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Did I do ok? Series 2 80 hour vs. Sony?
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Posted by: iwbyte

I'm feeling a little bit of 'buyers remorse' right now after finding this forum.

I was thinking about a tivo and the wife and I went into a Circuit city to look since i've never actually seen one, just heard about it.

I was thinking of getting the 60 hour one but they only carry the 80 hour one so after 'checking with the manager', I got the 80 hour one for the 60 hour price ($349 before rebate). Brought it up, set it up and we've been tivo'ing ever since.

But now I read some things about the 80 hour setup:

1)It can't take an additional hard drive for 'hacked' expansions. I'm not sure I'd need this (we're happy with the medium quality = 50 hours when we rarely watched 6 hours of TV a week). Am I getting a 'slanted' view of how may people hack their tivos becuase of the high traffic on the hacking forums?

2)The sony is better (if more expensive), but i'm not clear on why

Should I return the one I have to circuit city and buy a sony? I have until the 21st of Dec. to return it under 30 day no hassle return policy. Or just return it and buy it at one of the online retailers for lower price/no sales tax?

THe mp3 play and photo display thing looks cool, but i have no clue what that means :)

Thanx for letting me ramble! Bottom line - I can't live w/out my Tivo now - my 3 year old now knows she can hit the 'yellow stop button' to make her shows pause so she can go use the potty! (Beat's that smarmy 5 year old quote on the tivo home page! :)

Posted by: rsnaider

Having both the Original 60 Series 2 and the Sony SVR3000 I hope I can answer your questions.

The main difference between the two units are the remote. Tivo has the Peanut and the Sony has it's own. The Sony has two additional buttons on the remote for List and Power. The List button will bring you directly to the Now Playing list just like pressing the TiVo button twice will do. The power button puts the unit in standby, which is not really necessary on these units. They do best running 24/7 and there is little additional wear and tear by leaving them on. The Sony also has two sets of outputs vs. one on the Tivo.

The biggest gripe I have with the Sony is the blue light. This unit is in the bedroom and at night it can really light up the room. Thank god the power button is there.

Whould I go out of my way for the Sony? Probably not, the units are close enough in features and unless you are loyal to Sony or used to the additional buttons on the remote, I would not make the switch. I fall into the first category and Sony did not have any Series 2 units until recently, hence the TiVo 60 as my first purchase.

Hope this helps,

Posted by: RavenFan

$349 before rebate is an outstanding price for an 80 hour TiVo unit. I doubt that you will be able to approach that price for the Sony.

I am personally looking for the new Sony Series 2 instead of an 80 hour, but that's primarily because I already have the old Sony SVR-2000 and love the remote control on it. It also has a set of buttons on the front in case you lose the remote.

As for storage space, 50 hours at medium quality is a lot of time. I have never added space to my old Sony 30 hour unit (20 hours at medium quality) and at times wish that I would get off of my lazy butt and do so, but that additional 30 hours makes a big difference. There was far more benefit in upgrading a 20 or 30 hour TiVo than there is in upgrading an 80 hour unit.

I would stick with your 80 hour TiVo brand unit. You got a fantastic price and have not been spoiled by being a longtime user of the Sony remote. You will likely be thrilled with the amount of capacity that you currently have, but you could always replace the 80 GB drive with a 120 GB drive if you really wanted to upgrade. It could be cost effective once 120 GB drives become outdated.

Posted by: phone1

You can add a drive to your 80 hour unit. 9thtee sells the mounting bracket you need.

Posted by: Dancar

There exists a certain geekish machismo that leads some to boast of their upgraded TiVos that can hold 80, 160, 280, 560 or 1,120 hours of programming, but let's get real -- anyone who needs a 500 hour TiVo needs to get a life that includes something other than television. (OK I',m exagerating, but you know than once someone figures out how to connect a TiVo to an external 12 disk RAID server and posts instructions in the underground forum how to do it, a bunch of people will do it.)

My point is that unless you're bumping up against your capacity, you don't need to expand. The new Star Trek series will look no better on a 160 hour box than it looks on a 30 hour box.

While many people like Sony and like the idea of their TiVo matching the other Sony electronics they own, there's no evidence that Sony TiVos are funcitonaly superior or more reliable than other TiVos.

Posted by: RavenFan

Mmmm, 500 hour TiVo.....

Lets see, there are only 168 hours in a week and a standalone TiVo can only record one channel at a time.

If you don't have DirecTV, doesn't it make more sense to buy 2 TiVos than to spend a load of cash upgrading to 300+ hours? Two 80 hour TiVos are far more flexible/useful than a single box with a ton of capacity.

Posted by: Nihilator

There is no such thing as 'buyer's remorse' with TiVo.

Your 80-hour unit is fine, and you got it for a good price. If you really feel the need to tinker with your home electronics, then by all means buy yourself a used, who-knows-what's-wrong-with-it Series 1 unit off of eBay, and go to town. The 80 hours in your new TiVo will be plenty 'nuff for now. The expandability shouldn't be an issue until you're ready to void your warranty, which shouldn't be for a while yet.

Just enjoy the TiVo as it comes out of the box, and keep your eye on this forum for fun stuff to do after your warranty expires.

--Chris

PS-- Welcome to the TiVolution!

Posted by: korn316

I bought the sony after having constant sound problems with my 80 hour tivo box. I think the tivo made series 2 remote is better yet I use a universal remote, so in the end it really doesn't matter. I use the standby mode often and as far as the blue light goes, it really doesn't bother me with my tivo to the side of my tv.

When I got a philips 30 hour they released the sony svr-2000 a week later, I stayed with philips and had no regrets.