tivo dvd unit, questions before i buy

[crowe]

Planning on buying Mom the Tivo DVD unit, hoping she can record some shows for my kids every week, since we have no network, cable or satellite service in our home.
Can you burn more that 1 show on a disc, if so how many hours of shows fit on a disc?
My home DVD player, once I finalize, nothing else can go on that disc, is that the case with Tivo unit? Is it possible to re-use a disc?
Is burning to disc easy enough to do that older less tech savvy user will be OK?
I'm trying to determine whether this is a viable solution to our no TV problem in our home, maybe you have an opinion...
Thanks!

[gtrogue]

Burning DVD's on Tivo is very easy. The interface is intuitive and simple.

The amount of shows you can put on the DVD depends on the recording quality of the shows.

Best- 1 hour
High- 2 hours
Medium- 4 hours
Basic- 6 hours


You can't burn more to a DVD-R once it has been burned. DVD-R's are quite cheap now (<=$0.30 per disc) so that isn't such a big deal. If you want to reuse the discs you can burn to DVD-RW. They are more expensive, however, and less likely to be compatible in all DVD players.

[mikemcclain8]

I just finished setting up my Pioneer 810 that burns DVD's and has Tivo. I would say it is very easy to burn DVD's with multiple shows, but I also have some experience navigating computerized Menu systems. The instructions are clear on screen, it's just a matter of knowing how to get to the options to burn. The manual for my unit is very clear....but 180 pages long. I would suggest you learn to perform the burning/recording etc. and create a "How To" book complete with index tabs to help your mother with the process. Beyond that, my DVD's look great and I recorded them from a Camcorder. I would recommend the highest quality though. Also, you may want to invest in Tivo Plus for the season pass option so that your mom doesn't have to continually worry about setting it up. Hope that helps.

Mike

[petew]

My wife can burn DVD's on the Humax. She never figured out how to program the VCR!

[crowe]

I guess I'll look into the different units and give this a try.