Tivo

[Guest MrRant]

As some know I bought a Tivo about 1 1/2 ago and now I can't watch TV without it. Timeshifting is a godsend.

 

I know some thing of it as just a glorified VCR that can record up to 60 hours (mine is a 60hour one). It is much more. Let me explain.

 

1. It is UPGRADABLE! I could pop in another HD and double or triple my recording capacity. 180-200 hours anyone?

 

2. Suggestions. I love this personally. By keeping track of what type of shows you watch, or actors in your wish list and shows that you rate by a thumbs up/down button it will (if nothing is being recorded at the present time) record something that you either like (have Seinfeld highly rated but didn't know an episode was on for some reason? It might just grab it for you) or it may record something like Secrets of WWII because you watched a documentary on Nazi concentration camps on the History Channel.

 

3. Season Passes (SP) aka YEAH BITCH! - This allows you to setup a SP for a show in catergories of First Run Only, Repeats and First Run, All (Including duplicates). SP's also have a Priority system that will sort out conflicts if for say Simpsons (Priority 2) was moved to a Tuesday night but you have a SP for some other show with a priority of 3 it would record the Simpsons because you feel that it is more important the whatever 3 is.

 

a. First Run Only - Pretty self explanatory. If you want to catch all the new episodes of say The Simpsons but don't want it to record all the episodes that come on daily ( comes on 3 times here. ) Then it will only record the new ones.

 

b. Repeats and First Run - Take first run and combine it with the feature of it recording older episodes of the Simpsons BUT it will not record the same episode if its already on your Tivo or if its within a 28 day window of having already recorded it.

 

c. All (with duplicates) - It will record everything without regard to if its recorded it already in the last 28 days or if it already has it.

 

4. You can also limit the amount of shows it records so you don't have 16 episodes of ST:TNG sitting on your box.

 

5. Wishlists aka YEAH BITCH 2 - It can record by Catergory ( Movies -> Horror or Comedy -> Satire for TV shows.), Actor, Director, Keywords. I can set it to record any thing involving say a specific actor like John Candy and if I haven't set it to record anything and Uncle Buck comes on it will record it.

 

6. Guide Data that goes out 12-15 days.

 

 

I rarely watch live TV anymore. After about 2 days you start having stuff on the Tivo that you are watching and its usually recording something so I ALWAYS have shit to watch.

 

Get yourself hooked up.

[Guest Lethargic]

Nope, still sounds stupid.

[Guest EQ]

Nah, TiVo is good shit.

[Guest El Satanico]

As you know I've recently purchased one.

 

I've turned off the Automatic record of Suggestions for now. It recorded a show about child birthing for me so I'm turning the auto record off until the machine gets to know me better.

 

I haven't really gone in depth with all of the features yet, but so far I'm liking Tivo.

[Guest Mole]

It sounds sweet, but I heard it is a BITCH to set up.

 

I will probably get it when I get older, when I can actually afford it.

[Guest Lethargic]

There will have to be a couple of things added before I'd ever even look at the things.

 

1. The ability to record on some sort of removable media instead of on a hard drive. Like a CD or a disk of some kind.

 

2. The ability to record from a VCR and DVD player instead of from TV.

 

The hard drive holds 200 hours or whatever? If they came out with a removable format that held like 20, 50 hours maybe, and I could transfer all these 1000s of 6 hour VHS tapes I have down to a bunch of little disks that would be easier to store, I'm all over it. But until then, I don't see the point. Why would I ever want to record something on a hard drive? If I record something I record it because I want to keep it for good. Not keep it until the hard drive fills up and then have to delete it.

 

Can you record whatever you have on TIVO to your VCR? If so, that'd be the only thing I'd call a plus so far.

 

You know what I hate most about TIVO? The phrase "time-shifting". It's annoying. People have been using VCRs and doing the exact same thing for years. But somebody invents something new so they invent some new word to make it sound like it's new and more important somehow. Then people actually buy into the crap. I just picture a bunch of yuppies sitting around a Starbucks, sipping on a latte, talking on their 2 inch cell phones and going "I was too busy playing cricket last night with Patrick so I just time-shifted Dawson's!"

[Guest El Satanico]

Yes you can record from the hard drive to a VCR.

[Guest areacode212]

You know what I hate most about TIVO?  The phrase "time-shifting".  It's annoying.  People have been using VCRs and doing the exact same thing for years.  But somebody invents something new so they invent some new word to make it sound like it's new and more important somehow.  Then people actually buy into the crap.  I just picture a bunch of yuppies sitting around a Starbucks, sipping on a latte, talking on their 2 inch cell phones and going "I was too busy playing cricket last night with Patrick so I just time-shifted Dawson's!"

The term "time-shifting" has been around far longer than Tivo. It has always meant "taping stuff so you can watch it later", even in the VCR days.

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

Stupid thing wont work with my satellite (I dont have a small one)

 

Personally, I don't know whats wrong with a VCR and some blank tapes..I can set my VCR to record up to 7 shows a week, each week, for as long as it stays plugged in. Considering that I dont watch that many shows, 7 is enough for me, even though most of the time Im home to watch it anyway.