Which brand of DTivo

[Kenster]

Best Buy has several DTivos. I understand that they're the same except for the box. What should I base my decision on? Also, they had RCA 39 and RCA 40. What's the difference? Also, seems I read that RCA gives a two year warranty, the rest only one year. Any other advantages of one brand over another?

[tivosmart]

Best Buy has several DTivos. I understand that they're the same except for the box. What should I base my decision on? Also, they had RCA 39 and RCA 40. What's the difference? Also, seems I read that RCA gives a two year warranty, the rest only one year. Any other advantages of one brand over another?
I like the Hughes model because it has a cover to hide the SmartCard. Without it I suspect my 2 year-old would already have snapped out of place and use it to play with her dolls.

Techno-wise speaking they have the exact same hardware and remote control, the main differences are only on style and customer service (although one hopes to never need to speak to the manufacturer's customer service of course).

[Tomokun]

there all the same. the new 40 hour philips DVR that is an IRD receiver has a cover for the access card.

[HarryD]

If there's a DD receiver in your Tivo's future, I have heard the RCA will not have any problems where as the Hughes and Phillips do. I have a Phillips DSR7000 (the one w/o the smartcard cover) and I have audio problems when using the toslink cable. I called Phillips and they confirmed they know about the problem but didn't offer any restitution or resolution. You might want to research this further. :rolleyes:

[Kenster]

Harry, thanks for the heads up. Yes, I am in the market for a DVD/home theater system, also. ( I assume by DD, you mean Dolby Digital?) So that's something to consider. I definitely would want the receiver to be work well with the Tivo!

[HarryD]

You might want to stick with the RCA model. I'm hearing these don't have the audio dropouts the other receivers do using the toslink cable. And yes DD means Dolby Digital, sorry Ken.

Check here:
The Tivo community (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=89836&highlight=audio+drop+outs)

[CompuDude]

You might want to stick with the RCA model. I'm hearing these don't have the audio dropouts the other receivers do using the toslink cable. And yes DD means Dolby Digital, sorry Ken.

Check here:
The Tivo community (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=89836&highlight=audio+drop+outs)

Glad I got the RCA model, as the only link from my 3-day old RCA DirecTivo is the optical link to my Sony receiver. That being said, audio completely dropped out of an HBO channel last night while watching Bill Maher... ironically, it dropped out right after he said something highly critical of our current president. ;-) Audio on other channels was fine, however, so I suspect this was a glitch in the one stream. Video was wonky for a moment, too, as I recall, but that fixed itself long before the audio did. I think I ended up throwing on a DVD at that point, so I dunno if it ever fixed itself.

-CD