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Philips HDR112 Tivo Digital Video Recorder

Philips HDR112 Tivo Digital Video Recorder

List Price: $299.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: What a horrible experience
Review: I bought the Tivo system about a month ago. Unfortunately, they do not have the correct line up for my cable provider. Without the right guide, the machine worthless. I have talked with them over 20 times and all I get are broken promises. Providing the programming is what they are supposed to do, but they simply will not take the time to do their job. I am very unhappy.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Very Nice First Generation Product
Review: I bought the TiVo about a month ago, and it has been great. I have DirecTV with all of the movie channels. The installation went smoothly, but it did take 3+ hours. After TiVo connected and downloaded the channel information, it took about 3 hours to grind on doing whatever it does during install, indexing and what not. No user intervention was required for that part, so I just left and came back later, checking up on it every hour or so.

Daily operation is pretty darn easy. It's so nice to have a list of shows that you like stored on the hard disk ready to watch at your leisure. It also changes the way that you watch live TV. It's great to be able to pause the movie channels when the phone rings or the popcorn bag runs dry. I don't seem to use the instant replay much. The button on the remote is too small and unless you watch the TV with the remote poised on your hand, the reply button is not of much use.

The other two things that bother me in an otherwise outstanding product are: 1) You can tell it's hooked to a computer. From the FAQ I learned that it is a Linux box, I would be interested in what processor it is using because sometimes it can be slooow. Sometimes when I'm watching live TV, the onscreen guide will pause up to 15 seconds or more (sometimes over a minute). Most of the time this works fine. Hopefully this is a bug in their indexing system that they'll address soon. Sometimes the UI in other parts of the system are slow as well. Too bad they didn't cache the UI in RAM so it could be quicker. It's just like watching an over loaded Windows system page out for more RAM. And people thought Linux would be better. : )

2) Changing channels in live TV is slow. Especially if you revert to your DSS remote for pay-per-view. There is at least a one second lag time between the time that you press the button and the time that you see the response.

Other than that, I really love this box. My wife said to me the other night, "while I don't like to encourage you constant buying of gadgets, this one is great, it really works".

I'm also very curious as to how the upgrades are going to work. Hard disks keep getting cheaper, and it would be nice to take advantage of that.

-mike

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Ummmm.....amazing.
Review: Fabulous use of technology. No longer do I sit and surf. Also combines effortlessly my cable inputs and my satellite imputs. No more switching between TV/Video in order to tune into cable or satellite. If I want cable channel 8, I just type 8. If I want Discovery Channel, I just type 278. Amazing!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Ground breaking product
Review: This is simply the coolest gadget I've ever owned. It works as advertised, and the overall quality of the hardware, as well as the user interface is teriffic. I'm very impressed that it works as well as it does, given that it is a first generation release. Get one of these if you're busy and have trouble catching your favorite shows - I'll never go back to plain old TV.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This will change the way you watch TV!
Review: I have had my unit for a week and it is awesome. Between the shows I choose to record and the ones that it records for me (using my likes and dislikes) I always have something to watch on TV. Tivo is easy to use and easy to setup. I had my unit setup and ready to go in no time at all.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fabulous for Remote Surveillance
Review: Connect it to a A1(a) recorder controller and it records everything in view of your camera when motion is detected. Great for babysitter monitor, home protection, property protection, pilfering detection etc. Get an A1(a)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: It will change the way you watch television
Review: Don't think of it as a VCR, think of it as a personal broadcast network that only broadcasts the shows you like, only when you want, and without commercials.

I've had one since June and it's rendered every other TV in the house obsolete.

With TiVo's current $50 off recommendation from existing TiVo owners through November, it's an especially good bargain.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: TiVo will change the way you enjoy media FOREVER!
Review: I own the 14 hour TiVo and never cease to be amazed at how much it has affected me...not only my tv viewing habits (which means that I watch the program WHEN I WANT TO, not when it is broadcast) but it also has raised my expectations for all other media. When I listen to the radio I keep wanting to hit rewind...

This product is truly a revolutionary tool, and I can no longer imagine television without it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: It changes your life
Review: I have never had a gadget which so changed my life. I never want to watch live TV again. When I turn my TV on there is always something I want to watch in the TIVO. I can't beleive I lived without this.

The collborative filtering (thumb's up and thumb's down) makes it get better over time. It actually records shows I didn't ask for and I like them.

All that and TIVO keep making it better with automatic software updates.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Service Difficulties lead me to recommend Replay over Tivo.
Review: DVR's are great. I have 3 -- 2 Replays and a Tivo. I highly recommend them over VCR's for all the reasons you read in all the reviews. They also work quite well with few glitches, so I hadn't had much chance to test their tech support, until recently.

My Tivo unit is not properly contacting the server to download the program directory. This has been going on for over 2 weeks, so now my unit won't record at all. Tivo support lines have 30 min+ waits to get through. Online support is very limited. Upon getting thru to the first Tivo number, finally, they sent me to a second Philips number, and they were closed, with limited business hours. It would be one thing if this were just bad out-of-warranty hardware support, we're all used to that. However, Tivo is charging $12/month for the directory service and to not be willing to even take my call on it is frustrating.

I've had no problems with 2 Replay TV units, which I've owned longer, and would recommend them over Tivo. Functionally, the units are essentially the same -- Tivo's slightly easier to use but Replay is slightly more flexible. My next unit will be another Replay.


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