Switched back to Dish Network.

[video62]

I watch a lot of live tv. Only pvr programs if they are on late or in the morning and I am sleeping or if I am not here. I also like pausing live tv which made the pathetic Tivo 30 minute buffer stinks.

The 'ole Dishplayer was king of the bufferers... it would buffer using all available free disk space - I used to 'rewind' it for hours!

I also like channel surfing sometimes but with the Tivo I had to use the slow guide or I would keep getting a b&w picture.

You obviously had a defective unit. Did you attempt to get it replaced by DirecTV?

You had to enable 30 second skip and most of the time it did not even skip 30 seconds then it would keep forgeting it.

Yes, it was a 'secret code' and you had to re-enter it if the box was rebooted. People that 'hack' their boxes make it a permanent code.

Also I did not like how it keep putting my tuner on a blank channel twice a weeks.

My 3 DirecTivos have never done this... I'm assuming it was probably for some kind of download of guide data. Also, you say "tuner"... did you not have dual tuners in operation? On my boxes the "unwatched tuner" is the one that does a channel change for downloads of guide info.

It is these big annoyances that made me hate the Tivo and I feel so free now that I am using a 510 PVR. With the Tivo I wanted to watch less TV but now I actually want to watch more TV.

I believe your experience was singularly unique and in no way overall representative of the typical DirecTivo experience.

 

[Curtis0620]

I watch a lot of live tv. Only pvr programs if they are on late or in the morning and I am sleeping or if I am not here. I also like pausing live tv which made the pathetic Tivo 30 minute buffer stinks. I also like channel surfing sometimes but with the Tivo I had to use the slow guide or I would keep getting a b&w picture. You had to enable 30 second skip and most of the time it did not even skip 30 seconds then it would keep forgeting it. Also I did not like how it keep putting my tuner on a blank channel twice a weeks. It is these big annoyances that made me hate the Tivo and I feel so free now that I am using a 510 PVR. With the Tivo I wanted to watch less TV but now I actually want to watch more TV.

You obviously are still chained to the network tv schedule. TiVo frees you of this. You still have the VCR mentality.

 

[MikeD-C05]

I wonder if there is such a thing as a Tivo mentality?

 

[roadrhino]

I wonder if there is such a thing as a Tivo mentality?

I believe there is.

The typical person I know who uses a TiVo thinks of TV viewing far differently than others, including those with Charter and Dish PVRs. Reddice makes this pretty clear when he writes that he likes to watch live TV and to channel surf. One with a TiVo mentality will typically hit the "TiVo button" (the funny looking guy at the the top of the remote) before even turning on the TV so as to be greeted by the TiVo menu rather than that annoyance of what ever happens to be on live TV at the time.

The typical TiVo user watches less TV after getting the TiVo than beforehand (even aside from the issue of skipping commercials) because there is no need to be tied down to the schedule NBC sets (my "Law and Order bias" is revealed). My wife and I quite often turn on the TV at 9 or 10 instead of the 8 we had been doing. The TV still goes off at the same time, but we start later.

The typical TiVo user watches different programming than they did beforehand. Besides the "suggestions" (which I ignore, but some pay attention to), one is freed up to watch all sorts of oddball programming that one would not otherwise have discovered. When a friend mentions "Mythbusters is cool" or "Band of Brothers is on TNT", I set up a season pass to figure out if I like Mythbusters or BoB. Before a PVR I wouldn't bother UNLESS the show in question was during a blank spot in my TV schedule. (Now only remember what a schedule is when attempting to resolve conflicts.) This is something that users of other PVRs can do as well, but don't tend to do as often. Searching out shows by name is something TiVo does very well.

I could go on and on ... some would say I already have.

I am just trying to say that I believe the way TiVo users view TV is far different from how non-pvr users view TV and also noticeably different from how other pvr users view TV.

All the best....

Roadrhino

 

[video62]

I wonder if there is such a thing as a Tivo mentality?

Sure is, and I've got it I'm afraid. AKA "The TiVo Revolution".

Very well said Roadrhino. It really does "change the way you watch TV" and it's much more than an ordinary DVR. My schedule is truly my own and I'm no longer hostage to a TV broadcast schedule or spending time poring over TV listings each day/week looking for a favorite show or movie.

 

[Chris Walker]

You obviously are still chained to the network tv schedule. TiVo frees you of this. You still have the VCR mentality.

Obviously you and others can't understand that many people simply DON'T LIKE Tivo boxes. If Tivo was as great as some of it's fanatical users claim it to be, they wouldn't be bleeding $ and desperately looking for someone to buy them. They are SLOW, clunky, and lacking many basic features. I don't ever watch live tv unless I am watching a ballgame, I PVR everything, and Tivo simply was just too much of a pain. I have 3 508s and they work excellent for my needs, the hour buffer is perfect for when I want to watch something live, and if I want to record something it's not difficult to just highlight it in the guide and press the record button. I don't need wishlists, Tivo's "suggestions", or any of that other crap. I've used it, and I didn't like it at all.

 

[reddice]

Agree. I see it now that there are people who just like Tivo even though it stinks and it is slow and people who want to be free from it like me and want a fast PVR and don't care about all the junk that Tivo has.

 

[Chris Walker]

Agree. I see it now that there are people who just like Tivo even though it stinks and it is slow and people who want to be free from it like me and want a fast PVR and don't care about all the junk that Tivo has.

Speed is a HUGE deal for me with recievers, and Tivo is about as slow as the first computer I bought in 1985. I think it's just hip to trash anything E* does and praise Tivo and overlook it's flaws.

 

[kbohip]

Hackability:This is what has me 100% sold on the DirecTivo experience. The easiest hacks are increasing hard drive space - and, except for the new R10 series, you can enable the USB ports on the back for networking which opens up a lot of possibilities.

Via these hacks I can

• Access my home DirecTivos over the internet to list/add recordings, wishlists, season passes, etc.
• Go to a PC in my home and have the DirecTivo stream pre-recorded programs to my desktop
• Play MP3 audio files and View family photos offered up from a PC on the DirecTivo
• Move/play recordings from one DVR to the other

Here's where I agree completely with you. It's SOOO nice being able to upgrade the hard drive yourself. I did this to my Dad's 5 year old standalone Tivo and gave it a new lease on life, along with another 100 gigs of space .

If Dish were smart they'd buy ReplayTV and NOT MESS with any of the hackable features of those units, but their not smart and that's why I'm ditching them when my 2 year contract is up in November. I don't want to end up with a dead 522 sometime in the future.

 

[video62]

This argument is no different than car -vs- truck argument... it all depends on what you want to accomplish.

There is no "right answer", but everyone will defend their choice and some will cast aspersions on the "other one".

My point of even posting at all was to bring some balance and perspective to the "oooohhh - DirecTivo sucks so bad" post.

Video62

 

[rhasselbaum]

The only thing I miss about D* is that the guide on my old receiver used to color-code shows by category (movies, sports, etc.). Such a simple thing, but came in very handy.

 

[bobj2004]

I tried to switch back and they want a 2 year contract.

What a rip off considering the HD TV box they wanted me to get does not have any upgrade path to MPEG 4.

Direct TV and Cable sounds better- they have upgrade options plan at a discount or FREE for Mpeg4.