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Tivo is one of those devices that you think you don't need, then get, and then wonder how you had ever lived before you had this.
It is awesome. I love being able to pause live tv to get a snack, etc. I love being able to select a program and get a 'season pass' so that they are all recorded automatically. I love being able to put together a wishlist so that it will automatically record all shows featuring a favorite actor or done by a favorite director.
What is not to love about Tivo?
Posts: 512 | Registered: Jun 2002
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My ex-boyfriend had TiVo. I absolutely loved it. I was alone at his house on Halloween, watching Buffy reruns, and I was able to pause the TV everytime the bell rang. It was awesome. I am definitely going to get TiVo someday, as soon as I can afford it.
Posts: 1805 | Registered: Jun 1999
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I don't have "TiVo" but I do have a DVR (Digital Video Recorder) that is actually built into my Satellite receiver. The receiver works with two TVs and has DVR recorders build in for both. I can record a show on one while watching a show on the other. I can also watch shows recorded on either TV from either TV. I think it is totally worth it since I don't watch a ton of TV and the shows I really like are on at awkward times for me. Plus I can watch an hour show in 45 minutes by zipping past the commercials.
The only advantage I know of that TiVo has that my DVR doesn't is the ability to set it up to record by subject rather than specific time-slot. I haven't found that convenience to be worth the monthly fee ON TOP of the money I already pay for satellite (or cable). (DISCLAIMER: this feature may actually be part of "ReplayTV" rather than TiVo, or maybe they both have it. I get them confused).
Posts: 6394 | Registered: Dec 1999
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I absolutely love being able to rewind when people ask "What did he just say?" rather than having to paraphrase it for them.
Posts: 4534 | Registered: Jan 2003
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Particularly if you, like me, occasionally forget to watch shows you really, really like. Then, you open up the playlist on tivo, and it says, "It's ok! Here's your show, right here! Watch it whenever you like!"
I was a skeptic, too (You can ask the hubby; he argued for it for MONTHS). Then, when I finally consented and we got it, like Traveler said, I can't imagine being without it.
Posts: 4077 | Registered: Jun 2003
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I love our DVR. KarlEd, you're so right, it's only lacking in the ability to record by subject instead of by time. Of course, DVR beat TiVo on cost by absurd amounts. By which I mean that the way our local cable people bundled it with other serviced, getting it actually dropped our bill about $5 a month!
Posts: 3956 | Registered: Jun 2001
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If you have kids, it pays for itself. At least it did originally when TiVo could be programmed to automaticly skip commercials. It still works to a degree, if you train your kids to work the controls to skip past the commercials. Not that hard: pre-record their shows, tell them they hafta skip commercials, then give a yell everytime you hear a commercial, and eventually the kids will automaticly skip through the ads. Don't make it a "you hafta follow my rules" power trip though. Little ones do have to be trained through long repetition, a long series of reminders. Children's advertising is specificly designed to attract their attention: so young ones can be distracted from remembering to skip the ad. But it's easy enough to be puttering about the house doing your own tasks, and know when commercials are on. Usually the volume goes up considerably when ads are aired. Just give a "skip the commercial" yell when you hear the noise for too long. Soon, they'll be skipping on their own, most of the time, and eventually nearly all of the time. Just be patient in giving reminders.
If you figure that your time is worth money, the extra time you have by skipping commercials can quite easily pay for TiVo service. eg At halftime, you can begin watching a partially pre-recorded football game, catch up with already recorded play, then watch the last five-or-so football-clock minutes live. ie You can watch every play of an entire football game in less than an hour and a half.
Of course, as other folks have mentioned, cable/etc companies are offering their own cheaper versions, which still don't work quite as well as TiVo. However, TiVo and Netflix are getting together for on-demand Internet-download movies/videos, so looking down the road a year or two may factor into your decision.
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I am thinking of getting the DVR feature for my digital cable. But I did just notice they are giving us Movies/TV on Demand now, which is seriously cool.
Posts: 5422 | Registered: Dec 2001
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I have a media center PC and I love it. I almost never watch live TV...I always just set my TV to record so I can skip the comercials...and watch the show whenever I want.
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Aw, c'mon Ophelia. If Ben is able to spend a third to a half less time while watching the same shows, you guys have that much more time to fight. mmm... it hurts so good.
Or you can concede the DVR/TiVo in exchange for Ben spending his new found extra time performing certain manly favors for you. Ya know: cooking the romantic candlelight dinner, giving you a bubble bath, a massage, and then... washing the dishes, doing the laundry, etc... Or delivering pizzas to pay for the darn thing.
The main thing is not allowing oneself to watch even more TV programs/movies in that extra time; which would totally defeat any economic/interpersonal/social advantage of getting TiVo/DVR.
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Hey, TheTick, is your "...they are giving us Movies/TV on Demand now" in reference to watching movies on per-view/per-day-of-viewing pay-channels with the only movies available being the ones being broadcast over the cable/satellite? Or do you have access to a large catalog of movies which aren't being broadcast similar to the NetFlix-TiVo videos/movies-on-demand proposal?
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But we have much better things to spend money on. Like, I don't know, food.
Especially since neither of us actually watches TV besides The Daily Show, The Simpsons, Scrubs, and whatever is on for background noise.
Posts: 3801 | Registered: Jan 2000
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Well, darn near everything is more important than watching TV. And TiVo is a luxury beyond any real need, beyond any practicality (excluding timeshifting and timesaving for those with a lot more money than time), even beyond most other luxuries. If one can't afford a pair of movie tickets, a sit-down dinner at an adult restaurant, a concert, a dance club -- ie an occasional night-out-on-the-town, even if rare, just to maintain a "I live in a society!" context -- then one shouldn't spend money on a TiVo.
However, if one stays within ones budget and if one does not create a new debt or renege on old debts, true necessities tend to take care of themselves. At least for those fortunate enough to live in the FirstWorld. Remember that the occasional luxury is a spiritual necessity. Even the poor save to celebrate a feastday, to give a gift. Remember that an extravagance -- like a vacation on the "Riviera" of ones desires; or a gift that has no practical purpose, other than to say "I LOVE YOU" and "I remembered ..." -- is a spiritual balm. One can enjoy an awful lot of rice&beans when they are flavored with fond memories of the extravagance which replaced more luxurious cuisine.
You are young. Make good memories. Hiking and camping across eg Ireland while still youthful will more than replace any future first-class travel and four-star hotels after the kids have grown and you've retired. You are young. Get together and decide on the luxuries which won't even be particularly remembered in the future; and on the extravagances which will provide reminiscences, comfort when you age past being physically able to enjoy such gratifications. Choose the latter. And plan, create the opportunities to indulge your dreams.
quote:Hey, TheTick, is your "...they are giving us Movies/TV on Demand now" in reference to watching movies on per-view/per-day-of-viewing pay-channels with the only movies available being the ones being broadcast over the cable/satellite? Or do you have access to a large catalog of movies which aren't being broadcast similar to the NetFlix-TiVo videos/movies-on-demand proposal?
I don't know about Tick's service, but my digital cable company's Video on Demand gives you a reasonably large catalog of movies to pick from, and when you order it, it works more or less like a video that you rented. I think you can watch it as many times as you like in a 24-hour period, and you can start, stop, restart, rewind and fast-forward as you please.
Posts: 4534 | Registered: Jan 2003
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There's two parts to it. If you are signed up for the movie channel packages (HBO, Starz, etc) you can get FREE video on demand access to movies showing on those right now, so you don't have to wait for when they happen to show it. There are also many other movies available in the way saxon described, pay for them and get them for 24hrs. The HBO pack is particularly cool because they have their shows in there too (say, the last season of Sex and the City, last season of the Sopranos, and the like).
Posts: 5422 | Registered: Dec 2001
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Adelphia. It's sad when your cable company's service improves so much after they've declared bankruptcy and the owners have been dragged to jail. Posts: 5422 | Registered: Dec 2001
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If you buy a Tivo direct from them, the smallest - which is good for about 16-18 hours of regular quality TV or 40 hours of real garbage quality TV - is $100. Once you have the box, you need the service which is I believe $13 a month or $300 for a product lifetime.
Don't get me wrong. I love my Tivo. I even have the Tivo window cling in my front window and have been eyeying a clear remote, but there are some downsides. First, if it is recording something you can't use the features of the Tivo when you watch TV, it becomes like watching TV when a VCR is recording. That took some getting used to especially right at the beginning. There is also the fact that it will occasionally record extra episodes of a show that you have on Season Pass. This is due to a problem with the data they use for their guide which controls recording. I have Monk set to record only first run new episodes, but occasionally the guide just says Monk with no additional episode info for reruns. Tivo does not then know that is a repeat and records it. I had my entire backlog wiped out once when USA ran a Monk marathon this way. Also due to the guide it will occasionally miss some special episodes of some shows. For example Trading Spaces has had a number of behind the scenes episodes lately that they have given special titles. Tivo missed those. One final peeve with it is that if the power goes off, you have to reset the 30 second skip which is a hidden feature that you have to turn on. This is the commercial skipping. In all these are fairly minor peeves. You can have my Tivo when you pry it out of my cold dead hands.
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Then, you open up the playlist on tivo, and it says, "It's ok! Here's your show, right here! Watch it whenever you like!"![[Wink]](wink.gif)
