Monday, July 03, 2006
I absolutely love TiVo. I think it's one of the most life changing inventions of my time, probably second only to the cell phone. For people who watch a lot of TV (and I did until I went to college, and then did again for a couple years after graduating from college), it completely changes your life. You are no longer dependent on a TV schedule, you don't watch commercials, you don't channel surf, you watch more content, and better content.
The problem is, TiVo has taken a long time to catch on. People just don't get it until they use it. I loved TiVo when I had a Directv Tivo combination box. The single receiver did it all and it worked very well.
When my dad was getting his cable setup, I pushed him to get an HD TiVo with Directv. Unfortunately he went with Dish Network because of more Indian channels and cricket content. He got an HD DVR made by Dish but it was absolute crap. I played with it for 20 minutes and couldn't figure out how to do a season pass, or how to delete recorded shows. We sent it back!
Last week I bought him a standalone TiVo box, which means the video signal from the Dish receiver would pass through the tivo, and the tivo would control the Dish Network receiver with an IR transmitter. Unfortunately, it didn't work well at all. The two receivers would get out of sync, and sometimes the TiVo would get locked out of the Dish system.
When I got to my mom's place, I was surprised to see she had a Time Warner HD DVR (but no HD TV or HD content, but that's ok). I used the DVR a bit and was surprised. After about 20 minutes of messing with all the functions, I have to say it's actually *better* than a TiVo. Wow. I can't believe it. Every one of these systems is just a knock off of the original TiVo, but Scientific Atlanta, the makers of this box, actually improved on TiVo's interface. Handling season passes, two tuners, and the scheduling guide were even easier to use than the TiVo.
My mom had this receiver for a couple months and never touched the DVR capabilities. Within a few minutes of me showing her how to use it, she had the basics down.
I was very happy when TiVo won their lawsuit against Dish Network, and I hope they can get royalties and/or licensing deals with all the DVR copycats out there. But seeing this Time Warner DVR definitely changes things. I can no longer say "people don't like DVRs because they have crappy TiVo knockoffs." I never expected someone to be able to out-do TiVo so soon. But I guess TiVo hasn't really done much in the past couple of years.
My recommendation now? Get a Time Warner HD DVR, and I hope Time Warner has to pay TiVo a cut on the side.
The problem is, TiVo has taken a long time to catch on. People just don't get it until they use it. I loved TiVo when I had a Directv Tivo combination box. The single receiver did it all and it worked very well.
When my dad was getting his cable setup, I pushed him to get an HD TiVo with Directv. Unfortunately he went with Dish Network because of more Indian channels and cricket content. He got an HD DVR made by Dish but it was absolute crap. I played with it for 20 minutes and couldn't figure out how to do a season pass, or how to delete recorded shows. We sent it back!
Last week I bought him a standalone TiVo box, which means the video signal from the Dish receiver would pass through the tivo, and the tivo would control the Dish Network receiver with an IR transmitter. Unfortunately, it didn't work well at all. The two receivers would get out of sync, and sometimes the TiVo would get locked out of the Dish system.
When I got to my mom's place, I was surprised to see she had a Time Warner HD DVR (but no HD TV or HD content, but that's ok). I used the DVR a bit and was surprised. After about 20 minutes of messing with all the functions, I have to say it's actually *better* than a TiVo. Wow. I can't believe it. Every one of these systems is just a knock off of the original TiVo, but Scientific Atlanta, the makers of this box, actually improved on TiVo's interface. Handling season passes, two tuners, and the scheduling guide were even easier to use than the TiVo.
My mom had this receiver for a couple months and never touched the DVR capabilities. Within a few minutes of me showing her how to use it, she had the basics down.
I was very happy when TiVo won their lawsuit against Dish Network, and I hope they can get royalties and/or licensing deals with all the DVR copycats out there. But seeing this Time Warner DVR definitely changes things. I can no longer say "people don't like DVRs because they have crappy TiVo knockoffs." I never expected someone to be able to out-do TiVo so soon. But I guess TiVo hasn't really done much in the past couple of years.
My recommendation now? Get a Time Warner HD DVR, and I hope Time Warner has to pay TiVo a cut on the side.