What am I missing? Why do you guys like tiVos? Am I seeing responses from guys who got lucky and got working units, and the ones who hate them have not bothered to write here?

Don't get me wrong. I love the way they work. When they work. For as long as they work. After the insanely stupid amount of time, start to finish, that it takes to set them up.

The distributors I used to buy TiVo from have stopped carrying them. One says they get too many returns. The other says Philips no longer makes TiVo. (Sure enough, the Philips site no longer says YiVo and the TiVo site no longer says Philips.) I take both of these facts to be less than ringing endorsements.

The TiVo setup is indeed easy, with a couple of exceptions --

If you are an installer, the amount of time needed for download and "cudchewing" (20 minutes of download, up to three hours of processing) of the data makes it very hard to set up a TiVo. The DSS needs to be up and working before you start. In my typical installs, this means I am nearly done with the install, then need to hang around for the TiVo to slowly do its thing, or hand it over to the client.

I can't remember the exact situation, but some change (IR code on an RCA DSS?) that turned out not to work exactly required the whole damn setup again.

The last time I installed a TiVo over my own objections for a client who HAD to have one, it died three weeks later. I saved the installation by changing her over to a Replay, but she liked the way the TiVo worked much better. I literally lost the client because I would not eat the unit and go buy a replacement at retail (it was a Philips and they had just quit making them). Oh well. Let's say I do not support TiVo just now.

On the other hand, I have installed the Sony DSS/TiVo combination units (T6000, I think) and they set up in moments. Of course, they would not TiVo-ize the cable that ran through them, and two out of the four units I bought were dead on arrival or soon after. My distributor does not carry them any more, either.

Call me disenchanted. Tell me what TiVo product is a hell of a lot quicker, start to finish, to set up, including all dialing and cudchewing, and I might start to sell them again. Oh, yeah, it has to work longer than it takes for a raw egg to start stinking.

Ernie