Editorial Review:

Product Description:
TiVo Series2 Digital Video Recorder offers up to 80 hours of digital recording capacity. You'll never again miss your favorite shows! It's also enabled for TiVo Home Media Option - enjoy digital music & photos, remote scheduling and more. TiVo Series2 DVR works with any TV system: antenna, cable, digital cable, satellite and combinations.

Amazon.com Product Description:
Early Adopters Pick: November 2002. The only digital video recorder with a content ranking system, Season Pass program recording, and WishList program recording.

TiVo's Series2 DVR delivers more recording capacity at a lower cost and also offers the latest in networked home entertainment. TiVo DVRs record television programming directly to a digital hard drive, eliminating the hassles of videotape. The TiVo Series2 offers up to 80 hours of recording time in TiVo's small, sleek chassis (15 inches wide by 11.5 inches deep and 3 inches high).

TiVo automatically records your favorite shows.

The TiVo DVR Series2 is compatible with virtually every television available. It also works with VCRs, TV antennas, cable systems, and satellite systems. A patented remote control simplifies program recording and controls multiple TiVos within the home (two devices can share your existing phone line). Connections include three video inputs and outputs (S-video, composite-video, and RF coaxial), one set of stereo RCA analog audio inputs, and two sets of stereo audio outputs. A standard female RJ-11 telephone jack is the channel by which the Series2 accesses the TiVo service.

TiVo subscribers can pay $12.95 per month or a one-time product lifetime fee of $299. Benefits of TiVo service include, but are not limited to, Season Pass (TiVo automatically finds and records every episode of a series all season long, even if the network schedule changes); WishList (TiVo finds and records programs that feature your favorite actor, director, team, or even topic); Smart Recording (TiVo detects lineup changes for you and suggests programs to match your interests, if desired); and Showcases (exclusive entertainment plus recording shortcuts from some of the most popular networks on TV).

Now, you through your home network you can access TiVo's Home Media Features. This services provides remote scheduling capabilities from anywhere you have Internet access; MP3 streaming from your PC to your TiVo so you can listen to music through your home theater sound system; digital image viewing from your PC so that you can create slideshows on your TV; and multiroom viewing, which allows you to connect two TiVo Series2 DVRs in your home so that you can record on one and watch on another.



Accessories:
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Accessories:

• RCA RC930 Caller-ID-Compatible Wireless Modem Jack
• Monster Cable MP HTS800 Home Theater PowerCenter HTS800
• Monster Cable MVSV3-1M Monster Super Video 3 Double Shielded S-Video Cable. (3.28 ft.)
• RCA RCU810 8-Device Learning Universal Remote Control
• Sima SUR-20 8-Device LCD Touch Screen Learning Universal Remote Control

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Related Items:
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Related Items:

• TiVo AG0100 Wireless G USB Network Adapter for TiVo Series 2 and Series 3 DVRs
• TiVo TCD540040 Series2 40-Hour Digital Video Recorder
• see more

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Rating: - I love you, Tivo
You have been a trusted friend and companion for 5 years, after our first try failed. Not one mistake, mistep, fail or falter. You have been super.

Now you are worth next to nothing and I am selling you for $10 on Craigslist. Sorry. But that new HD simply rocks.

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Rating: - A Happy TIVO Owner
TIVO is one of the few discretionary electronic purchases in our home that we would absolutely replace immediately if necessary. They are expensive to purchase and if you purchase a lifetime support option, even more so. However, I would recommend this option if you can afford to purchase it since we have more than offset what monthly payments would have cost us over the years.

There are many things we like about our TIVOs. A few are the ease with which you can record (and delete) programming. Also, the many recording options that allow you to record only new programming or new and repeated programming; the ability to record programs with a specific actor, singer, producer or topic without ongoing manual intervention; and the number of programs that can be stored on the TIVO. We feel that the TIVO saves us money in the long run. Before we had TIVO, we would rent many movies during a month and now we rarely rent movies since we have a continual backlog of programming to watch on TIVO. Our daughter has a TIVO and `prerecords' entire series of programming that she considers acceptable for the children.

TIVOs are not all created equal. You can purchase independent TIVOs from TIVO itself or purchase your DVR via cable or satellite providers. Keep in mind that the ones you purchase from TIVO are full featured and will work with either cable or satellite systems. Ones purchased via third parties such as cable and satellite providers have tailored sets of features and will work only with their system. (If you move and go from one cable system to another or to satellite your DVR may have to be replaced.)

Independent TIVOs can be LAN connected and we have done so. We have one in our living room and one in our recreation room. LAN connecting of TIVOs adds a whole new dimension to their abilities. We can watch recorded programs on either TIVO while recording one program in the living room and one in the recreation room concurrently. We can transfer programs from one TIVO to another if we decide to watch the program in a different room. Since the TIVOs are on the LAN, they can access the photo libraries on our PC. As photos are downloaded to the PC they are immediately available for slide shows on the TV.

We have had several occasions to use TIVO's customer support. We feel that their support has been excellent. In most cases, our problem was resolved on the first call and their support people have been very helpful.

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Rating: - Get it, use it, love it, live it....
I could never leave the house again, thanks to my TIVO, they are upgradeable, and have the BEST program guide/interface of anyone. There Tivo to go is very glitchy at this point, but the TIVO service itself is top notch, I am about to get my 3rd tivo box. The two I have, this and another have acted flaky occasionaly, but it was usually assosiated with one of there updates. It is slower recently, but still very useable. The only hardware issues I have either fixed themself or on one occasion I realized that I was baking my tivo in my entertainment center(oven) it needs room to breathe, especially if you have a crappy comcast cable box near it, the two create a lot of heat, just make sure its not enclosed or near a heat vent. Overall it will change your life, and how you watch tv. A lot of the problems people have had in a lot of these reviews is due to not knowing how to use the box, read the directions carefully.

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Rating: - Owned it for 2 years now... LOVE IT !
In 2 years we have had no problems at all with the TiVO box itself (80 hrs version), and the remote is still in excellent shape, which is really surprising considering the very, very heavy daily use of some of its buttons.

I started updating the programming over the phone line, but now I am doing it over my wireless LAN with an adapter. I read a comment about this not working for a user after testing 3 adapter models, but I am guessing that he did not notice that Tivo requires a VERY specific adapter model (e.g. "Netgear WG111* -- Only serial numbers starting with WG72.").
I bought the then obsolete adapter from eBay, and no problem !

The only complain I have, is that the latest software upgrades have somewhat slowed down the response, and I have also noticed that the connection to the wireless LAN is lost sometimes lost, and need to reboot Tivo to restore connection to the LAN.

But all these are minor faults on a great product. My family can not imagine TV without Tivo !
We love it so much we are not switching to HDTV until Tivo figures out a way to offer Tivo in High Definition, to support bigger screens with HDTV.

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Rating: - Tivo -- the good, the bad, but mostly the good. :)
We've had our TiVo Series 2 DVR for nearly three years (hard to imagine it's been that long but there you have it). For the most part, we've loved it. We're spoiled with pausing live TV, we love the season pass capability, and we love the wish lists. We've had no problem with picture quality or the operation of the TiVo, which is well loved by my hubby, my three teenagers, and myself. The customer service is awesome, and I love the little TiVo guy.

However, there are two things that frustrate me.

1) Changing channels. Because our TiVo is hooked up to cable, it uses infrared sensors for the TiVo to talk to the cable box. Sometimes sunlight (or aliens or something) interferes with the signal and it won't change the channel. So I'll THINK I'm recording the Daily Show, and inadvertantly get Animal Planet, because that was the channel my kids were watching; or worse, I'll get MTV -- yikes. Very frustrating, to say the least. We made a little house to put over the IR sensors to block extraneous light, and it still does it. It happens very rarely, but usually at the worst possible time, and isn't that always the way? To my knowledge there is no better direct way to get TiVo to talk to the cable box, so we're stuck with it.

2) Our TiVo, because it's hooked to cable, is not dual tuning capable. I realize this isn't a TiVo issue but a cable issue, but it's still frustrating. I plan on switching to DirecTivo service when dual tuners are available via promotion.

But those are minor problems compared with the wonderfulness that is TiVo. It was the best $300 we ever spent, although I can't wait for dual tuners.