TiVo TCD540140 Series2 140-Hour Digital Video Recorder

I read all the other reviews, good and bad before deciding to actually write one myself. TiVo has its problems, and while I'm tolerant, perhaps because of my own software engineering background, I can see how many people might not be.

To summarize my review up front. Despite the problems, TiVo has changed how I watch TV and my wife, very skeptical and tolerant of her 'geek' husband is also a total convert. If our TiVo dies, another one will be on order in 24 hours. We've had our TiVo for over 2 years and we wouldn't be without it.

Now let's get to the nitty gritty. We have one of the first of the Series 2 machines with a lifetime subscription and we did in fact have to exchange it early in it's life. Since then, we've had very few problems. Here they are.

The problems :

* The machine occasionally locks up and need to be rebooted. How often? Sometimes several times a week. Others, maybe less than once every few months.

* The machine occasionally reboots itself without warning. I'm still not sure if this is deliberate. It's never done it while recording or playing back a show, but it has done it while I was watching live TV, which is not necessarily detectable unless I'm time shifting. Things work great after the reboot, but it's a bit irritating if I'm time shifting live TV, which honestly is rare.

* Our first machine's hard drive died. We had decent service replacing the machine, however we did have to pay S&H. TiVo could certainly improve here, but the service WAS very acceptable.

The nits (design issues, IMO) :

* My favorite feature is turned off and hidden. This is setting the skip to 30 seconds. When watching live TV, hit select, play, select 30, select. This has to be reset every time you restart. I imagine this is not the default to prevent lawsuits from unhappy networks because I don't even watch their commercials sped up any more.

* I wish changing the channel didn't flush the 30 minute live TV buffer.

* I wish the buffer was 60 minutes.

The raves :

* My favorite feature. 30 second commerical skip (see above).

* I virtually never watch live TV any more. Channel surfing is DEAD in my household. My observation is that many people in other reviews complained about how slow the channel changing is. I guess this is true, even with the serial cable, but the whole point of the TiVo is to NOT have to change channels or watch live TV any longer.

Seriously, if you're intent on channel surfing, you won't get the point of a TiVo and it probably isn't for you. My father in law doesn't get our TiVo and it doesn't make sense for him or anyone else with a 30 second - 5 minute attention span. A DVR doesn't make sense for you at all. That doesn't denigrate your TV-watching style, it just means don't purchase a DVR.

If you're the sort who likes to change channels during the commcerical (I used to do that), TiVo doesn't make sense unless you change your habits. I have. I don't watch commercials either.

* I have managed to catch up on all my old TV series using season pass. This has been easy even when I'm not sure when the shows are because TiVo finds them on various channels and surfs to record them for me.

* Wishlists have turned up old hidden 2am gems that I like to watch occasionally. This is fun.. to catch on old movie or find a show with a favorite actor or topic.

* I thought at first that I had to watch everything my TiVo recorded. No way, that isn't the point. The point is to have a diverse set of wishlist items, season passes, and suggestions from selected from thumbs up and down information you input over time to always be able to watch if and when you decide to watch TV. That is empowering as I now choose what and when to watch.

* We're starting a family soon, and TiVo supports parental protection based on show ratings. We have it turned off right now, but when our children get old enough to hold a remote, that will be turned back on and customized to our preferences. That and we can skip commercials are powerful tools in our parental toolbox.

* You can network your TiVo and hook it up to your home network for updated TV listings via network instead of phone line and to play your family digital photo album on the TV as well as your collection of MP3's. If you have a stereo hooked up for movies, this is very nice.

* The user interface is pretty easy to use. Even install, while involving many steps is about as easy as one can make it given how many decisions must be made at the user's end (how did you hook it up? what kind of cable, satellite, etc? what channels do you get? and so on).

* You can hack your TiVo. There actually are some good reasons to do this.

1) It's cheap to add more hard disk space if you need it. I should do this soon.

2) Part of the process involves backing up the hard drive. If the hard drive in your TiVo dies, this means you have a backup and may be able to repair your current box (with a lifetime subscription in my case) instead of purchasing a new one.

3) Some people I know are also able to save video onto their computer and burn their own dvds. I considered this but decided against it for now because the quality isn't exciting, and the legality is questionable (although you can now purchase a TiVo/DVD burner combo that does the same thing).

Suggestions :

* Seriously consider hacking your TiVo once it's out of warantee at least to add your own warantee of a backup hard drive, even if you don't add hours to it. There are services that will do this for you if you pay them.

Alternatives :

* Replay - I haven't spent much time looking at Replay. Their approach has caused so many lawsuits, and they've been in and out of brankruptcy, I decided not to bother. People rave about it though.

* Ultimate TV - Microsofts offering. My brother-in-law enjoys his, but it's no longer available. What's out there still works and it seems to be a nice system.

* MythTV/FreeVo - these are free software systems that you can use to build your own computer into a TiVo live DVR that incorporate even more features like computer gaming and so on. I'm very interested as a software engineer and will probably build one (and have friends who have done so), but it's more of a hobbiest approach and you do have to constantly tinker to keep it running in excellent shape.

Final comments :

I love my TiVo. It has truly empowered me to watch what I want, when I want, and HOW I want. I don't watch commercials unless I really want to. TiVo suggestions have showed me that there really is worthwhile TV to watch (we watch a lot of FoodTV, Discovery, TLC, DIY, etc. type shows) available... more than I have time to watch. Thumbs up and thumbs down on various shows have really fine tuned what the TiVo records as a suggestion (only using available space).

It definitely has little quicks and problems. I could do without the occasional hangs and I'm always nervous that the hard drive might crash. TiVo probably could use better customer service although I have never had a problem. However, I use a lot of honey in my interactions with customer service people (I used to work in tech support) and almost always get better results than the irate grumpy people I know, even calling the same help lines.

The value has FAR exceeded the cost, IMO. Watching what I want when I want. Saving 15-20 minutes an hour and 7-10 minutes for half hour shows by skipping commercials is time I spend on other things. Watching more shows if I'm lazy, but more usually fixing up things around the house and getting projects done. Hopefully you will find the same, but at least you can make the decision informed in as much detail as I can give in this little space here.

OK, let me say first that I'm not a Tivo employee. I'm just a Tivo user who can't say enough about this great little machine.

First, Tivo really will change the way you watch TV. Most people have a VCR and do at least some time-shifting. But it is a pain to record the VCR and deal with video tapes.

But with Tivo, you never have to mess with video tapes, everything's recorded on a large built-in hard drive in excellent quality digital video (MPEG 1).

With Tivo, you'll find that you watch what you want when you want (which is almost never when the network programmers want). And you will save a lot of time skipping quickly through commercials. Let me give you an example. Suppose you want to watch a one-hour show that starts at 8 p.m. Now, this one-hour show is really going to have 20 minutes of commercials. And you've got to give the kids their baths and get them to bed. So you start recording the show at 8 p.m., get the kids bathed and into bed, and start watching the show on Tivo at 8:20 (yes you can start watching a show even while it's still being recorded...try that with a VCR). Now as you're watching, every time there's a commercial you can skip through 90 seconds of commercial in about 5 seconds. So the upshot is you can still finish watching the show by 9 p.m. just as Tivo is finishing up the recording, and you've saved 20 minutes that you were able to spend with your kids instead. Multiply that kind of saving over a year, and you've acquired an enormous amount of quality time. And that's just one thing Tivo can do for you.

Another great thing is Season Pass. Like to watch ER every week, or Survivor, or really any series? Set up a Season Pass on Tivo (only takes a minute), and Tivo will record every episode, even in most cases if the network changes the time on you. This is because Tivo updates its program guide on a daily basis so is generally aware of any time changes the networks might make.

With Tivo Series 2 recorders, it also offers some additional cool features: multiple-room viewing (your Tivos need to be networked on your home wireless or wired network); music and photos (music and photos on your computer can be heard and viewed through your Tivo); and Tivo suggestions (if Tivo notices that your kids like to watch episodes of the Muppets, it will start recording similar programming automatically; you often can be pleasantly surprised by programs it records while you're away).

I could go on and on, but really now that you can get a Tivo for under $100 (after rebate), why not experience it yourself.

I recommend getting the 80-hour version. Even at the highest-quality video setting, you can get about 25 hours of programming.

Another thing that people don't realize is that you don't have to opt for the monthly service if you really just want to use Tivo like a VCR. When you first get it, you can go through "Guided Setup" and dial an 800 number to get the first month of programming data for free, but you are never forced to activate your service, and you can always record by time and channel.

However, I for one think the monthly service is well worth the $12.95 a month. You really do get a lot for the money.

I'm not going to sing the praises of TiVo, as many others have done so much more eloquently than I can. Suffice it to say, all the good stuff is true, and most of the bad stuff is blown out of proportion. Instead, I'll share some tips for squeezing every last ounce of enjoyment out of your TiVo:

- If you have broadband or DSL, get your TiVo hooked up to your home network. You no longer need a phone line for service updates, you can transfer recorded programs to a PC (with the free TiVo Desktop software), and you can access digital music and photos on your computer from your TiVo. For people who aren't quite ready to shell out for a media center PC, this is a cheap and more than adequate first step.

- As mentioned in the featured review, there are several ways to upgrade your TiVo hard drive without shelling out hundreds of dollars for a new receiver. (...). ***PLEASE NOTE: Opening your receiver will void your warranty, and you need to be comfortable handling internal PC components to perform the upgrade.*** That being said, it's an easy enough process and I've had no problems with my unit since the "operation". Some Google searching will lead you to the directions for this process - try "hinsdale tivo upgrade".

- Be diligent about rating programs, but be careful as well. The more you rate, the more on-point the suggestions are. Just be careful about being too enthusiatic in applying the thumbs-up. I made the mistake of giving two thumbs up to Law & Order, only to come back from a long weekend and find over a dozen episodes waiting for me. That's a little too much courtroom drama for my tastes.

- Don't let the lack of a handy phone line stop you from joining the TiVo revolution. There is a wireless phone adapter that will work with TiVo, and you can also use a wireless network adapter to connect to your home network (this is what I do). If you decide to go for the wireless netwrok, be sure to visit the TiVo site to see which adapter works with your particular model.

One thing I can say for sure, you won't regret your purchase!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I can't say enough about the benefits of TiVo... if you like TV, at all, you'll Love Tivo.

I bought this unit for my girlfriend and she's had it for about a week. Now, the first thing that comes to mind after working with this machine, is that it's really only for people who like watching a lot of tv (those loyal to a good handful of tv shows) and lead busy lives as to where they don't want to be checking in with a VCR to tape something everyday.
If you don't mind setting up your VCR and continuously buying blank video tapes, then I really wouldn't recommend this to you.
Now, I purchased the 80 hr version (and I'm glad I did) because the 40 hrs really has almost no time to record on it and the 140 hr version was too expensive. For those absolute TV junkies who've got about 4 handfuls of shows they'd like to watch, I would HIGHLY recommend the 140 hrs version.
Let's get one thing straight about the times here though. 80 hrs on this machine isn't really 80 hours UNLESS you mind a crappy looking picture. There are 4 quality settings you can set any show on: Basic, Medium, High, and Best. Basic gives you a little over 81 hours of recording time, BUT the picture comes out pretty pixelated and ugly for small objects and most people will surely mind it. The Best setting gives you about 40 hours of total recording time and it's the only setting that most closely resembles watching just regular TV (i.e. clear picture). I also had to purchase a signal amplifier ($40 from RadioShack) to hook into it because the Tivo was blocking a good signal from coming in (I don't have a cable box, just a cable wire coming in from the wall), so if you're setting it up the way I did, be prepared to spend a little more on a couple of extra wires and accessories (examples: about 2 or 3 cable leads, an RF splitter so you can watch something while taping something else, and a signal amplifier). I got a good deal from Amazon b/c i signed up for a credit card and they have the $100 rebate.
The learning curve is kinda scary when first operating the Tivo, only because the instruction booklet is so thick,but don't let it get to you, just play with the menu, it's pretty self explanatory.
Ok, so on to the good and the bad.

The Good:
-you can tape whatever you want if you live a busy life and love tv.
-You can create a season pass and let the Tivo worry about when the shows will be on and it will tape them, it will tape them all and keep them as long as there's available space (first runs, repeats, both, whatever you set it to)
-You can rewind and pause live TV (live doesn't mean Live like watching a football game, but just means actual regular television viewing, from MTV to NBC to the discovery channel to whatever)
-You can set it to any actor, director, guest, subject or movie title and Tivo will find it and wait till it's on and record it.
-The price is a lot cheaper than spending about $700 to whatever on another brand DVR recorder w/ built in DVD player.
-Tivo has a built in TV guide, so you can see what any channel is going to be playing for about the following week or two.
-if you see a good preview or commercial for an upcoming show or movie, you can press the "Thumb up" button to record it.

The Bad:
-Tivo CANNOT record 2 programs that are being played at the same time. There will be a conflict notice and you have to set a priority depending on what you'd rather watch. for this, i recommend using an RF splitter so that you can at least set your VCR to record whatever show is being conflicted. This becomes tiresome when you have shows like American Idol or The Apprentice whose times change a lot, you may miss the show cause the priority is set on another show being played at the same time.
-The times are misleading, like 80 hrs not really being good quality 80 hrs. Most people will want to only use the Best setting b/c the others have many pixles and can become distracting.
-Tivo's warrenty is pretty short, so i recommend buying from Best Buy where you can get a good deal on a warrenty cause they have a deal with Tivo. with tivo, if you send it back to them for repair, YOU are responsible for shipping costs.
-Tivo's customer service phone number has long waiting times, and they don't have direct email.
-Channel changing isn't as fast as regular tv.
-Tivo never turns off, so you'd have to set it on standby when not using it.
-you may need to buy extra accessories depending on the quality of display output.

One hint of advice, i recommend NOT getting the $300 lifetime subscription, instead get the $12.95 a month for Tivo service, because the $300 lifetime is JUST for the lifetime of your Tivo box, so if it breaks, you're out $300.
Again, this is fun to have, but if you're picky about spending lots of money and getting very good, exceptional quality customer service and tv viewing, the tivo may at times urke you. I recommend getting it at Best Buy, at least there you can go return it and not have to worry about shipping it back.

There are several customer reviews in here trashing this product for its monthly subscription fee. They are misguided. I guess some folks get offended if you try to sell them something; money is a touchy subject. Don't get me wrong, if TiVo lowered the monthly fee then my feelings wouldn't be hurt, but it's not like you aren't getting something for that money.

Without the monthly subscription, the TiVo works like a fancy VCR, so you don't really have to buy one; but I wouldn't do without a subscription, nor would anybody I know who has a TiVo (quite a few friends and coworkers). The monthly subscription buys you a specific service: scheduling. If you subscribe, then the TiVo periodically downloads the program schedule information for your cable/satellite/air service, and suddenly becomes a whole lot smarter. That schedule info is how it knows which shows are coming on and what channel to turn to. With this feature enabled the full potential of a DVR is unlocked and the TiVo becomes a must-have household item. You no longer think "channel 6 at 8:30 for 30 minutes"; you think "Jeopardy" (or whatever). The unit is smart enough to automatically change its recording time if the channel's lineup gets rearranged. Once you're able to pick shows based on title, actor, genre, or whatever else you want, without ever worrying about what time it's coming on, you will wonder why you took so long to buy one of these. It really is hard to describe the benefit. I had to try it to be convinced, but I'm a believer now, and I don't want to go back to watching TV without one of these things.

Without that schedule information, the box still works, but since it doesn't know what's on or when, you have to program the thing manually (e.g. start recording at 3:30, stop at 5:30), like you would a VCR. Easier than a VCR, but still the same approach. Nice but not earth-shattering. I have chosen to pay the monthly subscription fee and do not regret the decision. I'm sure somebody's making a tidy profit over all the subscription fees, but then again, they aren't going to be able to maintain all that information from around the country and host it for everybody to download for free.

I do suggest paying the monthly fee as opposed to buying a lifetime subscription. That way you can cancel, upgrade your box, or make other changes at any time. The lifetime subscription is pricey and takes a long time to pay for itself -- you may want to replace your TiVo with a newer model before that happens.

The user interface is geared towards ease-of-use and it really is just about as intuitive as it gets. I have yet to find anybody who can't figure it out quickly. There are a lot of little touches, anticipating what you are trying to do. This seems like one of TiVo's biggest selling points. There are other DVRs out there (ReplayTV?) that are targeted more at computer-savy or tinker-happy people. If you want your DVR to be able to do absolutely anything you can imagine, you'd be better off spending a lot more money to turn a real computer into one. All I want to do is watch what I want, when I feel like it; and this unit gets the job done.

Being able to play my computer's mp3 collection in my living room is a nice bonus.

The 40-hour version only gets me about 10 hours of best quality video, but that's still quite a bit of room. There are independent vendors who offer disk drive upgrades for good prices if you want more space but don't want to replace the unit outright.

The reason I gave this four stars instead of five is that you can't turn the unit off without unplugging it, so it emits a subtle-but-noticeable fan noise at all times. Apart from that, I'm very happy with it.

TiVo will change your life -- everyone who has it loves it, and you don't need another person telling you that.

However -- I have buyer's remorse over this model because it's not large enough. The 40 hours isn't really 40 hours. There are 4 different quality modes, and if you go for the highest quality recording option, you only get about 13 hours. Honestly, that's not a lot of space. If I go on a business trip for a 4 or 5 days, it runs out of room.

The great thing about TiVo is that you will learn to never watch live TV. Since TiVo becomes your primary TV watching system, you should record on high quality, right? And then, another great feature of TiVo is that it finds shows you might like and records them for you. Well, if you only have 13 hours for the things you WANT to record, TiVo doesn't have space to record more things for you.

In sum -- I really regret this purchase only because I underestimated how much TiVo would change my life. Now I record all my shows on low quality for space reasons, and there's definitely a difference. Do yourself a favor and shell out the money for the 80 hour or larger one. It's just a much smarter decision for something that will become integral in your lifestyle. Seriously -- go larger. You won't regret it.

First Amazon... Super fast shipping...Now Tivo... Almost too easy to set up. It's only been 24 hours and it recording movies and playing them back real time Football is great You get to see your own instant replays. I think anyone who is tired of surfing trying to find that certain program will like Tivo very quickly. For working folks on the go. It lets you watch what you want when you can. No more conflicted decisions.

Oh! I could not get signed up on the web ...some tech problem. But I was quickly able to find a phone number and within several minutes I was signed up registered and set to go. The rep was very pleasant.

I downloaded my rebate slip and sent it in today. which will pay for one third of a lifetime subscription.


At age 58 this was one of the easist to use new fangled gadgets I have. Enjoy

I don't work for TiVo. I won't bother to repeat all the "changes the way you watch TV" comments, but wanted to add this:

My 5-year-old who doesn't read, but knows the alphabet, has no trouble with it.

The way they did the user interface is impecable. It is not only easy to set up and schedule programs, but also has excellent channel surfing based on data from TV Guide info, that is more complete (program + episode descriptions) and up-to-date than what my digital cable provider's box puts on the screen.

There are a ton of little features that show how well-polished this product really is, and it FAR surpasses any other DVR. I'll take TiVo over my cable-provider's (TimeWarner) DVR or ReplayTV. It's very reliable, and won't miss recording episodes occasionaly like TimeWarner's or Replay's DVRs.

If you like tinkering with computers, it's straight-forward to replace its hard disk with a bigger one, or even add a second hard disk. A google search will find you services that do this, or how-to books. I bought a 40-hour Series 2 unit, replaced its 40GB disk two 60GB hard disks, and I have yet to hit the disk space limit when trying to record something. That's another good point -- TiVo has excellent recorded program expiration features, like keep the last 3 shows (you set the number).

I could go on and on, but let me just conclude by saying that I gladly paid the $300 lifetime subscription after my first free month.

There is plenty of technical information available here so I won't be adding anymore. I will say this is the best new product our family has even gotten. You may think you don't need TiVo but I found it to be similar to getting a cell phone. You don't know its value until you actually get one. Sure, you can live without a DVR but really, why would you want to?
I feel the biggest benefit of the 140 hour model is the ability it has to handle entire seasons of your favorite shows. You never have to worry about missing an episode since you can just click one button, one time and have the DVR take care of the rest.
Pausing live TV is the best feature with losing commercials a close second. I really enjoy searching by actor, a nice feature.
I actually got mine through my satellite company and if you have a dish, you might need a second one installed. The biggest benefit of going through them is the monthly service fee is only 4.95. That's a big savings and they installed the additional dish for free.
TiVo will change the way you watch TV and change it for the better. Highly recommended!!