TiVo TCD540040 Series2 40-Hour Digital Video Recorder
Warning on electricity usage
Live TV<br /><br />People mention the problems with the TIVO not being designed to turn off. For my purposes though the problem is that the recording of Live TV can not be turned off. This records up to 30 minutes of whatever channel is on. This happens 24hours a day.<br /><br />I tested the electricity use and it is 25 watts (kilo?). At night the only thing that can compete with this is our fridge or humidifier but they are doing something useful. It is probably much larger than the sum of all the little things you have going on in the house (phones charging, clocks, all the glowing LED's...). Plus there is the wear on hard drive and the noise.<br /><br />Recommendations<br /><br />I never found the recommendations useful. They seem mostly genre based. For example, if you like the Office then you must like other sitcoms so you get Will and Grace and Scrubs. If you like lost then you'll like any show with islands or aliens. For our watching it didn't turn out this way. We like Lost and the Office because (in our opinion) they're good not because they are in a genre. TIVO doesn't seem to be able to match us up with other people that have an overall similar taste.<br /><br />The good stuff<br /><br />It's very easy to use. It runs itself. There are a staple of shows and a wishlist or two which keep it so there is always something to watch.