[doubledrat]

my 2p

a freeview box *would* give a better quality picture, but at the expense of increased complexity of setup and potential for missed channel changes... if she's not a videophile I would opt for simplicity (and you can always add a freeview box later)

you MUST get the fantastic "endpad" (see "soft padding" link in my sig) so that there are not so many (if any) missed program ends (due to programs overrunning their scheduled time slot). I'm sure many people have ditched tivos without it because of this major irritation.

 

[doubledrat]

Well, I am pleased to announce we are now a 1 Tivo family!
First impressions - very happy, actually quieter than i thought it would be. Interface as easy to use as i remember. Changing channels quite slow though - could be a problem as my mother tends to use the up/down on the sky control to skim through the channels.
Ron

educate her that skimming the channels is no longer needed

record everything you want to watch, and never watch live tv again - that's the realy beauty of tivo IMHO

First Questions!:
OK, got the machine as is - it needed to make a daily call so no program guide. I made a call to see what would happen without doing the guided setup. It managed ok, but by the time I went to bed last night it had been organising itself for 6 hours with still over an hour to go - is this normal?

it does take a VERY long time, can't remember exactly how long though

There are a bunch of old recordings on "Now Playing" (which probably answers the q. above) but I could only play a couple of them - the rest just showed the bar at the bottom for a few seconds and then asked me if i wanted to delete it. Do the titles remain when Tivo deletes an old program, or does is suggest a problem with the HD?

that can happen when e.g. tivo tries to record but the satellite is not giving a signal

If you press record when watching live TV, it always records in "best" mode no matter whay the default quality is. Is there another way round this other than going into "season pass and other options"?

that's the way it works by default. you can change it by hacking the tivo, not sure if there's a backdoor or anything that can change it too