Philips HDR212 TiVo 20 Hour Digital Video Recorder Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)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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Product Description:
With up to 20 hours of program recording capacity, the Philips HDR212 isa personal TV recorder that's a tapeless alternative to analog VCRs. The HDR212uses a 2 GB hard drive and TiVo technology to store compressed audio and videodata. This server can pause live broadcasts and resume a program where you leftoff or return to real time. The remote allows you to rewind and fast-forwardpretaped shows or skip recorded commercials.
Setup cables included in the package are a 50-foot phone cord and splitter thatconnects to an existing phone line. The line downloads TV listings andprogramming as well as TiVo's Suggestions feature and TiVolutionMagazine, a guide from TiVO on recommended programs to watch.TiVo charges $9.95 a month for its weekly listing service, TiVolution Magazine, and its Suggestions feature, or you can pay a one-time service charge of $249.

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