the more things change...

[borghe]

So it's funny.. HD Tivo has completely changed my attitude about HD. Previously while I was certainly interested in upcoming HDTV announcements, it could never be said that I was truly excited about them.. every new show in HD meant another show that I would have to either schedule time to sit in front of the TV (not easy on my schedule) or just forget about seeing in HD in general.

And it wasn't just HD program announcements, it was station announcements. When would WITI move their transmitter? When would they or WDJT step up the power? Yes I was interested in knowing these things, but again at the end of the day it would probably have very little impact on my actual TV viewing.

With the Tivo all of that has changed. I am now on pins and needles for the newest announcements. I am now finding that watching HD is finally the joy I was always wishing it would be. Being able to go out to dinner with my wife last night and still be able to see Helter Skelter in HD last night (without commercials as well) was truly a joyous experience. Knowing that even though that preempted me from recording Deadwood that I would still have another oppotunity to record Deadwood on Wednesday made me not care in the slightest.

And conversely, I scour the boards, Tivo, AVS, this board, for even the slightest news or conversation of HD programming or technologies.

I can honestly say that the HD Tivo has finally allowed me to enjoy HD. Finally not made it such a chore to enjoy my investment, both in time and money. To put it simply, I am now enjoying watching TV without compromise. I get the quality of HD and the ability to time shift without having to give up one for the other.

The point of this message is this... Whether you are a TWC customer waiting for the SA8000HD to finally hit, a Voom customer waiting for the DVR throughout the household solution, or a customer of another provider and just waiting for the prices to come down.. the point is that whatever the case may be, it is well worth the wait. sure you might be waiting a month or two, or maybe even a year or more for pricing to hit, but it will be worth it when it finally comes through. Once again, it changes the way you watch TV...

The one thing I will say to those waiting for pricing to be more affordable for the non-TWC solutions, I would strongly reconsider what your acceptable price is... Originally when the Tivo went to pre-order I screamed to myself "$1000 is a steal!!!" After my card was charged, it finally arrived, there were some bugs, etc.. I was a little cooler. Maybe $1000 was a little steep. I didn't quite have that excited feeling I did back in January when I ordered it.. I started to feel maybe I jumped the gun a little bit on this and maybe I really was crazy.. but then this week, between seeing CSI, Without a Trace, Frasier, Helter Skelter, and having a number of HDNet movies waiting to be watched, I can honestly say that it was worth every last one of those 100,000 pennies. To even see myself typing that list out makes me smirk just thinking that even one month ago, I would be lucky to hit one of those shows on that list in HD, and now I am seeing all of them. It makes me wonder exactly how cheap I am REALLY going to wait for the unit to get before buying one for the bedroom.. I am just saying think about it, because frankly this is proving to be more useful, and more entertaining, than even my giddy self though would be the case in January. It is TV without compromise, something I never even thought about until I realized that sometime this week, I actually started taking the unit for granted.

Anyways, hopefully soon TWC will roll out their DVR, and hopefully prices will start dropping on this stuff and satellite companies will start the subsidies on it. Everyone NEEDS one of these, and my only advice to you is to decide if maybe having it sooner really is worth that extra $50-200....

[digdugm]

Welcome to the club, there are a few of use out here that have been time-shifting HD for a while now. Yes its not TiVo and only local networks but its still more than most. Personally I was so addicted to TiVo (sd) that I couldn't wait for even them (HD) to come out. I've spent well over a grand outfitting my home computer, but now its so much more than just a HD PVR. DVD's look alot better up rezied to 1080i and its nice to be able to burn off some things (ei. the suprebowl, daytona 500, masters, kigdom hosiptal, and so on). Well if Directv ever gets upto 12-15 non-premium HD channels the TiVo would be worth the cost. Hey by the way thanks for keeping us updated with the TiVo and please keep it up, I'been very interested for along time now.
:rock:

[gparris]

I am envious of you both...I wanted to record 2 HD shows on at one time and watch the third (in HD from a day earlier).

Could I? Heck no...  

But I 'll bet my relatives in Austin, Texas could...they have HD DVR, but not Milwaukeeland (yet).
Why are we so behind here sometimes?

I never use my HD box until I know I can watch in real time and this means I have to sit through all the commercials. Some commercials are actually cool (really) and I don't run through some, but most are pretty lame and not in HD anyway.
I use the DVR box as my TV source until I can watch the HD part or its premium channel in HD in real-time...kind of makes you want to ask why you have the HD box at all sometimes.

Recording is what will take HD to new HDTV owners for a one-box solution beside more channels and hopefully HD DVDs.

So enjoy in Tivo what TWC is still testing : HD...at this rate, if 7S comes out with a lot more HD from Directv (and I have $2 thousand) I will switch, if only to prove a point to TWC: quit pulling our chain, OK?