First a hello and big thank you to all of you participants in this forum.
I have been able to absorb a ton of info and recall a good portion of it in regards to the HR20.
As my subject line says I thought I would add my review of the HR20 to this forum.
I hope that it will be helpful to newbies and add to the conversation of other issues that have come in the short time this unit has been out.
Do I have any particular expertise in the subject matter of the HR20 other than being a user?
Well no and yes.
I do not work for D* or know anyone that does. I will not be able to give you advance rumor/info.
However, I do have two other things that I think will add to this forum.
First of all I was one of the first 1000 of Tivo customers. So I have basically been with the technology from the beginning. Our original Philips 14-hour Tivo is now in my 3 year old daughter’s room where she can not only play her “kid shows” but she can also push the right buttons on the remote to make “Tivo do his amazing tricks.” I am referring to the original start up animation not the technology!
Side note I am proud to say that she has practically no idea what a commercial is. It won’t last forever but so far so good. She is so into the VOD age that last month when we got a Disney VHS from the library she had a fit when after the video was over she wanted to watch it again instantly. It was real tough to explain the concept of rewinding to her.
The other thing that I hope will add to the forum and I look forward to getting response from is that I am a TV Director as a profession. I actually work for a PBS affiliate so essentially I get all of the stress and responsibility without the financial reward. I find it very interesting to see the type of programming that all of you in this forum watch as I consider this group to be the biggest fans of television to have made this time and financial investment into HD and HD/DVRs. It was around 8 years ago when we got to see HD somewhat regularly at the station and also the same time we got our first media server. I thought the Philips Media Pool was so cool but I distinctly remember saying to an engineer just how awesome it would be when we could have these for the home. Very soon some companies called Tivo and Replay started popping up.
As I said working for PubTV is hard on the wallet and as my daughter has come along my wife works only part time. This has been great for my daughter and we essentially get a wash with not paying day care in exchange for not having a second full time wage.
But that also means we have just enough money for the wife to stay home but not much extra.
So I got the first Tivo unit as it was a return at Sears from someone who didn’t know what to do with it. And combined with Tivo and D* rebates at the time it became affordable. All these years later the HR 20 is the third DVR unit in the house. Have also had D* since 1997 when ut was $30/mo.
Have wanted HD TV forever of course but again could never afford it. We had been double waiting for HD as we couldn’t afford the HD TV and the $1000 Tivo which we knew we had to have.
So now two weeks ago I basically tripped over a Samsung LCD open box at Best Buy that included a $500 BB Gift Card. I also notice the new “HD Tivo” was now only $299 At home I mentioned that the “HD Tivos” were becoming somewhat affordable. Also mentioned they did have some crazy open box TVs with instant Gift Cards. My fabulous wife’s reply – “Why didn’t you just get it?”
So the next day we went back, got the TV and the card which I ended up having to use on-line to get the box. Whole different story about how they didn’t have any HDDVRs in house even though they had the display and how they said I didn’t need that unit anyway the regular HD box should do it!
By the time the box came two days later I had seen enough about it to realize this wasn’t a Tivo but a D* box. Wow I guess I have been away from the Tivo forums for some time now! What I found in this new box will follow in my upcoming review from myself and my family.
I look forward to learning more about this box and participating in the forums as much as I can. My daughter would like me to play now so the review will come either later or tomorrow.
dwenn
I have been able to absorb a ton of info and recall a good portion of it in regards to the HR20.
As my subject line says I thought I would add my review of the HR20 to this forum.
I hope that it will be helpful to newbies and add to the conversation of other issues that have come in the short time this unit has been out.
Do I have any particular expertise in the subject matter of the HR20 other than being a user?
Well no and yes.
I do not work for D* or know anyone that does. I will not be able to give you advance rumor/info.
However, I do have two other things that I think will add to this forum.
First of all I was one of the first 1000 of Tivo customers. So I have basically been with the technology from the beginning. Our original Philips 14-hour Tivo is now in my 3 year old daughter’s room where she can not only play her “kid shows” but she can also push the right buttons on the remote to make “Tivo do his amazing tricks.” I am referring to the original start up animation not the technology!
Side note I am proud to say that she has practically no idea what a commercial is. It won’t last forever but so far so good. She is so into the VOD age that last month when we got a Disney VHS from the library she had a fit when after the video was over she wanted to watch it again instantly. It was real tough to explain the concept of rewinding to her.
The other thing that I hope will add to the forum and I look forward to getting response from is that I am a TV Director as a profession. I actually work for a PBS affiliate so essentially I get all of the stress and responsibility without the financial reward. I find it very interesting to see the type of programming that all of you in this forum watch as I consider this group to be the biggest fans of television to have made this time and financial investment into HD and HD/DVRs. It was around 8 years ago when we got to see HD somewhat regularly at the station and also the same time we got our first media server. I thought the Philips Media Pool was so cool but I distinctly remember saying to an engineer just how awesome it would be when we could have these for the home. Very soon some companies called Tivo and Replay started popping up.
As I said working for PubTV is hard on the wallet and as my daughter has come along my wife works only part time. This has been great for my daughter and we essentially get a wash with not paying day care in exchange for not having a second full time wage.
But that also means we have just enough money for the wife to stay home but not much extra.
So I got the first Tivo unit as it was a return at Sears from someone who didn’t know what to do with it. And combined with Tivo and D* rebates at the time it became affordable. All these years later the HR 20 is the third DVR unit in the house. Have also had D* since 1997 when ut was $30/mo.
Have wanted HD TV forever of course but again could never afford it. We had been double waiting for HD as we couldn’t afford the HD TV and the $1000 Tivo which we knew we had to have.
So now two weeks ago I basically tripped over a Samsung LCD open box at Best Buy that included a $500 BB Gift Card. I also notice the new “HD Tivo” was now only $299 At home I mentioned that the “HD Tivos” were becoming somewhat affordable. Also mentioned they did have some crazy open box TVs with instant Gift Cards. My fabulous wife’s reply – “Why didn’t you just get it?”
So the next day we went back, got the TV and the card which I ended up having to use on-line to get the box. Whole different story about how they didn’t have any HDDVRs in house even though they had the display and how they said I didn’t need that unit anyway the regular HD box should do it!
By the time the box came two days later I had seen enough about it to realize this wasn’t a Tivo but a D* box. Wow I guess I have been away from the Tivo forums for some time now! What I found in this new box will follow in my upcoming review from myself and my family.
I look forward to learning more about this box and participating in the forums as much as I can. My daughter would like me to play now so the review will come either later or tomorrow.
dwenn
