TiVo TCD540040 Series2 40-Hour Digital Video Recorder
Good overall, but a bit of a letdown
I have been using DVR units from satellite companies, and not the TiVo.  My parents have digital cable, so I got this for them for Christmas.  There were a few things I was hoping for, without doing much research, and was left unfulfilled.  Here is my wish list for the next version: <br /> <br />* Dual tuners.  The description says on the unit that you can record and watch 2 different tv stations at the same time... well, that is only if you have 2 inputs on your tv, and 2 signals to view.  This, to me, isn't really a true claim. <br /> <br />* Digital receiver.  To get the digital channels, you have to attach the cable box via the serial port, which leads to a delayed reaction on the channel selection and such.  I would think that with upgradable hardware, you would be able to download the necessary information to decode whatever signal the cable is putting out.  I hope they add this so you can plug your cable connection directly in and get the full array of digital cable channels. <br /> <br />* Integrated LAN/Wireless.  You cannot set up the TiVo via LAN without a special dialing code that bypasses it, and you can't set it up via wireless at all.  Using the phone line is prohibitive and impossible for maybe people that only use cell phones and don't have land lines.  For the LAN, you have to have a USB dongle to get your RJ-45 port, so that is a pain as well.  Since most people have broadband now, one would think that they would be able to attach a network card, and even an integrated wireless card, to take care of this issue. <br /> <br />I have heard that most of these things are going to be in the next major version of the hardware.  So if you want better functionality, you can buy this one and expect to buy another one in a year or 2... or just wait.