Question about 40 Hour Tivo Box

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chargeup45

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I'm thinking about picking up a subscription to Tivo along with a 40 hour Tivo box. There's a deal on tivo.com that gives you both for 200 dollars, not that bad (its for my parents, who dont have a deal that gives them a cheaper DVR option). I checked out some comparisons between the boxes, and it notes that the 40 hour box is good for people who dont mind recording at the low quality.

So basically my question is this: they have a 27 inch regular definition TV, are they going to notice any drop in quality on their TV?
 
[quote name='chargeup45']I'm thinking about picking up a subscription to Tivo along with a 40 hour Tivo box. There's a deal on tivo.com that gives you both for 200 dollars, not that bad (its for my parents, who dont have a deal that gives them a cheaper DVR option). I checked out some comparisons between the boxes, and it notes that the 40 hour box is good for people who dont mind recording at the low quality.

So basically my question is this: they have a 27 inch regular definition TV, are they going to notice any drop in quality on their TV?[/QUOTE]

no. just output from tivo box to tv via s video and it will be all good. if you output using coax or composite (yellow, red or white) then maybe.
 
[quote name='gaelan']no. just output from tivo box to tv via s video and it will be all good. if you output using coax or composite (yellow, red or white) then maybe.[/QUOTE]

Thanks... they have composite, but if it becomes an issue, I'll just buy an S-video cable.
 
yes picture issue becomes a problem. It begain very grainie once you get down to the 3rd best save system... 40 hour tv really = 16 hours of real tv picture
 
Less actually. 11.5 hours of recording time at Best Quality.
I usually record at High Quality (18 hours) and while you can see some pixelization, it's really not that bad. I'm using S-Video as well.
 
i record at medium...no problem. now you can transfer shows off you hdd onto your networked pc and back again when you want to watch it. basically it gives you an alternative storage method instead of opening your tivo and adding a hdd.
 
There are four recording modes on standalone Tivos (Directivos only have one recording mode):

Best
High
Medium
Basic

Think of it like this: the better the recording mode, the lower the compression, thus, the more space the program takes up on the Tivo hard drive. The picture is fairly crummy on basic. I generally record at Medium, though things with a lot of movement and/or explosions get recorded at High or Best.

Then again, I have 177 hours of recording time on my Tivo, so I'm not that strapped for space and don't think about it much.

Having a 40 hour Tivo is better than no Tivo.
 
I have a 40-hour Tivo, and I record mainly on High. I never really notice any image quality problems and I hardly ever run out of space. As long as your parents don't try to use the Tivo to permanently store a lot of stuff, I expect they should be fine.
 
Thanks for all the help... the Tivo-to-Go thing will be clutch. I've been bothering my parents to set up cable in my room so I can use my PC for DVR, but now I wont have to. I'll go for the 40 hour box and see what happens, since its only 50 bucks, not a big deal if they want to upgrade.
 
[quote name='yeah-yeah']There are four recording modes on standalone Tivos (Directivos only have one recording mode):

Best
High
Medium
Basic

Think of it like this: the better the recording mode, the lower the compression, thus, the more space the program takes up on the Tivo hard drive. The picture is fairly crummy on basic. I generally record at Medium, though things with a lot of movement and/or explosions get recorded at High or Best.

Then again, I have 177 hours of recording time on my Tivo, so I'm not that strapped for space and don't think about it much.

Having a 40 hour Tivo is better than no Tivo.[/QUOTE]


how big of a hard drive (time wise) TIVO do you have.. i never heard of one that could hold 177 hours.. biggest one i seen was the 80 hour

i will never go back to TIVO now i have comcast DVR
 
op don't forget to factor in the service charge for tivo. i got the lifetime subscription which was like $300. slidecage does comcast allow you to own the dvr or do you rent it for a monthly charge of like $10 of something? i'm interested in their pricing structure.

how many tuners does it have and does it support hd recordings?
 
Honestly, for $200, switch to satellite and use their DVR for free. You get the box free AR and the Tivo service is $5/month. That, and you get a higher level of integration. I have a 250GB HD Tivo and it looks awesome.
 
[quote name='slidecage']how big of a hard drive (time wise) TIVO do you have.. i never heard of one that could hold 177 hours.. biggest one i seen was the 80 hour

i will never go back to TIVO now i have comcast DVR[/QUOTE]

I have a series 1 40 hour Tivo and added a 120 GB hard drive to it.
 
My wife and I have 3 of the directivo's (2 40's and one 80, to hold us until we find a good HD deal in the future), which dont have the quality settings, the picture is always decent on those... I paid a one time fee on my first box, and never pay anything on the newer ones... its pretty nice
 
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