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Originally Posted by whyme38
I have heard a lot about Tivo but don't really know how it works is it like a high tec video recorder but with out the tapes? Any one care to enlighten me?
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It is, basically, a High tech video recorder (as is Sky +)
Sky + and Tivo both do basically the same thing, but work slightly differently. They both allow you to pause/rewind live TV and record programmes to hard drive, and archive those programmes to tape. With both, you can set it to record a whole series (Sky + calls this a series link and Tivo calls it a Season Pass). Tivo's apparently works slightly better (as an example, I set my Tivo to record Casualty when I first got it 3 or 4 years ago, and it still records automatically) than Sky +'s.
The advantage of Sky + is that you can record one program and watch another (or record two programs). With Tivo and NTL, this is not possible (without two Set Top Boxes).
Sky + also records the datastream transmitted, so there is no quality loss, but you are limited to a set quality level. With Tivo, it has to recompress an analogue signal (so there is some quality loss), but you can adjust the compression used to maximise the space available. I tend to use Best quality for high action series, and Basic (the lowest) quality for most other stuff.
The other advantage of Tivo is the guide can run up to a month and a half in advance, but averages a month. You can also get the Tivo to suggest programmes for you based on what you record (but this is hit and miss at best, and irritating at worst, so I have disabled it). You can also plan all your month's viewing in one go (great for holidays).