[isamara]

Hello -
I have been browsing some of these threads and have a question...I recently purchased a Tivo. I then went to switch to the Dish Network and received the promotion with the free 625 DVR with 6 dollar monthly service fee, which is about 1/3 of the price of my Tivo. I have just a couple of days before I can return my Tivo with no penalty, but I haven't yet received installation of the DVR from Dish. From reading some of the notes in the forum, I am now hesitant to return the Tivo.

In very high level terms, can someone help me understand the difference between the Tivo and the Dish DVR? Is the Tivo much better? Are there many problems with the Dish DVR? Does it have "Season's Pass" capability? And lastly, I have read some about the various lawsuits but have to admit I don't understand exactly what the situation is. Is the Dish DVR in danger of being shut down, in which case I would just keep my new Tivo? Does anyone want to comment on their general satisfaction with Dish vs. regular cable TV?

I know that's a lot of questions - I'd appreciate any input you might have so I can decide this soon.

Thank you!

 

[puck]

Had Tivo since its inception and loved it. Used it with several Dish receivers since then and even kept it when the 510 came out which is a PVR minus the names based recording. I just upgraded to the 625 and can tell you (for how I used Tivo anyway) that you can get rid of the Tivo.

Does pretty much everything you expected Tivo do do. I never really used Wishlist so can't comment on that. Also, don't think you can set a maximum amount of a certain show to keep before it will no longer record that show until you delete one. This are trivial issues to me though.

The most important thing is the integration between the DVR and Dish. Program guide and channel changing are light years beyond Tivo. I have Direct Tivo at my other house and will most likely swithch that over to a Dish 625 soon. Only reason I didn't do it sooner is because I had LA/NY distants as well as Philly and didn't want to draw any unnecessary attention to myself. Now that this reason is moot (and I'm stuck with monkey news Scranton?Wilkes Barre channels, it's a moot point.

Bottom line.... make the jump. You'll thoroughly enjoy it. And don't worry about the lawsuit. It won't effect us. There would be a mass exodous from Dish if it did and they know that.

 

[marketinghelp]

Yes, The Dish DVR can do Season Passes and everything Tivo does, and the Dish DVR is faster, cheaper, and better. You will love it!

 

[Delta5]

I had a Tivo for about 2 years. Last summer I decided to dump cable and go back to Dish, primarily for the cost and the picture/sound quality. I decided to give the 625 a shot, rather than trying to use the Tivo with the dish.

At first I hated the 625 compared to Tivo. I was really close to sending it back. 6 months later, I'm satisfied with the 625 over the Tivo. I've learned how it's different, and how to set it up. It's not really really 'better' than a Tivo. Just different.

If you're a long-time Tivo user, you are going to be frustrated with the 625 until you adapt to how it works. If you've never used a Tivo, then the 625 will be fine. If you just need something to record 'E.R.' and 'Survivor' every week, then both work extremely well.

In the end, I'm content with the 625 over the Tivo. In most respects, they're both great. The 625 is better in a few areas, and the Tivo is better in a few others.

625 Pros:

• Way better integration. One box, one remote. Easy.
• Quality - In general, the 625 does a better job at picture and sound quality than the Tivo did. See the next item...
• Recording Time vs. Picture Quality. The 625 offers 80 hours of TV at broadcast quality. You'd need a 200 hour Tivo to match it, since Tivo's are advertised at the LOWEST quality setting, which is nearly unwatchable.
• Two-TV output.
• Dolby Digital recording. Not possible with the Tivo. Shows recorded in 5.1 surround sound retain it when you play it back.
• Pay-per-view recording.
• Price. We subscribe to the Everything Pack, so our 625 is completely free. I had Tivo when it was $12.95/month and it was ok. Now it's like $19.95/month (or you can shave off a couple bucks by locking yourself in for 2+ years) which is a little excessive, IMHO.

625 Cons:

• Wishlists : The Tivo is far more intelligent when it comes to FINDING programming. The 625 isn't terrible, but its search features are lacking compared to the Tivo. Our Tivo found several great shows that we didn't know about, simply because it picked up on the types of shows we liked. 625 can't do that.
• Repeat Programming: My Tivo hardly ever re-recorded an event. We get duplicates all the time on the 625. Several times a week our 625 will just randomly record two copies of the same show that may have aired a few hours apart. Our Tivo did that a few times, but nowhere near as often as the 625.
• Timer Limts: My BIGGEST pet peeve of the 625. There's a hard limit as to how many timers and events you can have. It's like 50 timers or 280 events, with non-records counting as events. Set up 20-30 shows, especially if they're repeat shows, and you've got a problem. Do you have 'Mythbusters' on the Discovery channel set up to record and they're running an all-weekend marathon? That could fill up 20-30 timers just with one show. I've hit the limit a few times and had to manually re-set shows. The Tivo has no such crummy-programmer limitation. It is annoying.

 

[jarvantgroup]

The 625 is very user friendly. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how to set-up recording. And the 625 almost makes it impossible for you to make mistakes as far as erasing programs or setting up incorrect things to record. :eek2: