TiVo TCD648250B Series3 HD Digital Media Recorder by TiVo
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Digital camera reviews of TiVo TCD648250B Series3 HD Digital Media Recorder
Digital camera Review: Excellent evolutionary product
Summary: 4 Stars
I've been overall very impressed with this unit. So far, very few problems. Most of the other reviews have hit on the main pros/cons, so I'll just add some of my observations.
Background: Bought this to replace my elderly ReplayTV after I upgraded to digital cable, and it didn't like that much at all. My current setup is a nice Toshiba HD flat panel, sony home theater and a dvd player; I got cablecards to replace the ridiculous digital cable box, and those seem to work very well. I also got a Tivo wifi adapter (overpriced, but worth it for me). I now use the Tivo as my only cable box, since the cable box was component out and this is HDMI.
Biggest feature I haven't seen mentioned (though I've only scanned the reviews): UnBox downloads right to your TiVo! In HD! I rented Bourne Supremacy in HD before lunch to test this out, and when I got back home, the blue LED had gone off, indicating it was done downloading. HD quality was very good to excellent. If Amazon gets the selection right, this may be my future for rentals.
My TV's remote is my prefered one, and I've been able to set it up to do everything the Tivo remote does with one exception (switching between the two cablecards). I can live with that for the payoff of only having one remote for four devices.
Complaints (mostly minor-ish):
Crazy screen morph and significant pause when going to Tivo Central. Yes, the place to actually view your recordings. If you're watching live TV, and switch to Tivo Central, the image will get all stretched out of shape while it reconfigures its resolution, it will pause for a few seconds, then Tivo Central comes up. Switching between SD channels and HD doesn't have this issue, so I'm not sure why it is an issue for Tivo's native resolution.
Interface not as Grail-like as I'd hoped. Perhaps I'm just used to the ReplayTV interface, but certain things like Season Pass are sometimes unintuitive.
Subscriptions should be more reasonable. I have this complaint with all commercial dvrs.
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Digital camera Review: Expensive - But I LOVE IT!!
Summary: 5 Stars
I won't rehash the points about it not having all the features of a series 2 nor the problems with cable card installations. (which by the way you should do research on [...] to get familiar with the issues and how to help your cable company to get it right)
I can just say that I love Tivo and I HAD to have the series 3 after getting a new HD TV and HD service from my cable company. Not being able to record in HD was killing me and make it to where I didn't watch HD content very much (I'm a 90% recorded show watcher vs 10% live TV)
Once I got through the cable care woes (which again was the cable companies inexperience with Cable cards in general let along putting 2 in a Tivo box) I absolutely love watching Grey's Anatomy, Lost and ABC sports in HD. I'm still blown away by the detail and it now bothers me when I have to watch something in non HD.
Digital camera Review: Expensive but worth having.
Summary: 5 Stars
Like others who purchased the Series 3 TiVo. I also had problems with the cable company (Everest) being somewhat ignorant about cable cards. The cable company supplied my cards over the counter and I installed them myself. The cable card setup was easy. As instructed in the on screen setup, for each cable card I called in to my cable company to have the card authorized. Before I was able to receive my decoded digital and premium channels, I received two calls back from Everest to repeat and verify the four ID numbers of each card (2 numbers on the card itself & the 2 internal numbers that appear on the TV screen). After that Everest got the cards fully authorized and the cable cards were decoding properly by allowing my digital and premium channels to pass through.
A week later, one cable card went bad (not allowing my digital and premium channels to pass through). I took the card back and received another one. But unlike the first two cards this one was not in a plastic protective sleeve with a form to record all 4 ID numbers on. I requested the form and went home and installed the card. This new card was also defective. I spent most of the evening working with Everest trying to get the card up and running. Everest decided to send out a technician the next day.
The technician arrived at my house and he personally called in and verified all of the card numbers but he was still not able to get my TiVo up and running. Without any troubleshooting the technician swore that everything was fine with the cable card and that the problem was with my TiVo. He said I should have purchased one of their DVRs and then he would have been able to help me because it is their product. After he left I was not satisfied with his service call.
I remembered from all of the customer reviews that I read about the series 3 TiVo. The problem was consistently with the cable company and not the TiVo. I pulled the card out of TiVo and personally returned it requesting a brand new one. The new one that Everest handed me was in a plastic protective sleeve with a form to record all 4 ID numbers on. I took it home and installed the new card. I called in the new ID numbers and in 30 minutes Everest had me authorized and the new cable card was decoding properly (allowing my digital and premium channels to pass through).
Do not let the cable technician mislead you. If you are not getting your digital and/or premium channels the problem is not with your TiVo. The problem is with the cable card not decoding properly.
FYI: The cable card's purpose is to block digital and premium channels. With the cable company's authorization the cards are allowed to decode your digital and premium channels and allow them to pass through to you.
Just remember the problem is not with your TiVo. The problem is with a defective cable card or that the cable card is not authorized properly by the cable company.
After the cable card nightmare, I have been totally enjoying the Series 3 TiVo. I would not want to have a TV without it. With all of the recorded programs in my "Now Playing" list there is always something that I really want to watch. I no longer have to just settle for what ever I can find on live TV. With TiVo my TV viewing is now much more productive instead of being just nothing more than a time waster. In conjunction with the Thumbs Up and the Thumbs Down that I have placed on each program that I have viewed the "TiVo Suggestions" now knows what kind of programs that I like. I now just use the "TiVo Suggestions" to select what I would like to record. Because of the Series 3 TiVo, the picture Quality has improved so much. I feel that it is so good that I can put off buying an HDTV for a long time. I'll just wait until HDTV prices are much more reasonable.
Buy the Series 3 TiVo instead of the Series 2 TiVo because the Series 3 has 300 hours recording time. You will soon fill up the 300 hours recording time.
Digital camera Review: Expensive, but worth it!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is by far the best DVR on the market! Not only will it discern your favorite types of shows, but it will (optionally) record these suggestions. It has a "season pass" feature that will guarantee that you see your favorite show, even if the time slot shifts. Easy to install, good value!!TiVo TCD648250B Series3 HD Digital Media RecorderDigital camera Review: Fabulous. Easy. Familiar. Fantastic.
Summary: 5 Stars
If you have HD, this is the unit. All the familiar features of TIVO with the incredible quality of high-definition make this the best dvr yet. If you have used TIVO before, this will be very familiar, like an old friend. If not, be prepared to fall in love.
The installation process was horrible - after five house calls by my cable compnay techs, I fired them and signed up with another provider. Not every cable company is familiar with this technology, don't support the cable cards, and have buggy installations (losing half of high def channels).
I run a wireless Microsoft router which required a call to TIVO support to enter the IP addresses. The unit will not automatically detect the internet settings to run the network. Finding the network adapter was also difficult. I finally found a store which had the TIVO brand for sale. TIVO said that third parties made compatible devices but I couldn't find them.
Now that everything is installed, TIVO is working and is far superior to the other DVR's I have seen and used. Being able to record two channels at once, expanded recording time, and the quality of high definition makes this worthwhile.