[bgottschalk]

With all the new threads swirling around and excitement so high, I just had to ask this question.

I'm not trying to start a flame war, I've just never used a TIVO and am truely curious what it is that makes people so devoted to TIVO that they put Mac zealots to shame. I couldn't be happier with my HR20 and HR21 and can't really imagine what could be that much better.

So here's your chance to educate the ignorant (me). What do you consider to be the greatest things about TIVO that you can't find on the HR2x models? Screenshots welcome...

 

[Supervolcano]

I'm not trying to start a flame war

Too late, the title is all you needed to start the war.
:lol:

 

[Sirshagg]

With all the new threads swirling around and excitement so high, I just had to ask this question.

I'm not trying to start a flame war, I've just never used a TIVO and am truely curious what it is that makes people so devoted to TIVO that they put Mac zealots to shame. I couldn't be happier with my HR20 and HR21 and can't really imagine what could be that much better.

So here's your chance to educate the ignorant (me). What do you consider to be the greatest things about TIVO that you can't find on the HR2x models? Screenshots welcome...

Simply put it does what a DVR is supposed to do - It records what you tell it to record (on time) and plays it back. Some people will agrue that they have had all kinds of problems with Tivo's but in general I think you will find many more people who have had issue, and more of them, with the HRxx.

Other things:
DLB
MRV, now
more than 50 series links
wishlists
suggestions
a better guide

That being said the HRxx has some advantages over the TiVo units but that's not the topc of this conversation.

 

[bgottschalk]

Simply put it does what a DVR is supposed to do - It records what you tell it to record (on time) and plays it back. Some people will agrue that they have had all kinds of problems with Tivo's but in general I think you will find many more people who have had issue, and more of them, with the HRxx.

Other things:
DLB
MRV, now
more than 50 series links
wishlists
suggestions
a better guide

That being said the HRxx has some advantages over the TiVo units but that's not the topc of this conversation.

Thanks for the list!

Any details on how the MRV works? With MRV possibly coming to HR2x, I'm curious how TIVO implements it.

Any way I could see some screenshots of the guide - the parts you like? I am pretty happy with the HR2x guide, but I'm sure it could be improved.

Edit - I assumed stability would be mentioned, but since I haven't had any issues with my HR20 despite downloading "risky" CE's every week, and the fact that I'm guessing people would still want TIVO even if the HR2x was rock solid, let's leave that one for now.

 

[TimG517]

I too would like to see some screen shots of the GUI from TIVO

 

[Sirshagg]

I'll also add that if there was an mpeg4 HD TiVo a year ago I would have been ALL OVER IT. Since that time the HRxx units have gotten considerably better and they are constantly refining them (nearly every week for those in participating in the CE program). It's grown on me a bit and there are thoise things the HRxx does better too. Even today I'm not sure that I'd go back to TiVo. Once the HRxx gets MRV the chances will be even slimmer.

 

[spartanstew]

Simply put it does what a DVR is supposed to do - It records what you tell it to record (on time) and plays it back. Some people will agrue that they have had all kinds of problems with Tivo's but in general I think you will find many more people who have had issue, and more of them, with the HRxx.

Other things:
DLB
MRV, now
more than 50 series links
wishlists
suggestions
a better guide

That being said the HRxx has some advantages over the TiVo units but that's not the topc of this conversation.

IF, people have issues with their HR2X's, then I can certainly understand why they might want to go back to tivo. I got rid of all of my tivos 1 year ago and all 3 of my DVR's have been problem free ever since. They all do exactly what they're supposed to do - record and play back recordings.

Certainly, tivo has some features that the HR2X's don't have (yet), but I think the HR2X's have even more features that tivo's don't have. Several of the tivo items are ones I personally never used (guide, suggestions,MRV), while the HR2X's different features, I use much more frequently.

For me, when I first switched to the HR2X's, it was about intuitiveness. You needed to have the manual handy to operate the HR2X's. With tivo, you never needed that. Everything you did in the interface was common sense and it was very easy to find/do anything.

Now, in the last year, the HR2X's have come A LONG way regarding this issue. The menu's aren't nearly as cumbersome and they've become very intuitive.

If you want to know why people think tivo is more intuitive, you can check out THIS THREAD.

I also think that a lot of it has to do with nostalgia (you never forget your first girl). People that had tivo (with D* or not) a long time ago, had their lives changed. It was a revolutionary product. Nothing will ever compare to that or change peoples lives as much, so it's fondly remembered. The growing pains with tivo are easily forgotten and only the good memories remain.

 

[Sirshagg]

I too would like to see some screen shots of the GUI from TIVO

1 channel - 8 time slots
7 channels - 1 time slot
Just up or down to change which channel shows 8 time slots.
Also very fast.

It's hard to tell from just a pic but in my opinion light years better.

 

[Sirshagg]

For me, when I first switched to the HR2X's, it was about intuitiveness. You needed to have the manual handy to operate the HR2X's. With tivo, you never needed that. Everything you did in the interface was common sense and it was very easy to find/do anything.

Agree 100%

Now, in the last year, the HR2X's have come A LONG way regarding this issue. The menu's aren't nearly as cumbersome and they've become very intuitive.

Definitely!

 

[bgottschalk]

1 channel - 8 time slots
7 channels - 1 time slot
Just up or down to change which channel shows 8 time slots.
Also very fast.

It's hard to tell from just a pic but in my opinion light years better.

Interesting. I guess when I see that I think of the old cable guide where it was more like a list of shows on one channel. Also seems like a lot of wasted space around it. Personally I prefer the grid - when I go into the guide, 99% of the time I am wanting to find something to watch now. So, I want to see what is on now (and in the next 1 1/2 hours) on as many channels as possible at the same time. I really would not like having to scroll 1 channel at a time to see what is on now.

I do however, really like the huge amount of space for the description and that you can see the entire description without going to another screen.

Just my bias with how I use the guide, but keep em coming...

 

[spartanstew]

1 channel - 8 time slots
7 channels - 1 time slot
Just up or down to change which channel shows 8 time slots.
Also very fast.

I know a lot of people liked it, but I hated that guide. I always used the directv guide instead. I always want to know what's on right now on as many channels as possible. Not what shows might be on in a couple of hours on one channel.

 

[TimG517]

I agree with bgottschalk.

Looks like Time Warner GUI from 10 years ago. I think the DirecTV GUI is much better looking.

 

[Sirshagg]

Any details on how the MRV works? With MRV possibly coming to HR2x, I'm curious how TIVO implements it.

Tivo copies the show from one machine to the other. You can start watching nearly immediately but obviously only ffwd up to what has been copied so far. You can;t for example start watching a show on TiVo 1, go to another room and pick up where you left off on TiVo 2. Yuo would have to copy the entire show over and then ffwd through what you already have seen. It could definitely be done MUCH better, but it's better than nothing.

 

[bgottschalk]

Tivo copies the show from one machine to the other. You can start watching nearly immediately but obviously only ffwd up to what has been copied so far. You can;t for example start watching a show on TiVo 1, go to another room and pick up where you left off on TiVo 2. Yuo would have to copy the entire show over and then ffwd through what you already have seen. It could definitely be done MUCH better, but it's better than nothing.

It would be nice if that was available as well as streaming. I can think of times when the main DVR is almost full and you'd like to move some of the kids shows over to the other DVR to free up some space. In that case, copying would be handy.

 

[krock918316]

1 channel - 8 time slots
7 channels - 1 time slot
Just up or down to change which channel shows 8 time slots.
Also very fast.

It's hard to tell from just a pic but in my opinion light years better.

It's been a while since I've used my Tivo, so I guess I forgot what it looked like. I MUCH prefer the DirecTV grid guide to the Tivo guide.

 

[Sirshagg]

I know a lot of people liked it, but I hated that guide. I always used the directv guide instead. I always want to know what's on right now on as many channels as possible. Not what shows might be on in a couple of hours on one channel.

Yep, we are all different. For me it's always a DVR and I rarely watch live TV so I don't care what is on now. When I surf the guide I'm looking to find things I want to record in the coming hours or days and this format works much better for me.

It's kinda like DLB - there are lots of people foaming at the mouth over this feature. I persoanlly don't care about it one way or the other.

 

[Sirshagg]

It would be nice if that was available as well as streaming. I can think of times when the main DVR is almost full and you'd like to move some of the kids shows over to the other DVR to free up some space. In that case, copying would be handy.

Yep! You could even get int co-operative scheduling. Tell your DVR to record a third show in the same time slot and it finds another DVR to offload the job to. Then when the recording is done on the other DVR it moves it to the one where you requested the recording automatically. Noe wouldn't something like that be cool. But I get off topic...

 

[bgottschalk]

Yep, we are all different. For me it's always a DVR and I rarely watch live TV so I don't care what is on now. When I surf the guide I'm looking to find things I want to record in the coming hours or days and this format works much better for me.

It's kinda like DLB - there are lots of people foaming at the mouth over this feature. I persoanlly don't care about it one way or the other.

I totally agree - I also don't have much use for DLB, but I understand why others do. It would be nice if the HR2x had some options in the guide area - to satisfy both needs.

 

[JerseyBoy]

What is so good about TiVo? Their marketing. World's best marketing but I don't think their engineers ever watch TV based on the way they implemented the hr10.
On the hr10-250 it took forever to go to the next page in the guide. Record 1st run only frequently caused 1st run shows not to record. You had to use a backdoor code to make the skip forward work properly and it would reset itself back to the useless skip to tick that was the supported operation whenever it reset.
When did the hr10-250 get MRV? Mine never had it.

 

[Sirshagg]

It's been a while since I've used my Tivo, so I guess I forgot what it looked like. I MUCH prefer the DirecTV grid guide to the Tivo guide.

Well it was an option on the Tivo. You could have it that way or like the DirecTv guide - so we could both be hapy