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MeInDallas
join:2001-08-17
Dallas, TX

MeInDallas to newsmark

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Re: [TWC] Dallas/Ft Worth Metro Vol II -- Time Warner

I just went "Tivo free" as of January. Had been a long time customer and user of Tivo since back to 2001. Tivo's actually used to be really great. If you can get a used Tivo HD (TCD652160) model off Ebay then it should work really good for you, but the new Premiere models are horrible. The software is so sloppy and buggy. This past year I spent loads of money on Tivo's only to end up selling them all on Ebay at a loss.

The bad thing about Tivo is they are more concerned about all the little apps or bloatware that comes on the Tivo, like Netflix and Hulu, and they arent concerned with the basic reliability of the unit. Everytime an issue comes about, they always without fail, blame the cable company, even though you have narrowed it down to the Tivo unit. Their response always seems to be "Oh it cant be the Tivo" and it gets old so fast. Even after the cable company comes out and tests everything and even goes as far as to replace all the wiring in your house.

The one major bug I had such as issue with here in the Dallas area, was that there is some sort of conflict with the Tivo software and the cable card and tuning adapter. If you ever go to the Tivocommunity website we call it the "lost channel syndrome". What happens is you will be watching TV or recording shows or both, and all of a sudden you with get a frozen screen or a "splash" of pixelation across the screen, and then it goes blank. At that point you cant tune any channels and you get a message on the Tivo that you need to contact the cable company because the channel is not authorized, or it just says "channel not found" on all the channels. The only way to fix it is to just reboot the Tivo which takes about 8 minutes. You usually end up with a bunch of partial recordings. Now this can happen every few hours, or as soon as every 5 minutes. It gets extremely annoying when trying to watch primetime TV and youre missing all your shows. Since January of 2012 Tivo acted like they had no clue why this was happening and they sent me new boxes several times, and then after a few months they just started blaming the cable over and over, and then left me out to dry. Finally around October Tivo announces they know about the issue and admits there is a problem and they are "looking into it" but theres still no fix for it. The 4 tuner Tivo's, run far far away from them and dont ever look back. One thing I hate about Tivo is they only release major updates like 2 or 3 times a year if youre lucky. Its not like a Windows PC and you get updates all the time.

Needless to say I got so sick of it and cancelled all my Tivos the end of the year. Back in November I had heard about the Ceton 4 tuner cards and built my first HTPC. Now this is what Tivo wishes it was, and is everything Tivo always wanted to be. These things work like a dream here in the Dallas area, and I never miss any of my shows, and everything records exactly like it should. You know what the best thing about building an HTPC with a Ceton card? No monthly subscription fees NONE! They work like a dream with the cable card and tuning adapter as well. Also Ceton is soon to be coming out with a new 6 tuner card. When, I dont know but it is being talked about and its in the beta stages. I really do love my HTPC with the Ceton card and the picture quality is just amazing.

I used to be such a huge fan of Tivo, but now when I hear their name or see someone talk about them, I really seriously want to go throw up after all I went thru with them. It is really a horror story, and if you live in the Dallas area, and are on Time Warner cable, all I can tell you is stay away stay away and run the other way as fast as you can. Now if you ask me about Ceton, I'll sit here and sing like a canary all day long the most beautiful music you ever heard.

I'm sure someone will come in behind me and say the exact opposite, because Tivo fans are hardcore and they hate to hear someone knock their boxes, but when I see someone about to bite the Tivo bullet, and get sucked in and about to go thru the worst horror of their lives, I really have to speak up. All I can say is run the other way and look at other options.