What are the most popular DVRs for Christmas 2007?

Answer 1

TIVO is the best DVR---hands down.

Often, the "cable company will give you a DVR as part of their "box"--but that DVR is a bare bones version of what you get with TIVO. All it is, really , is a glorified VCR-it allows you to record TV shows (on a computer chip--rather than a tape) and watch them later.

TIVO, of course does that too. But TIVO is "smart"--and it also allows you to get what TIVO cals a "season pass" to a show. What that means is if you watch, say, Desperate Housewives- and you want TIVO to tape it every week --it will. Sometimes a regular VCR or the barebones cable DVR tries to do this as well--but if there is a schedule change TIVO knows about it and still gets the job done. If its a rpeat--TIVO knows and will skip it. Also--if the show is changed from Monday to Thursday night. No Problem--TIVO reconfigures your season pass automatically and still records your show. The "other" DVR records whatever show is playing at the old timeslot...not what you wanted.

TIVO also allows you to put in the name of an actor or director and automatically record every show when that person is involved. Limit it to just movies that person is in---or just talk shows that person is on---TIVO can do all of this. Want to record all movies with Tom Cruise? no problem--TIVO will seek them out and record them for you. Want to skip the Tom Cruise movies but record every talk show Ton appears on? No problem--Want to see every movie directed by Speilberg? No problem--- TIVO can do that. All of this can be done with the push of a button too-- no complicated directions/instructions to follow either---very very intuitive.

Better yet- if you have two shows you want to record at 8PM on Monday. TIVO will record one of them and then catch the re-run of the show it was supposed to record and couldn't get because of the conflict. Want to exclude repeats from being recorded---not a problem, TIVO can do that too.

Best of all--after you have used TIVO for a while it "learns" what kind of shows you like. Dramas? Thrillers? Cooking Shows? ....and it will automatically record shows during "down time (when nothing else is scheduled to be recorded) that fit then characteristics that you have shown you like. So you might find a cooking show that is new or that you were unaware of... compliments of your TIVO.

Last--if you tell TIVO you like Jay leno (for instance) and ask it to recommend other, similar shows....TIVO will promtly list all similar shows for you to check out. Most likely it would reccommend Connan O'Brian and Letterman--but it will also list other talk shows (Spike fergeson anyone?) that you may never have heard of.

All this and a full TV guide that can be searched and sliced and diced every way possible.

Get TIVO-- you will wonder how you EVER lived without it.

Best $8 or $10/month you will ever spend.