Author Topic: Bye bye, Tivo  (Read 2355 times)

ober

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Bye bye, Tivo
« on: February 13, 2017, 09:57:11 AM »
SO... this started out as me trying to get faster internet.  We have Time Warner and we've had ~15mbps down/1 up for a while and it was impacting my wife who is on a different floor from the router and uses the internet pretty heavily for her job. 

So last week I went online and decided to upgrade.  The options were shitty but I decided to go $10/month more and jump to a blazing speed of 20 down and 2 up (the up impacts her more than the down).  I figured we'd try that and see if we need to go farther (because I'm cheap AF).

Long story short, I had to call them because my account had codes that were so fucking old that they didn't even work in their systems to upgrade online.  They moved me to a 'Spectrum' plan which is what TWC is now.  The new plan doesn't support the old cable card/tuning adapter setup that was required for my Tivo so I had to switch to a Spectrum DVR.  The new plan, however comes with a free combo modem/router AND 60mbps down/5 up.  The new DVR supports 6 simultaneous recordings (vs. 2 with my Tivo) and has about double the space.  And... and... I'm only paying $13 more than I was previously.

So overall I'm pretty happy, but I am sad to say goodbye to the Tivo.  A few things I'll miss:

1) The Tivo remote is by far the most comfortable and easy to use remote I've ever had - the new one from Spectrum is bulky and a lot of the buttons are placed inconveniently.
2) The interface is pretty meh on the new DVR.  Super basic and managing recordings is mildly annoying.
3) Wishlists - not sure how to tell the new DVR to record any new Cavs/Steelers games.  With the Tivo, wishlists just handled that.

There are other minor things but I'll leave it at that.  Just thought I'd share that it's worth poking the bear if you're still struggling with shitty internet.

KnuckleBuckett

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Re: Bye bye, Tivo
« Reply #1 on: February 14, 2017, 06:05:15 AM »
We have Comcast and seem to be one of the few super happy customers.  They just dropped off a new modem/router/WiFi device and DVR.  Both of which are superb.  The DVR has a Netflix app and is voice controlled (yeah and it seems to work).  The WiFi is better than my router significantly so in some cases.  Our speeds are typically 210 to 250 Mbps.  We have had them going on fourteen years with very few complaints.  Every time we deal with them the experience improves.  Fingers crossed it stays that way.


ober

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Re: Bye bye, Tivo
« Reply #2 on: February 14, 2017, 10:47:07 AM »
I have to say that the recent experience with Time Warner/Spectrum was pretty decent.  They actually tried to save me money.  :o  The jury is still out if my router that I just bought a year ago is any worse or better than the one they gave me.  The 5GHz range isn't great but I don't think it is on my old router either.  I think I had my old router setup incorrectly as well because I had my 5 and 2.4 radios set to the same SSID.  Oopsie.  My wife, who is on the opposite side of the house and down a level still gets 30mbps down and 5 up on the 2.4 band while I get 70mbps down and 5 up connected directly to the router.  I think that's reasonable. 

I'm also pretty happy with their apps (available on iOS/Google and Roku).  So now I can watch live TV upstairs without buying anything additional from them.  I just wish I had access to my DVR through the app.

I wouldn't call the DVR superb and I think it's a downgrade in general from the Tivo experience, but I will also say it's not as bad as I was expecting.

charlie

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Re: Bye bye, Tivo
« Reply #3 on: February 14, 2017, 12:52:59 PM »
We got stuck with Comcast because we're now in a forest and our landlord doesn't really want satellite dishes attached anyway.

It's a lot better than it was five years ago, that's for sure. Still only mediocre (and I'm also pissed they told me a house call to fix something would be free and then charged me $70).

I'm not surprised you had to give up TiVo. It's probably a better product, but the providers have gotten a lot closer and can bundle so much other stuff that I don't see how it will make sense for anybody trying to be reasonably economical.

Jake

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Re: Bye bye, Tivo
« Reply #4 on: February 18, 2017, 08:26:33 AM »
Quote
It's a lot better than it was five years ago, that's for sure. Still only mediocre

what are you comparing it to. I think I've had Comcast for two years now, and coming off direct TV it was a vast improvement in experience.
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charlie

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Re: Bye bye, Tivo
« Reply #5 on: February 24, 2017, 03:23:27 AM »
It's been almost five years since I've had DirecTV, but that was definitely better than Comcast is now.