TiVo TCD540040 Series2 40-Hour Digital Video Recorder
Tivo has done it again...
First off, I'm a big Tivo fan.  I was an early adopter - I've had a tivo for years.  At first, I only bought it because I thought it looked convenient when I saw one at a friend's house.  Once I got it, however, I realized that TiVo quickly changes the whole way in which you watch TV.  It's by far the most user friendly device I've ever owned.  I mean - it doesn't even have any buttons on it!  There's nothing tricky about it at all... you bring up the menu by pressing the Tivo button - and voila - there's choices of what you would like to do - in plain english.  If you can operate an ATM - you're overqualified for a TiVo - it's that simple.<br /><br />TiVo series one was great enough in itself...  features like 'Season Pass' where you tell it to record all episodes of your favorite shows just make it amazing.  You can (very easily - without ever going to the user manual) tell it to get all new episodes of show x - no reruns...  Or, get all episodes... on all channels.  After you tell it once - you never have to program it again for that show.<br /><br />Series 2 just adds on to the features.  Hook up one of the available ethernet cards to connect it to your home network (or use USB if your conputer is close enough), and presto - you can view your computer pics, and listen to your computer music from your tivo - through your home stero without any other complicated hook up.  There's even available wireless adapters.<br /><br />Once you get TiVo, you realise that watching 'live TV' is not the way to go... record all your favorite shows, and then watch them on your schedule.  You get to cut out commercials, making a 1/2 hour show more like 20 minutes... so you can watch 3 shows an hour.  And when the phone rings at the climax of your favorite show?  Press Pause.  Talk.  Rewind later.<br /><br />And, if you're a fellow geek, you'll find that you can upgrade your TiVo on your own.  If you are comfortable taking apart a computer... then you should probablly buy the smallest TiVo you can get your hands on, and upgrade the hard drive space yourself.  There's plenty of directions on the web, and you'll save a lot of money doing it yourself.<br /><br />I can't say enough about the benefits of TiVo...  if you like TV, at all, you'll Love Tivo.uy the smallest TiVo you can get your hands on, and upgrade the hard drive space yourself.  There's plenty of directions on the web, and you'll save a lot of money doing it yourself. <br /> <br />I can't say enough about the benefits of TiVo...  if you like TV, at all, you'll Love Tivo.