| Good Riddance Tivo has the slowest STBs in existence today. On my DirecTV DVR, when you press the Guide button, it takes a good 3-4 seconds before it fills the guide in. And don't tell me I should use the "Tivo" guide, because I don't like that one. My old standard receivers were much quicker, and had a much nicer interface. Aside from the cool animated backgrounds on the full-screen menus, Tivo's interface is butt-ugly.
The only reason I put up with them is because it's the only integrated DVR solution for DirecTV, for now. I personally can't wait for DirecTV to come out with their new DVRs, so I can kick my Tivos to the curb. |
wierdo
join:2001-02-16
Tulsa, OK Reviews:
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| Supposedly, the 6.1 software rolling out soon has some changes to the guide database that speed up both the TiVo guide and the DirecTV guide.
That said, what on earth are you doing watching live TV? I find a grid type guide appropriate for figuring out what to watch now, or perhaps in 30 minutes, but for browsing what's on in the next few days, the TiVo style guide is much better. Far better than that, of course, are wishlists, so the TiVo records everything you're interested in anyway. Strategic use of the "keep at most" setting prevents wide-ranging wishlists from taking up too much of your disk space.
For people who do not like the TiVo way of doing things, preferring to watch television conventionally other DVRs will likely be much more satisfactory. For people who embrace the TiVo way of watching TV, there really is no need for such a gridded guide. The unfortunate aspect, of course, is that when you use the wishlist feature extensively, and use the thumbs up and down buttons appropriately, using a DVR is very much a letdown. TiVo is a PVR, most other similar products are DVRs. There's a reason why TiVo uses that term.
DirecTiVo probably isn't going away as soon as many seem to think, either. Posts on other forums have indicated that DirecTV is seriously considering rolling out a "better" multi-room viewing, which will use the satellite coax to transfer shows between multiple TiVos. Regardless of that occurring, I would be surprised if an MPEG-4 compatible HDTivo isn't in the works. DirecTV has long stated that they will have both the new DVRs and the TiVo for some time. Everything points to the NDS DVR being the cheap or free option going forward, while the TiVo hardware will become the "premium" receiver option.
Whether that ends up working out favorably for TiVo is anybody's guess, although thus far TiVo doesn't seem to have had much trouble getting people to pay small sums for their boxes, although they do seem to have more difficulty enticing people into paying more than $200 for their units. |
