Product Description

The future of television enjoyment is to watch what you want, when you want. No more scheduling around broadcasting time, no more searching through videotapes, and no more missed shows!Philips Personal Video Recorder with the TiVo service gives you complete control over your TV viewing experience. Pause, rewind, slow-motion and instant replay live TV so you don't miss a minute of the action. Automatically record all your favorite shows so you'll always have them to watch when you're ready. TiVo's unique Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down buttons allow you to personalize your viewing, so that TiVo can find programs that match your interests.

Product Details

• Brand: Philips
• Model: HDR212

Features

• 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

Customer Reviews

TiVo on the Cheap
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.

This is the pefect Tivo to UPGRADE... yes upgrade!!
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!

Wow!
I'd heard of TIVO when it was first announced, but didn't think much more about it until recently when a coworker bought one. All he did was rave about it. So my wife and I bought an HDR212 (because according to www.tivofaq.com it has one hard disk and is fairly easy to add storage too).

We've used it for a few days and it's clear this IS THE ONLY WAY to watch TV. No more suffering through commercials, no more watching something you hate because nothing else is on. After you've rated a few shows your "Now Showing" list of recorded programs always has something new and worth watching. I was amazed at how well the TIVO guesses shows you might like to watch.

All in all, this is a great product. Forget replacing your VCR. Get a DVD play for renting movies and a TIVO for time shifting.