Home > Consumer Reviews > Philips HDR112 Tivo Digital Video Recorder

I bought the TiVo about a month ago, and it has been great. I have DirecTV with all of the movie channels. The installation went smoothly, but it did take 3+ hours. After TiVo connected and downloaded the channel information, it took about 3 hours to grind on doing whatever it does during install, indexing and what not. No user intervention was required for that part, so I just left and came back later, checking up on it every hour or so.

Daily operation is pretty darn easy. It's so nice to have a list of shows that you like stored on the hard disk ready to watch at your leisure. It also changes the way that you watch live TV. It's great to be able to pause the movie channels when the phone rings or the popcorn bag runs dry. I don't seem to use the instant replay much. The button on the remote is too small and unless you watch the TV with the remote poised on your hand, the reply button is not of much use.

The other two things that bother me in an otherwise outstanding product are: 1) You can tell it's hooked to a computer. From the FAQ I learned that it is a Linux box, I would be interested in what processor it is using because sometimes it can be slooow. Sometimes when I'm watching live TV, the onscreen guide will pause up to 15 seconds or more (sometimes over a minute). Most of the time this works fine. Hopefully this is a bug in their indexing system that they'll address soon. Sometimes the UI in other parts of the system are slow as well. Too bad they didn't cache the UI in RAM so it could be quicker. It's just like watching an over loaded Windows system page out for more RAM. And people thought Linux would be better. : )

2) Changing channels in live TV is slow. Especially if you revert to your DSS remote for pay-per-view. There is at least a one second lag time between the time that you press the button and the time that you see the response.

Other than that, I really love this box. My wife said to me the other night, "while I don't like to encourage you constant buying of gadgets, this one is great, it really works".

I'm also very curious as to how the upgrades are going to work. Hard disks keep getting cheaper, and it would be nice to take advantage of that.

-mike

I must admit I was skeptical of this new technology, but, after having Tivo for two months I can't ever think of going back to the old VCR days. It is a similar to the difference between the old 8mm movies and VCR tapes. Really.

What I like best is that I can watch TV without those annoying, time wasting commercials. I love to fly through them. All I do, is start watching every show I want to watch 15 minutes after Tivo starts to record it. I then zip through the commercials and am caught up with the show by the end of the show. Of course, if I wish to watch a recorded show, I can do the same thing. I now realize that we get about 40 minutes of net TV in an hour due to those commercials.

If you get that phone call in the middle of the best part of the show - no problem - just hit the pause button and get back to it after the phone call without missing one second of your program.

I record all my shows in the 14 hour mode. Quality is very acceptable for 99% of what I record.

The remote is very well designed. In a short time, you can "work it in the dark."

Ease and speed of setting up shows to record is second to none.

Sure, the initial setup took three to four hours, but, you only do that once, and it is easy to do. Most of that time it spends downloading the initial program guide for your area. Your actual part is about 20 minutes.

14 hour mode unit is the price performer. Imagine having 14 hours of TV to watch. Hard to do. This forces a "watch and dump" and you stay current, or, it autmatically erases oldest shows when it needs room.

What's the proof of my satisfaction?

I just ordered my second Tivo for my wife.

She is a "tape collector" and has about 100 old tapes that I know she will NEVER watch. I hope to break her of that habit.

By the way, those of you that paid $499 (last year's price) don't forget that some credit cards will refund price differences if they are within 60 days. My Amex did.

Also, since the hard drive in the unit runs 24 hours a day, extended service policy may be a good idea. You never turn the Tivo off. Or, at least buy it with a credit card that extends your warranty to match original warranty.

...that I don't know where to begin.

The UI is very well designed. It's obvious and intuitive how to navigate the menus. My only complaint is that I sometimes they err towards providing too many navigation and confirmation screens. While this makes each screen less intimidating, it does make navigation a bit more tedious. But this is really a minor complaint in an, overall, brilliantly designed interface.

The features are explained well enough in the Amazon comparison guide and elsewhere. I'll just say that they work as advertised and are extremely cool! TV serves my schedule instead of the opposite.

The quality in the best mode (the one used for viewing and pausing live TV) is nearly indistinguishable from the source. If you have a really big screen and high end audio equipment you may notice the difference. I find it fine for general TV viewing though I do bypass it for PPV movies. I generally use the medium (second lowest out of four) quality setting when recording. It's a lot better than VHS but is a noticable dropoff from the original.

My biggest complaint is the box's sluggishness in changing channels and responding to user commands. It takes about a second to change channels and, sometimes, several seconds to go between menu/guide screens.

There are two misperceptions I constantly see in user and professional reviews regarding TiVo vs. ReplayTV. First, ReplayTV's service isn't really free. They just build it into the base cost of the unit. When factoring in lifetime service from TiVo, the prices have remained comparable between the two products. TiVo was a cheaper when the products were first introduced and now ReplayTV is cheaper. But they're in the same ballpark.

The second misconception regards TiVo's automatic suggestions that are based on user preferences. Where's the negative in this? If you don't like it you can turn it off and it'll never record anything you don't explicitely ask it to record. But what's the harm? If there's extra space on the drive why not use it? It'll never take space away from the programs you've asked it to record. It's hard enough to sift through and find quality programming to watch. I'll take any suggestions I can get. The biggest problem with TV is too little quality programming at the time I want to watch. The box is just trying to fill itself with stuff I might want to watch. And sometimes it works. The other day I came home and TiVo had recorded The Truman Show. This is a movie I like but wouldn't have thought to mark for recording. It was nice to have a good movie waiting for me when I wanted to watch it.

Every time I turn on the TV it's like I have a little surprise waiting for me when I check what the TiVo's recorded for me. I like the serendipity of channel surfing - of finding something I wasn't expecting. That's why I like the TiVo's suggestions in addition to it allowing me to specify exactly what I want to record.

I haven't used a ReplayTV. It's probably an excellent product, too, but the number of technical complaints is troubling. TiVo seems to have a higher satisfaction/lower complaint ratio. And TiVo's usage model is more to my liking.

The new "digital VCR" is a big step forward for TV. I only watch 2-3 shows a week, if that. Tivo lets me record these reliably, watch them in a very easy manner, and sadly has sucked me into watching even more TV.

There are some merits to both Tivo and ReplayTV. But I will say that for anyone who is not technical, Tivo is a hands-down winner. Very clean and easy interface. And, techincal thought I am, I prefer Tivo as well. My friends with ReplayTV agree that their relatives will prefer Tivo.

I wish Amazom had the 30-hour unit for sale, and I am sure they will, but I have to buy a Christmas gift and can't wait. Amazon is listed as a 30-hour unit seller by the Tivo website, but Amazon customer support doesn't know when it will become available.

Tivo has promised an upgrade plan for 14-hour units but the plan is not in place and has no pricing yet. They should correct this, it has been the one sore point in an otherwise exemplary pre and post-sales support ssytem. I am sure it is due to the rush to get 30-hour units into the hands of new customers during the holiday rush.

Philips has done a great job listening to customers. I think they will continue to improve this unit, most of which can be done with software downloads in the middle of the night. Support is very good, and the system works well.

I bought TIVO after seeing the infomercial on DirecTV.

I had the satellite and cable subscriptions and was somewhat upset because I was always doing something when a program came on at its scheduled time.

Now TIVO grabs the shows for me and I watch when it is convenient for me. This is a simple to use product. Perfect for someone who likes the VCR but hates buying and storing all those tapes.

The user interface is easy to grasp.

It is a little on the expensive side -- but my free time is valuable too - and this product gives me so much time back.

You won't be unhappy that you bought this.

Wayne Schulz