TiVo TCD540040 Series2 40-Hour Digital Video Recorder
Pleasantly surprised after reading reviews
I bought the Humax series 2 DVR offered on the Tivo site last week. I kept waiting for the terrible noise so many had mentioned, but mine is as quiet as a mouse. I also discovered by accident how easy it is to watch one thing while recording another. (I almost didn't get it after hearing so many complain that you couldn't do that.) The manual says to get a RF splitter if you want to record one thing and watch another, but when I hooked my dvr up, I decided not to use the audio/visual cables because I wanted to keep my DVD player hooked up to the same TV. So instead I used the RF cord included with the DVR and just hooked it straight to the TV that way. If you put your Tivo in standby mode, which is very simple, then you can watch regular channels on your TV while the dvr is recording. For those like me who find that too often favorite shows come on at the same time, this is a wonderful feature. I've already put this to use, and it worked perfectly. I also love that I can watch something that is recorded while it's recording something else. That makes having to watch something in real time with commercials obsolete. It so far hasn't figured out that I'm an adult and keeps recording cartoons, but I actually do find myself watching Scooby Doo! So far I have no complaints. Nothing's perfect, but this comes pretty close if you ask me.