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Well, one of my two satellite receivers blew up over the weekend.

I am considering replacing both receivers with one Tivo unit for the same monthly cost. I know that a couple of years ago Tivo had some hardware issues and a lot of customer complaints regarding faulty hard drives I believe.

The Tivo option sounds like a much better set up than my current two boxes in order to be able to watch and record at the same time.

Is anyone a current customer of DIRECTV and using Tivo? Any good or bad experiences?

TIA

I don't have tivo or directtv, so skip if you'd like:

I have DISH with PVR, their version of tivo in a satellite receiver, but it will only record what the satellite is tuned to. I can watch broadcast tv and record satellite or watch the satellite channel I'm recording but can't watch one satellite channel while recording another or record anything from broadcast. They're supposed to be coming out with a dual hard drive unit that will allow two satellite channels at once.

I don't have it but I know someone who does. He's a sports nut and loves it. I believe Tivo did have problems awhile back. I even remember Imus bitching about it frequently, but it seems things have been worked out. You can watch program A while recording program B, etc.

Yes, that is the main feature which will allow me to replace two current satellite boxes with one Tivo box.

It will also allow you to watch one recorded program as well as record two programs all at the same time (can't imagine me needing this feature though). Also as I understand, it will allow you to start watching the beginning of a program your recording before it completely finishes recording the rest of it. This could be a handy feature. I now sometimes get home in the middle of a race I'm taping. I have to wait for the recording to finish and then watch it on tape. Now I can start sooner I think.

One less remote. That may be the biggest feature of all! Actually two, since I won't need to keep switching my TV back and forth depending upon which satellite box I'm viewing thru.

DT, can't you just add a dual LNB fixture to your satellite therby allowing simultaneous recording and watching of different shows? I believe that is how the directv unit works.

JohnC, I'm not a customer of either (I do the same thing with my PC), but I have a friend who is, and know a bit about it.

The Tivo is a great addition if you're willing to pay for the subscription.
I wouldn't worry about HDD issues, as you can now "hack" the Tivo, and put in a much bigger HDD. The trick is to slap an 80 or 120 GB HDD in that sucker, and be able to record everything you want to.

It works great with DirecTV as you can record A LOT of content.

Have yet to hear negatives from friend, so I'd say go for it!

KlavierBauer

I think the receiver only has a single tuner, which is what limits it. The dual hard drive model would have been an extra $600, so I thought I'd wait until that price dropped a bit. I have a quad antenna running three receivers, so there is a little room to expand.

KB, the subscription is only $4.99/month. And since I would be going from two receiver boxes to the one Tivo unit I actually would save $4.99/month on the receiver box making it a total wash in cost, but receiving added features and convenience with the Tivo unit.

DirecTV also has an offer for current subscribers that is better than any retail purchase I've found (online or walk-in).

Sounds as though I have talked myself into it.

John,

Did you ever get your TiVo? I got one for my anniversary and I LOVE it! No more commercials, ever. And I never have to worry whether my husband set the VCR to record Smallville!

penny

I have Direct TV with Tivo.

I've had the Philips receiver for a couple of years with no complaints.

My complaint about DirecTV is that they juice the heck out of the volume when the commercials come on.

KB, is there a DIY solution to that??

This is a timely thread (didn't notice the date of the first posts!). My daughter just told me tonight that there is a Bon Jovi concert on Direct TV, and that WE DO NOT HAVE DIRECT TV!! (are we dirt, or what??).

Could those of you with satellite systems describe/compare with cable? I've seen the "duh, every time the wind blew we lost the signal" commercials - is this accurate, are there other down sides to having a satellite dish?

And if possible. . . fess up on what these systems cost, initial outlay and monthly, and options (Direct TV?). I've looked at them a bit (very little), but know nothing about them. Seems reasonable in terms of cost (we pay just under $50/month for Comcast cable, and no, it's not digital cable, and no, it can't get Direct TV with Bon Jovi so I am dirt, give me a gun and one bullet... )

Got our Comcast bill, along with a notice that rates are going up again in January. Geesh, they do raise the rates frequently! And I watch maybe 5 channels from the 70 provided with our package (50 of them are worthless).

Penny,

Yes, I got the Tivo a while back and I LOVE IT! The convenience of recordng shows is just awesome! No more setting the VCR and the receiver box. No more finding out the time on both units wasn't synched thereby missing the beginning or end of the show. No more looking for a blank tape. It is just way too easy to use.

Terry,

I haven't noticed the commercials being any louder but they sure seemed to be when I had cable.

Rvaga,

I hate cable. Every year they would have 2 or 3 outages caused by equipment failure (theirs). They never got the new channels I wanted but my bill kept going up. When I switched I got more channels I wanted and paid less for it.

I live in Southern California so the idea of a snowstorm affecting DIRECT TV wasn't an issue. But my local cable company would advertise that a hard rain would affect the satellite picture. Since I've had it I have had no picture issues (of course I've also had little rain). The picture quality is much better than what my cable company had.

FWIW, (and I'm no techie) I was told that satellite is pure digital and cable is analog converted to digital. Because of this I've been told that cable digital will never be as good of quality as satellite digital. In any case the DIRECT TV picture quality is outstanding.


My biggest reason for not switching earlier was the availability of local channels. That is no longer an issue. And even paying for the local channels my bill is less than what I would have paid the cable company for their lower quality, fewer channels I want, constant outages "service". YMMV.

Since I'm not now shopping I'm not sure what the intial cost is but there always seens to be a free two or three room set up being advertised somewhere. I do know that the initial cost/installation can vary by where you purchase the unit/service, so do shop.

Good luck!

Maybe I'm not understanding all this, but I have DirectTV, and have the basic boxes on 3 Tv's - and I routinely record one channel while watching another, change channels, etc. with no problem. Have I worked some sort of miracle, or am I missing the point here?

No cable where I live, so I have The Dish.

Snow tends not to be a problem down here, but monsoons are. If you have a good signal in the first place, it takes some pretty hard rain to cause fade, and I mean HARD!

The added advantage of satellite, is when you have nasty little things like hurricanes blow through, the cable may be out for days, but the satellite never dies. Even if they ran cable by my house today, I'd still stick with the satellite.

Darn! This is my second attempt to reply. After composing a complete response and submitting it, PW errored out on me and I lost my post.

OK, from memory here goes.

Larry,

I think the main issue is your set up still requires you to set a VCR and a satellite receiver box. With Tivo there is no VCR. Recording is done digitally on a hard drive inside the Tivo box. No need to set two boxes.

I have had issues where a short power outage has caused my VCR to reset to the dreaded flashing 12:00. I've also had self inflicted wounds such as setting the time on the VCR to AM instead of PM or vice versa.

Have you ever forgot to set the speed on the tape to 6 hours when you want to record a sporting event or other long program? I have. Nothing like watching the Daytona 262 instead of the full 500 as your tape expires at 2 hours! LOL!

Tivo still allows you to watch and record something different at the same time from one box.

I guess the bottom line is that the ease with which Tivo can be operated is just awesome. You can even tell it to record shows with certain actors or specific movie names. You don't even have to know when or what channel they are on. Tivo just finds them and records them for you.

Tivo also has a 35 hour time limit on what you can record and keep. If I'm not mistaken, as I type, AMC is running a Three Stooges marathon today. Yep, that's right, I will be the proud owner of something like 35 Stooge shorts. (Nyuk, Nyuk, Nyuk, Nyuk, Nyuk!) All of which can be recorded to tape by Tivo.

It's awsome Larry. Try it. You won't like it, you'll LOVE IT! I promise! :t: