Price Paid:  $280.00 from eBay

Summary:
The future of TV is here! With Tivo you can do amazing things like program your your favorite shows, using the "Season Pass" function, and never have to worry about programming it again. This gives true meaning to "Set-It, and Forget It!" You can also pause "live-tv" and tell Tivo what kinds of programs you like to watch! Tivo then automatically selects stuff you like to watch, based on a "Thumps-Up and Thumps-Down" rating system that allows you to tell Tivo what you like and what you don't! Buyer beware, you can get hooked on the new television viewing experience!!! It's great!!!

Strengths:
The ability to pause live tv. Built in rating system to tell Tivo your likes and dislikes. And best of all...the season pass uption to record all of your favorite shows without having to programs them daily, weekly, or never again. Unless you stop watching the show!

Weaknesses:
Getting Started might take a little time...it is worth it though. I am having trouble finding a replacement for my remote.

Similar Products Used:
The all-new Tivo with more hard-drive space!

Price Paid:  $300.00 from 1800.com

Summary:
This is the most amazing product ever!!! BUY IT YOU WON'T REGRET IT! I don't understand how people can NOT own this. My friends think I am a salesman for TIVO, because I get so excited about it. I only watch live TV for sporting events -- period. Even when a TV show is on that I want to watch -- I will watch something else and start watching the show that's on via delay so I can skip through commercials and catch up to live. Easy to use -- my 6 yr old son records and plays cartoons like Pokemon. Never watch commecials again. You are now in charge of watching the shows you want -- when you want -- now if they could come out with a portable product that I could download all these shows to while I am commuting -- it would be perfect BUY THIS NOW!

Strengths:
Season pass lets you indicate shows you want and it records every one -- all the time -- this way you don't miss anything. And if you go a week or two without watching TV at all -- you aren't a slave to programming it -- it will keep recording. TV menu is great -- you could see what's on two weeks in advance. Easy access to all shows recorded -- not like VCR tapes. Pause live and recorded shows when you want to go to bathroom or answer phone. Many ways to search for your favorite shows. It records things on its own based on programs you told it you like --- I don't usually have enough time to watch half of the programs I recorded myself -- but if you watch a lot of TV you will find this feature really cool. I can go on and on ...

Weaknesses:
This model has a small hard drive - 30MB -If you record a lot of movies and let the kids record shows that are on while they are in school -- the recorder gets full pretty quick -- but to put it in perspective -- if you have close to 30 hrs of things recorded -- you don't have to worry about not having anything to watch. Remote is slow when changing channels

Similar Products Used:
NOTHING ELSE LIKE THIS

Price Paid:  $200.00 from Sony Outlet

Summary:
I love my TiVo! HOWEVER... I bought the unit at the Sony Outlet, and it was supposed to be refurbished. That did not bother me, beacuse the "price was right". Well, I opened the box at my aunt's house in Wisconsin, about 10 minutes from the outlet. The unit was missing its power cord. No big deal, I just drove back to the outlet and got a new one. I then hooked it up to a TV at my aunt's house, and everything SEEMED to work fine. I packed the unit up and hauled it back to Maryland. I got it back to Maryland, hooked it up in my room to my Sony STR-D915 receiver (not the STR-D*E*915 that everyone has problems with). I hooked the unit up, started to use it. The remote would only work up to two feet from the unit. I lived with that for about a week, then decided to take it to a local Best Buy store. After Best Buy got the unit back from Sony, I went to pick it up. Aparently the local Best Buy store in Annapolis lost the remote control. I picked the unit up on September 3, 2002. Best Buy still has only partially reimbursed me for the cost of the remote as of 12/30/02. That is even with a complaint to the Better Business Bureau and the Maryland Attorney General's Office. I never will be shopping Best Buy again! Once I got a new remote (in Late November), I went ahead and tested it out. Everything works fine. So I purchase the TiVo lifetime subscription. I love it. But the cost of the subscription is really too damn high. In mid-December, I got digital cable through Comcast. We were provided with Motorola boxes. I hooked the TiVo up to the box, as shown in the instructions. Well, I don't know if the Digital Cable Box was bad, or the connection to the serial port on the box caused it to go bad, but my Digital Cable box went bad within 24 hours. So I hooked the TiVo up to another cable box, and it has worked flawlessly. However, with the setup I am using, I can't let the TiVo record one station and watch another station. That's a disapointment. I need to split the cable signal up and just not use the digital cable box to tune the TiVo. As far as picture quality, At "best quality" its about the same as a recording at LP on my Proscan PSVR65 VCR. At medium quality, it is the same as EP on my VCR, and in low quality, its terrible. So generally it is left at the medium or high quality setting. I have my TiVo outputs hooked to my STR-D915 receiver, then to my JVC 27" 27550 TV. When the TiVo was hooked directly to my parents Panasonic HDTV monitor, the picture was better. But still the same, relative, to my ProScan VCR

Strengths:
Flexible timing options, no need to load tapes, instant deleting, ability to "pause" a live TV show, remote is easy to use,

Weaknesses:
Remote sensor on a Refurbished unit went bad, I was told the hard drive was going bad by Best Buy when I had the unit fixed, high cost of TiVo subscription, May have fried my Digital Cable box.

Similar Products Used:
Sony SLV-595HF VHS VCR Proscan PSVR65 VHS VCR Toshiba V-685 VHS VCR Toshiba Betamax VCR

Price Paid:  $200.00 from sonystyle

Summary:
regarding the first post (pamrayne) if she in fact did receive the tivo unit back and it broke again in 2 days it would in fact of been replaced.. i work for technical support for sony and i personally know they would have repaired the unit again or in fact replace the unit itself

Strengths:
sony tech support

Weaknesses:
sony tech support

Similar Products Used:
sony tech support

Price Paid:  $499.00 from BestBuy

Summary:
Majorly disappointed! System ran fine for 4 months, then crashed. After HOURS on the phone with support, had to ship it to Sony for repair (& pay for labor). They repaired it and shipped it back to me with a 3 week turnaround. System worked for 2 days and crashed again! Neither Best Buy OR Sony will take the box back now.

Strengths:
pause, rewind live tv, schedule recordings from a menu

Weaknesses:
reliability, short warranty, have to ship for rapair

Similar Products Used:
CATV digital