Philips HDR212 TiVo 20 Hour Digital Video Recorder

• Enjoy tapeless recording with up to 20 hours of storage space
• Features instant replay of live TV and interactive program menu
• Automatically records your favorite TV shows and suggests new ones
• Includes remote control, 4 picture-quality settings, multiple browse modes
• Compatible with most antenna, cable, and satellite TV sources

Philips is going to hate me for writing this, but I have found TiVo to be useful even though I am not a subscriber to their service. I hesitated to buy this for a while becuase I thought either a small monthly charge or a large one-time payment went with the cost of the recorder. I read in the documentation that the recorder would have "limited capability" without the subscription to the service, but that amount of capability was really what I was looking for, so I don't plan to EVER subscribe to their service.

Without subscribing, I can pause live TV, do an "instant replay" of it, and record by time and channel. TiVo is more convenient for doing these operations than a VCR because I don't have to fool with tapes and cue them up to find the beginning of a show. Because TiVo is digital, the video quality is better than a tape. On the highest quality setting I have the same level of digital quality of my satellite dish. The thing that I've found the most useful is that I can watch a recorded show while making a recording of another, which a VCR can't do.

I realize that some people like the features that come with the TiVo subscription. If people choose to pay for those things, that's their choice. I can't use the TiVo guide to look through the listings and select by name a program to be recorded. TiVo doesn't make suggestions for me based on the shows I've previously selected, and it doesn't automatically record my favorite shows if the time changes. But I know which shows I want to record every day, and DirecTv has a good guide that I can search through to find other shows to record. When I come home in the evening, I still have good shows to spend my limited TV time on, and I still have the money that I would have spent on the service.

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I started out about a year or so ago with a 14 hour Tivo unit and LOVED it. The problem was they lie about capacity... sort of. 14 hours or in the case of the 30 hour unit are really more like 6 hours and 11 hours with the recorder set to record at BEST quality... anything lower and the picture looks bad. I then paid Tivo to send me a new unit that had been upgraded to 30 hours.... Then that was still not enough time with the system set at best quality.

I finally found out I could upgrade the thing myself... so my recomendation is to get the cheapest on that you can and upgrade it. This VOIDS you tivo warrenty but hey we all like to live on the edge right :)

I now have a 117 hour Tivo because the company I used to upgrade my Tivo ... added an 80GB disk and now instead of having to delete my recordings early or being more picky about what I record I can go nuts and record anything and everything. I even saw on one website ... a guy who has a 151+ hour Tivo.

... They have parts for sale and directions on how to upgrade your Tivo (The easiest is a 14 hour unit since you just add a "blessed" drive)

happy Tivoing...!

PS If you can't tell I love this thing!

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My only complaint with the Philips unit that I bought was that it has become faulty after one year (just after my guarantee ran out). The picture & sound is 'sticky' which seems to indicate a hardrive problem. I was advised by Tivo to buy a new unit as it would cost a lot to repair this :(

On a more positive note I would strongly recommend buying some kind of personal tv recorder. They are fantastic and I cannot live without one now. I seldom watch live TV (except for the news). I have told Tivo exactly what I want to watch and it records it.

I would recommend a buy BUT make sure you get some kind of service plan with these units. A friend bought a Sony and his became faulty after 3 months (same problem). Maybe it is a bit of a design flaw to have these units contantly recording 24 hrs per day!

The other thing to check is the privacy policy of the service provider (Tivo/Ultimate TV). My Tivo box sends details of everything I have watched, when I have changed channel and other viewing habits. This greatly concerns me. Tivo did assure me that no customer identifier is sent with this but I still feel like this is a move towards Orwell's 1984.

I would have given these units a 5 were it not for mine breaking!

Have fun and get one!

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We just love this product for the following reasons.

1. It is easy to set up and use. Simply follow the instructions in the guided setup and it downloads your cable or satellite or regular program information every night. After using the Tivo with Direct TV for a year, we recently switched from Direct TV to digital cable (too many satellite drops from thunderstorms). We entered a few pieces of information on the Tivo and it automatically changed all the channels for us without having to reprogram our season passes.

2. The software recognizes first runs vs. repeats. This means that when we ask for a Season Pass for West Wing, we can set it to only record new shows (or not). Great Feature.

3. How many times has the phone rang during a movie or sports event at a critical time? With Tivo,you can pause live TV, take the call, and pick right up without missing a second. We use this all the time.

4. Slow motion, rewind, fast forward.......

5. We now watch our favorite TV programs, movies and sporting events when we want to watch them rather than when the networks put them on. Yes, I know that VCRs are supposed to have allowed one to do that for the past decade or so but how many times have you programmed your VCR to record something and come home to find that it did not tape? Won't happen with the Tivo. It even lets you search for future programs and tape them too. So, let's say you never saw Schindler's List. You simply instruct the Tivo to tape it next time it is on tv and forget about it. Then, when it goes on TV,it gets recorded automatically without you having to enter anything else.

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There is a subscription fee and I recommend you buy a subscription. It is worth the price.

Enjoy!

NOTICE: This review relates to TiVo, not this specific hardware device. I have a Sony SAT-T60 DirecTV/TiVo combination receiver.

My wife and I became addicted to TiVo within 1 month after installing it. We have gone from watching 90% live TV/10% recorded (VCR) to 90% Tivo/10% live TV! We hardly watch anything anymore at its regular time. We simply pull up the "Now Playing" menu, which lists all the shows I have previously recorded, and watch whatever we're in the mood for drama (Law and Order or Once and Again), comedy (Friends, South Park), reality TV (Survivor, Fear Factor), or sports (Illinois basketball, cliff diving).

There are so many cool things about TiVo, but these are my THREE FAVORITE things:

1) Season Pass, which once you set it up, allows you to record a particular show EVERY time it's on or all shows with a particular actor or subject,

2) Easy to record (simply choose the show, not the time and channel) and easy to find and play (scroll through "Now Playing" list of prerecorded shows and choose "Select" to play),

3) Record two shows at once (like Survivor and Friends, which both start at 8:00 on Thursday) with a DirecTV/TiVo combination receiver, which we have.

We started with the monthly subscription and moved to the lifetime after just a month (it's good for the life of the box, not you). We have a Sony model, and I've found Sony to always be reliable (two TVs, one VCR). I bought a 4-year warranty as a safety precaution (new technology and insurance against the lifetime subscription). DirecTV customer service is decent, but not great (they handle the TiVo side as well). The BEST resource for TiVo is the TiVo AVS forum, which you can link to from the Buzz section of the TiVo Web site. It's a "must read" prior to buying this unit. But I am not exaggerating when I say that this is the coolest, most liberating invention to come out since the World Wide Web. No joke! You will fall in love with your TiVo too.