TiVo Community Forums Archives - How many TiVos are enough?

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How many TiVos are enough?
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Posted by: JediCowboyD

I've noticed in many signature lines that some people have three, four, six (SIX!!!!) TiVos. And many of these are hacked to hold a lot of programs.

I'm just really curious why anyone would have this many TiVos and how it is even possible to watch what you've recorded -- I have enough problems finding the time to watch what my one (hacked) Tivo records.

Posted by: Mike Lang

As long as you have one for every TV in the house you're fine.

Posted by: Steavis

I've wondered about this as well. This week I'm replacing my SA with 2 DTiVos, but one is for my parents--this way they'll stop asking me to record stuff for them and save it to VHS. :D

Sometimes I think it would be nice to have an extra TiVo for conflict resolution... part of the reason I'm getting DirecTiVo. 2 Tuners!

Posted by: byrnebv

I thought the same thing originally. One for each TV. Then I got the idea to move the bedroom unit and couple it with the living room unit. Now, I can record 4 programs at once and doubled my recording time without voiding the warranty. That will come later!! Now I need one for the bedroom!

Posted by: bsnelson

One for each TV? Strange idea... :)

I have SIX for ONE TV! It's called "NHL Center Ice". As many as 12 or 13 games on at the same time; record them all, and pick and choose the best ones to watch.

Oh, and catch a few SP and WL for History Channel, TLC, Discovery, Food TV, etc...

Brad

Posted by: JediCowboyD

quote:
Originally posted by Mike Lang
As long as you have one for every TV in the house you're fine.

You *know* this begs the question: How many TVs in the house is enough. But being single, one is plenty for me. Besides, that just means I can spend more and get a *really* big TV :)

Posted by: bdub

One for each house member makes more sense to me than one for each TV. Different people have different tastes and want to record different shows.

Posted by: Connie

Two, for conflict resolution, and also because the first one was too small (14hrs) to hold all the stuff in a sweeps month week.

Posted by: geko29

3 seems to be the magic number for us. We have 5, and two are for sale. Of course, there are 3 people in the house, so the 1:1 ratio holds for us.

Posted by: JJ

Nine - the number of addressable remote codes...

Just one short at the moment.

Posted by: bkc56

quote:
Originally posted by bdub
One for each house member makes more sense to me than one for each TV. Different people have different tastes and want to record different shows.

Not only that, but if one member tends to fall behind in watching stuff it's nice if it's THEIR shows that get deleted or fail to record when their disk gets full. :eek:

Posted by: HTH

No.

I have three. One with digital cable, two with analog. Lately the digital one has been in a steady-state of fullness due to a bottleneck in saving to tape, so my third is taking over some of its duties while I try to resolve some problems with my second. I'm not currently looking to aquire more until I get myself a new home with line-of-sight for DirecTV.

Posted by: NFLnut

67. All expanded with 120 GB drives. Enough to buffer all 200 channels for 1.52 days. That would be enough.

Posted by: Chuck_IV

I have 2, simply because 1 did not give me enough space, especially now that Directv has reduced it's compression. I like to record sporting events and doing that I am only getting about 20 hrs of recordings. That sounds like alot, but it really isn't, when you factor in what my wife wants to record.

I just recently upgraded one of mine with an 80gig drive to 106 hrs(70-75hrs realistsically tho) and it was the best thing I ever did. Now, if I record something, that I wanna dump to VCR, I don't have to rush and dump it off. I can do it when I have the time, since there is plenty of space now.

When I got my first Directivo, I thought 35 hrs would be more than I would ever use. I quickly found out that it was not nearly enough, once I started using Tivo to it's fullest.

Posted by: JediCowboyD

Things I have learned by starting this thread:

* The One Million TiVo subscriptions is comprised of 12 people, all from this forum.

* We all spend way too much time setting up these recorders and dumping to tape to actually watch what we record.

* People with Hacked TiVos tend to have more TiVos. These people are very ill.

* The true measure of TiVodiction is the ratio of TiVos to members of household.

* As the number of TiVos approaches infinity, we will still be geeks

* There's still nothing good on.

Posted by: HTH

quote:
Originally posted by JediCowboyD
* We all spend way too much time setting up these recorders and dumping to tape to actually watch what we record.

I actually spend more time capturing and editing on computer than saving to tape. It takes days for me to be happy with my edits to first and second season episodes of Red Dwarf with restored footage while newer episodes keep piling up. Especially when dealing with different rates of video and aligning images perfectly so that cross-dissolves between clips match up.

Posted by: JediCowboyD

quote:
Originally posted by HTH

I actually spend more time capturing and editing on computer than saving to tape. It takes days for me to be happy with my edits to first and second season episodes of Red Dwarf with restored footage while newer episodes keep piling up. Especially when dealing with different rates of video and aligning images perfectly so that cross-dissolves between clips match up.

HTH is my TivoGeek Poster Child

Posted by: LesHarris

I have 4 TiVos, obviously anyone with more than 4 has too many and anyone with less than 4 has too few.

Posted by: David LM

quote:
One for each house member makes more sense to me than one for each TV. Different people have different tastes and want to record different shows.

You know this begs the question: Do any families watch TV together any more? I have noticed over the last couple of years as I have acquired multiple TVs, surround sound systems, DVD players, multi-room DBS, two DirecTiVos, two video game consoles that I spend little time watching TV with my wife or kids.

Posted by: cwerdna

I only have 1 Tivo and like JediCowboyD I also have probs keeping up w/my lone Tivo. I wouldn't mind have a second to record conflicts instead of having to resort to my VCR. DTivo isn't an option for me, can't get a clear path to the birds.

I've contemplated (but not very hard) getting maybe a ReplayTV 4K (ducking for cover) as a secondary to record conflicts and receive stuff that people might send me. If they were only cheaper...

Posted by: beldar

We have three directivos (40+120G, 40+80G, and unupgraded), and one standalone (unupgraded, soon to be sold on ebay), all in a central location, with signal distribution throughout the house.

Two people in the household, and eight TVs. Our algorithm: one tivo per person, plus one for conflict resolution (or conflict avoidance, depending on how you look at it). Three directivos are just about enough, especially once you upgrade them. However, we don't have cable anymore, so we haven't decided what to do for our guests. We may keep an old directv receiver around, and activate it when we have company. We're not entirely comfortable with having guests see our now playing lists.

Posted by: Backhack

Ive got 3 DTiVos 2 upgraded,1 factory. I think I am at my limit. Though talking to an employee that I gave the disease to, uses their DTiVos (2) for perental control, I had not thought of this as my daugther is only 15 months old. They keep the adult stuff on their bedroom DTiVo with the perental locks on. And use the living room one for PG and PG-13 plus their SPs with locks on. They are considering another for their younger daughters.

I use 1 for a movie server (116 hr), one for get around to it shows and conflicts (107 hr), and one for our daily SPs (35 hr). I could see having one for childrens programing.

I just finished an A/V distribution system so I can watch all DTiVos and the DVD in the bedroom and livingroom selectively and independently.

I have 3 old SAs. 1 at work for the DTV system there, 1 on loan spreading the disease, and one in pieces waiting for me to put in a 15 GB HD.

I find I leave shows on the TiVo untill I have time to watch and some times it takes awhile for me to get to them, but I dont miss shows anymore and network TV sooner or later will make that giant sucking sound. But not on my TiVos :cool:

Posted by: wa2joc

One more than I own.:)

Posted by: Planetview

One is enough for me. I found I needed more space on the drive but most conflicts in programming are satisfied with the frequent replay of reruns. I just make sure to give the one time only sporting events and other non repeating shows a high priority.

I am amazed how many users here have more than one TiVo. I am also suprised how many of my contracting customers don't own a TiVo. I only know of one and she works for TiVo.