Home > Consumer Reviews > TiVo R24004A 40-Hour Digital Video Recorder

When I was first considering TIVO, I wondered if it was just a glorified VCR. I mean, after all, its basic function is to record television shows so you can watch them when you want. But that's really just scratching the surface...

First of all, you can watch a pre-recorded program while recording something else. Try doing that with a VCR...

However, where TIVO shines is its menu-driven programming. TIVO does what every cable programming guide should do -- you can sort programs by date, channel, title, time, actor, director, sports team, and so on. The season pass can be set to catch programs you know you want, but also programs you didn't even realize were playing. (For example, I'm a Nebraska football fan, and TIVO has caught replays of previous games on sports channels in the middle of the night -- I would've never known about these unless I spent my day reading TV Guide.) Brilliant!

For those of you terrified by the blinking 12:00 on your VCR, be warned -- TIVO definitely isn't "Plug and Play", particularly if you have a cable box. Likewise, you won't be able to watch other live programming while recording unless you have multiple inputs in your TV (preferably a coaxial and a component input) and you split your cable or antenna signal. TIVO does offer a directed setup, but be prepared -- the first update takes several hours, so you technophiles can't just "play" with the equipment immediately.

You also can't record two programs at the same time, which you can do with Scientific Atlanta's new cable boxes. I've tried the SA boxes, though, and while you can record two shows at once, you don't get the intuitive menus like you do in TIVO.

You'll need a telephone jack near the TIVO for programming updates, and you'll shell out for a monthly (or lifetime) programming fee in addition to the cost of the box. When all is said and done, though, I'm absolutely hooked. If you watch at least a modest amount of television, this is a "must have" piece of equipment.

This is highly recommended, despite the difficult setup and modest shortcomings.

I have owned Tivo for over 3 years and I love it!!! I work really early hours so I don't get to watch prime time tv live. Tivo takes care of this....It records my shows and then I watch them when I want to....I even fast forward thru the commercials.
Now keep in mind that you can't forward commercials in live tv, since no product has been invented to see the future (yet)...As far as the hookup goes, if you can hook up a vcr, you can hook up tivo. Co-ax cable in, then co-ax cable out to tv/vcr, you can even use RCA cables and SVideo too...Only difference between Tivo and a VCR is that there are no video tapes to use, unless you want to transfer something to tape...This is a great product and I am thinking of buying a second one...Keep in mind that a subscription to the Tivo service is needed (monthly or a lifetime purchase is available)...

The main point I want to make about TIVO, and I believe this also applies to ReplayTV as well, is you DO need to pay for a subscription for this device to work. Many people are saying you can forgo the monthly subscription and use TIVO like a VCR and record things manually. This was true with the ealier model series 1 TIVOs, but the series 2 TIVOs will not record without an active subscription. So do not buy a new model TIVO unless you are getting the pay per month or the one time lifetime subscription.

TIVO would get 5 stars from me if it offered a cheaper subscription rate. A $300 lifetime charge or a $13 monthly charge is way over inflated for simply connecting to a database for an hour to download what amounts to a small patch. It may be worth the cost, but the cost cannot be justified. If you are going to get this however, consider two things-

1.Lifetime subscription only applies to machine purchased, so in effect for most, lifetime will be about 5 years or less, depending how soon you want the next big toy. However, lifetime subscriptions are transferable, and make the resell price pretty near the buy price if you resell this thing several years down the road. Just check some auctions and look at the selling prices for old models with the lifetime subscription thrown in.

2.Month to month makes sense if your getting this machine to use maybe less than a year or two, till your cable or satellite company provides the service and then you plan to throw out the used machine rather than sell it. Or, it can be good as a one month test to see if it is something you'd want to shell out $300 for a lifetime or if you want to gamble the lifetime prices might fall far enough in the near future to justify paying month to month over a period of time before switching over.

TIVOs competition ReplayTV just recently sold very inexpensive units with a free 3 year subscription and 99 cents a month after that 3 years, but now they also switched over to TIVOs price scale. Both services are good, with Replay having some extra functionality and TIVO being easier to use.

The best buy will come from buying a used TIVO or ReplayTV that already has a paid lifetime subscription, though these tend to still sell over $300, even the old models.

Another option for those who are good with computers and have a computer next to their TV is a TV video card with a bundled remote control and some tweaking using free software. You can basically simulate TIVO functionality with little money and no service fee, but it is not as easy as using TIVO.

Also more and more companies, besides direct TV, are starting to bundle these types of devices into their packages, usually with a smaller initial and monthly cost than TIVO.

Another thing to consider, as far as buying the actual hardware itself is you can upgrade TIVA and ReplayTV boxes using a standard IDE hard drive. Many of these units have an empty slot for a second drive and the mod itself is not too difficult if your good with computers and don't mind voiding the warranty. Each gig of HD equals about an hour on the lowest resolution setting, though most of you would be using the mid resolutions for a decent picture and the highest resolution for HDTV on a plasma or LCD TV which cut down the advertised record times.

TIVO is still probably the best option for the casual user right now, unless your using direct TV, so if your looking to buy right at the time of this writing, TIVO isn't a bad choice, but keep in mind many new options seem to be coming thru 2004.

I bought and installed the Tivo last December as a Christmas present for my parents. Their overall experience with it has been positive, but there have also been a number of problems, which I will go into in this review for the benefit of those trying to make an informed decision.

First, after Tivo made its initial dialup connection, it crashed. A green screen appeared on the TV announcing the crash and saying that if the system did not recover within 5 hours to call customer service. It took considerably longer than that, but eventually it did recover. Two days later, another crash occurred. Over time the crashes became less frequent and recovery time was faster. As far as I know, crashes no longer occur. (Perhaps Tivo downloaded patches to its drivers.) Crashes are very frustrating, because not only can you not record during them, but you can't even watch TV at all without disconnecting the Tivo from the cable. Television should not be subject to crashes. VCRs never do this.

One reason I bought Tivo for my parents is that according to the hype, it is so easy to use that anyone can quickly learn and become comfortable with it. My parents are not very tech-savvy and never mastered the VCR that they have owned for over 10 years, so I thought Tivo would be an excellent solution for them. It's been a struggle, but they finally know how to use the basic features and are no longer angry with me for turning their television-viewing into such a stressful time.

A seldom-mentioned fact is that Tivo does not give you the ability to watch live TV and record a separate program simultaneously (although you can watch an already recorded program while another is being recorded). So if you just want to turn on the TV and channel-surf, you won't be able to if Tivo is already in the middle of recording another program (unless you tell it to stop recording that program). Even more infuriating is when you are watching live TV, and in the middle of the program a message pops up saying that Tivo is about to beginning a scheduled recording, giving you a few seconds to decide whether you want to abandon what you are in the middle of watching or if you are willing to not do the recording. Sometimes this can be a very stressful dilemma, particularly if the scheduled recording was requested by another member of the household. My father was often not quick enough to tell it to cancel the recording, and as a result, recording would begin, and the program he was watching would suddenly disappear from the screen and he wouldn't know how to get it back. When this occurred during major sporting events, his level of stress was unprecedented.

Tivo doesn't work well when shared by multiple members of a household. Besides the aforementioned problem of different viewers canceling each other's conflicting recording schedules or even deleting other people's yet-to-be-viewed programs to free up space on the drive, there is also the problem that the program recommendation feature becomes hilariously inept. It works something like this. Tivo keeps a database on their servers of what programs each Tivo records as well as viewer ratings, and then it looks for corelations. For example, 95% of people who watch program A and program B also record program C. So Tivo if you regularly watch both A and B, Tivo will recommend and record C for you. Of course if A and B are recorded by separate individuals, the correlation means nothing. If I record Spongebob and my father records Meet the Press, and 95% of people who record both also watch programs on the golf channel, that correlation is meaningless. Tivo has definitely made some weird choices.

Also, there is an occasional stutter in which a program will freeze for a second or two. This is particularly pronounced when it is recording one program while displaying another. The problem is not serious, since it restarts where it left off with no gap in the sound (and you can always rewind). But it is moderately annoying to me and extremely disturbing to my parents. Also, if you choose to copy important programs to videocassettes, you would record all the stutters as well.

Overall this is a very good product, and I do recommend it for most people. I chose to concentrate on the flaws in this review, since the advantages (which are quite significant) are detailed exhaustively in the other reviews. It definitely deserves all four stars, and future versions of Tivo will probably do much to remedy the current problems.

*UPDATE -- March 7, 2003*
It turned out that I had purchased a faulty model. About three weeks ago it went into a permanent crash. My parents contacted customer service, and Tivo immediately sent them a new model. They were not even required to send back the old one until they got the new one, so there was little delay. Unlike the previous one, the new one never crashes, and it is more responsive. Also, the aforementioned stutter problem no longer occurs. It's definitely an excellent product with great customer service. I raise my rating to a solid 4.5 stars.

I have 2 TiVo units (80 hour and 40 hour) that I have connected to my home network via wireless. I purchased 2 units thinking it was going to be the ultimate television experience, and because there is no way to record 2 programs at once with one unit (e.g. 24 and Frasier concurrently).

The positives: Using TiVo to record programs is even easier than you will expect. Playback with pause and rewind of live TV is great. Once you get it set up, doing things over the home network really makes it simple.

The negatives: If you have a cable box with digital audio output, it (digital audio) will not work with TiVo, and neither will HDTV. Also, it does not include Component Video inputs or outputs, so you are left to use inferior connections. From these perspectives, buying TiVo now assures you are buying a product that will shortly be obsolete. You will be disappointed in the quality of playback on HDTV and of the audio quality, compared simply to just using a cable box or satellite with HDTV receiver. It is really behind the times on these areas. Also, their warranty and service is poor. There is only a 90-day warranty on labor (1-year parts), and you must call a toll (i.e. not toll-free) number and wait on hold for 10+ minutes to get service. Web support is non-existent. One of our units was louder than the other from the day we bought them, and has grown louder and louder to the point we needed to call for support. After initially refusing to service the unit unless I pay $99 for the service, TiVo (1 month past 3 month warranty window), finally agreed to reduce the cost to $49, since their web site led us to believe the sound was normal when we first received the unit. Unfortunately, this "fix" will only guarantee that the replacement box will work for 30 days - after that I will need to pay full price to repair it, if it has an issue. Given that they are sending me a replacement unit (i.e. from a "service inventory" rather than repairing the one I own), I have a feeling that there are far more issues with the boxes than people believe. It is not surprising, since the units use a hard drive with a fan (i.e. with moving parts - not flash memory), which run 24 x 7. Overall, I find product quality marginal at best and customer service to be exceptionally poor. (It took a lot to get the service price reduced, even though we firmly believe our unit was defective from Day 1.)

Also, don't be fooled by the capacity noted on the product. It only holds 40 hours of programming if you use the worst quality setting, which most people would find unacceptable. A more realistic capacity is 25% - 50% of the "quoted capacity", which is what you will find if you use the 2 higher quality settings.

Finally, I am most disturbed by the reviews of some of the TiVo fanatics, particularly some of the people on the TiVo community site. These folks believe that TiVo is the ultimate and will lead you to believe it, so you also buy it! Others are so thrilled with some of the features, they do not take the time to fully understand the product before writing a review. For example, a subsequent (to my first writing) reviewer claims there is no need to purchase a box + a subscription, but obviously has no idea what he is talking about. It is as plain as day on the TiVo site. You need to buy the equipment + either a monthly or lifetime subscription. If you want to share between the units (i.e. record on one watch on another), you also need to purchase network cards + the home media option for BOTH units. It is not inexpensive. 2 units + lifetime service + cards + HMO = over $1,200) It is also a little disturbing to see only positive reviews in the Amazon spotlight, given that there are genuine issues to consider when purchasing this product.

If you are considering TiVo now, I strongly recommend that you wait until they release a product that is compatible with HDTV and digital audio before making the investment. They market these Series II boxes like they are the latest and greatest, but in reality, they are already about obsolete. Remember, a lifetime subscription pertains to the life of the unit - not your life. If you buy this now and find it obsolete in a year (i.e. when you buy HDTV), you will need to buy another unit AND service again.