Post by ~LisaIs this something that replaces my cable box or is it another piece of
equipment I need to make room for in the entertainment center? I don't think
there is any room left under the television for more stuff!
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Well, it COULD replace your cabel box, but only if you get direct TV
(sattelite) which is really the way to go anyway.
In a nutshell Tivo is a harddrive for your TV. While this may sound odd at
first once you use it you really cannot imagine NOT having it.
What it does is replaces your VCR in recording every day shows. You tell it
(with VERY easy to use menus) to record say Survivor, and then it records ALL
Survivors, even if it switches days or what not. You NEVER miss an episode of
something you care about. But that is just one SMALL part of what it does.
It records everything you watch into a live buffer. What this means is that
you can pause and rewind LIVE TV. So lets say you are watching Survivor, live,
as it airs. Now the phone rings, you simply pause the TV as you would a DVD.
When you are off the phone you hit play and pick up where you left off. Or
lets say you are watching the show and you can't make out what someone said
(something that is a BIG problem with Survivor, atleast for me) well, you can
REWIND live tv and watch it over and over until you make it out. Or, you can
do what I do... lets say Survivor starts at 8:00. I do not even start watching
until about 8:25 or so. As I am watching it I skip past (fast forward) all the
commercials. As I do this I slowly start catching up to the live broadcast so
that by the time it is at the end I am back to live. In essence I watch the
hour long show in 40 minutes by skipping the commercials.
Tivo also provides very in depth on screen menus and TV guides. You can tell
it an acotr or director you like, like say Johnny Depp. It will then record
everything with Depp in it automaticaly. Since it is simply a hard drive you
are not wasting tape or anything. They come in various forms but a typical
Tivo will record 40 - 80 hours of TV, meaning you have LOTS of room to record
all sorts of stuff that you may not otherwise bother with.
It will also start to learn what you like and record similar things on it's own
for you (if you want it to). So it will notice for example that you like
Survivor so it may then record the Real World on it's own. The more you use it
the more it learns what you like.
You can even get one that has a DVD recorder built in. SO lets say you record
something you really like, you can then archive it right to DVD (otherwise you
can go to tape through a VCR...but why would anyone want to use tape anymore?).
You can get ones that hook up to any tv and work with it... they are the size
of a vcr and yes, it is ANOTHER box to deal with... but worth it. Or, you can
get one that had direct TV tuners built in. This is the best. Not only does
it replace your cable cox, so you have no issue there, but it has TWO tuners
built in so you can watch one thing and record another, or even record two
things at once while watching a third program previously recorded on Tivo. The
quality of the recording is super high... in the case of the direct tv version
it is all digital with ZERO quality loss.
So, sorry for the long explaination but Tivo seriously rocks.