I bought a Tivo about two weeks ago. Scratch that, Carrie bought me a Tivo about two weeks ago… and I’m getting ready to take it back.
I’ve noticed that Tivo has a tendency to create evangelist faster than Billy in a tent meeting. Incidentally, Graham was just in KC. Oh, and go to his website, you’ll see a story and a photo of my programming friend and budding evangelist Richard Larcombe… but back to the topic at hand.
I admit, Tivo has some pretty cool features, like easily being able to record all your favorite shows and watching them later, skipping through all the commercials. Pausing live TV is also dope, as is the automatic feature of recording the previous 30 min (if you haven’t changed channels).
But that’s where the honeymoon stops and the real headaches begin. First, flipping through TV channels is abysmal. I have DirectTV (it was the only option for me the first 3 months at the new house), and the way Tivo changes channels is by sending a signal to the Tivo box, which in turn triggers a small infrared emitter that sits in front of the sensor on my DirectTV receiver. All these steps make for a painfully slow second or two before the channel actually changes.
And don’t get me started on the fact that I can’t record two shows at once… blasted satellite!
Now some will argue that Tivo will so alter your viewing habits that you won’t be watching live TV anymore, thus eliminating the need to “surf” channels. That just doesn’t sit well with me.
The second reason I’ll be returning my Tivo: the required “service” so da-gum expensive. Now the Tivo box itself was only about $100. Good price point, however you’re required to purchase the Tivo service for either $13 a month or $300 lifetime. The “service” is basically the channel listings, being automatically delivered to my Tivo box. My beef is that you can get TV listings for FREE off the internet, so why am I paying $13 a month!? Had it been $5 or less, chances are I wouldn’t even think about it.
And the third reason I’m taking Tivo back: I find myself watching too much TV now. Ok, so this one’s not entirely Tivo’s fault. But the blessing of being able to record whatever you want with a click of a button can just as quickly turn into a curse which comes with the click of a button. I find myself sitting in bed at night, feeling that I need to watch all the shows that Tivo has diligently been recording for me. (which usually is a couple of Seinfeld episodes and The ScreenSavers… don’t ask) Now, I admit, there is a show or two that are really handy to have recorded, like the New Yankee Workshop, (which is aired at some mysterious hour, not to mention the fact that it’s handy to pause and rewind to get a good look at what Norm is building)… but all-in-all TV is crap, and I’ve gorged myself on way too much crap over the past two weeks.
I’ll be happy to exchange my Tivo and get my life back… returning to the days when I was oblivious as to what was on TV and free to surf the channels as fast as my little fingers could carry me.
Or, in a couple of days I’ll be in the corner, curled up in the fetal position scratching at my face… longing for my dear sweet Tivo back.
October 27th, 2004 
