Customer Reviews

TiVo TCD746320 Premiere DVR, Black

5 star:		(462)
4 star:		(209)
3 star:		(60)
2 star:		(51)
1 star:		(95)

 

 

I've been a TiVo owner since 2003 and this is their best TiVo to date. But it isn't perfect. It's a shame that the new HD user interface is still a work in progress. It is buggy and slow. You still have the option of using the old user interface, which is what I do. The processor in the TiVo Premiere is more powerful than the TiVo HD. But the extra processing power is mainly for the new user interface. It has the same recording abilities that the TiVo HD had with the exception of also supporting 1080p. It would have been nice if TiVo would have added a third tuner. Like the TiVo HD, the Premiere only supports cable TV and OTA antenna programming. The Premiere is almost an inch shorter than the HD and is more energy efficient. The main reason I bought the Premiere wasn't to upgrade from my existing TiVo HD, but I wanted another TiVo for the kid's playroom. If you already own a TiVo HD and you are looking to upgrade, you might want to save your money for the next TiVo series. If you don't already have a TiVo or you don't have an HD-capable TiVo for your HDTV, this is a great purchase. While the upgrades from the TiVo HD are lacking, it is still the best DVR on the market.

We use our TiVo with a large antenna in the attic and a $9 per month Netflix subscription. We have more than enough to watch between the DVD's we get in the mail, streaming Netflix to our TiVo from the Internet, and the 30+ digital channels we receive OTA. Actually, TiVo makes using an antenna acceptable for us. It records all the shows we like no matter when they are on and we watch them in our time. I was able to buy the TiVo Premiere and a lifetime subscription with the money we saved over the past year by dropping cable. TiVo also supports Internet video rentals from Amazon and Blockbuster, but we prefer using Netflix because it's cheaper.

This TiVo can record up to 45 hours of HD programming. That sounds like a lot, but you'll be surprised by how quickly it fills up. You can add an external drive Western Digital My DVR Expander 1 TB eSATA Desktop External Hard Drive WDG1S10000VN (Black) to add more recording space. The one big caveat with this method of adding recording space is you'll lose all your recordings on the external drive and your TiVo if you decide to remove it later. The other option is to purchase the Premiere XL TiVo TCD748000 Premiere XL DVR (Black). It will allow you to record up to 150 hours of HD programming and comes with a backlit remote. I upgraded the internal hard drive in my TiVo HD myself and kept the original drive as a backup. I'm waiting to hear from others before I attempt to upgrade the internal hard drive in my TiVo Premiere. To date, no one knows if it can be done or not.

FYI: TiVo has a couple of specials going for existing TiVo users. You can either get $200 off the lifetime subscription for a new Premiere (if you already have a lifetime subscription) or receive a 20% discount off the Premiere itself (if you don't have a lifetime subscription). I believe you must purchase your TiVo directly from TiVo to get the discounts. TiVo offers free shipping, but you'll have to pay taxes on the hardware.

According to a TiVo press release, TiVo is coming out with a wireless N network adapter in May with a retail price of $89.99. They are also coming out with an optional slide-out QWERTY TiVo remote later this year. The remote will utilize a Bluetooth USB dongle that will plug into the back of your TiVo HD or Premiere.

Update 4/18/2010:

I did give the new interface another shot for a couple of days. I like where they are going with it, but as I said before it isn't a finished product. It locked up on me twice while flipping through the menus. As others have mentioned, if you drill down into the menu system you will eventually end up in the old menu system. They have a new option to list Oscar winning films. So I select a movie and it says it's available from Blockbuster. Cool, but I haven't been a member of Blockbuster for years so I go back and configure my TiVo not to search Blockbuster (nice feature). I then go back to the list of Oscar winning films and it still shows the same movie. I select the movie again and this time it tells me it's not available for me to watch. So why would I want to see a partial list of Oscar winning movies that currently aren't available for me to watch on my TiVo?

For people who have rated the TiVo Premiere one or two stars because of the new user interface, well I can't argue with them. Perhaps TiVo should have sold the Premiere with the old user interface enabled with the option of using the new beta user interface. I'm sure TiVo will push out updates in the future to fix the issues, but we're not talking about a few minor bugs here. I think TiVo released the new user interface way too early.

I've been using my TiVo Premiere for 3 weeks now with the old user interface. I've had no issues with it and it's as stable as my TiVo HD. However, I see little difference between my TiVo HD and my TiVo Premiere while using the old user interface. I would still rate the TiVo Premiere as 4 stars with the old user interface. But as I mentioned in my original review, it isn't much of an upgrade from the TiVo HD. One thing that the Premiere has over the HD is the ability to run the new user interface (which isn't ready for prime time).

Update 4/20/2011:

Well it's been a year now and my TiVo Premiere is still running strong as is my older TiVo HD. They both do everything I bought them for, which is to record live TV so I can watch it on my own time and to stream Netflix movies. I still can't recommend dumping your TiVo HD for a TiVo Premiere. But I can recommend a TiVo Premiere if you want to dump cable/satellite and need an HD DVR. One complaint I have about my TiVos, is that they don't have a screen saver that kicks in after a few minutes of pausing the TV. I worry about the kids pausing the TV too long and causing burn-in damage on our plasma TV. It would be an easy software fix for TiVo and yet they still haven't implemented anything like it on the HD or Premiere after all these years. The Netflix interface hasn't changed since they enabled the service for TiVos. If you want to watch a Netflix movie on your TiVo, you have to go to Netflix.com on your computer first to add movies to your instant movie queue. Then you can pick one of those movies from your queue on your TiVo to watch it. We have a WD TV Live Hub Western Digital WD TV Live Hub 1 TB Media Center and they have updated their Netflix interface so you can search for Netflix movies from your TV and add them to your queue without ever using your computer. Both devices play Netflix movies equally well.

It looks like TiVo has restructured their service fees since we bought ours. It appears that TiVo is no longer offering the lifetime subscription anymore. They have also increased their monthly rates to $20 a month if you buy the box from Amazon or anywhere else it is deeply discounted. You can pay full price ($300) directly from TiVo and then only pay $13 a month. I love my TiVo, but $20 a month is a bit steep. At the current price ($80/TiVo, $20/mo.), I would break even at 21 months with the lifetime subscription I purchased from TiVo last year. At full price ($300/TiVo, $13/mo.), I would break even at 16 months. I hope TiVo will reconsider offering the lifetime subscription to their users again. The lifetime subscription is the only reason we have two TiVos.

Tivo is something I didn't really understand at first on how different it is from a regular Cable DVR. I understand really well how cable technologies work with my degree in Computer Networking as well working for Level 3 support at my local cable company. I read all the reviews on this TiVo box and it was somewhat puzzleing. Some of these reviews do seem to be one sided...either a huge grudge against the cable company, a huge grudge against TiVo, or they just love everything. I'm going to play neutral and try to break it down so that is may seemed more central opinion.

I have owned my TiVo for a few weeks, and right now there really isn't too much a difference between it and my Cable DVR. The main thing is, if you want to save money in the long run...and I mean a long long run, the TiVo is a better deal. If you want stuff to work right away, the Cable DVR is the best way to go. Here are my reasons why:

Cost: The cost of the TiVo is expensive, but can be worth it in the long run. Most Cable DVRs run between $15-$20. My Time Warner Cable HD DVR is $17 and runs with no problems. Now, if you think that just buying a TiVo will save you money, well, look at all the other added costs. You will need to get a MultiStream CableCard from your cable company and they most likely aren't free. Mine is $2.85/month, and make sure when the technician comes out to install it, that it needs to be a MultiStream CableCard and not a Single Stream. Single Streams will not work with this box and you'll just have to wait longer for your box to start receiving digital channels. Also you'll need to get a service plan with TiVo. Tivo has monthly plans starting at $15/month (add that to the cable card and now you're not saving any money because it now cost as much per month for the TiVo as your CableDVR did), or you can choose quarterly, yearly, or get it over with with one payment. If you going for cost, you mind as well just pay it off all together right away. So, $299 for the DVR + $399 for the lifetime service plan =$700 one time charge. Now do the math. 700 divided by 17 is about 41 months. It will take 41 months to match what you're paying for with your cable DVR. Hence, if you're going for cost, don't plan on upgrading the box for a long time, because you're just going to be losing money.
Winner on Cost: Both- Depends if you're okay on keeping a box for about 4 years or not without an upgrade.

Time: The time to get a TiVo fully functional is a process that takes weeks. You need to have your TiVo set up and ready to go before the cable guy comes out to install the cablecard. Then after your cablecard is set up, as long as you don't live in a Switched Digital Video (SDV) area, you're ready to go. If you live in SDV area, you'll need to sign up for a Tuning adapter through your cable company (their free if you have Time Warner Cable). Mine will be shipped to me when one comes available, hence I don't have it yet. Without this box, you won't be able to watch all your channels. SDV works by turning TV streams off that are not in use, so if no one is watching BBCHD, and you want to watch it on your TiVo box without the Tuning Adapter, you won't be able to watch it. Call your cable company to see if this is needed if you think about going this route.
Also, the TiVo takes a long time to download the guide and set your channels on initial set up, so don't be in a hurry. It takes about 1.5-2hrs for the TiVo to install everything.
Winner on Time: Cable DVR

Content: I think TiVo wins this category big time. With Amazon on Demand, as well as HD streaming from Netflix, its really nice. The only problem is that if you subscribe to premium channels like HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, or Starz, you're not going to get their On Demands like standard cable customers get for free with their subscriptions. Amazon On Demand has more choices and better prices than Cable On Demand. Their have been reviews on here that say you can not watch your Amazon On Demands right when you order it...this is false. You have to give it about 2-3 min to download enough content, then you'll be able to start watching it (as long as you have high speed Internet about or above 7Mbps).
Winner on Content: TiVo

Interface: I'm very partial to both interfaces. My Cable DVR has a nice looking interface, but its harder to navigate all the settings and options. The TiVo interface is rough. The guide isn't a clear as I would have thought for an HD Box. You can see the letters are fuzzier than HD quality should be. Both boxes fail at using the remote to search for programming. It takes forever to type in a show, or log into YouTube off the TiVo. I wish either one would develop a Wii concept for better interaction. The TiVo's is better at interacting with you. TiVo will help you find suggestions for your programming you like with the ratings on which you give each show. Plus, you can choose what to record off of TiVo's website, which is really nice. I know the cable companies will soon be coming out with this, but as of this review, they aren't out yet.
Winner of Interface: Tivo

Extra Features: So, each box has its special features. My Cable DVR has Caller ID on TV which is really nice and can't be done on the TiVo. Also, Cable On Demands and Pay Per Views will not work at all on a TiVo until they become Tru2Way compliant. TiVo's extra features include access to online vendors like YouTube and Netflix. The other really nice thing that TiVo comes with is the ability to transfer your recored shows to your computer so you can burn them to DVDs if you so wish. This is a very nice feature to have especially when you do networking like me. So, if you can give up Caller ID on TV and your Cable On Demands, then you'll be fine with the TiVo. Also, TiVo does have multi room viewing, but you'll need to have multiple TiVo's in order to do this.
Extra Features Winner: TiVo

Customer Support: Either way, if you have to contact either the Cable Company or TiVo for customer support due to technical issues, you'll probably won't be happy. We as Americans want our stuff fixed and working now, not until the box can be replaced or a tech to come out. So, you'll have to put these grudges aside for now. Remember, you own your TiVo box. After you buy it, you're responsible for it. You break it, its your fault. TiVo will be more than willing to help you with your box issues, but if it is broken by a power surge or a natural disaster in your house, its your fault, not theirs so remember that before you call up and and start screaming. If you have your Cable DVR, if anything ever happened to it, its owned by the cable company. They'll take their box back and give you another, normally within a days notice.
Winner of Customer Service: Cable DVR

So, in summery, its about a 50/50 match. If you prefer light monthly costs, Time, and Support, its better to have the Cable Company's DVR. If you prefer on the Interface, Extra Features, and not upgrading your box for 4 years, then the TiVo is a good direction to go. All in all, I give this box 3/5 stars and if you do decide on getting it, I hope you enjoy yours as much as I do mine.

We're longtime Tivo users and have always gotten Lifetime service (aka Product Lifetime Service aka PLS) on our Tivo units. I'm a big fan of the Tivo interface and features, the reliability of the units, etc.

What Tivo and Amazon have done here, however, is a shameless bait-and-switch that is going to have me filing a complaint to the FTC, writing off to Consumerist and of course leaving this one-star review.

When I tried to activate the new HD Tivo, I was only offered one option: A 1-year subscription at $19.99 a month. Period. Nothing else.

- I can't pre-pay for a year, even at full price
- I can't commit to more than one year
- I can't go month-to-month AT ANY PRICE
- I can't add Product Lifetime Service, not even at the full $399 price

Even as an existing Tivo customer, I'm given NO other option. Hell, I can't even transfer my existing PLS to the new unit, SOMETHING I AM WILLING TO PAY MONEY FOR.

Me : "Hey Tivo, do you want $400?"
Tivo: "DERP"
Me : "No, really, I want to give you a bunch of my money. Here, take this wad of cash--"
Tivo: "DEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRP!" *sets cash on fire*

When I talked to Caitlin in Tivo's Activation department, she said that all of the units sold at these reduced prices (i.e. through Blockbuster, Best Buy, Amazon, etc) are ineligible for anything but the crappy, single service rate. It is part of a promotion being done during the holidays, which ends Dec. 31st, 2010. Caitlin also said that Tivo "may" offer other options after the 1 year commitment is up, but I am absolutely not going to buy into that without a written guarantee that I would be able to get PLS.

I will add that Caitlin was at all times professional and courteous, and I could tell from her tone that she's had to deal with more than a few stunned customers like me.

I am also very annoyed at Amazon.com for deceiving customers. No where in the description of the item or during the purchasing process was I told that I could only do a monthly plan. Under technical specifications, they merely say "Monthly service plan required". Well yes, of course you must have a service plan to use a Tivo. But what they actually mean is "ONLY MONTHLY SERVICE PLAN AVAILABLE". Tivo's own website also glosses over this, except buried deep into the payment plans option:

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2.1.2 When purchasing a TiVo Premiere box from a third party retailer at $99.99 (includes an instant $200 savings off MSRP) for the TiVo Premiere box or $299.99 (includes an instant $200 savings off MSRP) for the TiVo Premiere XL box, you may only subscribe to the TiVo Service on a monthly basis for $19.99 a month with a one (1) year commitment (renews monthly after one year).
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More than likely I will be returning this unit to Amazon, as it is completely useless to me. I may consider going through Tivo's upgrade program, but I will also be considering going to the DVR service offered by my cable company. After all, I was already planning to upgrade to digital cable and the DVR will be built into the cable box, and it'll only cost me $7 or $8 a month. I stand to save $230 that way.


In summary, if you buy this highly-discounted unit you will HAVE to pay an additional $240 over the course of one year in $19.99 increments. No other option exists, even if you are already a Tivo customer. And you have no guarantee you will EVER be allowed to get Lifetime Service, EVER.

The box itself is great, pity the Comcast on Demand doesn't work which may have stopped me getting it if I had known but it's their customer service that really would stop me ever considering one of their products again.

The first unit I had was an out-of-box failure, BBY did their best & replaced it as soon as they could but it wasn't the greatest first experience.

The second unit worked great until I was in the middle of the England US world cup game and it decided enough was enough & stopped working. 4 pizzas, lots of beer & 8 guys all looking at a green screen explaining that there has been a major fault detected with the unit.

So I phone Tivo - the first guy was obviously just following the script but I was told I had to pay to return their faulty product (policy on their website) & they would not ship me a return unit until they had it & then it would ship 5 to 7 business days - when you do not have a functioning TV & it's because their $300 box you might think they would be keen to get you a replacement sooner (oh I could have paid $300 to get them to pre ship it in about a week but that, in my opinion, is ridiculous).

Having been put through to a supervisor and been given the same run-around I asked to speak to a manager. I was told that his manager and above do not talk to customers - wow, arrogant & insulting after all it's folk like me who's money pays their wages.

Eventually we managed to agree that they would send me a shipping label so at least I didn't have to pay to ship it back, that never arrived despite several emails back to them so I was forced to pay it myself - if it's a deliberate delaying tactic it's good, worked on me - how desperate is he to have his TV working? - maybe he'll save us the shipping cost if we don't respond immediately - they have subsequently promised to refund the cost after I suggested my TV-free time may be spent writing reviews - we'll see.

I was also promised next day return but I somehow feel that may have been to get me off the phone and is very unlikely to happen.

The real kicker in all this though was the sheer gall to refuse to refund a portion of the pre-paid service fee to cover the time that the box is out of commission. To suggest that the quality of the box they build was actually Best Buys responsibility because they sold it to me (btw it's outside the 30 days but inside 90 days so I didn't even try BBY) and then say that I am still receiving the service they provide (despite the fact that the box does not work) was incredible. I wait to find out whether or not I actually see that - not going to hold my breath (especially as it will take between 2 & 3 weeks to get a replacement).


TiVo TCD746320 Premiere DVR #Black)TiVo TCD748000 Premiere XL DVR (Black)

Tivo just changed their service plan and discounted the tivo box price. So in other words, anyone that buys this box is locked into a $20 a month plan with no option for lifetime subscription plan. Not such a good deal after all! Talk about sticking it to the consumers. . . .

We had previously been using a Tivo Series 3 HD unit (upgraded from a Series 2) until it finally died about a month ago. To be fair, the unit was operating 24/7 and we used it quite heavily, so it was probably only a matter of time before something was going to give (probably the hard disk in this case). Being a long-time Tivo customer, I contacted their support and they quickly issued me a replacement box and allowed me to upgrade to a refurbished Tivo Premiere unit.

The box arrived in a few days, we had the cable company come out to install our digital Cablecard Readers (that was a fiasco but certainly not the fault of Tivo, only the cable company), and we had it up and running. We really like the new interface and the options that it gives us. Some of it is taking a little bit of getting used to since we were accustomed to the old menu screens and way of doing this, but it didn't take long to adjust (Note: old menu screens are available if you really don't like the new ones).

Our Premiere unit has been running for a little over a month now like a champ, and we've had no issues except for a couple of system freezes (which very likely could have been caused by the cablecard readers). The HD picture is gorgeous and we can record two shows while watching a third simultaneously. We can also stream movies and videos from Netflix, Amazon, Youtube, etc., and link the unit to our home network PCs for further file access and streaming.

Overall, we're extremely happy to be Tivo customers and have this unit. It is so much better than what most cable companies offer to their customers. Also, definitely consider getting a wireless adapter (and a router if you aren't set up with a network) so that you can unlock all of the features of your Tivo Premiere. We're also considering getting one of the new Slide Remote controls (with a QWERTY keyboard), but we're shopping around for the best price or waiting until the price comes down since it is still so new.

As a Tivo HD user, I pre ordered the Tivo Premiere on spec, and am unfortunately paying the price. This has almost no new features, period. The UI has been revamped, but once you get 2 or so menus deep, you almost always end up back at the old UI, which is a jarring and ugly experience. Even browsing web videos, youtube and netflix are all in the old Tivo HD format, further hammering home the nothing new here feeling. I would say about 35% of the UI has been revamped, the rest is being "worked on". That statement comes up alot in discussions of this unit. I was excited about Pandora on the Tivo Premiere, however that is being "worked on", expected in the 2nd half of 2010. I am told the lag the new interface has is being "worked on", while it is a multi core processor, Tivo Premiere does not have it enabled. While switching between the old menus and new menu's my tivo rebooted without notice, cutting off both programs. Oh yeah, did I mention it still only has 2 tuners. This unit does have alot of promise, but this is a glorified beta test unit. Having been a Tivo series 1 then a Tivo HD customer, I expected similar enhancements in a new generation. I cannot find one feature, even the new menu's were available to Tivo HD units in a beta form. not one reason at all for a current Tivo HD customer to upgrade. Like I said, this unit has promise, but only time will tell. For now, I am not impressed, nor do I feel it was even remotely worth the money.

Missing from description.

The new lower price comes with a catch.

A new Tivo service plan for one year at $20 / month is required.
The lifetime service plan is no longer offered on the unit sold through retailers.

Used to be a devoted tivo customer but not any more. This DVR arrived malfunctioning out of the box. Couldn't get the HD menus to turn on, also couldn't enable video downloads. Spent many hours on the phone with technical support. Their answer is for you to wait for future, unspecified software updates that "might" fix the problem. They expect you to endure a kind of open ended, unlimited trouble shooting process. Even if everything is operating I could tell that tivo is cutting corners. Not nearly as elegant as they used to be and VERY SLOW. Perhaps they are using junk components to save money. ... Anyway I was never able to get the DVR fully functioning and tivo wanted me to wait another five days for some other tech person to work on the issue. I had been troubleshooting for two weeks and some forty hours of phone time (no exaggeration!). I finally gave up and asked to ship the unit back for a full refund. Even though it was broken they required ME to pay return shipping and got nasty about it in the process. WHAT A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE!

Why are you only paying $99. You are required to sign up for a 1 year contract and at the premium price with no discounts allowed for multiple units. ... I've looked several times to see if this info listed on Amazon and couldn't find anything. I checked at the TiVo site also and couldn't locate anything. I was very dissatisfied that I didn't know this before purchase.