Rating: 
Summary: A Great Tool!
Review: TivVo definitely enhances the television viewing experience. No longer must one sit down and simply watch what is on, you can view what you like, when you like. TiVo is really a personal computer and it stores all data on an internal hard drive. Each night it dials in for program and channel updates. You tell it what to get and it does it! It will record one showing or the entire season of a show. So, after it starts working, it is generally full of the shows you like and you can watch them as you like.The unit we received was well packaged and installed easily. The entire process for installation is a bit long as the unit dials in to get software and television listings for the first time. Subsequent updates are quick and seldom noticed. The software is easy to navigate and understand. The documentation is adequate. We've needed to interact very little with support (TiVo) and found them to be friendly and useful. The Processor seems a bit slow at times. When it is recording and one uses the remote (the only way to communicate with the box) there are occasional delays in all areas of the software, even those, such as accessing a show's details that do not require the database to reshuffle. Database reshuffling, such as when one reorders a lengthy Season Pass list can be excessive. However, this is rarely done and it is the simple requests that go unanswered by the box that can be a tad annoying. In reference to the complaints made by "An electronics fan from San Francisco, CA" regarding TiVo incorrectly selecting channels from the receiver (cable box), we ran into this as well. However, going through the cable box set up and carefully selecting a controller and speed alleviated this issue entirely. The cause of the problem in our case was my haste running through setup and selecting the cable box settings. In reference to issues raised regarding recording one show and watching another that is currently broadcast, though it is true TiVo has no prevision for this, there are simple workarounds with cable switches and dual source televisions as most are today. In reference to the remove, it is true that the buttons are arranged so that those for moving down a list or paging down a list are not near one another and some other slight annoyances. These are quickly forgotten as one gets used to the remote. It also lacks controls for most other components (VCR, Surround Sound, DVD . . .) so you'll still need to keep the other remotes on the table. Despite the minor flaws, and what product does not have some, TiVo is a wonderful addition to our wall of electronic gizmos. It is highly recommended and gets a full complement of stars from me! The convenience of it is wonderful and it changes the way one watches TV entirely!
Rating: 
Summary: SVR-2000 A Big Disappointment for this Sony Fan
Review: Every TV and component in my home is from Sony so I was both surprised and disappointed by the poor quality of the SVR-2000. After just five weeks the unit locked up and would not function. When I called Sony for assistance the support representative basically said to bad and I have since had to pay to ship the unit to their repair center. When the unit was functioning I enjoyed the TiVO service but the Sony SVR-2000 was slow to react to the remote control and I found the lack of a 30 Sec commercial skip feature to be a real pain as you must fast forward to skip often missing the re-start. Overall based on the poor quality, poor ease of use and the even worse customer support, I can not recommend this product. Try the Philips....
Rating: 
Summary: D.O.A. dead on arrival
Review: This is not so much a review of the Sony SVR-2000 as it is of Sony. I bought a SVR-2000 and began the setup. When the unit was powered on the first screen of the setup opened and then stopped dead. I powered it off and restarted with the same result. The manual had no real help at all for this symptom but referred me to the Sony web site and phone service number. The Web site had nothing of use to this problem so I called the service number. After working through the menu to get to the point where I needed a service technician I got elevator music. Lots of elevator music. It was about 45 minutes before a person came on line. After explaining the problem he said there was no way to fix the problem locally. I would have to mail the unit to Boston with me paying the postage on this 12 hour old unit. I contacted the retail outlet for a replacement unit. They did not have any working units in stock. The only units they had were other failed units that had been returned. I got a full refund. I love the idea of TiVo but think I will go to someone other than Sony for my unit.
Rating:
Summary: Love TiVo, Sony not so much....
Review: My husband bought me the Sony TiVo unit for Christmas after we had been wanting this for a long time. Set up was a bit tricky, especially since the access card that came with the unit was somehow flawed, as was the phone line connector they included. Then we had to wait for Directv to send us another card. Also, since we wanted the "Dual Tuner" capability ( TiVo is not really that useful unless you HAVE that ability... lets you watch LIVE tv while recording something else, otherwise you can only watch something you have already recorded while recording live tv....) we had to have an installer come out to set up the lines from our satellite dish to the new unit. Sony never responded to my husband's complaint about the flawed access card and phone connector in the unit we bought. I have read other complaints about Sony here so this seems par for the course. The unit is very nice looking, and TiVo itself is VERY cool. My biggest complaint though is the remote for this unit. It is HORRIBLE! There is no possible way that anybody at Sony even considered having a real person try out this remote design. It is VERY difficult to manage. The battery end is bulky and heavy, but the front end is thin and light making this thing unbalanced in your hand and more difficult to maneuver. They also made it wide across the middle instead of narrow, so it's even harder to hold. You have to hold it at the bottom end because of the weight, but the buttons you use most are at the top, and are TINY. I just find the whole remote hard to manage. Bottom line, love TiVo service, but think Sony and their design folks need some help.
Rating:
Summary: TiVo is amazing!
Review: So this will sound like many of the other reviews on here... but TiVo is truly amazing. I have not watched live TV since I purchased it and am annoyed when I go places and cannot control the TV like I can at home. I mainly use the following TiVo functionalities: pause live TV, set season passes to watch old re-runs of shows like Friends & Seinfeld, and search for movies with the onscreen programming guide. The onscreen "TiVolution Magazine" is a neat feature that provides suggestions (weekly highlights) for you to tape -- which is different from "TiVo's suggestions" which provides personalized suggestions based on your thumbs-up & thumbs-down reviews. I have temporarily turned-off the functionality to tape shows TiVo suggests because I thought it took up extra space and wasn't always totally accurate. Regardless, the box is a dream thus far. I've owned the box for about a month now after jealously seeing it at friends' places... I have not had any problems at all with the box. The installation was simple. The online activation was even easier. It's a bit misleading saying its a 30 hour box... because you would never leave it on the setting for this. I leave mine on "Medium" and get 19 hours at a very good quality. Folks, buy TiVo. You WILL NOT regret it.
Rating:
Summary: Great in "Concept", but too expensive relative to performanc
Review: I love this product "in concept", but have been extremely frustrated by it's inconsistency in doing what's it's supposed to do and the poor support behind it. It's a Sony product, but the service (and the monthly (dollar amount) charge) is with Tivo. When you call Tivo about a problem with the machine they refer you to Sony. Sony makes an effort to help, but they can't effect the (dollar amount) monthly charge that hits your credit card every month. The main problem happens between the Sony PVR and the set-top box. In order to record a show the Sony PVR must change the channel and make sure that it is recording from the right channel. It seems to get this right 50% of them time, which means half the time when it tells us it has recorded a specific channel it has actually recorded something else, thinking it's on the right channel. I have called several times and all that Sony can tell is to try different codes for the remote control, which I have, but the problem continues. This would be frustrating enough if I just had to deal with the purchase price of the unit, but I am also being charged (dollar amount) every month. This is a rip off. If they want to charge me then they should provide some level of insurance that the unit actually performs as it is supposed to. I wouldn't recommend buying this until they make it work better or remove the monthly service charge.
Rating:
Summary: Better than a VCR
Review: I love my TIVO, but if I had to pick one thing I didn't like about it, it would be that if you have a cable box, you can only watch one thing at a time. Unless you have pip and know how to connect the cable properly. Only with the DirectTV Tivo system, can you record 2 different shows at a time.
Rating:
Summary: A Rough Start, But Sony & Tivo Came Through
Review: I bought a SONY SVR-2000 as a Father's Day present for my husband in June 2001 and set up yearly Tivo service. At first, we were very disappointed. We experienced recurring modem problems that rendered our recorder useless after two weeks (because the recorder was unable to update the program data) and had to have the recorder serviced twice within the first two months. In addition, we had paid for a year of service, and we did not think that Tivo would give us credit for any of our 'down time,' since it was due to SONY's recorder. But SONY and Tivo came through for us. In August, SONY offered to replace our SVR2000, and we accepted. We have had absolutely no problems with the new unit. Also, Tivo refunded the money we paid for the amount of time our recorder was out of commission. (I did not have to fight either company; both were great about setting things right.) So, after a rough start, we are very happy SONY/Tivo customers. I bought Tivo thinking that I was purchasing an electronic 'toy' that my husband would love and that I would have no interest in. Once I experienced Tivo, however, I loved it too. Just as I would never go to back to changing the channel manually (remember having to get up and turn those knobs?), I would never go back to pre-Tivo TV.
Rating:
Summary: Get for everyone you know
Review: Best Product I own! Changes the way you watch TV.
Rating:
Summary: I love my TiVo!
Review: My wife and I became addicted to TiVo within 1 month after installing it. We have gone from watching 90% live TV/10% recorded (VCR) to 90% Tivo/10% live TV! We hardly watch anything anymore at its regular time. We simply pull up the "Now Playing" menu, which lists all the shows I have previously recorded, and watch whatever we're in the mood for - drama (Law and Order or Once and Again), comedy (Friends, South Park), reality TV (Survivor, Fear Factor), or sports (Illinois basketball, cliff diving).
There are so many cool things about TiVo, but these are my THREE FAVORITE things:
1) Season Pass, which once you set it up, allows you to record a particular show EVERY time it's on or all shows with a particular actor or subject,
2) Easy to record (simply choose the show, not the time and channel) and easy to find and play (scroll through "Now Playing" list of prerecorded shows and choose "Select" to play),
3) Record two shows at once (like Survivor and Friends, which both start at 8:00 on Thursday) with a DirecTV/TiVo combination receiver, which we have.
We started with the monthly subscription and moved to the lifetime after just a month (it's good for the life of the box, not you). We have a Sony model, and I've found Sony to always be reliable (two TVs, one VCR). I bought a 4-year warranty as a safety precaution (new technology and insurance against the lifetime subscription). DirecTV customer service is decent, but not great (they handle the TiVo side as well). The BEST resource for TiVo is the TiVo AVS forum, which you can link to from the Buzz section of the TiVo Web site. It's a "must read" prior to buying this unit. But I am not exaggerating when I say that this is the coolest, most liberating invention to come out since the World Wide Web. No joke! You will fall in love with your TiVo too.
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