TiVo Community Forums Archives - Which Tivo to get?

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Which Tivo to get?
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Posted by: xxrock

I have been contemplating getting tivo. I have some questions because as of now I have comcast cable and living in an apartment. I am having a home built and I want direct tv or dish network. My home will be finished in about 6 months. If I get a standard 40 hr tivo brand dvr series 2 will it be compatible with direct tv or dish network? Are there other brands that would be compatible with both? I know direct tv has a receiver with tivo built in but I am not ready to switch to satellite. Any other advice or suggestions would be appreciated.

Posted by: litzdog911

A stand-alone Series 2 Tivo will work with both Dish, DirecTV and Comcast cable. The combo DirecTV+Tivo receiver does offer several advantages, but it sounds like you're still 6 months away from moving into your house.

Best suggestion I can offer is to review the many threads in these forums and get a feel for which features are most important to you and what the differences really are.

Posted by: geoman47

If I were in your shoes, I would wait and get the DirecTiVo with dual tuners in 6 months. I think its $99 + $5/month. For a stand-alone, you are looking at least $149 for the box and $13/month or $299 lifetime.

If you do decide to get the stand-alone anyway, it will work with Direct TV, in fact you could get DirecTiVo then and have 3 tuners!

Posted by: dwilcomb

My advice: buy a standalone Series 2 Tivo. If you have experience with computers, get the 40 hour model and upgrade the hard drive yourself. (Saves money). If you don't know computer hardware that well, buy a large one...like a 120.

A standard TiVo will work with DirecTV. It comes with a special wire to make that possible. In order to work properly, TiVo must control what channel is coming in from the receiver - that is, you ALWAYS change the channel on the TiVo...never on the receiver. So that they stay in sync, TiVo comes with control cables that automatically tell the receiver when to change channels. Otherwise, TiVo wouldn't know what channel it was looking at.

The combination TiVo/DirecTV boxes eliminate the need for that wire.
They're also nice because they keep clutter down - you only have one box instead of two. There is a problem with integrated units, however. Let's say you go with DirecTV and you buy a combination TiVo/DirecTV receiver. It's nice - one box does both things. Now...what if you move somewhere where cable is a better option? You paid more for the combination box, and now the DirecTV half of it is useless! Also, if you want to upgrade one part, you have to pay for both. (Want a larger TiVo? You have to buy a whole new TiVo/DirecTV combo.)

My 2 cents.

Posted by: xxrock

Wow great advice. Thanks. I will go for the stand alone series 2. I have built my own pc's so I can probably upgrade later. I am glad I joined this forum because I knew very little about tivo.

Posted by: weaknees

Here's a guide that we put together to help answer this question.

http://www.weaknees.com/tivo_guide.php

Posted by: Bigg

Get the SA S2, and then if you want the Dual-tuner later, you can use the SA on another TV. Also, when you get D*, you will need a certain receiver unlesss you want an ir blaster. The RCA DRD-435 will work with a TiVo I THINK.

Posted by: xxrock

I have my router set up. I activated my tivo about 2 hours ago, how long should I wait to hook up my wireless adapter? I know it said not to disconnect the tivo for 4 hours. The tivo is working fine as far as watching television.