# TiVo DVR

13 Hacker News commenters recommended TiVo DVR and 9 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend older TiVo DVRs for easy recording, thoughtful features and reliable operation, especially over-the-air. Critics say later software is laggy and TiVo added ads and monetization.

## Why people recommend it

- Older models considered best (2 comments): "TiVo (old TiVo, before Cable Card was killed) beats pretty much everything else today." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49832872)) "The old dvrs were great for old pata hdd that you could individually RMA." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49596258))
- Easy, reliable and worked well (2 comments): "Tivo made it very easy and drove the DVR thing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49261498)) "It all worked very well somehow." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49597164))
- Thoughtful features, good recording (2 comments): "a very neat DVR with very thoughtful features that were implemented in smart ways" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49269127)) "their own pretty good DVR" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46153682))
- Solved problem for DVRs (2 comments): "We had TiVo like 30 years ago, this is a solved problem." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47989914)) "Tivo made it very easy and drove the DVR thing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49261498))

## What people warn about

- Monetization and ads added (3 comments): "a feature that's been there for more than a decade, the only innovation is figuring how to monetize it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49595052)) "this feels like the last ditch attempt to find a new business model that works" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49595408)) "TiVo - started to show their own ads" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47323436))
- Laggy interface, weaker software (2 comments): "the software was a leap backwards" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49596126)) "The interface was so laggy I could no longer consistently FF through crap" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49601121))
- Locked-down hardware, restricted installs (2 comments): "it was created as response to Tivo, who locked in their embedded system" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49717291)) "restrict installations like Tivo did in the 2000s" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48271959))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [HDHomeRun](https://hackerapproved.com/p/hdhomerun.md): 5 recommend
- [Tvheadend](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tvheadend.md): 5 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=TiVo+DVR&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Official site](https://www.tivo.com/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "TiVo DVR", https://hackerapproved.com/p/tivo/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).