TiVo’s Dual Tuner: Only Halfway There
My heart jumped when I saw the headline: TiVo Introduces Dual Tuner DVR. While I’ve always been a ReplayTV person, I recently jumped ship to a cable-company provided Scientific Atlanta DVR where the total lack of an usuable user interface has nearly obliterated the fact that it has a dual tuner and can record HD programs.
In retrospect, it was a dumb-ass move, but I’m addicted to those beautiful HD broadcasts of The Sopranos and 24. So, if TiVo was introducing a dual-tuner standalone product (they already make one bundled with DirecTV), I was on board: maybe someone else won’t make the same mistake that I did. Then I read a few more stories about it. And: sigh.
The dual tuner comes with a huge huge caveat: it can’t record two digital shows at the same time.
Two analog shows, no problem. Analog and digital, sure. Now lets forget the fact that while the early adopter market probably knows the difference; the mass market should not have to. Dual-tuner should mean “I can record any two shows at once.” Period.
So, while it sounds like a breakthrough, it really is only a partial one at best. The holy grail of standalone DVRs is still dual-tuner (at least) HD. If TiVo makes one of those, I’m all in.
- TiVo Introduces Dual Tuner DVR
- CNET editors’ review for TiVo Series2 DT (80 hours)
- HD DVR: Hi Definition Disappointment
- HD DVR: Hi Definition Disappointment Part 2
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2 Comment(s) so far
1. Kirk wrote on April 26th, 2006 at 1:56 pm
1. You really need to get DirectTV.
2. I’m curious why you identify yourself as a “Replay Person”.
2. Jim wrote on April 26th, 2006 at 2:00 pm
1. One of the things that I read today was that DirecTV has discontinued their Tivo TiVo Introduces Dual Tuner DVR, which I should have mentioned.
2. I chose Replay TV over TiVo back in the day, but since I have many friends who have TiVo, I still think that it was an apples and oranges decision.