Joining the Tivolution
Today I joined the Tivolution. I struggled, but I joined. For those of us who are under the age of 30, don’t reside with our parents and actually live in the year 2006 we don’t have a landline. Apparently I didn’t get the memo that you needed a “regular” phone to setup tivo (supposedly they put it on box but more on that later.) My decision to get Tivo was helped by the fact that my parents use it and you can pay one fee for the life of the box. With a 4 year warranty from Best Buy it’s cheaper in the long run than Time Warner and I can take it wherever I may move to next.
The down fall is you can’t order movies off of it like you can with Time Warner DVR, and I’ve also heard the picture quality is worse (so far so good, I think). There’s also a little thing called convenience. Time Warner is an out of the box, DVR, not so much (see below.) They don’t tell you what a pain it will be on the “Tivo Box” and they don’t give you much customer service as to why your Tivo doesn’t work with what the site says it should. (Que a nice FAQs section rather than cheesy music and a great color scheme). However, I think it’s a great invention that I will be able to use to manage my time better and still, complete the crazy amount of stuff I want to do, and still be able to watch the shows I enjoy. I do have a few things I am planning to do and very little time in the day to waste.
Skip to How Tivo will help me Manage my Time
Muses with setting up the BOX
As I mentioned I bought the Tivo box from Best Buy, it was easy and convenient and I thought I could get a little help while purchasing it. Not so. Best Buy out here in Honolulu may rank as one of my worst customer service spots (right up there with any CompUSA and everything Sprint, I mean everything.) Anyway, as I was looking at the Tivo I began to walk towards a fella in those lovely blue shirts who promptly walked away and towards doing nothing. We made eye contact so I know he saw me. Anyway, once I realized I wasn’t going to get any help I did what I usually do, jump on in with both feet. I looked the 40 hour box over and walked with it to the check-out.
Once I was home I cracked open the box and began to browse the instructions. A telephone line?, this can’t be, my father uses his Ethernet at home? That’s not on the box, I don’t see it anywhere. Oh but it is, right behind the conveniently placed Honolulu locational sticker, good work Best Buy. Not to mention, who reads a box these days, but that’s not the point. I guess it’s there.
So I did what any person who doesn’t have a landline does, used my futuristic Ethernet cable hooked to this box that beams futuristic signals to my foldable display machine with a keyboard, and Googled it. Google told me, “As long as you have version 7.1 or later you can use Ethernet to do guided setup.” OK, look up the version at Tivo.com, serial number starting with 504 = version 7.2. That’s better than 7.1, great, I’ll use my crazy USB witch cord to plug into my crazy internet modem box. Nope. Google also says “it doesn’t work with a direct modem connect, no driver for that with any of them.” Naturally.
The next day I got myself a wireless adapter, USB style. Plugged it into the tivo, nothing. Sweet. Oh wait, the wireless adapter is the wrong one. You mean the guy at CompUSA who sounded like he knew everything gave you the wrong one. You mean even when you said, “but that model number has a US at the end of it and tivo doesn’t say that one will work?” “Oh that just means it’s for the US,” says the unhelpful man. Guess what, it didn’t work. Back to Best Buy the next day for another wireless USB adapter. Still doesn’t work, break box, go to work, use phone line, download correct setup info. WE HAVE TIVO. Take home, plug in wireless, doesn’t work, break box more. OK by this time I am a bit upset with Tivo. How could you make such a product with so little support and not useable with Ethernet. Wrong version that’s how. I guess the 504 serial number only meant I can get 7.2 not that it has it on there. Back to work, update version, plug in wireless.
We have Tivo on a network.
OK, so now that I bored you half to death, onto how Tivo will help me manage my time.
DVR in general is a great invention. Although the VCR has been around for a while, the convenience just doesn’t match up to a DVR. I can digitally setup to record only new shows for the whole season, never having to remember to be sure to set the recorder up a few days in advance. Tivo will save my lists and make sure it happens. I don’t have to know the exact date and time of any of the shows. I don’t even have to know their names. I can search for shows that have to do with an actress, a subject, or a sport and Tivo will list what it has for the next couple of weeks allowing me to set up to record it.
Becoming an online entrepreneur as well as holding a full time demanding job, not to mention the many goals I have set for myself, I don’t have a lot of time to waste during the week. Being active, my girlfriend and I will be able to use our Tivo to schedule TV around our activities rather than our activities around TV. Sure we could setup the VCR for certain days, but we’d always have to remember to rewind the tape, change tapes if we didn’t have enough room on one, and otherwise be inconvenienced by the process. Not worth it, we usually just changed some things around or missed a show worst case scenario.
Moving into the new year one of my resolutions is to organize my life a little better. Tivo should help me do that because, (I don’t care if this is lazy man talking) I like to watch certain TV shows and that’s that. Now I will be able to Tivo it and forget about it. Also the fact that I can watch half hour shows in 23 minutes(ish) is a great thing as well. No more commercials getting in the way. I set up the 30 second channel skip, which by the way is:
Select - Play - Select - 3 - 0 - Select
When you hear 2 or 3 tivo charms you know you did it right. You may have to be in a recorded program to do this but I am not sure. Try it both ways if it doesn’t work the first time.
30 Second skip allows you to easily skip through commercial blocks which are usually 30 seconds long (1 minute, etc). I hear ad companies really don’t like this about Tivo. Looks like they’ll have to think outside the box. Like making references to Coke and Hanes during your favorite sitcom. Be creative I say.
Overall… Well I don’t know yet. This was just my announcement that I am part of the Tivolution. The nice little jingle at the beginning made me feel like I was joining quite a momentous group. Let’s hope it doesn’t’ stink. Aside from the horable setup procedure I don’t have any complaints past that, but I’ll keep you posted.
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Comments
Pingback from Creating Time - Time Management Tips – Can You Become Good at Everything?
Time: May 11, 2006, 10:09 pm
[...] One way good way that I’ve eliminated a lot of TV watching and free’d up some time for myself is to purchase a Tivo. Yup that’s right, I joined the digital revolution and nixed the VCR, which I was never patient enough to set-up. This has allowed me to come home an hour later, still watch all my favorite TV shows, and still finish at the same time I would if I had made it home on time to watch those same shows. [...]
Comment from Ray
Time: January 17, 2006, 2:45 am
Aside from the horable setup procedure
I don’t have any complaints past that,
but I’ll keep you posted.
Get spell check….:o)
Tivo this Beotch
Did you see any playoff games?
Pitt. vs Indy was a great game.
Ray