My Tivo: Television My Way

Tired of being at the mercy of the baseball announcer's instant replay choices? Want to fill in your friend on the latest romantic triangle on your favorite TV drama as you watch? Is your biggest lament about your dream job that you're forced to miss your daytime soaps? Tivo® has revolutionized television viewing with the simple ability to pause, rewind, and play TV at your leisure.

Of course, one of the main advantages of Tivo® is also the ability to skip commercials whenever you want to get straight to the action. Conversely, you can take your time to single out the commercials you want to watch. Want to skip past the deodorant commercial and watch the upcoming movie trailer? With Tivo®, you can customize the way you watch TV.

Something's Always On

However, Tivo® isn't just about hopping past ads and freeze-framing your television so you can grab a cold brew or take a leisurely bathroom break. If you're tired of being bound by your cable provider's schedule, you can set up Tivo® to record your favorite shows and store them until you're ready to watch. Through the Season Pass feature, you can always be sure to have at least five episodes of each of your favorite shows ready for viewing. Even if a show is new to you, you can hit the record button and select the option to set up a Season Pass.

Also, the Tivo® Suggestions feature provides you with new material based on your ratings. With two easy remote buttons--thumbs up and thumbs down--you can rate shows you like or dislike, even if you encounter an episode on live TV as you channel surf. The more shows you rate, the more on target you can expect your suggested programming to be. However, the Tivo® Suggestions feature isn't an optional service--you can expect your Tivo® to record occasional programs on its own, whether you want it to or not. Additionally, the associations for these recommendations are often somewhat basic--if you rated Melrose Place highly because you love nighttime soaps, you can expect Spin City to hit your recommendations due to the Heather Locklear commonality.

Easy Remote and Navigation

If your tech-savvy friends have been raving about Tivo®, you might feel intimidated by this new-fangled gadget in theory. That feeling won't last long, as Tivo® has one of the easiest remote controls to use, and an extremely intuitive and user-friendly interface. With straightforward user prompts like "Delete now" and "Don't do anything," Tivo® doesn't take more than a few minutes to figure out. If you are a DirecTV® or satellite television subscriber, you can expect a slight delay in your Tivo® interface while watching live TV. The added delay is miniscule (just over a second), but is most apparent when changing channels.

Tivo®'s remote control is equally straightforward. With a large yellow Pause button, red Record button, and clearly marked buttons like "Live TV," this is one remote that won't leave you frustrated or swearing at the TV. It even features a fast-forward button that increases speed with repeated presses, and a slow-mo button that allows you to take a closer look on replay. Another special feature is the 8-second rewind button, which allows you to back up slightly when you've overshot your mark. In truth, though, you won't find yourself using this button too often, as Tivo® is intuitive, and "guesses" where you meant to stop with surprising accuracy.

Keeping Your Program Information Updated

Because Tivo® creates its database based on program information from your cable provider, this can mean frequent updates are needed, at least every two weeks. For those of you who can run a phone cord to the Tivo® box and leave it plugged in, Tivo® will automatically update for you a few times a week. Your other option is to wait until Tivo® prompts you for the biweekly update, and then connect your phone cord and let it get the latest program information, taking an average of 10-15 minutes each time.

Want to use the power of broadband to make your updates faster? With an optional add-on USB adaptor, you can run an ethernet cord to your Tivo® unit, to make updates seamless. If you have a wireless modem, you can even purchase a wireless network adaptor, allowing for both fast updates, and program management and setup via your computer and wireless connection.

How Expensive Is Tivo®?

The answer to the question of Tivo®'s cost is, surprisingly, "not much at all." For just under $15 per month, you can subscribe to the Tivo® service. The cost of your Tivo® box starts at around $100 (one time purchase), and varies depending on hard disk space, measured in hours. The more hours of programming you want to be able to record, the larger capacity recorder you'll want to obtain.

However, when you measure these relatively minimal costs against your monthly cable or satellite subscription, it's hardly a taxing expense. For a few dollars a month, you can take full advantage of your cable service, and never be in search of something decent to watch. Perhaps this is the reason that so many Tivo® customers become Tivo® evangelists. Take it from an enthusiastic convert--while there's room for improvements to be made, Tivo® has already produced such an exceptional and novel product, the wait for new features amounts to anticipation, rather than impatience.