The unit also comes with a 45-day free trial of the TiVo Plus service so you can try features unique to the TiVo Plus service, including the ability to search for programs by title, set up Season Pass recordings for your favorite shows, and create actor, director, and keyword WishLists searches.

With TiVo Basic Service included and without paying a subscription fee, you can record your favorite TV shows onto the HDD and watch them on your schedule. You can also record content from the hard disk drive to a DVD media (DVD-R or DVD-RW--does not record to DVD-RAM discs) quickly and easily. The easy-to-use TiVo interface can automatically create a DVD menu for easy navigation. DVDs can be named according to your program selections, or you may manually enter a title.

This is a great DVD player, too. Whether your living room is currently home to an HDTV or you're merely thinking of "someday," the RS-TX20 will deliver the full potential of your commercial DVDs. Progressive scanning, referred to as 480p for the number of horizontal lines that compose the video image, gives you higher resolution and sharper images than standard 480i signals while eliminating nearly all motion artifacts. Toshiba's Digital Cinema Progressive feature (3:2 pulldown detection and reversal) digitally corrects frame distortion in film-based material to display a film-frame-accurate picture.

The recorder/player offers 1 set of ColorStream Pro component-video outputs (selectable for 480p/480i), 2 composite-video-based AV inputs, 1 S-video input, and 1 RF coaxial input (for an antenna signal or a feed from an older VCR or cable box). A set of left/right analog-audio outputs channel audio to Dolby Pro Logic receivers and stereo televisions, while both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1-channel surround-sound signals can be routed through the player's Toslink optical digital-audio output for direct connection to a full-featured audio/video receiver.

The DVD drive is fully compatible with your MP3 and WMA music CDs and will even play discs full of your favorite JPEG digital photos for ready-made slide shows right in your living room.

A supplied IR blaster cable for cable-box and satellite receiver control (C3 Control) connects to the back of the recorder and transmits an infrared (IR) signal to change channels on your cable or satellite box, as needed, for advance recording--freeing you from having to pretune the correct channel ahead of time.

The included, no-fee TiVo Basic service features a 3-day rolling program guide, TV "Trick Play" features (such as the ability to pause and rewind live TV), instant replay/instant skip, and manual recording capability with repeat function. The unit is fully upgradeable to the TiVo Plus Service (subscription required: $12.95 per month or a "product lifetime" fee of $299 that's good for as long as your RS-TX20 remains operational), which includes TiVo's Home Media Option for remote (online) scheduling, access to MP3/JPEG digital media files from your PC, and multi-room viewing with no additional TiVo receivers.

What's in the Box
DVD/HDD recorder/player, a remote control, remote batteries, an IR blaster cable, a user's manual, a stereo analog audio interconnect/composite-video cable, and warranty/registration information.

Moreover, the unit is blazingly fast. Driving the Satellite P25-S609 is a high-end 3.0 GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor with a scorching 800 MHz system bus clock speed and Hyper-Threading Technology for more efficient CPU usage. Matched with this speedy processor is a staggering 1024 MB alloent of DDR SDRAM memory (expandable to a 2048 MB). Though the rated speed of this RAM is only average, there's so much of it that you can multitask to your heart's content.

Other critical features include a huge 80 GB hard disk (more than enough room for a thorough roster of applications and a massive library of multimedia files), four high-speed USB 2.0 ports for plug and play peripherals such as scanners or external drives, an IEEE 1394 FireWire port for fast interaction with devices such as digital camcorders, and two Type II and Type III PC Card slots. Communication facilities include 802.11a/g wireless networking, 10/100 Ethernet LAN and an integrated 56K modem.

The bundled software package features Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition, Microsoft Works, Intuit Quicken New User Edition 2003, and a variety of multimedia utilities. Battery life expectancy is not one of the unit's strong suits -- you can expect just 1.5 hours from the standard Lithium Ion cell.

More About Microsoft Windows XP Media Center

What sets this PC apart is that it is powered by Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004, which offers the features, reliability, and power of Windows XP Professional, plus advanced digital entertainment capabilities. The Media Center interface offers you more types of entertainment to enjoy: TV, Personal Video Recording (PVR), Movies, Music, Photos, Videos, Radio, and DVD. Use the remote control to enjoy from anywhere in your room.

TV & Movies
Watch TV when and how you want, and never miss a moment of your favorite programs. Pause and rewind live TV. Record a TV episode, series, or category. Automatically record a personalized selection of TV programs using Keyword Record. Media Center downloads the latest program listings for you and even wakes up from power-saving standby mode to record programs, so you can watch shows on your schedule.
	Photos & Video
	Easily edit your digital pictures and digital videos, and then launch a dynamic slideshow complete with animated transitions and your favorite soundtrack. While viewing a picture, zoom in to see more detail. You can rotate, correct red-eye, and print your pictures using the remote. Play slide-shows straight from digital storage devices.
Music & Radio
All your music is stored in one digital jukebox and using the remote, shuffle your entire music collection according to artist or genre or listen to your tunes through playlists that learn what you like. Tune in FM stations and pause live radio. Full-screen visualizations pulse to the beat of the music. Cool on-screen effects show music information, such as track title, track time, and artist.

The Hauppauge 1178 WinTV-HVR-1600 offers: Dual TV tuners to watch digital and analog television signals. Compatible with ATSC and QAM digital TV, and analog cable TV signals. Dbx-TV stereo decoding for spectacular sound. Built-in MPEG-2 hardware encoding.

Dual tuners lets you watch both digital and analog signals. View larger.

The WinTV-HVR-1600 also lets you watch and record QAM channels, which are unencrypted digital channels broadcast by your local cable operator. If you don't have access to digital television channels yet, you can also watch regular analog cable television. And with the included remote control, you can control your cable TV or satellite set top box.

In addition to high-definition video, the card also features a dbx-TV stereo decoder for great TV sound. The card has Composite/S-Video and audio inputs that allow for connecting VCRs or cable/satellite set top boxes.

Your Own Personal Digital Video Recorder!
With the included software, you can easily record TV shows to your hard disk using MPEG-2. Several recording options are available depending on your playback needs; higher quality video requires more disk space. Generally, 5 gigabytes of disk space is used per hour of ATCS digital TV recordings.. Thanks to the built-in hardware MPEG-2 encoder, your PC continues to run at full speed even while recording.

The WinTV application offers an elegant interface to watch TV in a window or full screen. View larger.

The Hauppauge 1178 WinTV-HVR-1600 plugs into a PCI slot and is compatible with Windows Vista, XP with Service Pack 2, and Windows XP Media Center Edition. With XP-MCE and Vista, you can add the WinTV-HVR-1600 as either the primary or secondary TV tuner. The Microsoft Media Center application supports up to two TV tuners so you can watch on channel while recording another.

What's in the Box
WinTV-HVR-1600 PCI card, IR remote control receiver, IR Blaster (remote control), CD-ROM with WinTV software.