( 62 reviews )
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Posted: Jul 28 2009
I thought I had read everything about this model of TiVo to understand that it is a true dual tuner DVR, but it isn't one. It is a very clever if not misleading engineering feat to achieve dual-tuners on this TiVo, but the way they did it defies understanding. The TiVo[...] digital transition microsite on [...] states that as an owner of a TiVo Series 2 DT, I do not need a converter box to view ATSC digital transmissions. This is fine since I now use FiOS. The problem is that I mistakenly understood this implication that the TiVo Series 2 DT works with QAM over cable. In fact, the Series 2 DT does NOT support QAM over cable and probably requires a converter box for over-the-air ATSC as well. The problem for my needs is that my Verizon FiOS service has NO analog channels at all. The "DT" feature of the TiVo Series 2 DT implies that the second tuner can receive basic cable, but that's not true for FiOS and a growing number of digital cable subscribers. What it doesn't make totally clear to you is that the second tuner can only receive ANALOG, UNSCRAMBLED basic cable. If you're buying this and you have FiOS or Comcast then you are effectively buying a single-tuner DVR. However, this might not matter, because even if this machine did support digital QAM channels, only lifeline basic cable is unscrambled. In fact on FiOS my HDTV tuner tells me that only the local channels and the music channels are actually unscrambled on Verizon FiOS. This is a clever and not completely honest marketing technique. They're not lying to you but they are not making enough of an effort to clarify what the dual-tuner can do without digging endlessly through the [...] knowledge base or some of the many online communities. In fact the "Digital Transition" microsite implied that the "DT" mark on the TiVo Series 2 DT meant "Digital Television." Now for the use of the TiVo itself, it's great, and I've used it for ten years, but the analog S-video connection between the Motorola FiOS set top box and the TiVo produces vertical "hum bars" which require a lot of trial-and-error to eliminate. You should get the Tivo HD instead of this. I'm frustrated with FiOS and the Tivo Series 2 DT and I don't frustrate so easily with electronics like this.
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Posted: Jul 14 2009
Tivo is a big rip-off. I purchased a TiVo TCD649080 Series2 80-Hour Dual-Tuner on line and hooked it up for 1 month at $9.95 and after a week I found it could only record 1 channel at a time so I called and canceled it. So for that one-week they charged me $109.50 and said it was an early termination fee. Even the Cable Company is not that bad beware of the moneygrubbers. Get you DVR from your cable or sat provider their Dual tuners are real dual tuners not pretend tuners.
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Posted: Jul 7 2009
I bought the Tivo Series 2 and optimistically signed up for 3 years of service for $300. I love the interface. It's very user friendly, has lots of great features and the suggestions have been surprisingly on target. The product itself is pretty great. Unfortunately that's where the good news ends. Everything went swimmingly until Tivo simply stopped recording. After a few days and many restarts it recorded everything except suggestions. Suggestions was a major reason I picked Tivo over other machines. I did some searching online and found out this was a wide spread issue that the company was completely ignoring. It was about six months before it magically righted itself one day. There was never any acknowledgment from the company of any problem. Things were good for about a year after that. Then the hard drive died. My warranty has of course expired, so there is nothing the company can do except offer to sell me another machine at full cost. They don't offer repair, and I can't recoop any of the cost of the remaining time on my three year service contract. Overall, I love Tivo when it works. But the company couldn't care less about it's customers. The customer service is nonexistent.
