10-19-2004, 08:00 AM
Internal hard drive only. If you want to record a show for someone else, you'll still want to use a VCR.
It does also let you pause live TV.
It also has a sort of Amazon-like feature. You can thumbs-up or thumbs-down a program and the next day the TiVo will have a list of other shows you might like, based on what you've said you liked so far.
Also, if you hook it into your network and use always-on broadband, you can schedule it to record something while you're away. So like you're at work and someone says there's this awesome show on at 5pm, before you can get home, you can remotely tell your TiVo to record it.
The service is where the expense is, though. It's either $12/month for the subscription or $300/lifetime of the product. I don't think you have to have the service, but without that the TiVo won't know what shows are playing when.
Given what the service does for you, though, I think it's well worth it.
It does also let you pause live TV.
It also has a sort of Amazon-like feature. You can thumbs-up or thumbs-down a program and the next day the TiVo will have a list of other shows you might like, based on what you've said you liked so far.
Also, if you hook it into your network and use always-on broadband, you can schedule it to record something while you're away. So like you're at work and someone says there's this awesome show on at 5pm, before you can get home, you can remotely tell your TiVo to record it.
The service is where the expense is, though. It's either $12/month for the subscription or $300/lifetime of the product. I don't think you have to have the service, but without that the TiVo won't know what shows are playing when.
Given what the service does for you, though, I think it's well worth it.