Tivo Is Dead
Finally gave up on my trusty old Tivo on Saturday when I replaced it with the Comcast DVR, which had features that Tivo isn’t going to have any time soon. The Comcast DVR has two tuners, which means you can record two shows at once, and it can record HDTV, so it’ll be ready when my new Plasma TV is delivered. On the sound front, the Comcast DVR has digital sound outputs so it can record and play back Dobly Digital 5.1 surround sound! Also you don’t need a separate cable box as the DVR has a built in digital cable tuner. Is so nice to be able to clean up my stereo cabinet. I use to have the Tivo, the cable box, and an external wireless network box (I had hacked my Tivo to get the program guide from the internet) in my cabinet with wires running all over the place. You also don’t need to plug the Comcase DVR into a phone line as the programming info comes from the cable.
The interface and programming guide isn’t as good as Tivo, but I can live with that for the time being. Since Comcast and Motorola (the manufacturer of the DVR) isn’t going out of business anytime soon, its safe to assume that they will continue to make improvements. Tivo, on the other hand, may go out of business. The best part is that the Comcast DVR is $10 a month, thats it, no other costs, don’t need to buy the box. Tivo is still charging $200 for the box and there’s still the monthly charge or the $300 lifetime fee for the programming info. Whenever Tivo figures out how to put out a competing box, I’ll be happy to go back.