Why I love my Tivo but can't get rid of the SA8000HD/SA8300HD Boxes

[pab]

I love my Tivo! I've had it for less than 2 months, and got one for my sister as well for Christmas (and she loves it too). Compared to the 8000hd/8300hd, there are so many things that are better with the Tivo. Here is my list:
1. The search function & using wishlists. Once you've used it on a Tivo to search for a program by keyword (from title or description), you'll notice how poor in comparison the SA boxes are. If I want to watch, for example, a Frasier episode where Lilith is over for Thanksgiving (one of my favorites called "a lilith thanksgiving"), I can put that in to search. If no upcoming shows come up, I can add it to my wishlists and as soon as it is on on any channel that I get, it will be recorded. Try that with SA. If I want any Frasier with Lilith in it, I can do that too. There really is no comparison between Tivo and SA.
2. The hackability of the Tivo. I can set up programs to be recorded from my computer or over the web. I can add a larger hard drive. I can extract video from the Tivo and save it to another disk or convert it to a DVD (with relative ease). All I need is a network connection once the Tivo Hard drive has been "hacked". With the 8300/8000, extracting for me has been a pain in the butt. I admit that I haven't tried the save to vcr function (why should I when the Tivo is so easy and both are SD recordings), but previously the number of steps to get the program to a computer with the SA boxes made it difficult and time-consuming.
3. Save from the last viewing site on the Tivo. When I watch a Tivo show that has been recorded and stop mid way and watch another recording, I can go back to the previous recording and continue where I left off. This may seem like a small point but for me, I love this feature (not sure if it is a feature - just not sure why SA doesn't incorporate this into their boxes).
4. The reliabilility of the Tivo. Admittedly, I've only had it for 2 months, but I've had some poor reliability with the SA boxes and haven't heard many problems with the Tivo (maybe I just haven't been reading in the right place?). I'm just not as concerned about the Tivo breaking down as the SA boxes, and if the Tivo does, I still have my extracted recordings saved somewhere else so I can just buy another hard drive and go from there (so long as it is the hard drive malfunction and not something else).

The bad points about Tivo in Canada:
1. Getting the Tivo to work in Canada can take some time and requires some computer knowledge. If you're not comfortable with working with your computer, don't bother.
2. In Canada, updates are not automatic. You have to "do it yourself" over the internet. However, this isn't that bad and you get 13 days of data (BTW, the data you get from the Tivo about the shows is much more detailed then what you get from Rogers for the SA boxes).
3. Changing channels on the Tivo is slower than with Rogers. This isn't a major deal to me since Tivo changes how you watch TV. You don't channel surf with a Tivo. In fact, I watch much less TV now than I did before I got the Tivo as I only watch what I want to watch.
4. Can only watch the program you are recording unless you split the cable and watch analog cable while recording from your digital box. For some people (not me), this is enough reason to go simply with SA.
5. No Digital 5.1 sound/HD. Another potential dealbreaker for Tivo, but not for me (the above benefits of Tivo far outweight these negatives).

Why do I still have the 8000hd/8300hd?
1. Recording in HD. Really important to me and the Tivo's that work in Canada don't support it.
2. Recording 2 programs at once (digitally) or recording one program while watching another digital program. This is also very nice.
3. Digital 5.1 sound. Not a deal maker for me on its own but still nice to have.

Bottom line - there is no real winner here between the two but I'm just happy having both. It's like another post I made where I was wondering whether to go with an Xbox or PC games. Someone said if you can, go with both. That's my advice too. BTW, I wouldn't have made it into Tivoland here in Canada without the help of some really friendly and smart people at http://forums.tivocanada.com. Thanks to everyone there!

Paul

[57]

Although in your case there is no winner, I couldn't imagine "going back" to SD and no DD5.1. So the SA8300HD (warts and all) is a "clear winner" in my situation.

Since you have both, you've found a reason to "add" an SA8300HD to the TiVo, in my case the SA8300HD does enough that I have no reason to add a TiVo.

If I were to add anything, it'd probably be a DVD Recorder (archiving), or an HTPC. Luckily, we're all different, with different tastes.

[pab]

Originally Posted by 57

If I were to add anything, it'd probably be a DVD Recorder, or an HTPC.

The thought of having a HTPC does sound appealing, and I looked into it, but since it is usually based on a Windows system (which crashes from time to time!), it is not nearly as reliable as a Tivo (this was also discussed in last month's issue of max pc).

With the Tivo, I can do pretty much everything (from a TV perspective) that a HTPC can do.

This was just my two cents about the Tivo and SA. I enjoy both for different reasons and am glad to have both. However, as you point out, it's hard to go back to SD. I have HD on a 120" screen and love it. The Tivo is for my bedroom TV.

PAB