Customer Reviews

TiVo TCD658000 HD XL Digital Video Recorder

5 star:		(69)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

If you're too lazy to do more research aside from looking at this page, then you may be a bit surprised when you open the box. Here's what you need to know:

1) This TiVo requires a CableCard. It does NOT work with your cable box. It in fact replaces your cable box, so things like On Demand won't work anymore. Cable TV companies are required by the FCC to give you a CableCard on request, but they will likely charge fees for installation and for using the CableCard. It also (at least for me) can be a giant pain to get to a representative who can actually help you. I wasted hours trying to deal with my cable company. Also, try to get them to let you install it yourself, as it's really, really easy and shouldn't cost you twenty bucks to have someone else slide a card into a slot. Seriously, your blind, senile great-grandmother could do this.
2) The TiVo DOES have an Ethernet jack on the back along with the telephone jack. If you can use a wired network connection, then you don't need to shell out extra for the wireless adapter. I'm now returning mine to Amazon for a refund.
3) Lifetime service (totally worth it in my opinion) now costs $399 up from $299, but you can get it for only $299 with a multi-service discount if you already have another TiVo. Even better, you can resell your TiVo in the future with the lifetime service and transfer the service to the new owner. You can't do that with a monthly or yearly plan!
4) The remote is awful compared to the old remotes. Plus, they switched around the buttons! It also now uses 4 AAAs rather than 2 AAs. However, old remotes should work with this TiVo, too. (I haven't bothered trying.)

Nonetheless, don't let this scare you off. The TiVo HD XL is a really solid product, and TiVo is definitely still the king of DVRs. The XL is a bit pricey, but if you do the math, you'll realize this is actually the best way to go. You really won't save money or time by rolling your own or by buying the cheaper one and attaching an external hard drive.

By now the benefits of a DVR are well known, and most people reading this review know about the award-winning Tivo experience - I'll not spend time describing how it all works (but trust me, it's great! - you'll come to hate it when forced to watch 'live' TV without Tivo). If my guess about your knowledge is wrong I'd advise going to the Tivo website and reading all about it.

Instead I'll mention why I paid the extra for the XL Tivo when there are other, cheaper options.

First off this is the fourth DVR I've used (fifth if you count the Tivo Series 2 I bought my parents years ago). My first was a 160-hour ReplayTV (no longer available), and I loved it. As you'd guess when you have 160 hours to play with you have a lot of options. I was first afraid I'd become a TV addict, recording and watching far more TV than I ever did before - and in the first month or so that was basically true. Over time, however, you find your habits change - I eventually grew tired of recording every show ever broadcast, and instead used the capacity to only record my favorite shows, but with multiple episodes. That is, if you have a ton of room you don't have to watch 'ER' every Thursday at 10 - you can read a book instead until you're tired, then just hit the sack. Only when you're in the mood will you fire the DVR up, and you'll find multiple episodes of your favorite shows to watch. I actually found I was watching less TV, or at least TV on fewer evenings, with the large capacity DVR - I'd broken the habit of sitting down in front of the boob tube at 8 to be fed by the networks (and waiting through their commercials).

Well when the HDTV switch came around and I started using the DVR from my cable company and it's 15 hours of High Def capacity, I went from DVR bliss to recording-management he$$. I could not record much at all, and so instead I seemed to spend all my time massaging my recordings (recording repeats at a later time to free up space now) or, what was worse, finding myself trapped between watching a show when I wasn't in the mood or finding it gone the next day. Also, obviously, I couldn't record near as much a variety as before.

Now comes the Tivo HD XL, which gets us back in the 150 hour territory. Yes you can get a cheaper Tivo and then purchase an add-on 500GB 'DVR Expander'(rumors of larger coming soon), or perhaps void your warranty, open the box, toss the old HD out and replace it with a third-party one - but after doing a number of hours/dollar calculations I found this XL was cheaper than a lot of solutions, didn't void my warranty, and didn't rely on hooking up yet another piece of equipment and cabling just to get me what comes out of the box with the Tivo HD XL.

My only cons, and these apply to all versions of the cable Tivo: 1) Requires a cable card (or two) and the inherent hassles that come with a cable 'technician' visit (mine went well, but many apparently don't) and 2) Tivo has ads that don't get in the way of the functionality (you don't have to watch them) but which still annoys me. The first con is not Tivo's 'fault' - the second is, and is why I don't give the product a 5-star.

First, a little background. I started with a TiVo series 2 a couple years ago, but recently I've upgraded to an HD system/surround sound, so I figured it was time to upgrade my cable service so I can receive HD programming. Little did I know at the time how difficult it was for cable companies to "allow TiVo to be compatible with their system/network." They kept trying to get me to use their "better than TiVo" DVRs, and insisted that TiVo was wholly incompatible with their system. So I gave em a shot and switched to AT&T's Uverse digital HD package. I had no problem with the HD service, my only complaint was their pathetic attempt at a DVR (maybe I'm spoiled). I called tech support several times getting different people asking if there was any way I could use my own DVR instead of theirs, to no avail. Eventually I got fed up with it and decided to switch to Ynition networks who also promised HD programming. They offered dish network's DVR (with of course those wonderful service and privilege fees) and I've seen adverts for it claiming to be "better than TiVo" so I figured I'd give it a shot. After a month of tech support trying to get the channels I actually subscribed for, they replaced it once and had the tech out a total of 4 times. Eventually I decided to scrap the HD service for cable and go back to what I had, but I had already given my TiVo series to Dad as a father's day present. So I used this opportunity to upgrade and spend the extra money on the TiVo HD XL.

I will start by telling you that this was the best purchase for my HD/surround sound system I've made. I cannot imagine watching TV without a TiVo again. Even though TiVo is orders of magnitude better than any other DVR on the market (in my opinion) the series 2 had its faults. However, the TiVo HD XL resolved each and every one of those faults, most of which I wasn't even aware of until I noticed the subtle change.

Let me start with the remote:
The original TiVo remote was awesome, this one is perfect, TiVo now has the perfect remote.
1. They kept the same layout and design as the original, simple, elegant, functional, and practical.
2. Made the remote programmable to work with your TV and receiver separately
3. Made each button individually programmable. If you have the original remote you can program any of those buttons to any of the TiVo remote buttons.
4. It glows and is a nice shiny black!
5. The original TiVo remote was a bit too symmetric and I've found that in the dark I often started using the remote backwards (facing me instead of the TV). TiVo resolved this by putting some slick ridging on the underside of one side of the remote so you can feel if you are pointing it in the right direction naturally and intuitively.

Back to the DVR:
1. Tons of memory. Since I'm only recording SD programming (for now) just to give you an idea, I can record 500+ hours of high quality SD video as compared with the series 2 that held about 20.
2. HD 1080i/surround sound capability. The feature is there when I need it, I can hook it up to over the air antenna for local HD broadcasting if I so desired (just got it so I haven't set that up yet)
3. Dual channel recording. This was the major limiting feature of the series 2, only one channel before and it was whichever channel the TiVo was set to at the time. Now you have two, and if you hook it up right you can watch 3 programs simultaneously (2 on TiVo, one 'live' through TV)
4. The cable card feature that allows your TiVo to act as a cable box for your cable company (provided you actually have a cable company who has the cable cards). I talked with the people at TiVo and they said EVERY cable company is bound by an agreement to support TiVo, however I couldn't get either of my cable companies to admit that or even acknowledge whether they had cable cards I could use.
5. Everything else that makes TiVo wonderful is also here.

To me this was worth every penny. If you have a cable provider who's not willing to jack you around and actually let you use the cable card feature for your HD programming, don't let anyone talk you into those "better than TiVo" DVRs. You'll miss out on the, "I wonder what my TiVo recorded for me today..." and the "bloop bloop" ...commercial skipping.. "bloop" with the perfect auto-backup that takes human reaction time into account.

We recently dropped DirecTV in favor of Verizon FIOS for television service. Unimpressed with Verizon's HD DVR offering, I did a good bit of checking with all signs pointing to the Tivo HD XL (and non-XL) DVR.

It's easy to get addicted to Tivo and there's a reason why. The interface is VERY user friendly and they (Tivo) are great about pushing out software updates to the units. The XL offered a TON of HD storage capacity and even more standard definition capacity. The Verizon Tech attached this unit to a single cable run in the house, popped is credit-card-like decoder card inside a slot on the Tivo unit and I was off to the races receiving content over both built-in tuners. After a few days, the Tivo unit pulled down a software update and I was then able to stream Netflix and Amazon On Demand video, which I found uber-cool. You can even watch some YouTube videos through this thing. These on-demand features require a fairly speedy Internet connection I believe so your mileage may vary. The guide and interface is virtually the same as past Tivo units. The other cool thing I noticed is that both my <networked> Tivo HD units can see each other on my home network, allowing me to transfer recorded shows between Tivo units over my home network. The only nice-to-have feature I found missing is a caller-ID option, which I enjoy having. It may be there and I just haven't found it.

As for deducting 1 star, I have to attribute that to two things - the cost of the unit and the annoying advertisements they're now running on various menu screens/actions. Considering the cost of the box, the monthly Tivo subscription and any kickback for on-demand sales they may get, I would think they could spare you from the annoying ads. Part of the reason people buy a Tivo unit is so they can fast forward through commercials.

Amazon delivered my Tivo HD XL quickly and offered the best price at the time of my purchase.

I was just about to purchase a Tivo HD when the product announcement came out about this unit. I was a bit hesitant because of the price, buying a tivo HD with the external drive, it is cheaper. But this has a much larger capacity. I figured I would kick myself over the $200 difference eventually. So I pulled the trigger. I couldn't be happier. Installation went without a hitch. Charter cable came in 3 days, with a M-card. Put it in and called it in. Bingo. All the channels. No problems.
Now that I have had it for a month or so it is Awesome. I never watched that much HD tv before since my old Tivo was just standard. Pretty much everything I watch is in HD now. Finally I realize why I paid all that money for my big TV. The Tivo service is as good as ever. This is my 3rd Tivo over that last 8 years, all with lifetime and all still running well in my house. The original series one upgraded is now my kids. It is kind of fun seeing what teenagers will watch and we all enjoy a lot of it together
The new Tivo now Knows me and is recording all kinds of suggestions. The beauty is that it is recording many many suggestions in HD. So if I can't find something to watch that I chose I can peruse the HD section. I currently have all of my recorded shows, plus over 200 suggestions of which over 30 are in HD, and the drive isn't close to full yet.
All in all I give it 3 thumbs up!

I recently purchased the Tivo HD XL DVR after being immensely frustrated with two of Verizon's FIOS DVR boxes for the last few months. Prior to moving to this home, we had a Humax (series 2) Tivo DVR with Comcast service. The older Tivo (Series 2) DVR's do not support HDTV, hence the need to replace our Humax unit with this new (series 3) Tivo HD XL DVR unit.

1. Our new Tivo HD XL DVR was delivered from Amazon within a week, and Verizon came out two days after I called and installed the 2 CableCARDs necessary to use each of the DVR's two tuners with FIOS. Installation took a couple of hours, mainly spent fiddling with FIOS service settings that inadvertently got reset when the tech decommissioned the old Verizon DVR boxes before enabling the new CableCARDs. The tech was friendly and knowledgeable - but said that CableCARDs were still fairly rare, and few field techs had experence with them yet. (He was the only one in the area, I think).

2. The Tivo DVR software is miles better than the Verizon and Comcast DVR software in terms of stability, features and capability. I've always found Verizon's DVR software to be buggy and temperamental, though in many ways better than Comcast's offering in terms of feaures and user interface. (...Which is perhaps why Comcast now bundles Tivo with their service!)

3. The biggest drawback to Tivo's DVR software is that the menu system is a bit quirky, showing signs of having "evolved" over a period of time, trying to shoehorn new features into a menu structure that wasn't really designed with such capabilities in mind. Tivo also tries to make it fun, with some "user friendly" names for things that I find bit confusing. Even so, once you get used to it, the capabilities of the system far outweigh these minor annoyances. Plus, it does't crash, do weird things, or freeze - like Verizon's DVR's do!

4. This DVR's storage capability is awesome - 160 hours of HDTV storage, compared to 20 hours for the Verizon box. Or, depending on the amount of compression you choose, you can store up to about 1300 hours of analog TV recordings!

5. If that weren't enough, Tivo offers a free download "Tivo Desktop", that allows you to turn computers on your home network into extensions of the Tivo system - you can move recordings between the Tivo DVR and computers having the desktop software, burn DVD's of recordings (if not copy protected), and play the recordings on your computer. This in essence gives you unlimited storage capacity for recordings, as well as allowing you to take your DVR recordings with you on your laptop. The software works well and is easy to use. It also allows you to take photos on your computer and display them on your TV.

6. The CableCARDs cost $4.99/month to lease from Verizon. So, for roughly $10.00/month plus Tivo's monthly service fee of $15, I'm getting a far better and more capable system than Verizon's DVR boxes, which can be leased for $20/month.

7. I would have preferred getting one of the new Multichannel "M-Cards", instead of the two single channel cableCARDs Verizon supplied, but these newer cableCARDs are not yet available in the Boston area. Only one "M-Card" would have been needed instead of two of the older single channel cards. Newsgroup postings indicate Verizon is rolling out these newer cards in other parts of the country, but the tech said they are not yet available here in the Boston area.

8. The one feature that I wish was easier to find on the Tivo Box is a meter showing how much storage space is used and available. On the Verizon and Comcast solutions, this was a simple click or two. On the Tivo box, it is deeply buried and the display is not nearly as easy to interpret.

All in all, I am quite satisfied with the Tivo service, the new DVR and "Tivo Desktop" software, and Verizon's support for it (via cableCARDs). My only complaints are the quirky Tivo menus and lack of an easy to access storage space meter, but those are minor issues.

I will give the Tivo HD XL DVR 4 stars - an excellent box, and the best high end HDTV choice on the market at present, but it could use some minor improvements.

I had a generic DVR from my caable company for several years before I decided to make the leap to TiVo, and I'm glad I did. I am seriously in love with this machine. I'm even considering marriage, though I think such a union would only be legal in Massachusetts.

Let me begin by saying that a DVR (regardless of the brand) will change the way you watch TV. And if you have one with a dual tuner, it means you never have to choose between two favorite competing shows. As a result, I pretty much stopped watching "live" TV years ago. With a DVR you can just record everything, save it for later, and then scan through the commercials.

And the beautiful thing about the remote with this unit (not sure if this is true all TiVo remotes) is that you can scan through the ads at three different speeds. When you hit play, it automatically backs up the recording several seconds, This is great if you overshoot the end of the commercials. It can be annoying if you're trying to pinpoint a very specific scene you just saw, but there's a great slo-mo button for that. The pause button also provides a very stable freeze frame image. A separate button automatically backtracks the action eight seconds. And if you're watching TV in the dark, the backlit remote with this particular TiVo is great.

My previous DVR from the cable company limited me to about 25 hours of HD recordings. If you follow several weekly series, and then add a couple of HBO HD movies, that 25 hours can fill up surprisingly quick. Keeping ample available recording space sometimes became a challenge.

TiVo's HD XL, on the other hand, gives you over 150 hours (according to the unit's diagnostics screen, it's 157 hours) of HD storage. Looking at it another way, that's the equivalent of over six seasons of "24". And if that's STILL not enough, you can purchase a separate expansion unit that will add another 75 hours of storage.

There is a Season Pass Manager that enables you to record either every single episode of a show on a particular channel, or just the first run episodes. And if the time slot changes, the TiVo (like any DVR) will make the schedule changes for you. A separate screen allows you to record specific weekly timeslots. This is great if you want to record, say, the 8 PM Sunday showing of The Simpsons regardless of whether it's a rerun WITHOUT also recording the additional 12 showings of the series during the week.

Another great feature: You can use the Season Pass Manager to add an additional minute or two (or more) to your recordings. This is handy, since some networks let their shows run long. NBC often does this with Heroes, and you would otherwise end up losing the last scene.

The unit has two tuners, so you're limited to recording (or recording and watching) two channels at a time. Again, the Season Pass Manager allows you to "prioritize" your recordings in case conflicts between three or more potential shows arise. You can, however, record two shows while watching a third that has already been recorded.

If you have a Netflix account, TiVo allows you to access it through the Videos On Demand screen. Of the 60 or so movies in my Netflix queue, about 10 or so were available for streaming at no additional charge. You can also rent (or even purchase) downloads from Amazon (you have to watch the rentals within 30 days). Both these features require an actual broadband connection. You can either use an ethernet cable or the separately available wireless USB connector. While setting it up is a cinch, its effectiveness will also depend on the location and range of your router.

TiVo--like most electronic equipment--generates a lot of heat. There is a fan on the back of the unit, but you still have to be careful about putting the machine into tight, enclosed entertainment centers. Again, there is a diagnostics screen that tells you the internal temperature and whether it's "normal." There is no actual power button; however, you can use the remote to put the unit in "standby" mode. This reduces the heat buildup somewhat if you're not actually using the TiVo.

I enjoyed the HD XL so much, I ended up also buying a TCD652160 for the bedroom. Though that model only holds 20 hours of HD recordings, you can network the two machines through your broadband router and transfer most recordings back & forth between the two machines. Though I haven't run into a problem with regular broadcast network shows, the Amazon recordings will be locked down to the specific machine that first recorded them. I've also run into this with some shows on the History Channel.

if you want, you can also place two machines near one another and share the same TV. There is a switch on the remote that can actually distinguish between TiVo 1 and TiVo 2.

Finally, the cablecard set up can be a major pain in the neck. Though a single multi-stream card can handle both tuners, my local cable office only had the single stream cards available. That meant TWO cards for each machine. The installer went through his entire stack of 20 cards before he found four that worked properly. The big hangup was with the premium channels for some reason. It literally took him almost three hours of trying, with several calls to his tech support office.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to call Massachusetts about a marriage license....

Oh, my God, I had a series 2 Tivo with my regular tube TV, but when I upgraded to the Bravia 40", I knew I wanted the HD Tivo. This thing has a MASSIVE capacity that I haven't come near to filling (thank God, too, I'd be a total couch potato if it were.) You get the same ease of use, fantastic listing of upcoming titles, but with some very cool new features.

The price is steep, but I had gotten a promotional $100 off coupon via E-mail from the Tivo folks, and that made it easier to pull the trigger. Also, the lifetime membership pays for itself in the end (wish I had known about that option when I had my series 2 all those years paying monthly!)

All in all, so happy with this purchase, and for any newbies, I cannot say enough wonderful things about the folks at Tivo tech/customer support. They are very knowledgeable and courteous.

My local cable company was giving me major run-around setting up installation of the cable cards (bad/false information, totally clueless staff.)

Tivo actually CALLED MY CABLE COMPANY FOR ME, set up a three-way phone call with the cable installer, and was there in the background of the call to clarify/assist if I or the cable guy needed clarification of what was to be installed.

All in all, a great product that I don't know how people live without!

I've been using MythTV (open source settop box) for about two years now but with the digital broadcast switchover, my box is no longer going to function as a tuner so I turned to TiVo as the cheaper alternative to rebuilding an entirely new system.

PROS

TiVo is an appliance. You plug it in, connect it to your TV (I use HDMI) and network the device. Thats it. SIMPLE. This has a high "wife usage" factor which pleases me greatly. The remote is very intuitive and easy to use. Even my 5 year old has figured it out

The User Interface (UI) is decent. It's not perfect but it is intuitive. Recording a program has never been easier. Just hit the red record button and its done.

The XL has a TeraByte of storage. WOW! Thats a lot of HD shows to record. You could basically do the entire Olypics in one shot!

CONS

No commercial skip. Gross. MythTV had a commercial detection system that would accurately skip ALL commercials from every show. It's WEAK that TiVo does not employ this method to their product. In fact, there is nothing but "fast forward" to skip commercials. That sucks. This is a big drawback for me. I was so spoiled of commercial free TV for so many years that this makes it very difficult to go back to.

The UI is not perfect. Looking up programs on a remote is tough. Looking up programs using a non qwerty ABC grid that is only 4 columns wide is horrific. C'mon! Seriously? I would rate this 3 stars if it were not for the fact that you could use the web to establish program recording.

It is difficult for me to upload my family movies to this thing. They should make the interface easier to get to when uploading home movies. I know it can be done but using a 3rd party web site to upload my flicks only for them to download back to my machine is wasteful. Plus now this 3rd party has copies of my personal videos. TiVo needed to have a network "jail" portion of the disk that allows access to the drive via the network using file sharing protocols found on all of our computers. Or perhaps a "custom" USB thumb drive that works only with TiVo to transfer video files.

Overall, TiVo is a good appliance. It's ease of use and setup makes it a good product.

It gets 4 stars though because it is not perfect. Perfect is MythTV which is FREE to obtain and has NO monthly fees with MORE functionality. It just required more system resources on a computer than I happened to have budgeted for so TiVo was the better alternative for this year.

Two years from now, I promise I will be dumping TiVo for MythTV once I get a rocking computer set up but that is another story and review.

I am a huge Tivo fan and have owned multiple units in the past, so it disappoints me to have to report this. Unfortunately, there is a known manufacturing defect in Tivo HD XL units currently in stock, (affecting units manufactured since November 2009).

I recently purchased a new HD XL DVR and was forced to return it and then a replacement unit that followed due to manufacturing defects. There are now multiple reports in the Tivo support forums documenting the issue (see links below). Tivo technical support (level 2) confirms the issue, but has no current solution, and Tivo is no longer replacing defective units which suggests the issue is widespread. The problem manifests itself in a soft-reboot freeze which renders the unit incapable of passing the initial "Welcome Screen", or undertaking routine software updates without manual intervention (ie, future updates will lock up the unit and your programming will likely not be available until you hard re-boot it). The primary reason that I am posting this information is to save others the extraordinary amount of time that I have wasted in configuration and set-up of each of these new boxes and only then to learn that the problem has no fix. Tivo customer service technical support has very little information on the problem besides acknowledging that it exists.

Unfortunately, Tivo has neither recalled the units from inventory nor proposed any solutions at this time. Amazon has been very responsive to customer concerns and returns on this matter, and I couldn't speak more highly of the Tivo service on working units. I hope and expect that Tivo identifies a solution here, but I suggest that potential purchasers seek updated information.
[...]

2/25/10 Update: it appears that Tivo has pushed a firmware update onto most of the affected HD XL units remotely according to multiple reports in the Tivo Community forum. Additionally, Amazon and other retailers were out of stock of these particular units for several weeks since the defect appeared earlier suggesting Tivo may have addressed this technical defect with new inventory.

However, there is a new product announcement for an updated Tivo Premiere Series to be made on March 2nd which is expected to be a vastly improved unit carrying the next generation of technology and expanded features, so interested buyers should look to the announcement and upcoming details to make a decision about which Tivo is best for them.