TiVo HD

Reviews: Multimedia

TiVo HD

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Anthony Fiti
Beth
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Sep. 3, 2007

Specifications

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DVR Functionality

TiVo is well known for their superior DVR interface.

The "Now Playing List" is where all your recordings are stored. The TiVo will organize your recorded episodes into folders for each show, and sort them by most recent recording.

Season passes are the one feature that makes TiVo stand head and shoulders above other DVRs available. You just pick a channel and a show, and the box will record all the airings of that show on that channel. It can record new, new and repeats, keep a certain number of episodes, and has a few other settings that give you control over the recordings.

The ability to use keywords to locate shows is excellent, and is more useful as the number of channels you subscribe to increases. I setup keywords for "Incubus," "Dave Matthews," and a few other bands I like, and within a week had some recordings available to watch.

There were no differences between my TiVo Series 2 and the TiVo HD in terms of DVR functionality - all the same abilities were there.

A problem with TiVo HD's current software is that there is some macroblocking on the digital channels with Scientific Atlanta cable cards installed. This seems to be a software problem, as there isn't that much of an issue with the Motorola cable cards (after the 8/17 "b" update). I experience macroblocking once every few minutes. It doesn't seem to be a signal strength issue because I didn't have any macroblocking problems before the cards were installed, and I'm viewing the same HD unencrypted channels.

Extra Features

Above and beyond DVR functionality, the TiVo HD has some other features that you can use to enhance your digital life. The TiVo HD can do Podcasts, as well as "TiVoCasts," which are a group of videocasts produced by companies like DL.TV, The Onion, Rocketboom, etc, that can be downloaded to your TiVo.

Next in line is the Amazon Unbox, which allows you to download movies and TV shows to your TiVo for a fee. You can buy the content or rent it for 24 hours. While Unbox is nice (I used a part of my $15 credit to rent a movie), I still wish TiVo and NetFlix could have worked out the kinks so they could operate together. I think they scared the content industry too much - two innovative startups could take over digital video distribution.

Another feature is called swivel search. It's an interesting idea, similar to hunting and pecking around on IMDB. You pick a place to start, and then you can see when a specific show is on in the future, similar shows, the principle actors and other key people, and what shows they're going to be in that are playing soon.

One feature the TiVo HD supports that your cable company might not is called M-Card, or, multi-stream cable card. While the traditional CableCard only supports a single decryption stream, the multi-stream cable card supports up to five streams. This is a big improvement in that my cable company (Cox, in more than one sense of the word) charges me for multiple services because I have two cable cards, even though I only have one single set top box (the TiVo HD). I tried to talk to them but they aren't going to change their policy to something that makes sense. So, instead of $8.95/mo for digital cable service, I now pay $13.90/mo ($8.95 + $4.95 for an "additional outlet"), plus an additional $1.99 for the second CableCard. I'll be calling them every month asking if they support M-Cards so I can get $7/mo off my bill.

Finally, the TiVo HD has a few features that aren't yet supported by TiVo, mostly due to Hollywood's ultra-paranoid fear of piracy. The first is TiVo-to-Go, which allows you to pull shows off the TiVo box and onto your computer. Next is the multi-room viewing feature, which allows you to view recordings from other TiVos in the house. Finally, eSATA support is not yet in operation, despite the eSATA port on the back of the unit. The feature will expand the storage of the TiVo HD by adding an external HD via the eSATA port, though TiVo's current system limitations are currently 1TB per drive (1TB on the internal drive, and 1TB on the external drive, a total of 2TB, which would be about 250 hours of HD, or 2200 hours - that's 91 days - of SD programming).

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Page 1: Introduction & First Looks
Page 2: Installation
Page 3: DVR Functionality & Extra Features
Page 4: Conclusion

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2 User Comments

1 - Posted by jim on September 3, 2007 - 10:27 pm

Pretty fair review, though obviously colored by the ineptness of your cable installer. If your installer knows what they are doing, two cards can be installed in about 15 minutes.

2 - Posted by Anthony on September 4, 2007 - 12:00 am

Yea, but my story about the ineptness of the cablecard install doesn't seem to be that far out of line if you look at the TiVoCommunity forums. And sadly, most places dont allow self-install.

And just like a cell phone, the phone might be great but if the reception sucks, its no use. Its a package deal.

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