where are the DVD tivos?

[dpnation10]

I have a S2 DVD burning Tivo which I regularly rave about. One of my co-workers asked me today about where she can buy one, since she couldn't find it on Circuit City's website. I did a little searching on my own and discovered they are not listed on Circuit City, Best Buy nor the Tivo.com website.

I might have missed the memo on this one, but are the DVD burning Tivos no longer available?

[MungoJerrie]

I might have missed the memo on this one, but are the DVD burning Tivos no longer available?DVD tivos are no longer manufactured, but can be obtained from weaknees.com and ebay, perhaps others...

[dpnation10]

wow, that's a shame - I love mine. And I'm happy I got on with the lifetime subscription before they axed that too.

[gastrof]

There ARE other DVRs with DVD burners, at least some of which have a feature TiVo's never did...being able to edit out commercials before creating a DVD.

These lack the TiVo programming grid and resulting ease of operation, tho'.

(Personally, I'm satisfied with mine, because even my TiVos lack the grid, being unsubbed. :D)

[pwocarroll]

It's WAY too bad this kind of product isn't available anymore. My Humax DVR-DVD burner is the single greatest, most used, most appreciated piece of A/V gear I've ever owned.

I have two TiVos (the other is a regular Series 2), but everything of importance we record on the Humax--so we can burn it off. I just completed the final disc of the classic, not-yet-available-in-retail "Wonder Years" series--all 100+ episodes...courtesy of Humax. Also just about all the Big Valley episodes, all the classic Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes episodes, Lost, Heroes, etc, etc, etc.

It is great being able to burn all these episodes off and not have to worry about the pressure to watch what's been recorded b/o the 80-hour limit. AND no fuss about developing a DVD interface, since it provides the fabulous TiVo interface with all attendant metainfo about the programs (original air date, actors names, episode description etc.). Easy to watch on my laptop without any lenghty TTG downloads eating up laptop hard drive space.

Just an elegant piece of craftsmanship, maximizing the value of TiVo. Someone should resurrect this technology and market it properly. When my Humax dies, I'm going to cry for a month!

And yet people are excited about a stupid cell phone with a 3.5 inch screen. [Ooooohhh! It plays YouTube videos! Niravana!!!] Go figure.

Oh, I didn't mention that the Humax plays music CDs great too--looks up CD info automagically from IMDB or someplace on the Internet.

Imagine a similar product BUT -- S3, with double-sided DVD burner, for ~$400. They'd sell one to every sentient being on the planet... I'd buy three. :D And I, for one, could live without the capacity to edit out commercials (I do have a fast-forward button, after all.)

[End of screed]

Patrick

[robomeister]

I agree with pwocarroll. I own a bunch of the Pioneer DVD TiVo with burners and use them a lot. Being able to burn the shows with the meta data is great. I have kind of protected myself from future failures by getting a couple "hot" spares, so I can fix a downed TiVo immediately. :)

Long live the DVD TiVos!

robomeister

[alexgalt]

why isnt tivo making any more of the DVD tivos?

[herfmonster]

I'm waiting for the S-3 with built in dual layer Blu-Ray burner.

I have the Toshiba S-2 with DVD "player" (dernit!) I really wish it had been a burner.

[sledhed]

why isnt tivo making any more of the DVD tivos?
My speculation is because of DRM - digital rights management - the big media don't want you recording your own stuff off the airwaves in a way that you can archive it easily. BTW, we love our Toshiba RS-TX20, we burn DVDs almost every day with it... not sure we will ever watch all this stuff! :D

[Chester_Lampwick]

Patrick,
You took the words right out of my mouth. Damn, now I'm quoting Meatloaf...

[classicsat]

S3 with DVD burner won't happen, because it would be confusing to consumers what could be done with it, as well as copy protection flags preventing things happening. Not to mention a BD or HD DVD burner making the unit ridiculously expensive.

For Series 2 DVD recorders, TiVo never manufactured those themselves, they left it up to branding partners, of which there currently are none.

[girlfarmer]

Thanks for this, every little helps!

[itsyvonne]

S3 with DVD burner won't happen, because it would be confusing to consumers what could be done with it, as well as copy protection flags preventing things happening. Not to mention a BD or HD DVD burner making the unit ridiculously expensive.

For Series 2 DVD recorders, TiVo never manufactured those themselves, they left it up to branding partners, of which there currently are none.

What "copy protection flags"? Am I going to have trouble burning some shows on my Humax DVD unit because of those, or is that strictly an HDTV thing?

[cwynne1950]

Haven't been on the TIVO community website in a year and am shocked to learn that you can't get a TIVO DVD burner anymore. I just told a friend to get one today.

I am a Social Studies teacher and regularly burn DVDs of Frontline, American Experience, news shows to show to my classes. (Teachers usually get permission to show for educational purposes).

If my Humax crashes someday, and there have been times when I get "internal error" and have to reboot whole TIVO system), what are my options? Transfer shows to computer over TivoToGo (does that still exist) and then burn to DVD? In any case, it will be more time-consuming and computer hard drive wasting to do such a transfer. Guess I'll just hope a replacement gets developed before the Humax no longer works.

[megazone]

You can still get them - used and refurbished units are available via many online resellers. Some even have new ones from old stock. But I wouldn't count on a new model any time soon.

TiVoToGo is your remaining option.

[TiVoEvan74]

They are amazing-- we have both the Toshiba and the Humax models... and a large box filled with DVDs... actually two boxes.

Still, I'd rather have a HUGE, VERY HUGE hard drive (can someone say terabyte?!). That way, we wouldn't have to shuffle through DVDs-- remember doing that with VCR tapes? it's the same!). We'd like that along with a firewire backup hard drive that would regularly backup the main hard drive... we can only dream on...

[GoHokies!]

They are amazing-- we have both the Toshiba and the Humax models... and a large box filled with DVDs... actually two boxes.

Still, I'd rather have a HUGE, VERY HUGE hard drive (can someone say terabyte?!). That way, we wouldn't have to shuffle through DVDs-- remember doing that with VCR tapes? it's the same!). We'd like that along with a firewire backup hard drive that would regularly backup the main hard drive... we can only dream on...
You can get 1TB sized drives now - put one in your computer and use TTG/TTCB to keep most shows on your computer and transfer to your Tivo to watch.

[TiVoEvan74]

Yeah, seen those... TiVo to Go is so slow! I'm really wanting the hard drive solution built into the TiVo. (One problem is that we're not wired and the wireless transfer time is LONG--I mean VERY L-O-N-G!)

How much simpler and nicer it'd be to have a TiVo with a HUGE drive (coiuld have via weaknees), yet with auto backup via firewire as a TiVo standard, right out of the box feature. No fuss, no mess, auto backup, no DVD burning, instant access to everything recorded, etc.

Oh, well, I can dream on...

[roxie17]

I'm here a little late, but I just wanted to add my voice to those who love their Tivo Humax boxes and are furious that they are no longer manufactured due to, I'm sure, mpaa'ers hellbent on forever ruining all our lives. Yes, you can buy them used, but that is only temporary consolation. They can't last forever, and I'm sure Tivo service will get screwed up somewhere down the line. I agree with pwocarroll that my Tivo/Humax box is the single most appreciated a/v gizmo I've had since my first vcr - a betamax I got when I was little weeeyyy back there in the hey remember the 80s era! Two years ago I bought a refurbished series 2 box, and thanks to it my life is a bit less difficult. Even though I'm sure you can hook up a plain ole burnerless tivo box to a dvd recorder, that sort of hook-up is so much more time consuming, and, relentlessly beaten by the clock, I would just let my programs pile up and eventually fall off my box before I get a chance to burn them to dvd. I only have time to view about 10% of what I record; I'm hoping someday when I retire I can go back and watch all this material I archived. The only complaint is not being able to edit out commercials and other unwanted material; it would have been fantastic to have seen a new model with that problem fixed. Anyway, the clock is ticking on this box I have, especially since I bought it refurbished. It freezes up sometimes, and I have to unplug and replug it; everytime it does that I race to the Tivo site to see if there is any hope for a new tivo-dvd combo being produced. No hope. I haven't tried tivo-to-go - it looks nauseatingly slow. I guess I'm getting old, but I've had it with putrid tiny ipod and cell phone screens and sitting in an office chair watching things on a PC. I just want to watch things the old fashioned way - on this bizarre thingamajig called a......TV SCREEN!!!!

[megazone]

I'm here a little late, but I just wanted to add my voice to those who love their Tivo Humax boxes and are furious that they are no longer manufactured due to, I'm sure, mpaa'ers hellbent on forever ruining all our lives.Paranoia and conspiracy theories are not productive. This has absolutely nothing to do with the MPAA. Not one thing.

There are a number of DVR/DVD Recorder combo units on the market. But the market was flooded with very cheap units, and the TiVo-based units suffered in sales as they were higher end and more expensive. It was just business, the sales were not there to support the product. Consumer electronics models get a refresh every year or so - sometimes less, depending - and when it came time to refresh the products Pioneer, Toshiba, and Humax all decided to drop them instead. Humax seems to have pulled out of the recorder market in the US, but Pioneer and Toshiba kept selling DVR/DVD Recorder units - just without the TiVo software. They saved the licensing money they had to pay TiVo for the software.

Yes, you can buy them used, but that is only temporary consolation. They can't last forever, Actually, they can last just about forever without some outside trauma. The failure points are the hard drive (easily replaced), the fan (easily replaced), and the DVD burner. The DVD burner is easily replaced - *if* you can get the right drive, since you can't just slap in any burner. That's probably what will kill them eventually, being unable to replace the drive. Even the power supply can be replaced if it takes a hit. And most of the unit is solid state and unless it is physically damaged or allowed to overheat it should run for many years.

and I'm sure Tivo service will get screwed up somewhere down the line. Why would you think that?

Even though I'm sure you can hook up a plain ole burnerless tivo box to a dvd recorder, that sort of hook-up is so much more time consuming, and, relentlessly beaten by the clock, I would just let my programs pile up and eventually fall off my box before I get a chance to burn them to dvd. You can always use TiVoToGo and a large drive (or an array) on your PC, and burn DVDs there - the right software also allows you to edit out the commercials, etc.

And you can build a giant archive of recordings, then copy them back to the TiVo later to watch on the TV if you want.

[poolboy31]

What about a tivo HD burner without having to pay for a subscription? I have a 810 HS now and don't pay for anything. Also got a friend that has A brand new 810HS for sale if anyone is looking for another one.

[bicker]

Where's the profit in that? :confused: