TiVo : What's good about TIVO I want to know?

[Pster72]

I am having a TIVO box fitted next friday and have no experience of using one what are the good things about it as i would like know as i am excited about getting it so i want to know what i have to look forward to.

P.S Media Boy is a legend

[denphone]

To start of with you have far more storage to record programmes and then there are Wish lists and suggestions and many many more things other then that and here is a link below for you to browse.

http://shop.virginmedia.com/digital-.../tivo-box.html


http://www.virginmedia.com/tivo/tivo_complete_guide.pdf

[devilincarnate]

It is far better than the V+ or the standard boxes. It will take a bit of padding in, But when you work it out it will all click and work brilliantly?

[MutleyF]

Originally Posted by devilincarnate

It is far better than the V+ or the standard boxes. It will take a bit of padding in, But when you work it out it will all click and work brilliantly?

This is probably the best advice I have read ... you will find faults on some things, but give it time - allow the system some "bedding in time" .... it has changed the way we in my household watch tv !

The suggestions in particular need fine tuning, but once set, they work well, and we find ourselves watching programs we never knew existed !

The best complement I can give TiVo is I think Apple would struggle to improve on this PVR and I love Apple

[toady]

Remote recording is brilliant

[redone]

the only plus to my tivo over my v+ is the extra recording space other than that i prefer my v+

[pythagoras]

Originally Posted by redone

the only plus to my tivo over my v+ is the extra recording space other than that i prefer my v+

Even at midnight?

Originally Posted by pythagoras

Even at midnight?

The samsung V+ does not seem to suffer the midnight wobbles,like the S/A used to to be fair.

The TiVo does sem to be the future though the apps it is capable of running and the sheer recording space,plus the fact it is internet connected means the possibilities are endless.

The box doesn't sound like a Boeing 747 taking off.

[doc2009]

I have had the tivo for couple of months now and although it has benefits, i also find it very frustrating.
The search feature in on demand, is slow, very slow. Music on demand search is even slower as you cannot use mobile phone type texting via your remote control, you have to use up, down, left right through a block of letters or navigate alphabetically through so many screens you lose the will to live. They have actually made the music on demand useless as you take ages to find a video then are forced to watch an advert before your song starts. You tube is worthless, again it is so slow to search, it also does not allow access to playlists or favourites that you have saved via your pc so again they (or google) have taken a great service and made it unusable. It regularly loses signal and tells you to reboot or move up or down a channel to get a fix. The on demand service allows you to seach for programmes, e.g. you type in true blood, it will tell you that 3 series exist, you assume this means that you have three series to watch at your leisure but no, when you click to start watching, you can get a brief written synopsis of each episode in each season but only season 3 episode 7 is available to actually watch, this frustrated me more than anything else as there are a few series i fancied watching only to find that despite listing anything up to 6 series of a show, in some instances only a couple of episodes were available to watch. There is a dedicated tivo forum that lists loads of other complaints about reminders, padding etc but those issues havent bothered me. As a bog standard pvr it is OK, as the future of television, no way, that is a long way and many firmware upgrades off. If i was choosing now, i would not pay the extra for it albeit it is only £3 pounds, i think it has been rushed and current users are testing a beta system.

[Digital Fanatic]

Originally Posted by doc2009

I have had the tivo for couple of months now and although it has benefits, i also find it very frustrating.
The search feature in on demand, is slow, very slow. Music on demand search is even slower as you cannot use mobile phone type texting via your remote control, you have to use up, down, left right through a block of letters or navigate alphabetically through so many screens you lose the will to live. They have actually made the music on demand useless as you take ages to find a video then are forced to watch an advert before your song starts. You tube is worthless, again it is so slow to search, it also does not allow access to playlists or favourites that you have saved via your pc so again they (or google) have taken a great service and made it unusable. It regularly loses signal and tells you to reboot or move up or down a channel to get a fix. The on demand service allows you to seach for programmes, e.g. you type in true blood, it will tell you that 3 series exist, you assume this means that you have three series to watch at your leisure but no, when you click to start watching, you can get a brief written synopsis of each episode in each season but only season 3 episode 7 is available to actually watch, this frustrated me more than anything else as there are a few series i fancied watching only to find that despite listing anything up to 6 series of a show, in some instances only a couple of episodes were available to watch. There is a dedicated tivo forum that lists loads of other complaints about reminders, padding etc but those issues havent bothered me. As a bog standard pvr it is OK, as the future of television, no way, that is a long way and many firmware upgrades off. If i was choosing now, i would not pay the extra for it albeit it is only £3 pounds, i think it has been rushed and current users are testing a beta system.

There is bound to be some teething troubles with any new tech, but some of your issues sound like signal problems, especially the channel change issue.

Fault forums are just that, FAULTS. You don't get customers seeking out forums to post about everything working fine and no issues! So while they can highlight SOME customer issues, they shouldn't be used as a indication af ALL users experiences.

Search is just that, it searches for just about anything. The point of it if the programme/series isn't available now, you can set a WishList to get it at a future time.

It's not a BETA product and that's an insult to TiVo, sure there may be minor bugs, put it's improving all the time.

---------- Post added at 11:42 ---------- Previous post was at 11:35 ----------

In answer to the OP's question....

I'd say WishLists... 3 recordable tuners... extra programmes from BBC iPlayer including radio and films... Spotify App is brilliant... Suggestions can be usefull too.....

[andy_m]

Originally Posted by doc2009

I have had the tivo for couple of months now and although it has benefits, i also find it very frustrating.
The search feature in on demand, is slow, very slow. Music on demand search is even slower as you cannot use mobile phone type texting via your remote control, you have to use up, down, left right through a block of letters or navigate alphabetically through so many screens you lose the will to live. They have actually made the music on demand useless as you take ages to find a video then are forced to watch an advert before your song starts. You tube is worthless, again it is so slow to search, it also does not allow access to playlists or favourites that you have saved via your pc so again they (or google) have taken a great service and made it unusable. It regularly loses signal and tells you to reboot or move up or down a channel to get a fix. The on demand service allows you to seach for programmes, e.g. you type in true blood, it will tell you that 3 series exist, you assume this means that you have three series to watch at your leisure but no, when you click to start watching, you can get a brief written synopsis of each episode in each season but only season 3 episode 7 is available to actually watch, this frustrated me more than anything else as there are a few series i fancied watching only to find that despite listing anything up to 6 series of a show, in some instances only a couple of episodes were available to watch. There is a dedicated tivo forum that lists loads of other complaints about reminders, padding etc but those issues havent bothered me. As a bog standard pvr it is OK, as the future of television, no way, that is a long way and many firmware upgrades off. If i was choosing now, i would not pay the extra for it albeit it is only £3 pounds, i think it has been rushed and current users are testing a beta system.

Using the TiVo's own search function, which will return results from all sources including on demand, is much quicker.

If you're regularly rebooting because of no signal then you have a problem and should contact Virgin to sort it out. I don't experience this, but I wouldn't put up with it either.

I don't use music on demand, so can't comment, but I agree that the new YouTube app is as close to unsuable as you're going to get. I assume this is Google's fault, but the good news is that Virgin have listened to their customers, and the old app is still accessible.

As for thinking that the results returned on the search function are all available to watch on demand, erm, well, that should really only have caught you out once, if at all?!? Either way, I actually really value the IMDB style info available on each show, and if something isn't available OD then it's very easy to set up a wishlist from there.

It IS the future of television, in my opinion. Apple are rumoured to be bringing out a connected TV next year or maybe in early 2013, YouView is due to launch in the first half of 2012. Both will be connected allowing you access to on demand and streaming services. In other words they'll do what TiVo is already capable of AND has been in this country for over a year now, but have fewer linear channels and no wishlists and suggestions. TiVo is already streets ahead of things that haven't even been launched yet. Yes, there are niggles, but it really is very good, and to hear people go on about how they wouldn't have left V+ for it if they'd known just amazes me.

To the OP, you'll enjoy TiVo IF you're prepared to give up a bit of control and let it do its own thing. Its not V+, it doesn't do some of the things that V+ does, but then the idea behind it is that you watch what you want, when you want. You won't have reminders, for example, but then everything you like should be recorded and, therefore, watchable from MyShows. Small attitude adjustments to the way you watch your telly are required, but if you're prepared to make them you'll understand why some of the features are different and soon consider TiVo to be the very, very, best STB available.

[Picto]

With Tivo there isn't a minute of the day, morning, noon or night where you can say 'there's nothing on TV'.

[MovedGoalPosts]

The big advantages of VM's TiVo over the V+ box for me is recording capacity, and that it can record three things at once. It is now very rare that I see a clash between recordings, even if you have overrun set for when programmes start early or end late, yet on the V+ it was always getting upset.

The EPG generally works, but at times the box does hang momentarily if you go into things like "my shows" when the box has been unused for a little while, it's almost as if it is coming out of some hidden standby mode. My V+ often failed to record, but no such issues with the TiVo that I've now had few months. I do find that if you press the remote's info button for the current programme, a lot of the text description for the programme is cut off and there seems to be no way to dispay that (that I've found). Overall these are minor issues and the STB is definitely the way to watch TV.