Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've had a TiVo or two since the Series 1. Some observations: 1.) Bought one here from Amazon and one from TiVo directly. Buying from Amazon is just so much better than buying from the manufacturer... TiVo shipped theirs via some weird shipping arrangement, whereas Amazon Prime ships it 2-day and tracking is always accurate. I had an upgrade offer from TiVo, but by the time they charge tax, etc. the price was like $429 and Amazon's $499 price on this was offset by their $50 Amazon OnDemand credit - so kind of an ok deal to go with Amazon. A no-brainer if you don't have a TiVo upgrade offer. 2.) These units are slick-looking. Sure, some people will complain that they have lost their fancy clock on the front, etc., but the thinner height and black case are great - looks great with our 40" LCD sitting on top of it. 3.) Smoothest install ever - and that was with Comcast. Comcast in my area (Pittsburgh) drives me nuts - in fact, these new TiVos were impulse buys after Comcast screwed us with not being able to "transfer" two of their DVR's with our recordings on them to our new address - they said it simply wasn't possible and they would need to collect the boxes and give us new ones. Yep, we lost all of our recordings on their boxes. Idiots. So I was surprised when the installer showed up with the CableCards and we had two of them up-and-running in 15 minutes. Quite a bit different than my first TiVo CableCard installs from yesteryear. But probably a few things in my favor: A.) When booking the appointment, I stressed I needed the installer to bring M-cards (multistream) instead of S-cards (single stream). I also stressed to them that the installer should actually bring 4 of them, as it is not uncommon to have bad cards floating around in inventory, etc. I stressed that these notes be placed in the work order prominently. Low and behold - the installer showed up on-time, with M-cards and 4 of them! B.) The installer hadn't done many and was more than willing to let me guide the process. I had the boxes set-up and through Guided Setup, latest system software upgrade installed, etc. before the appointment so that all that was needed was popping the M-card in. I also showed him best practice of taking a picture with my iPhone of the CableCard (to capture serial number and such) *before* putting the card in (b/c ejecting the card after inserting it can re-generate new pairing info, etc.) and recording the relevant information that appears on the screen after inserting the card. I can't tell you how many prior CableCard appointments I've had where the installer has jacked things up so badly by popping them out so many times to get information or doublecheck if it was a 0 (zero) or an O (oh). If only Comcast would let customers pick-up the cards and install them themselves... I thought some areas did, but the Pittsburgh market evidently doesn't as I asked several people (on the phone, in person at the service center, etc.). C.) You have no control over this one, BUT I LUCKED OUT - the back-office person the installer called into to activate the CableCards was *COMPETENT*. He didn't even need to repeat one digit of any number and the person on the backend properly entered the information, told us to go to the Info screen and wait til a MSG count went past 3500 and voila - all channels, even premium channels, worked perfectly from the start. It seems Comcast has gotten a lot better with CableCards ever since their newer set-top boxes are required by the FCC to have CableCards in them (permanently mounted, but nonetheless, they are CableCards and work the same way on their system as they would on third-party boxes. Or, I recognize that after years of bad Comcast service, I was finally overdue for a great experience. 4.) ABSOLUTELY NO LOCKUPS or problems here - at all - in my two weeks I've had them. I don't know why other people are having such issues other than luck of the draw - but my experience has been perfect. 5.) I was introduced to iTivo for the Mac - which is awesome! Transfers and converts TiVo shows (none copyright flagged content) to a number of formats - even imports into iTunes for auto transfer onto your iPhone for on-the-go viewing. What am I disappointed with? A few things - typical TiVo moves: * Why can't they build wireless into these boxes? Having an external adapter stinks. * Along those lines, why release your latest boxes and THEN a month or two later plan on making available a Wireless-N adapter for the box. Being stuck with Wireless-G to transfer recordings is lousy. Yes you can use a 3rd-party wireless bridge, etc. and I used to do that kind of stuff, but these days I just want solutions that work well out of the box! * TiVo did indeed get these boxes out before they are polished. It's kind of lousy that the HD menus are rather topical and when you drop down into deeper menus the old standard-def stuff is still there. The boxes can be a bit laggy when doing things on them. I still hate the fact that flipping through digital channels is slower than old-school TV's - and on TiVo there's like 3-5 seconds of gray screen between each channel. * TiVo is a bit abusive on their subscription model. Basically, their goal is to lock you into a contract which you basically can't escape from. I've paid an early termination fee from them before and wasn't happy about it, but hey, I signed what I signed and knew it from the start... All in all though, very happy with our purchases of these two and our luck with CableCards this go-around. We'll be close to getting pay-back on the purchase of the equipment after 2-years of not paying $16 per Comcast DVR - and have a lot more functionality/flexibility to boot. I hope the above has been helpful - just always know what you are getting into with technology. The reviews from people that had no clue CableCards were needed/used are useless - that information is everywhere. If you aren't willing to deal with growing pains associated with emerging technology, just stick to the cable company's boxes - you'll get some stability with the trade-off of less functionality.