TiVo Survival Mission

[Rhughes]

I am going on a mission. I have a friend that called me tonight asking why someone would pay to use a TiVo! I told him I would be over tomorrow to go over it with him.

The problem is that I am a long time DirecTivo owner (3 Series 2 DirecTiVo's) and I have never used a stand-alone TiVo. My friend bought a Series 2 stand-alone that he wants to use with cable.

Could someone give me a crash course in any major differences between the two (other than the obvious) so that I can arrive and appear like I know what I am doing? Especially, any major differences in the menus and remotes. Just basic operation. Thanks.

[stevel]

Not a lot of difference in typical use, though the S2 has network features missing from the DTiVo. The problem with your idea is that to really do the job right, you need to set up some season passes for shows he likes and let it record for a while. You can't demo much on an empty TiVo.

[pkscout]

If your friend has a "standard" stand alone, then it only has one tuner, so you can't record two things at once.

[CraigHB]

I'm coming off DirecTV. I have an S3 up and running with cable cards now, but I haven't actually cancelled DirecTV yet. In fact, one of my DTiVos is still running. I need to go through some shows on it before I take it offline and discontinue service. Before DTiVo I had a stand-alone Series 2 with cable.

The differences between DTiVo and S2 stand-alone are pretty minor with respect to user operation. S2 stand-alone has more features as mentioned previously. However, S2 has only analog tuner(s). To use it with satellite or digital cable, requires a channel changing interface with a service provider set top box. Some can be done with an RS232 serial connection, others require the S2's IR blaster. The serial or IR blaster configuration supports only one tuner and is not always 100% reliable.

The Series 3 is more like the DirecTiVo with its dual integrated tuners. That's the one thing that makes DTiVo so nice. My S3 has been working great so far with the cable cards. It feels like I haven't lost anything in the transition while gaining HD. Although, with cable cards, you don't have access to PPV like you do with the DTiVo. But, since I don't use PPV, I don't miss it (I use Netflix instead). Also, Series 3 doesn't support IR blaster or serial interface so you can only use it with analog cable, digital cable, and/or OTA.

[Rhughes]

Thanks for the inputs. I forgot about the single/dual tuner issue, and the analog vs digital recordings. I have had DirecTivo for so long I tend to think that all TiVo's work like mine. I wish he had discussed it with me before he bought the Series 2 stand-alone. I think he bought it from Amazon.com. It was free after subscribing.

He said the system status shows he has 4 days left. Apparently, you get a few days to try it out before you subscribe. The other thing he mentioned was that he can't use the Tivo with the HD channels on his cable box. I told him that there were HD TiVo's available. Looks like my mission will be more difficult that I thought! :)

[Rhughes]

I took a look at the TiVo site http://www.tivo.com/2.0.boxdetails.asp?box=series280hrDTDVR
and apparently you can now record on two channels at once. Doesn't say anything about recording on two and watching one at the same time. I assume that isn't possible. What happened to the various recording hours vs resolution? I can't find a thing about it. The box description makes it sound like it has 80 hours of capacity for all recordings. How is that possible if recording analog signals off cable?

[mick66]

Recording two channels at once requires the Dual tuner TiVo.
You assume wrong. You can record record two things at once and watch a third. Either another recording or an analog cable channel using the TV's tuner.
There are 4 recording qualities. As with all of TiVo's advertising/marketing, they only mention the approximate number of hours you can record at the lowest quality.

You know as much or as little about stand alone Tivos as I do about Directv Tivos.

[Rhughes]

Recording two channels at once requires the Dual tuner TiVo.
You assume wrong. You can record record two things at once and watch a third. Either another recording or an analog cable channel using the TV's tuner.
There are 4 recording qualities. As with all of TiVo's advertising/marketing, they only mention the approximate number of hours you can record at the lowest quality.

You know as much or as little about stand alone Tivos as I do about Directv Tivos.Thanks. Just seems funny that there is nothing at all on the TiVo site about recording two while watching one. That was always a really big deal with the DirecTivo's. Guess they don't think that is an important feature with the stand-alones.

[CraigHB]

The S2 (in a dual tuner configuration) and the S3 are the same as the DTiVo with regard to how the tuners are occupied. You can record two shows and watch a recorded show or record one and watch another live.