Philips HDR312 TiVo 30-Hour Digital Video Recorder
Never watch live TV again!
Some thought HDTV would change the world of TV but promise that is still left unfulfilled.  I would argue that personalized TV, not higher definition, is really what will change the TV medium in the future.  Why  waste time being forced to watch what you have no interest in?  Do you  really want to see that ad with the guy going through the car wash in a  tent in higher definition or would you rather just skip it  altogether?<br />Like the Replay, TiVo is one of the first electronic devices  that delivers on this promise.  This is unlike any other component you have  in your AV system and is lightyears of different from a cable/satellite  control box since this is an actual computer, running a real OS, with a  real hard drive.  What does this mean to you?  High quality recording,  recommendations, personalized settings, automatically receive new  features.<br />The configuration of the TiVo box was incredibly  straightforward and easy so that even the most non-technical person you  know can set it up.  The only problem with setting up the TiVo is figuring  out how to wire it up to all your other components.  For the average  consumer this won't be a problem since their setup is relatively standard  and covered in the manual.  However if you have TV, VCR, cable box, DVD, AV  Receiver, etc. you will need to spend some time thinking about how to best  run the wires.<br />The initial configuration takes about 20 minutes of your  time and then it dials into TiVo to get your channel lineup and program  guide.  This is a short, one-time call that is followed by a 1 to 2 hour  initial indexing of all the information to make it easy for you to find  things.  The time it takes to index is based upon the number of channels  your TV/cable/satellite system supports so if you actually only use a small  set of channels then the indexing is much faster.<br />I almost never watch  live TV anymore as I usually just pick something that the TiVo has already  recorded.  At Best Quality there is no visual degredation of the signal by  running the signal through the box even when watching live TV.  The  benefits of pausing, rewinding, etc. are just too good to miss out on.  If  you are trying to watch live TV you do pay a penalty of being about a  second behind the actual broadcast...but who really cares about such a  small time delay?<br />The TiVo will automatically record shows it thinks you  will like.  I have had mixed success with this.  It has recorded some  interesting shows for me.  It has also recorded shows that it previously  recorded and I explicitly deleted.  Of course you can always negatively  rate the show instead of deleting so it doesn't show up again but how that  impacts your overall TiVo recommendations is unknown.<br />There is no guide  that comes with the TiVo that tells you how to make optimal use of the  thumbs up/thumbs down feature.  You can give a show up to 3 thumbs up or  thumbs down so you do have flexability but it is unclear what the  difference between 1 thumbs up and two thumbs up are.  The recommendations  can certainly be improved but I think with more people using the service  that these will only get better over time.<br />Another downside is that the  interaction with Digital cable box is less than satisfactory.  You change  channels on TiVo and not all IR commands are received by cable box. This is  mostly not TiVo's fault since the cable box does not properly queue IR  commands.  However TiVo should allow you to specify IR delays in some sort  of advanced menu.<br />On the good side all the problems I have with the TiVo  can be corrected by them through future software releases.  The TiVo  company has been great at responding to customers and focusing on solving  the problems that gives the biggest win to the consumer.<br />All in all this  is a really solid product for being an early entrant into personal TV  technology.  Even at this point I don't think I could live without the  TiVo.  Even though I don't watch much TV is has saved me significant time  since I can fast forward through anything that is slow, boring, or  advertistements and I don't have to worry about rushing home to watch shows  in real time.t watch much TV is has saved me significant time  since I can fast forward through anything that is slow, boring, or  advertistements and I don't have to worry about rushing home to watch shows  in real time.