Anyone here use real TiVO? Use TiVO in place of a cable DVR?

skeptic said:

Let's back up for a minute. Forget about cable vs streaming, Tivo vs. standard DVR. What are you actual requirements, what channels or shows do you want to watch, what live tv is actually required? What features and functionality are you really after?

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No, none of that is up for debate. Time Warner Cable is the only cable service I want. FiOS TV doesn't have HD for the channels I want and Dish and DirecTV will be poor service in the snow, we have no way to clean the dish of snow and heaters are unreliable.

I'm looking for feedback from anyone who is using TiVo boxes + a cable card as a replacement for multiple cable system DVRs in their own home.

BirdOPrey5 said:

I'm looking for feedback from anyone who is using TiVo boxes + a cable card as a replacement for multiple cable system DVRs in their own home.

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That's exactly what dad does - I'll see if he will type up a review for you and post it.

So you're just wanting to add TiVo (the brand) DVRs to your Time Warner Cable system?

abqtj said:

So you're just wanting to add TiVo (the brand) DVRs to your Time Warner Cable system?

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Basically, but then I give back the TWC equipment and save $60 or so a month.

BirdOPrey5 said:

No, none of that is up for debate. Time Warner Cable is the only cable service I want. FiOS TV doesn't have HD for the channels I want and Dish and DirecTV will be poor service in the snow, we have no way to clean the dish of snow and heaters are unreliable.

I'm looking for feedback from anyone who is using TiVo boxes + a cable card as a replacement for multiple cable system DVRs in their own home.

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If you want tivo, go get tivo. If you want suggestions on what may be a better setup, including sticking with your current cable company, than answer those questions. Tivo is not the only alternative DVR solution. I was quite happy with my DVR setup when I had cable, I just got tired of Cable.

BirdOPrey5 said:

Dish and DirecTV will be poor service in the snow, we have no way to clean the dish of snow and heaters are unreliable.

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Snow on the dish has never been an issue for me.

frank_c said:

Snow on the dish has never been an issue for me.

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Me neither. Nor my inlaws.

Could be the install, perhaps mine wasn't perfectly aligned or dodgy connectors that were susceptible to water, but I did have issues with DirecTV in the rain/snow.

I never have problems with snow on my DirecTV Dish either..

Why don't you turn it all off and let your mom and her husband buy what suits them?

GreenGeep said:

Why don't you turn it all off and let your mom and her husband buy what suits them?

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Mom quit her job to be my full time car taker.

So setup the TiVo today, it found the channels and did everything. Then it told me there was a critical update to install, so I let it do that. It said it should take less than an hour.

Seemed to take like 15 minutes or so it was download stuff, the loading stuff, then said it would reboot.

At that time it seemed to go dead- all lights off and no signal. It's been stuck like that for 30 minutes now.

Anyone know if that's normal?

So we had to unplug and re-plug in the TiVo and it booted, completing the upgrade.

It also took 3 calls to Time Warner to get the cable card working.

Call 1) Called the number that was on the TV Screen saying "To activate this cablecard call XXXXXXXX" I call that number it is general TWC support. Woman says it's activated but I can only get the broadcast channels. She says don't worry I'll transfer you to Cablecard support, they'll get this worked out. Great! I'm on hold about 2 minutes when I get a cryptic message "Mailbox not authorized to use voicemail. Please try again later. and hung up on.

Call 2) Explain I want to be transferred to Cablecard support and explain what just happened. Put on hold. He comes back and gives me the direct number for cablecard support, he can't transfer me because when he calls the number "they want information."

Call 3) Cablecard support- they were surprisingly efficient. Says basically if the box ever loses power or the cablecard removed I'll have to call back to get it reactivated.


But anyway TiVo is up and running. I have to say I am a bit disappointed so far. The delay before tuning in a channel is noticeable. Worse it seems more difficult to setup a series recording then the cable dvr was. I have to setup a "One Pass" and turn off a bunch of things I don't want/care about. Also, the included remote is broken, it sticks when I use TV volume and I have to take the batteries out to reset the remote about half the time I use volume. I have a better remote coming Monday which better work.

Amazon.com TiVo C00260 Roamio Slide Pro DVR Remote Electronics

Also the built in apps, YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, are all inferior to the same apps on an Amazon Fire.

Finally, and I knew this ahead of time, stupid Time Warner Caple includes the copy-protected flag on ALL cable channels so I can't copy a show to my PC.

Boo!

Sounds like quite the upgrade

DroidTV >

Mom tells me last night they don't really need 2 DVRs downstairs... one TV is barely used and it has Amazon/Netflix built in so they can watch something on it if they need to.

Had I known this before I spent $400+ plus a $15 a month, 1 year minimum TiVo service plan I never would have bothered with the change, we could have returned on of the DVRs and it would have lowered the bill a decent amount.

That said the TiVo seems to be changing channels a bit faster today, maybe it was still downloading content in the background yesterday. Going to give it another day, if no major ills will order the Tivo Mini for downstairs.

Found a better price for the TiVo Mini on eBay- TiVo Mini New Version w Roamio IR RF Remote Includes Product Lifetime Service | eBay

SO yesterday I installed the TiVo app on my phone, that's actually pretty cool. I can not only view the program guide via the phone I can change the TV to it, or even watch any program I want essentially on the phone. (It has to record the show I'm watching but it can also delete it as soon as I'm done watching if I don't want to keep it.)

And today the Slide Pro remote came in. It was a PITA to find the instructions for the "Learning Functions" they don't bother to put the instructions in the manual. They say go to their support site for instructions but there is no obvious link and the general search produces nothing of relevance. Worse it seems they recently changed their support URLs and none of the old URLs forward to the new locations so if you find a link from a year or two ago in a forum they're all useless.

Finally found the "Learning" instructions only to find out only 4 buttons can actually "learn" - the TV Power, Input, Vol. and Mute. So my hope of teaching the TiVo Slide Pro unique buttons of my Sony TV remote have been dashed. The remote has over 60 buttns and only 4 can learn. :faceplam:

Instructions for anyone looking: http://support.tivo.com/articles/Features_Use/How-to-Use-the-Learning-Feature-of-TiVo-Learning-Remotes

OK... So July 9th Time Warner picked up the 3 DVR boxes and remotes, the person I spoke to earlier said once picked up they would automatically come off my account, I would automatically stop being charged, and even by some magic I would automatically get the 'HD Pass' I was paying for in a DVR+HD Pass discount package at the regular price.

I believed the first two but not the last part, but whatever, had to let it play out.

My invoice gets generated on the 17th (really the 18th) so I waited and checked July 18th and to my surprise the bill was exactly the same as the month before plus $6.50 for the added cable card.

I waited until yesterday to cal because in my experience the weekend shift are the lesser qualified people.

The woman I spoke to on Monday was nice enough, she saw it was their fault and apologized- said no one ever closed out the order so it didn't take the boxes off my account. Then when she did close out the order for some reason it took everything off my account except a "Starter TV" package. So she had to add everything back. Basically the Premier Package + Variety Pass + HD Pass. When all was said and done she said my new recurring monthly bill will be... $96. That is down from $186 when I started this- or roughly $1080 a year I'm not paying TWC. Now, I am paying $15 a month to TiVo but that's still a net savings of $900 a year which means I'll pay for the money I laid out to buy the TiVo Roamio and TiVo Mini in about 6 months.

Oh... My Time Warner account may go up $8 more a month because despite me telling the woman on the phone 2 or 3 times I also got "HD Pass" it's no longer listed on my current services... BUT... It's been over 24 hours and I haven't lost any of those channels so who knows, maybe HD Pass isn't even a thing anymore.

Should it go out I can add it easily back myself right on the website.

That's a good savings, now more beer money!