My Review of the Tivo HD DVR

Up until just recently I had only owned Series 2 Tivo Boxes, 3 of them. It was perfect for analog cable, and until Comcast deactivated the serial port it was sufficient to control a digital cable box with. I was just fine until I first saw HD on a TV screen – then I was hooked. There was no turning back. I went out and bought a LCD HDTV and then purchased a Tivo HD at woot.com for a mere 179.99 – I ordered the cablecards right after and then I awaited their arrival. All I had to do was slide the Multi-stream Cablecard into Slot 1. then call the cable office and give them the numbers from the Tivo – it took less than an hour to get it up and running. Its performance has been highly satisfactory. I am able to do everything I did with my Series 2 Tivos – play music, movies and photos from my PC Server onto the Tivo HD, transfer shows and movies to and from my PCs, download web content from the internet and more. The HD channels work great and look beautiful – it is far superior to the Cable Co DVR! Direct ethernet connection, plus two USB ports and an esata port for an external drive – partnered with a RCA Surround Sound System and a RCA DVD Player/Recorder that upconverts my DVD collection to 720p thru the HDMI port, together they make quite the entertainment center.

Saying Goodbye to Comcast Anti-Tivo Cable Boxes

Yes, Comcast decided last month to disable the serial port on their cable boxes so Tivo can’t change channels, so I turned in all three of them and my three Tivos now serve up basic cable which is channels 2-99. I’ve decided to download whatever premium content my wife and I want to see. Next year I plan to buy a Tivo HD which I can slide a cable card into or two to get the digital channels. We only have one cable company here in Albion, Michigan, and that’s Broadstripe (formerly Millennium Digital Media) which gets its programming from Comcast. I thought about going to satellite tv but, again, my Tivo won’t work with that. Most of the people here in town don’t even know what a DVR is, but my wife and I love our Tivo so we’re not giving it up. I like to play my music on my tivo – can’t do that with Comcast. I like to transfer shows from one Tivo to another – can’t do that with Comcast. I like to send shows to my PC and burn them to DVD – can’t do that with Comcast. I like to have all my Tivos on my network along with my PCs – can’t do that with Comcast. I like to download content to my PC and transfer it to my Tivos to watch on a big screen – can’t do that with Comcast. I apologize for so many posts about Tivo & Comcast, but the whole thing has me really worked up. Next time I promise to do something different – really – hopefully!

Comcast Disables Serial Port to Discourage Tivo Users

Around November 13, 2007 Comcast decided to disable the serial ports on their Motorola Cable Box to encourage Tivo users to start using their DVRs and abandon their Tivos. I discovered an article that states just that after all three of my cable boxes started to ignore Tivo commands, all three on the same day. I’m giving my cable boxes back to them, switching back to Basic Cable – I can download the shows from the few networks that I will miss. I refuse to give up my Tivo, and I doubt I’m alone.

All About My Network

I’ve slowly been recovering from my bee stings. The swelling has gone down quite a bit, my eye is starting to look normal again and the itching tells me that I’m healing.  My allergic reaction to the stings has been a pain but at least it’s almost over. I had planned to install my new 250 G hard drive in my main computer by now but I’ve been taking it easy. I’ve attempted to use my Vista system as my home server but networking with Vista is quite a challenge. The Public folders are the only ones I’ve been successful with sharing with the other computers and the tivos in my home.

In my office I have a Series 2 Tivo, a desktop system (built myself) running Vista Ultimate and a  Dell desktop running XP. I have to keep XP running because most of my software won’t work with Vista such as my DVD & Movie Authoring software. In my bedroom I have another Series 2 Tivo and my Dell notebook running XP. Downstairs I have a Series 2 Tivo in the living room and a Dell desktop running XP. I also have a Dell Axim X51 PDA running Windows Mobile 5. That’s 4 PCs, 1 PDA and 3 Tivos all on my network which is a D-Link 614+ Router dishing out Cable Hi-speed internet. Oh, yeah, also a Vonage Linksys Router as well that provides me with my home and business telephone service (Voip). I’m amazed my internet speed is still quite fast considering how many things I have on the network! Everything is wireless except for one Tivo and 2 PCs, and they are ethernet cable connected. I ran out of ports in my router or I would have more things wired. Am I a certifiable geek or what?!