There was a guy on AM radio talking about that new show Invasion, and how he would "TiVo it." He started saying how he never watched TV before he got TiVo. He said he has kids and that before TiVo, if a TV show came on in the early evening, he couldn't get to watch it, that he hasn't watched regular TV in decades. But now that he has TiVo, he'll tape a show at seven and watch it at ten-thirty, and that it's the greatest invention ever.
This is a problem I have with TiVo. I don't have Tivo. I have a VCR. I have a passing interest in Tivo, and I would probably get it if I could afford it and had cable. I don't have cable or satellite, so there's no point paying twenty bucks a month to tape five channels. But TiVo is a digital VCR, no more, no less. It has a built-in schedule which is cool, and will tape stuff automatically, and that's great. But people act like the VCR doesn't exist. People use TiVo as a verb to describe recording TV, as in "I TiVo'd Desperate Housewives last night" instead of "I taped Desperate Housewives last night." It's not the same thing! I listened to that guy on the radio and I felt like yelling at him, "You never heard of a VCR? You mean you're just learning the concept of recording television?" It really does make me wonder.
I don't like being made to feel like a dinosaur for the crime of not having TiVo. TiVo didn't invent recording TV, they just improved on it. Well, I have a VCR, and I like it fine. I don't have to pay a subscription fee, nobody can monitor my TV-watching (like they do with TiVo), and it gets the job done. It even has a button to skip commercials automatically. Keep your fancy TiVo, losers. Of course, if I get some extra cash, you'll be reading a post about how great satellite TV and TiVo are, but I reserve the right to be a hypocrite. My blog, my rules.
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4 comments:
Dear, Dear... It's the 21st century, Man! I don't have TiVo, but I have a DVR, which is what TiVo is, only without the name brand (Digital Video Recorder). It's provided by my cable company. (How can you not have cable?)
Oh- so much more than a VCR. First, no removable media to get eaten, stuck, spit out... or to run out of just when you want to tape something, but you're in your PJs and it's 11 pm and snowing outside. (Well, probably doesn't snow in Phoenix all that much...)
But also--get this--you can decide to tape just one instance or all instances of the show... and if you choose all, you can choose only first-run episodes, only in the selected time slot, or all shows on the channel, no matter when or how many times they run.
Also, I can unwind after work in the 1/2 hour after I get home, when I should already be in bed... and do so to something I really want to watch. Jon Stewart or The Aqua Teen Hunger Force. I can be busy all week, working like a dog... and then have 10 or 12 hours of choice shows to pick through on the weekend, without even having to set anything more than once.
Seriously, Mr. Monkey Migraine. lol... I love my DVR so much, I'm trying to figure out if I'll be able to rent one and hook it up to my hotel TV, when I go on location next month. Can you do that without subscribing to a cable service? Probably not.
Anyway, that's my response. You need to try it. You'll wonder how you ever loved your VCR. I promise.
Sounds great, but I think it's one of those things that you have to try to see if you like it.
Like Blockbuster Online. Tried it, but didn't like it. Cheaper yes, but too much pressure to watch movies.
I'm sure DVR is great if you have it, but if you don't, it's hard to imagine how handy it might be.
If they had a free DVR trial, I'd give it a while but till then...
Great picture by the way...hee hee
All good points. Although I would quibble about the "no media to buy," because I know a guy with TiVo who's always complaining about how he doesn't have enough memory left and has to delete stuff. With TiVo you get a limited amount of space. With a VCR, I can tape a show, put it on my shelf, and keep it forever.
But I'll be honest, I'm not trashing TiVo because it's not a good product. I wish I had that Season Pass feature, where it will automatically record every episode, even if they change the time. I can't tell you how many times I've missed an episode by taping the wrong time.
My only problem with TiVo is the way people treat it like it's the only way to watch TV. I have the same problem with people who use the term "Googling" to refer to searching the Internet. I "Altavista" sometimes and even "Clusty" the Internet sometimes. See, you proved my point in the fact that you use a DVR, not TiVo.
As for cable, not only am I a starving artist (well, starving anyway) who can't afford too many luxuries, my feeling is that I watch too much TV as it is. I need to make time for more important things, like surfing the Internet for stories about tap-dancing gophers.
And please, no formalities. Call me Monkey.
Yeah, I have no Tivo, no HBO, and no cell phone. I'm tired of people giving me the stinkeye for it.
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