Got Tivo?

[Gail Simone]

Do you like it?

Splain why I need one, or don't need one, and what you like about it, k? THANKS!

Gail

[Sharpandpointies]

...what is it?

[Super Sonic]

No TiVo over here. -_-

It sounds awesome thoug.

[hellokittykat]

Do you like it?

Splain why I need one, or don't need one, and what you like about it, k? THANKS!

Gail

I'm an airhead. I though it said 'got two?'
And then Gail was asking if she needed 'one'. I'm like one of two what?
Oh yeah, time to reapply the brown hair dye.

[west3man]

Do you like it?

Splain why I need one, or don't need one, and what you like about it, k? THANKS!

Gail
I've got something like TiVO. I think people call it PVR.

Basically, one of my computers has XP Media Center software and hardware, allowing it to record shows for me, telling me what's coming on, burn shows to dvd's and other stuff like that. It's got a remote, too.

I think TiVO gets to know your tastes and then recommends stuff to you, but I don't think my system can do that. If it does, I dunno how to activate that feature.

It's pretty cool, though, and I recommend it to folks who like the convenience of having so much control over your recorded programs, the options to search, and not having to keep track of which frickin' time CARTOON NETWORK is airing JLU.

Just tell it to record it every time it comes on every channel or THIS channel or new episodes or new episodes and reruns or whatever.


Mighty convenient.

[shrike]

I've always opted NOT for it as it appears very addictive to my friends who DO have it.

Tread with caution, hun. :)

[west3man]

Oh yeah. TiVO has a monthly subscription fee, if I remember correctly. Media Center? No subscription fee.

Brian Cronin has TiVO. He can probably tell you all the wonderful things I'm ignorant of or missing out on.

[hshaukat]

I've got a Tivo, and I love it. I don't necessarily watch a lot of TV, but I do like the fact that my Tivo allows me to be free of the network's airing schedule and watch my must-see shows at my own leisure. Before Tivo, if I worked late on a Wednesday, I was in danger of missing Alias. Not anymore.

It also will let you pause live TV for up to 30mins and rewind as well. Helps if you're watching sports... sort of a built in instant replay. This feature is most handy for me when people call in the middle of watching a show/movie. all you do is pause, and hope you're not talking to them for more than 30mins, and come back to whatever it is that you're watching. Probably the best feature of all.

I was skeptical before I bought one, but I've had one for over a year now and it really does change the way you watch TV. I love it. Will not go back. Hope this helps.

[Oracle_0128]

I have TiVo. I don't think I could live without it. It costs $13 a month for the service but it does all the work for you.

For example, if you enjoy a particular tv show that is on at a time when you can't watch it....it will record it for you and store it. Plus you can set it to a season pass feature which will record EVERY showing of that tv show each week.

But I think the best feature is that you can rewind and pause live tv. With a 4 year old, I'm constantly misisng things that I'm watching. Hence this is a lifesaver. Works great on the news as well if you miss the weather report of sports scores.

Plus it's a really easy hookup and runs via phone line or wireless network.

I definitely give it 2 thumbs up!!!!

[Dr Ray Palmer]

I have a DVR from the cable company, which does the same thing as a TiVo does, the difference being that it belongs to the cable company so I didn't have to buy it. If something goes wrong with it, I can just swap it out for a new one at no expense. I think I pay about $8 to have the DVR than to have digital cable. So when I say "DVR," I mean TiVo, because they're pretty much exactly the same thing.

So, that out of the way, oh my GOD, I love my DVR. If you like TV, it will change your life, for all the reasons others have mentioned, plus more. It makes it so easy to record things -- you can tell it to record Show X every time it's on, whenever it's on, and it will keep track of the schedule for you. If the network changes the time slot, it will know it and record it whenever it's on. Or you can tell it to record first-run episodes only so it skips the reruns. I have almost everything I watch set up as a series record, which TiVo calls a "Season Pass." It makes life so easy to not have to worry about what day or time things are on, and you don't have to worry about setting up the VCR to tape something if you're not going to be home. Of course you can also tell it just to tape something one time -- you don't have to Season Pass it.

You also don't have to remember to put a tape in it, or to make sure there's enough tape left on it, or to remember which tape has which shows on it. It's all saved on your hard drive. You scan through the list of everything you've got recorded, pick and choose what you want to watch, when you want to watch it. With the DVR I can also watch one channel and record another, or even record two channels of live TV while watching a third thing I recorded earlier. (I'm not sure you can do that last part with TiVo).

But the main reason I love it is that you never have to watch another ad if you don't want to. I never watch ANYTHING live anymore, except occasionally the news. I record everything so I can watch it later and FF through the ads. Or if you're watching live TV, you can pause it if the phone rings or you want a snack or a bathroom break and pick it up when you get back. If you missed something, you can do an instant replay and see it again, as many times as you want to, either because you didn't hear what somebody said or because it was so great you want to see it again.

I find that TiVo/DVRs are especially great for shows like "Survivor" (not that I have any reason to believe Gail watches "Survivor" or anything). I have "Survivor" set on a season pass, so it will record every time it's on. So it starts recording at 8:00. I either watch something else or do something non-TV related until about 8:25, when I start watching the episode from the beginning. By FF-ing through the commercials, I catch up to the end of the episode shortly after it's ended on live TV. So I've watched the entire hour of "Survivor," but instead of doing it from 8:00-9:00 with 20 minutes of ads, I've watched it from 8:25-9:05 and spent the other 20 minutes doing something else.

By FF-ing through the ads, the product placements, the previewing what we're about to see, and recapping what we just saw, I can literally watch a 2-hour episode of "American Idol" in about 30 minutes. I really don't think I watch any more TV since I got my DVR than I did before -- I just watch it much more efficiently, so I can watch the same number of programs in about 2/3 the time (or less) than I used to, and spend all the extra time doing something else.

The only tricky thing -- networks these days like to start shows a minute early or end them a minute or two late. My DVR can keep up with that to some degree, but just to be on the safe side I tell it to start recording most shows a minute earlier and end a couple of minutes later. That way I don't have to worry about seeing "And the 12th person voted out of Survivor: Bludhaven is--" and then having it end. Something like that happens to most DVR/TiVo owners one time and after that you learn not to do it again. It also doesn't know if a show is running late because of a long football game or something, which may not happen as much on the West Coast as it does on the East Coast, but you have to be careful with that.

I agree with hshaukat -- I was skeptical at first, but this is one case where the advertising is right. It really does change the way you watch TV. I can't imagine living without it. The only downside is that if you get used to it and then you go stay in a hotel or at somebody's house who doesn't have a TiVo/DVR, watching regular TV is PAINFUL. I spent a couple of days at my parents' house at Xmas and in those two days I honestly think I watched more ads than I had watched in the previous two YEARS. It was rough. Then they got a TiVo and now they can't live without theirs, either.

So yeah, I think TiVo/DVR may be the second-greatest invention of all time, after only TV itself. Gail, I don't know if you have cable or satellite, but if you have cable, it might be worth checking to see if your company offers DVR so you could take it for a test drive -- try it out for a month or two and see what you think. I didn't have to sign any kind of contract or commit to any length of time with mine. If I decided I didn't like it or it wasn't worth it, I could've returned it after a month and would've only been out about $8. But honestly, I've never known anybody who tried a TiVo or DVR who didn't fall in love with it.

[Brian Cronin]

Basically, you "need" Tivo just as much as people "needed" VCRs in the 80s.

In other words, you don't really need it at all. :)

That being said, just like how timers and VCRs made watching TV simpler, Tivo makes it even simpler.

Tivo is so good, I really don't see how it isn't illegal yet. I mean, for crying out loud, I haven't watched a commercial for the past, like, 3 (almost 4) years (except for when I choose to). How can this be allowed?!?!

-Brian

[The Xenos]

My roomate got a ReplayTV. It really made paying for cable worth it again for him. It's like having a VCR to tape all your shows, but much much simpler and without the hassle of old VHS tapes. I belive he jury rigged a larger 200 gig hard drive in there.

Then again, he's been taping Digimon trying to get every single episode recorded and ripped to DVD. So maybe having it isn't entirely a good thing.

It certainly completely changes the way we all watch TV. Most of the shows I watch, he does too, so I don't have to worry about missing stuff either. For example, I missed Scubs tonight, but he's got it set up to tape every new ep.

Plus you can skip commecrials much to the dismay of advertisers and Turner exsecutives who think that is "stealing television". They have been lawsuits over it actually. Might still be going on.

To me, Tivo and Replay TV and the like is a way for viewers to get control of what they watch. We're not the bitches of the network or advertisers anymore. Of course, they don't like this. They like us being slaves to whatever they force us to watch whenever to tell us to watch it. Yet I say tough s+++ to them.

[UniqueFrequency]

i wish we had TiVo in Singapore... it's not even close to making it's way here..

i have one of those digital recorders which serves me well. what i love about it is i can start recording a show, and watch it 20 mins in, fastforward all the ads, and still end at the same time as someone who's been sitting on the couch from the beginning. saves me 20 mins per show.

the other good thing, as someone has mentioned, is the ability to do the same thing for live games. i can rewind and watch the same thing again if i want to, without affecting the sport on

the only bad thing is that it can't really do a 'season pass' thing and i have to enter everything manually, which is time-consuming and i can forget

also, if i set the recording to do it weekly, there's the problem when shows move half an hour later or earlier due to some other thing and then i miss it, so at the end of the day i gotta keep an eye on the tv listings

[Weetomuncher]

I'm waiting for my cable company to release the high definition/dvr receiver soon (which they are going to do) and I'll get one then.

I've got a DVD recorder so I'm not too desperate to get one. The only reason I'm interested is (a) I want high definition (b) I want to be able to record something I'm not watching (which you can't do on cable here) so that would be a real help.

[MacQuarrie]

The beauty of Tivo: everything you like to watch is on when you want to watch it.

In an average week, I watch about half of these shows: Scrubs, My Name is Earl, The Office, American Idol, Gilmore Girls (I know, shut up), JLU, Malcolm in the Middle reruns, and Simpsons. I never watch anything when it's on, and I seldom miss an episode of anything. If I don't watch Scrubs this week, it will be waiting for me when I have time to watch it. If it happens that My Name is Earl is a rerun this week, I can watch something else instead. And I can watch it at 7:30 on a Tuesday morning if I feel like it, and I can blow past all the commercials.

Seriously, Tivo alters your viewing habits in a fundamental way. I have a TV upstairs that doesn't have Tivo, and it drives me nuts that I can't pause it for a bathroom break, can't record two shows at the same time, can't fast-forward through a commercial or rewind to catch a bit of dialogue I missed the first time. I can barely stand to watch regular TV anymore.

I have no idea what night or what channel anything is broadcast; everyting I want to see is right there in my saved list. It's TV a la Carte.

One week with it and you'll wonder how you ever managed without it.

[west3man]

I just watched Saturday night's JLU episode last night. How?

I'm on a laptop in the living room and the media center pc is in the computer room, but they're on the same network. I reached through the network, and played the files on the media center pc on the laptop in the living room. Booyah!

[Cam63]

It sounds decent, but I don't see myself getting one.

[Brian Cronin]

One problem I have with the concept is that we don't really PAY for the most popular TV shows.

We get to watch Veronica Mars, Lost, etc for free. It is paid for by commercials. And if I'm a sponser of a TV show, why the heck am I paying when people are not watching the commercials?!

So that's something that worries me about the future of TV, with Tivo involved.

-Brian

[DLFerguson]

We have two: a 30 hr one and a 100 hr one. Most people I know like the idea of having a Tivo but they always say they're afraid they'll end up watching more TV. I don't see that because as far as my wife and I are concerned we find that we watch LESS TV now than we used to. With a Tivo you only watch exactly what you want to watch when you want to watch it. We don't rush home to catch a movie or a particular program anymore. We don't stop whatever we're doing to catch the latest episode of "24" or "The West Wing" we just let the Tivo record it for us and watch it whenever we want.

Tivo is all right with me.

[west3man]

I've got a question:

What the heck does "TiVo" (or "TiVO"?) mean, anyway? Thx.

[Dr Ray Palmer]

Most people I know like the idea of having a Tivo but they always say they're afraid they'll end up watching more TV. I don't see that because as far as my wife and I are concerned we find that we watch LESS TV now than we used to. With a Tivo you only watch exactly what you want to watch when you want to watch it.

That's a really good point. I know before I got my DVR, sometimes I would just be in the mood to watch something on TV. Maybe I'd had a tough day and just wanted to veg, or I'd been out working in the yard and was tired and just wanted to plop on the sofa and be entertained, or I'd been academic and intellectual all day at work and just wanted to turn my brain off. Before my DVR, I would end up channel surfing or watching something I wasn't interested in when I was in those moods. Now I NEVER have to watch anything I don't really, really WANT to watch, because I always have something recorded that I'm interested in. I haven't had to say "There's NOTHING on TV right now!" or "This is a crappy night for TV" in about 2 years.

So yeah, I don't feel like I watch more TV than I did before, either. I watch it smarter and more efficiently, even if I'm watching something mindless and trashy.

[west3man]

Great example: My g.f. came home and told me that a co-worker told her that Alias was gonna be 2hrs, tonight. Apparently it was coming on at 8pm. She told me this at 7:59pm.

I ran back to the media center and checked... it was already recording, again, because of what I "told" it about 6 months, ago.


Really. If the show's gonna be extra long a particular night, you're still covered. Whereas with a VCR, you just *might* be f--ked. Some use VCR-plus, but I never had much luck with that.

[Forsaken_One]

What the heck does "TiVo" (or "TiVO"?) mean, anyway? Thx.I believe it's a made up corporate name, like Xinify or Comcast or Verizon. It's probably meant to evoke both television (TiV) and video (Vo) to exemplify what the product is without cumbersome acronyms like DVR, but that's just a guess.

And yes, it truly does change the way you watch TV.

[Cam63]

I watch TV with me eyes.

[Brian Cronin]

Yeah, I think all TiVo means is a cool sounding name that they could trademark easily.

-Brian

[Cam63]

Wasn't he the Jackson no one talks about ?

[west3man]

Wasn't he the Jackson no one talks about ?
"TiVo, bring me some tissue."

:p

[Larry Dixon]

Yep. Here at High Flight we have 3: one in Paul & Torrin's place, one in the main house, and one in the studio. All 3 have DVD recorders, and all 3 are networked together. We can grab shows that look interesting off each others' TiVos through the same Ethernet we use for the home network.

It's good to come back from a long trip and find all the stuff we wanted to watch, just waiting for us.

And, with all our friends/GIs stationed overseas, it's nice to be able to just send burned DVDs, commercials and all, of their favorite shows. The ads, they say, makes it feel more like being home.

[EdContradictory]

Do you like it?

Splain why I need one, or don't need one, and what you like about it, k? THANKS!

Gail
Buy a TiVo and buy an iPod.

You need both.

TiVo is... in a word, awesome.

It's got the simplest interface ever. You can program season passes for shows you like. And it "learns" what you like and tapes things you might like. I TiVoed Daily show once or twice and now, when it has space, it TiVos Colbert Report for me.

It's hard to explain why it's so great without sounding like a douche who watches too much TV. But it really is a great piece of technology. It, my iPod, and satellite radio were the best technology purchases I ever made.