UltimateTV/TIVO

[Y2Buddy]

If you don't have it, get it. DirecTV tuner inside gives you picture in picture, dual recording, it's just awesome. The Dish came out with their own too that doesn't require a monthly charge.

I just installed it Saturday, and I think it's great. You can pause live TV for up to 30 minutes, slow motion, all that, and picture quality doesn't change. I tested out on some BB hi-lites. I can't wait for football season.

[BigMark]

There's a big camp of people that say that hard drive recording is the way of the future. While I don't think it can stand alone without more perminant media, I think it has a lot of benefits. I imagine something of a hybrid will develop much like sony's top of the line Viao computers that use the hard drive for time-shifting programming and editing, then a DVD-R/RW for perminent storage. Home Theater is really on the brink of some exciting developments.

[Y2Buddy]

I remember a couple of years ago when stocks were hot. This new break through on MarketWatch demo'd this thing called TiVo. I tried like hell to get my wife to let me buy some of that stock, but we were too afraid to jump out of the broker stocks.

Ofcourse, they have DVD recorders now, and you can transfer to VCR or DVD from the DVR. It's just still too pricey right now.

[Y2Buddy]

I woke up one day and said "WIFE, I buying UltimateTV!" She wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea, but it's been a week now and there's not a day that goes by she doesn't tell me how great it is.

You can record 1 show and watch another. You can record 2 shows at once, watch either one, or watch a previously recorded show, all at the same time. You think you would never use this feature, but say the wife wants to record one thing from 12:30 to 1:30, your show comes on at 1:00, and the kids want to watch that Disney movie again. It happens. You can pause live TV anytime for up to 30 minutes, FF back to live, or rewind back to see what you missed, including slow motion and frame by frame. You can even come home like say 1 hour after a ball game started that you had set to record, and while it's still recording, start watching it from the beginning, jump though commercials until you catch up to live tv. One touch recording and all that, options to delete when needed or save. It will automatically delete the oldest recording once it's full. So 35 hours is really quite enough. As far as picture and sound, there is ZERO difference. It's digital. It's hard to believe, but true.

Things to be aware of: You need to have 2 inputs going into the box for all the features to work. I had an extra dish that I added. I have 2 lines from the dish to the livingroom, 1 to the bedroom, and 1 to the spare room. You can't just put a spliter on the line you have, the signal is too weak. The other thing is that the menu is slow. My regular RCA receiver was pretty instant, but you have to wait a second to switch between menus. And it's understandable, it's always busy doing something. I have the $449 Sony box, but the RCA is the exact same thing for $99 at Radio Shack. I bought mine open box for $199, and it came with a $200 rebate. Yes, Sony now owes me $1 to have their box in my home. The service is an additional $10/month. The Dish I understand has one that they offer but with no monthly fee.

Oh yea, I have UltimateTV, not TiVo. I read at TiVo's web site the rate is going to $12.95. When they first came out, TiVo didn't have a tuner inside, but now they do. Plus UltTV comes with 3 hours of free WebTV a month, it's ok, nothing great, but the keyboard comes in handy with Interactive TV and search options.

ok, i'm done