I’ve long been a proponent of Tivo. I think everyone should have it. TV is good; Tivo makes TV great. My schedule is no longer defined by prime time programming. I watch what I want, when I want. I avoid commercials. I rewind when someone distracts me or I miss something that was whispered. If I get a call in the middle of the show, pause is just a quick click away. All of these things make watching TV with Tivo great. It’s really on my schedule and after all, I’m a huge control freak at heart.
So I was at work today searching around for many other things when I stumbled across some Tivo options I had previously been unaware of such as, TivoToGo and Tivo Desktop. In a nutshell, you can port the shows recorded on your Tivo box from there over to your desktop PC either through a wired network or a wireless network. This greatly intrigues me because since I moved home, having satellite TV doesn’t work so well with the Mythbox, but that’s ok because I had a Tivo box. But when I wanted to burn a show onto a DVD for whatever reason, it became fairly difficult to transfer the show over to the PC.
According to the Tivo website, all you need do is make sure you have the proper version of software running on your Tivo box and all the rest is just a couple of quick network connections away. I couldn’t wait to get home to try this out. The website states that it does not support series 1 Tivos and that Series 3 Tivo software is currently unavailable. But Series 2 is supported. I happened to know for a fact that all we have are series 2 boxes. In fact, we have 3 series 2 tivo boxes in our house, so I figured I’d be a lock to get this set up tonight.
Then Tivo broke my heart.
We have 3 different boxes!!! All of varying age and brands. I thought surely one of them would be compatible or have the necessary software upgrade. I was dead wrong. Not one of them qualified for the TivoToGo services. I was devastated. I really don’t know why Tivo would toy with me like this.
I don’t ask for much. All I want is to digitally record my shows, put them on my computer for mass storage and manipulation, stream them to my cell phone and watch TV anywhere I want, whenever I want. And don’t talk to me about your slingbox, you can take that slingbox and shove it. I say that because I don’t have one and I can’t afford one right now, not because I think it’s a bad product. One of these days, the television will bow down at my feet and call me its puppet master… or delusional freak… one of those.
4 comments:
I don't have a DVR. Back in the days when I didn't mind watching TV on my computer, I used to record TV on there. Now, I'm too much of a TV snob (plus, I like my couch).
I want one of those DVD recorders with an internal hard drive. I know you lose some of the features of TiVo or of the DVR service provided by time warner, but it's essentially the same thing with no monthly service (albeit with a higher initial cost).
i've heard good thing about the MythBox. what's so bad about that?
Malaysia has *just* jumped on the TiVO bandwagon. We don't have thwe actual thing however, what we have is AstroMax, which can record up to 60 hours (I think) of 'live' tv. Is this lame and totally not up to scratch? I think so, 60 hours sounds so little. Well, whatever. Its too expensive anyway. Sorry that technology hates you.
Speaking of shedding tears... it's meme-tag time and you're 'it.'
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