TiVo Community Forums Archives - A few thoughts after a week of use...

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A few thoughts after a week of use...
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Posted by: mcbrowne

1. My kingdom for a second tuner. I really would like to be able to record something and do the live TV tricks at the same time. I'm half-considering buying a second unit without a service subscription just to do the tricks! (Yeah, a second tuner probably isn't in the cards. A TiVo box is probably too pricey compared to a VCR as it is...)

2. Adjustable live cache. I've read about environment variables that hackers have found... but I'd really like an easier way to increase the cache to an hour or more.

3. Better searching and no duplicate recordings. Yay 2.0... ;-)

4. An approved upgrade path. As much as I'd love to drop a second drive in, I'm really not sure that I'd want to void my warranty... or break something in the future.

Posted by: ILoveMyTiVo

Looks like you have been reading the forums and are aware of future features, etc. So I don't really have anything useful to add, but since this is your first post:

Welcome to the TiVolution and the forum http://www.avsforum.com/ubbtivo/biggrin.gif

Posted by: Howellr

How about the ability to set a different default recording speed for Tivo's suggestions?

I'd like to default my recording to high, and Tivo's to medium.

Posted by: robertwallace

I haven't had mine a week yet -- mine's still going through the guided setup.

This might be a minor thing, but what impressed me most when I opened the TiVo container (Sony) was the extreme number of supplied cables! Next most impressive was the relative quality of each one. Far and away the best supplied cables in any consumer electronics device I've ever purchased.

I usually toss supplied cables (paper-thin A/V cables; flimsy S-Video cables), but I'm using these.

Robert

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If at first you don't suxcede, uh sucseeed... ahhhh forget it!

Posted by: mcbrowne

OK, more usage brings more ideas...

5. A "goto" function. I'd really prefer not to fastforward through an hour of program, even if it only takes a few minutes.

6. Can I repeat my desire for an approved upgrade path? ;-)

[This message has been edited by mcbrowne (edited 09-22-2000).]

Posted by: JimVerduin

I completely agree with the <robertwallace> post above, in relation to the supplied cables in the Sony!

The day after I got my Sony, I was telling some friends how amazed I was at the number and quality of the cables. They thought I was exaggerating, till I showed them.

I have since convinced three of them to get a Tivo and pointed them all to the AVS forum. Go Tivo!

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Jim Verduin
verduinj@yahoo.com

Posted by: Dr. Zed

My comments on your comments:

Second tuner. Yes! Actually, I do see great potential for this in the future. In fact, the DirecTiVo will have two tuners (although the second tuner will not be supported initially; that requires software development), so I wouldn't rule out the idea.

As components get cheaper and, more importantly, as they expand their customer base, they will be able to lower costs enough to be able to add such things.

Live cache. I agree here too. Personally, I wouldn't mind if you could lower the quality to get more space. However, it was done, it would be nice. Mind you, I don't watch live TV and really don't care about the cache. I'm just agreeing that people would want it so it would be worth while.

An approved upgrade path.... it isn't really feasable. We live in a disposable society. It's almost always more profitable to simply have people discard the old for the new rather than having an upgrade path. While I agree it would be nice, I personally don't see it. Plus, with the existance of the underground, they don't really have a need to do such a thing. They would take on a lot of liability, for very little gain. As it is now, you can upgrade and they don't have to deal with it.

Goto function.... my suggestion in the past was to change the "jump to end" button into a "jump to the next white dash (15 minute mark)". However that would be more work for people who want to jump to the end. The numbers are an obvious choice for jumping, so I guess they could do something similar to the replay with a "numbers"+"jump to end", so that (1)+(3)+(0)+(-> ) would jump to 1:30.

Repeated desire for an approved upgrade path.... remember that TiVo doesn't make the hardware. Such an endevor would probably require cooperation with Philips and Sony.

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"It's like living in the future."™

[This message has been edited by an infinite number of monkeys (edited 10-24-2000).]

Posted by: Dan203

quote:
Originally posted by mcbrowne:
4. An approved upgrade path. As much as I'd love to drop a second drive in, I'm really not sure that I'd want to void my warranty... or break something in the future.

See http://www.avsforum.com/ubbtivo/Forum4/HTML/000475.html

Dan

Posted by: goldman

Wow.

Things I'd like to see different:

Return to beginning of show.

Allow you to have a season pass record on all but the conflicted days.

Search by day showing data on the next showing, and then a button to allow you to jump to the next showing of the Title. That way, I could look for the specific episode that I want to record.

Allow you to change the recording quality of a scheduled show after the show has been added to the todo list.

One-wire ( http://www.ibutton.com/ ) connector. Pass the internal temp of the unit out. That way I can have my TINI web server show the outside weather conditions, the inside weather conditions, and the electronics' weather conditions.

And that's my list after just a few days!

Posted by: doug M

quote:
Originally posted by goldman:
Return to beginning of show.

Hit the ->| button twice. Though that doesn't work for the "live tv" buffer.

quote:

<all the others>

Look for "2.0" in the FAQ. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. http://www.avsforum.com/ubbtivo/smile.gif

Welcome to TiVo!

Posted by: Knightbird

quote:
Originally posted by robertwallace:
This might be a minor thing, but what impressed me most when I opened the TiVo container (Sony) was the extreme number of supplied cables! Next most impressive was the relative quality of each one. Far and away the best supplied cables in any consumer electronics device I've ever purchased.

I usually toss supplied cables (paper-thin A/V cables; flimsy S-Video cables), but I'm using these.
[/B]

Yeah, me too.. I don't use the highest quality cables on the market, but I do use good quality cables and the ones that accompany my TiVo are good quality cables indeed. Granted, I found a good source of some slightly higher quality cables, so I'm using them where I can - but I feel no urgent need to replace these. They're designed to carry a signal the distance.

[This message has been edited by Knightbird (edited 09-23-2000).]

Posted by: mcbrowne

quote:
Originally posted by Dr. Zed:

An approved upgrade path.... it isn't really feasible. We live in a disposable society. It's almost always more profitable to simply have people discard the old for the new rather than having an upgrade path. While I agree it would be nice, I personally don't see it. Plus, with the existence of the underground, they don't really have a need to do such a thing. They would take on a lot of liability, for very little gain. As it is now, you can upgrade and they don't have to deal with it.

...

Repeated desire for an approved upgrade path.... remember that TiVo doesn't make the hardware. Such an endeavor would probably require cooperation with Philips and Sony.

Oh, I agree, we're not going to see an approved upgrade path... it wouldn't benefit any of the parties involved. Philips and Sony would love to sell me another box, and TiVo would love to sell me another lifetime subscription.

I'm unlikely to try to modify my TiVo until the underground figures out how to pull videos out of the box. I suspect it's a matter of time, and if there is going to be a hacking crackdown, that's when it's going to happen... (Perhaps, I'm just being paranoid, but...)

As for "goto", I'd love to have a number-based goto... but I'd even settle for skip ahead 15 minutes. I've been recording a lot of the Olympics... and although fast forwarding 3 hours doesn't take as long as you might think, it takes longer than I'd like!

Posted by: LiberalArtsGal

I'm another newbie, with one week of TiVo ownership under my belt. (Does that make me an orange belt?) Here's my list of things that have occurred to me as "Wouldn't it be nice if..." (Trying to hit things I haven't seen mentioned):

1) List the "star" rating of movies in the on-line program description. (It would help our family decide between Suggestions we aren't familiar with. It's in all the other TV guides, so dunno why it's not on-line too)

2) A filter to screen out listings from Network Specialties or TiVolution Magazine that aren't received by that viewer. Its very frustrating to go through the list to find suggestions that look interesting, only to keep finding out that there are no showings in my area or on channels that I receive. Because of that, we stopped looking, since almost nothing was available and it was a wasted effort.

3a) An option to record a partial show. For example, I have a 14-hr box. After recording 2 5-hr Olympic episodes, I have 4+ hrs left. If I have the third episode on the to-do list, it won't record even though it "almost" fits. Very frustrating. (I could do a manual record, but usually I don't think of it)

3b) Related to 3a, a column showing the times of each recorded show and/or the total saved vs. remaining free space to help manage the Showing Now page.

4) A way to delete that portion of the show you've already watched. (See OLYMPICS above). After we've made it through 4 of our 5 recorded hours of Olymic coverage, it would be nice if we could free up the space and only keep the piece we haven't watched yet. Would help extend the recording ability of us "small box" people.

One more: 5) A better way to prioritize season passes and one time records, so as to better control what can be taped over, what show has priority during conflicts, etc.

That's it for my "unique" comments for now.

P.S. I also noticed the great cables, I kept turning them over in my hands just to feel the quality, and I'm not even a connoisseur!

[This message has been edited by LiberalArtsGal (edited 09-30-2000).]