Scared to make the Tivo HD Plunge

I have to admit, I shared your concern when I came back into this forum to look up the latest and greatest about the S3 Tivos but decided to take the plunge anyway. While I'm a touch disappointed that the Tivo interface hasn't really been updated much, I'm thrilled by the very basic stability that this box provides. It's reset ONCE for me in the few months I've had it and that's it. Not a single other problem. Sure I had to deal with 2 visits from the cable co tech to make the cards work right, but that's no different from the crap you deal with when they're using their own boxes.

Bottom line: Tivo works. I now spend my time watching TV (and finding new shows through the great search tools) and less time messing with my source component. <<-- the way it should be.

 

I was in the same boat as you. Pretty nervous about the Fios posts, but very unhappy with the Fios DVR.

I went ahead an took the plunge two weeks ago and have not regretted it one bit. I love having my TIvo back. I have had ZERO pixillation problems. ( I know, it's still early)

Cable Card installation went perfectly, and took about 30-40 minutes total. I would reccomend learning as much about the CC installation process as possible and basically "managing" the install yourself.


Anyway, I'm sure there are many other happy FIOS/TivoHD customers out there, but these types of stories don't get as much mileage here.

hope this helps!

 

Just make sure your vendor supports using cablecards in the Tivo. I have had nothing but problems with getting HD to work reliably. My HD shows record successfully about 30% of the time. I have worked extensively with Tivo support and with my own cable vendor (who is a small town cable vendor - not a big shop) nobody has solved the problem.
When it does work, it is beautiful - well worth the money if you are a Tivo fan. What is interesting is that the problem that folks seem to be having since the 9.1 upgrade is the problem that I have been having since day one.

 

Give the TiVo HD a shot, especially if you can get $6.95 MSD.

It does often take significant effort to get all the cableCARDs working, but give it a try. Returns are free if you run out of patience first.

The software will be fixed (and broken again) in the future. Ride it out.

 

Reborndata,

There was a thread started recently where people who DIDN'T have problems with installs were asked to respond. That list got long very quickly. I'm not convinced that the statements that cablecards often (or always, or mostly) take a lot of effort are particularly accurate or backed up by data.

My Fios / Tivo Series 3 installation, for example, was one of the smoothest I've ever had. That was last December and I've had no problems since then.

Al

 

I also was concerned, but I took the plunge and had nothing but perfect video from day one. If you have different results, just plan on a return.

 

Let me add that I bought 2 more TiVo HDs the other day, and I have been through the mill with CC problems.

One HD is a gift,* so in both cases I certainly would not be buying them if I didn't think problems were survivable.


* Well the one for me is a "gift" too. Anytime you get a TiVo its a gift.

 

reborndata:

I'm in the same boat as you. I had S1 and S2 DirecTiVos. Switched to FIOS for the HD support and the DVR was decent. (Read: I could live with it). The new FIOS image reminds me of my dishnetwork 7200 dvr. Missed recordings.....ARGH!

I've decided to purchase a TivoHD.

The only thing I'm trying to figure out now is if I should wait for the official/semi-official support of the eSATA port on the TivoHD or should I use MFSTools and upgrade support. I haven't found an estimated date for support for that feature yet, and upgraded space will be high on my priority list..

-Matt

 

I wish TiVo and DirecTV would make a new deal. I'd probably switch back to DirecTV again. The new TiVo HD (I have an S3) are not as trouble free as what you had with the DirecTiVos. They just simply aren't. Most of the blame can probably go to Comcast and the myriad of problems you run into with a hard wired system such as cable. The new update has pretty much screwed up my 30 second skip and Instant Replay. If I had know that before it may have swayed me away from the TiVo box. Now that I'm "in" I guess I can only hope they fix the new problem(s). If the box you are using now, is really bad, the new TiVo HD will probably be an upgrade. It's not gonna (probably) be the same TiVo you have been used to with DirecTivo though. I admit I'm a bit disappointed. It seems like it's one problem after another. They fix it for a little while and then screw it up again with a "new update:".