TiVo TCD648250B Series3 HD Digital Media Recorder
by TiVo
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List Price: Our Price: $139.99 You Save: $360.00 (72%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Receiver or Amplifier See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of TiVo TCD648250B Series3 HD Digital Media Recorder
Customer Review: Glad to have my TIVO back, but miss the bleeps
Summary: 4 Stars
I have been without Tivo for over two years, and I have to say it has been painful. I relocated to Beijing two years ago and just moved back to the US this summer. When I left I didn't have an HD TV, but I bought one almost as soon as I returned. So I needed to upgrade to a new DVR, stupidly I assumed Comcast would have made some progress since I left and I ordered an HD DVR from them as part of my cable set-up.
When I lived in the US (Redmond, WA) I also used a Comcast DVR and Tivo. At that time Comcast, at least in my area, was doing a trial with Microsoft using their IPTV back-end infrastructure, and their DVR was based on that technology. It had a number of annoying bugs, but in general was quite useful. Since I have returned they appear to not be using Microsoft technology anymore and the new HD DVR from Comcast is just plan terrible.
It is probably one of the poorest designed UI's I have used in a long time. The guide is very nearly unusable, the DVR functionality is terrible. The only redeeming quality is the On Demand, but that really has nothing to do with the DVR. After suffering through the Comcast DVR for about two weeks I decided to get the Tivo Series 3. There seemed to be a lot of confusion online regarding which to pick Series 3 or HD.
The new Series 3 has worked great. The CableCard installation was a breeze, although I still need to get a second card so I can use dual tuners. When I went to Comcast they said I could only have one CableCard until I returned my DVR, which still has some shows on it I need to watch.
My only real complaint with the Series 3 has been some dropped audio, occasionally during a program (seems to happen more with HD) you will get a short period of video with no sound. Usually only last 3-5 seconds and not very often, so it really isn't a significant problem.
I would highly recommend getting a Series 3 Tivo if you watch even a small amount of TV.
I really miss with bleep-bleep sound when you fast forward. That was a Tivo audiomark and should never have been removed.
Customer Review: Excellent evolutionary product
Summary: 4 Stars
I've been overall very impressed with this unit. So far, very few problems. Most of the other reviews have hit on the main pros/cons, so I'll just add some of my observations.
Background: Bought this to replace my elderly ReplayTV after I upgraded to digital cable, and it didn't like that much at all. My current setup is a nice Toshiba HD flat panel, sony home theater and a dvd player; I got cablecards to replace the ridiculous digital cable box, and those seem to work very well. I also got a Tivo wifi adapter (overpriced, but worth it for me). I now use the Tivo as my only cable box, since the cable box was component out and this is HDMI.
Biggest feature I haven't seen mentioned (though I've only scanned the reviews): UnBox downloads right to your TiVo! In HD! I rented Bourne Supremacy in HD before lunch to test this out, and when I got back home, the blue LED had gone off, indicating it was done downloading. HD quality was very good to excellent. If Amazon gets the selection right, this may be my future for rentals.
My TV's remote is my prefered one, and I've been able to set it up to do everything the Tivo remote does with one exception (switching between the two cablecards). I can live with that for the payoff of only having one remote for four devices.
Complaints (mostly minor-ish):
Crazy screen morph and significant pause when going to Tivo Central. Yes, the place to actually view your recordings. If you're watching live TV, and switch to Tivo Central, the image will get all stretched out of shape while it reconfigures its resolution, it will pause for a few seconds, then Tivo Central comes up. Switching between SD channels and HD doesn't have this issue, so I'm not sure why it is an issue for Tivo's native resolution.
Interface not as Grail-like as I'd hoped. Perhaps I'm just used to the ReplayTV interface, but certain things like Season Pass are sometimes unintuitive.
Subscriptions should be more reasonable. I have this complaint with all commercial dvrs.
[...]
Customer Review: Best PVR on the market
Summary: 5 Stars
Sadly, most people will experience their first DVR/PVR via their cable company. Those devices are extremely cheap imitations of Tivo. The best analogy that I can think of is the difference between a generic MP3 player and an Ipod. Apple dominated the MP3 market by focusing on software, user experience and great industrial design. Tivo has done the same thing for PVRs that Apple did for MP3 players.
I was a DirecTV subscriber for four years, using the built-in Tivo and it was fantastic. When I upgraded to a plasma HDTV, I moved to Comcast for HD channels. I used the generic (Motorola) box from Comcast for about a year and it is just plain terrible. Hard to use, non-intuitive, buggy and average picture quality. It doesn't handle subscriptions well, it's very hard to make changes, it's hard to find shows, and (worst of all) it continues to record the same shows over and over again, filling up your box with stuff that you've already recorded, watched and deleted. I could go on and on, but if you've used an Ipod and some other crappy imitation, then you already know what I mean.
At the time of this review (Nov. 2006) the cable card installations are not the easiest thing in the world but the cable companies are largely to blame, not Tivo. Mine took two visits from Comcast (free of charge) and the second visit got everything working fine. (The problem was a defective cable card, which by the way are manufactured by Motorola...) It's hard for me to describe how superior the experience is on the Tivo box, relative to everything else on the market. Tivo's just so simple to use that a 3-year old can figure it out. You owe it to yourself to try it out. The Comcast installer basically said, "that HD picture blows away the picture on our box." I find it difficult to say definitively but he's seen many more installs than I have, so I take his word for it.
The Tivo is pricey but if you've dropped $3,000 on a TV, why would want your content delivered by some crappy imitation PVR?
Customer Review: Outstanding Product -- and Superior to Cable Companies' Set-Top Boxes!
Summary: 5 Stars
After dealing with unreliable cable company-supplied boxes for years, I was ready for an alternative. Then I saw a review of the TiVo Series 3 in Sound & Vision magazine, where the S3 was highly recommended. So I bought one. And I will never go back to using a horrible cable company's box again!
Thanks to the FCC, CableCards -- a technology that frees consumers from a cable box -- allows one to receive virtually all cable channels without a cable operator's box. (There are some exceptions, most notably "on-demand" services. But even this limitation may eventually be solved, though it may take several years.)
In any event, the TiVo Series 3 provides two CableCard slots, allowing the S3 to record from two cable channels simultaneously. And the TiVo user experience absolutely blows away that provided by cable operator's boxes. Whereas the latter hiccup -- and even crash -- regularly, the TiVo Series 3 is rock-solid reliable. If, like me, you have experienced regular crashes with cable boxes, this will be a revelation.
Beyond the reliability, the TiVo Series 3 provides many MANY features that you don't see -- and likely may never see -- on cable operator's boxes. There are too many to list here, but suffice it to say that the S3 continues to amaze me with its capabilities. And TiVo has rolled out several Series 3 software upgrades (all free!) over the past 9 months, each adding additional features/capabilities. Plus the few minor bugs/issues that did originally exist in the Series 3, have been resolved thanks to said software upgrades.
Unless you absolutely must have access to "on-demand" services, the TiVo Series 3 is a winner. And bear in mind that you can still rent a cable operator's box to provide on-demand services, while also owning a Series 3. But once you have used an S3, you will avoid the cable operator's box like the plague.
Purchase the TiVo Series 3, and start ENJOYING your cable service, rather than CURSING at it.
Customer Review: Tivo Series 3 performs as expected in HD
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased my tivo series 3 after studying reviews and comments since it came out. I delayed because I have a Sony HDD DHG 250 HD recorder now that does a good job. I wanted to rejoin TIVO because I wanted the better ease of use factor that tivo offers. I found the tivo for 669 to 673 on the web but didnt want to mail order in case the machine was defective. I called best buy and they agreed to match the price. I got the unit home and was able to get it running properly by swapping out the cable card from my existing DVR by sony. I turned everything off first, followed the instructions, read the manual and went to the web site to activate my service as it was after 10 pm and tivo was closed so I couldnt activate over the phone. Sure enough everything worked perfectly out of the box so I was pleasantly surprised. I only have one cable card and have asked comcast to deliver another. 2 weeks they told me and a 24.00 service charge for the visit. I dont know what monthly fee they will charge me for the 2nd cable card because I didnt ask. Regarding the operation of the tivo, it is excellent and operates flawlessly as promised. The fully backlit remote is the best I have ever seen. I have a slew of universal remotes including the fancy philips with the lit screen and this remote is superior. I highly recommend the remote for series 2 owners as you can buy it separately from tivo. THe recorder records beautifully in HD, the software and operation is fast (speedy) and the built in over the air tuner picks up terrestrial HD stations that were unaccessible to me using my tv's own internal atsc HD tuner (sony sxrd HD newest model) as well as my HD dvr from sony. The tivo screen on the machine is fine as is the resolution on the tv screen of the onscreen menus. I am going to look at the home network device next for broadband features but need more research. In summary all is great and I am happy to be back with tivo after a 6 month absence.