1/2 hour show. Zip right thru those commercials! We get a lot more value out of our viewing time. It's also nice to watch Saturday Night Live on Sunday morning while flipping pancakes instead of trying to stay awake through it on Saturday night. We also are now completely used to pausing, rewinding, and replaying TV or simply switching off between shows. If I'm watching one of &quot;my&quot; shows, and my wife comes along and wants to watch one of &quot;her&quot; shows, it's not a big deal- whichever one we don't watch is still waiting there for us. <br />So, bottom line: Get a Tivo. Don't waste your time with any other half-baked DVR setup. Unless you want a new hobby...