Filed in archive PVR by william on January 29, 2005

Since I use a Motorola PVR box with my cable service, I really haven't seen a reason to get Tivo. Once the TivoToGo service was announced I was ready to run out and get Tivo; but with all of the recent reviews, I'm not so sure. Most of the reviews I've seen for Tivo ToGo aren't very flattering. Here is a roundup of some of them:

The Washington Post
On my first try, a two-hour movie took roughly eight hours to copy to my laptop over a somewhat weak WiFi signal. After I redid my network to provide a much stronger signal in the living room, I still saw transfer times of about 2 1/2 hours for movies lasting two hours or less.

Obvious Diversions
In short, TivoToGo isn't really usable for me unless I seriously plan ahead or until Tivo adds support for 802.11g adapters. This is disappointing to say the least as I had been waiting for this feature for some time. I'm surprised Tivo didn't make sure to support at least one faster adapter in anticipation of TivoToGo.

ABC News
The good news: The service doesn't add a penny to TiVo Inc.'s $13 monthly subscription charge. The bad news: It's only about half of what I'd hoped for.

Blogography
I am still glad to have TiVo for managing the loads of TV shows I like to watch... but, unless I am sitting in front of the television, it's practically useless for watching the content at my convenience. Since this is apparently the best they can do (and new alternatives for transporting video are appearing all the time) I say with no amount of sadness that TiVo's days are numbered. If I wanted to mess with this kind of antiquated, backwards thinking... I'd still be using VHS videotape.

Are the critics being too harsh? Obviously the technology is new, so maybe a little more Patience is in order. Who knows, but I'll probably wait awhile till the kinks are worked out. If you use TivoToGo, leave us a comment with your thoughts.

Related Entries:

Tame TivoToGo - 12 February 2005
Comcast and TiVo Announce Strategic Partnership - 15 March 2005
Getting TiVoToGo Shows on Your Sony PSP (PlayStation Portabl... - 26 March 2005
Tivo Launches TivoToGo Mobile - 24 June 2006
TiVo Series3 Hi-def DVR will not have TiVoToGo functionality - 09 October 2006

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Permalink: Is TivoToGo A Bust?

Tags: tivo home

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Vote for Is TivoToGo A Bust?:

Currently 6.00/10
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Rating: 6.00 out of 1 vote(s) cast.

Response from: Oskar Austegard (02/04/05 10:07am)

Haven't tried the Motorola DVR, but I did try the Scientific Atlanta version (which was all Comcast had to offer in my area). It had one - and only one - advantage over TiVo: dual tuners. Other than that the Comcast DVR was so full of bugs and bad design flaws that it made me ditch it and go out and buy a second TiVo.

TiVoToGo is OK, but not that great. The transfer speed IS slow, and the fact that I can't transfer a show from the DVR, delete it from the DVR, and then transfer it back to the DVR to watch it later just sucks.

Response from: William Hungerford (02/04/05 6:31pm)

I really think this was Tivo's chance to grab back some market share, but I think TivoToGo may have hurt that. We'll see.

Response from: internet pharmacy (06/19/07 2:09pm)

I am pround to say that I am a pround owner of TiVotogo and I really don't think that is a real bust. It's avery good box.

Response from: The Social Tools Weblog

We are proud to welcome William as our newest team member starting the Wired Home Weblog with us: He starts with these great stories: - TivoTogo a bust? - How to build your own supersized TV And of course...