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TIVO® TIME
By Dennis
Morgado
Operations Managers, Connected Now, Inc.
It’s that time of year again, when the leaves on the trees change color, the days are shorter, and eventually you’ll have to change your clocks back an hour. You only remember to change the time back because of the old adage, “spring forward—fall back”. And incidentally, the official time change is set to occur at 2 a.m. on Halloween night – that is October 31, 2004. There’s one part of fall and the time change that I don’t have to worry about any longer: setting the clock on my VCR. Nope, now that I have TiVo® to do all of my recording, I no longer have to worry about that feat.
TiVo® rocks! Long gone are the challenging step-by-step instructions to record movies strictly by time, date, and channel. Or having to search the TV Guide® for those VCR Plus+ numbers, or having to remember to put a tape in the recorder. Nope, today…today you have TiVo® !
Ever wish you could just enter the name of your favorite program, movie star, or favorite sports team and find all of the listings of upcoming programs? Well, now with TiVo® you can…and a lot more. TiVo® is similar to the VCR in that you can still record by time, date, and channel if you wish. But that’s where the similarities end. With TiVo® , you don’t use tapes. You save programs onto a computer hard disk inside the TiVo® set-top box.
TiVo® units support various amounts of recording capabilies and price. A 40 hour unit runs less than $100, and a 140 hour unit will set you back $299 with a mail-in rebate. Others fall somewhere in between. In addition to purchasing the equipment, you need to subscribe to the TiVo® service, which includes downloaded schedules for your specific area. This service runs $12.95 per month, or you can pay a one-time product lifetime fee of $299. (I chose the latter so I wouldn’t have to worry about another bill in my mailbox every month.)
Here are just a few of the many TiVo® features that you’ll come to love, besides the cute little TiVo® logo:
Easy Programming
Record shows by searching for an actor’s name, movie title, or by key words such as “low carb”. You can also combine ?categories, for example search for “Kings”, “Sports”, and “NBA”.
Season Pass.
Once you’ve found what you’re looking for, with the push of a button tell TiVo® to record all first-run and—only if you want—repeat episodes of your favorite programs like the “The West Wing” or “Sex in the City”. Rank your Season Pass programs so if there’s a conflict between programs, the program with the higher priority records first. Of course TiVo® will try to find a backup time and date for the lower priority program and record it then.
If you record multiple episodes of your favorite programs, TiVo® will file them away in their own folder.
To view them, simply open the folder and there are all of your recorded episodes by sorted by date. TiVo® will even alert you as to which programs are scheduled to be deleted to make room for new programs unless you tell it to keep it until you delete it manually. If you record multiple episodes of your favorite programs, TiVo® will file them away in their own folder. To view them, simply open the folder and there are all of your recorded episodes by sorted by date. TiVo® will even alert you as to which programs are scheduled to be deleted to make room for new programs unless you tell it to keep them until you delete them manually.
Fast Forward, Pause, or Replay Live TV.
Imagine replaying in slow motion that quarterback sack or three-pointer from downtown!
The Home Networking Option Allows You to -Connect Your TiVo® to Your Home Computer Network.
With this option you can now schedule programs to record on your home TiVo® from anywhere, just by using the Internet and scheduling at TiVo®.com. The Home Networking Option also allows you to play a slide show of your favorite vacation pictures on your big screen TV or play MP3 music through your home entertainment system. ?Of course there are some. considerations when deciding whether or not to purchase a TiVo®. First and foremost is privacy. TiVo® collects information about your personal viewing habits. What key words you search for, what programs you watch most, which specific second of a program you rewind and replay over and over. According to TiVo® ’s privacy policy, they don’t use personal information about you such as your name when collecting this information. For now, I’m satisfied with TiVo®’s privacy policy. But you need to keep an eye on this.
So what do I like most about my TiVo® ? Being able to watch live TV and be able to pause to go to the restroom, and fast forward right through the commercials.
The TiVo® feature I use the least? “TiVo® Suggests”. This is where TiVo® recommends programs based on your personal “thumbs-up” or “thumbs-down” ratings of similar programs.
What am I waiting for in TiVo® products and service? An all-in-one TiVo® recorder with High Definition Direct TV receiver and DVD recorder built-in.
To find out more about TIVO®, go online at www.TiVo.com
or contact Dennis Morgado at
Dennis@ConnectedNow.com or visit retailers that
carry TiVo®.
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