TiVo Series2 Digital Video Recorder (*TiVo Service Fee Not Included)
My Love-Hate Relationship With Tivo
I was an early adopter of Tivo. I have a 30 hour by Philips, and an 80 hour by Tivo. I love my Tivos . . . and I hate them.  In short, the software is great, the hardware is awful.  My first 30 hour, I got from Amazon. It died within a few days, and Amazon rapidly sent me another one (thanks, Amazon!). That one died within a month, and Tivo sent me another one. When that one died a few months later, I had to pay a substantial amount of money to get a refurbished unit from Tivo. That one's still alive, knock wood. I did figure out after the first one died that the Tivo cannot be put into a component cabinet - it overheats.  Undeterred, I got the Series 2 80 hour. This time, I went to a local retailer, anticipating problems. 9 months later, I'm still on my first unit, BUT . . . .  In February, the fan became noisy (like jet-about-to-take-off noisy), so I took it in for repairs. A month or so later, I got it back. It was DOA!!! How do they fix a fan, and kill the thing, without noticing? I took it back the next day. A month or so later (yesterday), got it back again. STILL DOA!!!! My retailer is in the process of asking Tivo to swap it out for another unit.  I'm astonished at Tivo's repeated display of incompetence and its flagrant disregard for quality control. Can't they even plug the thing in and see if the little light and fan come on before they ship it back to the customer??  I'm done spending money on Tivo. I have heard that my cable company is coming out with its own PVR product. Can't happen soon enough for me.