TiVo Community Forums Archives - Newbie needing advice

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Newbie needing advice
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Posted by: raronica

I am planning to get a Tivo or similar unit and need some advice. I am using Time Warner's digital TV service.

I read a post that refered to lowered video quality using Tivo compared to connecting directly to the digital cable box (SA Explorer 2000.) Since I have not been able to perform a direct comparison, can someone explain the quality differences I should expect using Tivo?

I am reading references to DTivo in the postings. What is it, and how does it differ from the regular Tivo?

Does anyone have any experience with or opinions about the SA Explorer 8000? Is it a Tivo-based unit, or is it based upon some other product?

It is unclear from the postings if the Tivo2 unit can be easily hacked (adding drives, using TivoWeb, etc.) Do people have experience with modifying Tivo 2s or Explorer 8000s?

Thanks for your help,
Ron

Posted by: phone1

quote:
I read a post that refered to lowered video quality using Tivo compared to connecting directly to the digital cable box (SA Explorer 2000.)

I'm not sure what you're asking. If you mean will you see any degradation using TiVo vs. watching live - that's almost a personal issue. Since everything is viewed from the hard drive after being encoded/decoded, theoretically the answer is yes, but that's the only way to make TiVo work. As far as recording, it's certainly superior to VCR. Even DVD-R must go through the encoding/decoding process.

quote:
I am reading references to DTivo in the postings. What is it, and how does it differ from the regular Tivo?

Now you're talking. All the recording is from the direct digital signal, and with a dual LNB dish you can record two programs simultaneously. Probably the best TiVo choice if DTV works for you. Visit the TiVo with DTV Forum.

quote:
Does anyone have any experience with or opinions about the SA Explorer 8000? Is it a Tivo-based unit, or is it based upon some other product?

Big advantage is two tuners, but based on reviews, it's flaky HW and a very poor UI (NOT TiVo). Look through some of these threads.

quote:
It is unclear from the postings if the Tivo2 unit can be easily hacked (adding drives, using TivoWeb, etc.) Do people have experience with modifying Tivo 2s or Explorer 8000s?

You need to visit the Underground Forum - there's a whole thread about hacking Series 2's. The 80 hour units are said to be harder to add drives to than the 60 (which already has the bracket), but people will figure it out if they haven't already. The Upgrade Forum is the place for questions like this. AFA hacking the 8000, TW would probably take a dim view of you hacking their rental box even if you could or wanted to.

Posted by: feldon23

I hate Time Warner Digital Cable.

It was a pleasure to switch to DirecTV satellite and then get an integrated DirecTV/TiVo.

If switching from Time Warner is not an option, a DirecTiVo (DTiVo) won't work though. It will ONLY record satellite signals from DirecTV.

TiVo standalone $199-449
$12.99/month per TiVo
Records from any source in the US (will not control large dish or A/B cable systems)
Stereo audio
30 hour unit = 9 hours at Best quality
60 hour unit = 18 hours at Best quality
Record 1 channel at a time

DirecTV with TiVo $199 (Sony T-60 from 1800-DIRECTV or pre-order a HPVR2 from Circuit City for November delivery)
$4.99/month per household
Records DirecTV only
Dolby Digital audio
~25-35 hours recording at Best (perfect) quality
Schedule Pay-Per-View movies to record automatically
Record 2 different programs at the same time