I hope TiVo lives up to the hype. Ours arrived today, and after some struggling with the various inputs (no, the VCR isn’t hooked up yet, but I think the DVD still is), I saw the Welcome screen and the rest was easy enough. I appreciated the coincidence (?) of the New York Times running an article asking “Can Cable Fast-Forward Past TiVo? on the very day that I installed our first DVR. Nothing like instant obsolescence… but I’m quite sure that we’ll get a real taste of the DVR experience with this box long before Comcast makes the offer attractive. We are using the monthly option, though, rather than the lifetime (of the box) option.
I do know we have too many &*^*%^&% wires running around the back of our TV and stereo. And we still need can’t change the volume for the digital cable (TV volume has a hum, due to the digital cable), although I think (hope) that’s correctable. We’ll probably call in an expert to get it all sorted out, although with a few more wires, I’m willing to try to get that VCR working. Why, you might ask, do we need a VCR? One reason. Another. And one more.
Most annoying part of the TiVo installation process? I bought a wireless USB adapter (even one of the recommended ones) to avoid stringing phone line around the house, but the set-up requires that you either use the phone line or a wired broadband connection for the first ‘call’. Not quite a Catch-22, but it does postpone until tomorrow morning the final word on whether or not the 802.11b connection will work in the living room for the TiVo (since it’s touch and go for my laptop). Life on the bleeding edge, or something like that.