(Untitled)

[kaethe]

Can someone explain Tivo to me in small words? Like, how much it costs--isn't there an ongoing charge or something? And what if you want to watch the show on some other TV--is that possible? And...do I want to spend my money on this gadget?

Comments

[zortified]

TiVo is a service, you pay about $13 every month for the use of TiVo services. You also have to buy a TiVo box (like at BestBuy) which you hook up to your tv and cable system.

Once the show is recorded on the TiVo's memory, that tv is wher eyou watch it *unless* you upload it to your computer then you can watch it there.

You can also burn it to DVD at that point and watch it anywhere.

The advantages of TiVo are hard to value until you've had one, I think. The 8 second rewind button (you hit it, and the show jumps instantly back 8 seconds.) The pause button - hit it and the show pauses - even if you're watching live tv. YOu can stay paused on live tv for up to half an hour. Also, telling it to record your shows even when you have no idea when the show is on.

If you don't *have* TiVo, you might not need it. But once you have it you will wonder why you ever watched tv without it.

[meridae]

We don't have Tivo in NZ (although I think we kinda do now, because Sky, our cable/satellite TV provider has introduced something that sounds a lot like it) but from the description, Tivo does almost exactly what my friend's hard drive DVD recorder does - I know I watched shows with him that he paused and crap while they were actually on, then went back to watching because it was actually being recorded to the hard drive in the DVD recorder. And no monthly service fee!

Bah, technology! I can't keep up with it anymore.

[hitwoman]

What sort of tv service do you have? DirecTV's DVR service is only about an extra $5 per month, and satellite is cheaper than cable where I live.