Archive for the 'DVR' Category

DiVO

Published on Friday, October 3, 2008 in DVR, Fun and TV Shows. 4 Comments

Well, the time-out for the massive hissy-fit TiVO threw didn’t work…not completely.  A tight straight-jacket and upping the meds didn’t work either.  (For me or the TiVO…) :) So, we ditched it.  Ya gotta know when to hold ‘em…know when to fold ‘em…know when to walk away…know when to run.  ;)

Well, we ran.

We did some research and discovered that the competing satellite company had an HD-only lineup that totally matched our TV viewing needs.  They had a DVR that is the “best on the market” according to my all-knowing-of-these-things hubby.  And, by our calculations, it may even be a little cheaper every month…or not…either way, it won’t be more, and it will be better, more reliable service.  Plus, I’ll refrain from shouting at inanimate objects about being in time-out…so how can you beat that!?

So, we switched.

Oddly enough?  We’d started out with the competitor when we moved to this house from our apartment.  We’d had their service there and just brought it with us.  But, when TiVO came out on the market, they baulked.  Ya snooze, ya lose…and they lost our business.  They have since jumped ahead and are now back on track.

Now, we don’t have a TiVO anymore.  Well, this just won’t do. Or will it?  We also don’t always have Kleenex or Band-Aids here either…but we say we do. ;) One of my friends suggested that instead of calling it a DVR (which I’ll never remember to do) and instead of calling it a TiVO (which it isn’t really), we call it a DiVO.  I love it.

DiVO it is!

And, the best part?  We were able to switch to HD-only.  Every channel we watch was on the HD-only list, so we didn’t even need to get the 200+ channels in regular ol’ standard format.

Have you watched anything on HD?  My hubby got a new TV at the end of last year that is HD-ready, or whatever the kids are callin’ it these days.  We’d seen a couple things over the air on HD…but nothing more than that.

Watching all our shows in HD is mindblowing.
I can’t even successfully describe it.
You just have to see it to believe it…and even then you won’t believe it.

We felt like such dorks.
We sat there with our mouths hanging open.

I don’t know if you watch Fringe?  It’s a new show this season by one of the creators of LOST and it has a very X-Fileish vibe to it.  It’s right up our alley.

It was one of the first shows we watched in HD, and we were stunned.

Stunned.

“Did you know she [the main actress] has freckles!?” I gasped outloud to my hubby.

“No!”  he said, dumbfounded.

And, we both jumped when the location titles flashed on the screen.  It’s one of those shows where they tell you where they are “Boston, Mass.” etc.  On our old system, they were kind of annoying.  They were large and blocky and white.  On HD?  They JUMP out of the screen, and they’re SHINY.

Yes, way.

When people talk and interact on HD?  It looks like we have a clear glass box sitting on our entertainment stand and it’s full of little people.  Real people.  Real life creatures running around inside the box.

I’m mesmerized.

I’m sure Claire will look back at this post, years from now and laugh at her fuddy-duddy parents.  HA.  They were enthralled with HD?  How lame. *insert eye roll here*  ;)

And, then I’ll have to remind her that we were cutting edge.  Not everyone had HD.  And, when we were younger, people had to watch TV live.  We couldn’t pause it.  No one even knew what that was.

And, then I’ll shake my cane and yell at her friends to get off my lawn.
;)

Naughty, Naughty, TiVO

Published on Wednesday, September 17, 2008 in DVR, TV Shows and Venting. 2 Comments

What is wrong?  Why are you acting this way?  That’s it!  You get into that time-out corner right now.

[sets timer]

…

[timer goes off]

Okay, now come here.

Tell me what you did wrong and why you’re in time-out.

Yes, you decided to just disregard all of the Season Passes I had loaded.

That was not very nice of you.

Do you know how long it took me to get everything just the way we wanted it on that list!?  No!?  Well, I’ll tell you!  A LONG TIME.  Years.  Yes, years.

Yes, you decided to just stop recording shows, and you’ve decided that any shows added by the “searching by title” method are not really valid.  And, just to be sneaky, you pretended like everything was okay, but then you didn’t really put them in the To Do List.  Did you?  No, you did not.

And, just to make me a little crazier, you would recognize shows I added directly from The Guide, but then you’d double the listing in the Season Pass Manager…one of which was right and one of which was wrong.  Oh goody!  Do you know how cumbersome and aggravating that is!?  You’re just lucky I figured out how to get the shows added again.

*sigh*

Look at me.

I am so disappointed in you.
I’ve done nothing but praise you to all my friends.  All my family.  All the time.

Because of you, my life has been so much easier.  Well, until the last few days, that is.  In fact, I’ve forgotten what time and day shows are actually on, because I haven’t had to care about that for so long.  For years, you were so reliable.  I’d come downstairs and see what was waiting for me in my Now Playing List.

You made life so simple…until you made it so complicated.

I’m just not sure what I’m going to do with you.

You’re lucky that I’m just OCD-enough to re-enter all the Season Passes without going completely crazy.

Will you do it again?

You’re sorry?

Yes, I still love you.
Yes, I’ll always love you.

Now, come here and give me a kiss.

[smooch]

Now, go play.

But, I’m watching you…so don’t let it happen again.

Or, it’s straight to the time-out corner again, and this time, I’ll be taking away your favorite toy, too.

If your TiVO did what my TiVO did…

Published on Thursday, May 22, 2008 in Claire, DVR, TV Shows and TV: American Idol. 2 Comments

It’s no secret that Claire and I have been hooked on American Idol this season. This is the first season that we’ve watched (for real!), and I got totally sucked in.

I was having TiVO record the finale last night but then, I couldn’t wait, so I started watching. I was *almost* caught up to live TV when they announced the winner.

Ryan Seacrest had literally just said the Winner David’s last name and that’s when TiVO decided to stop recording! We didn’t get his reaction! We didn’t get to celebrate with him! We didn’t get to hear him sing the last song!

THANKFULLY, TiVO didn’t cut off ONE SECOND earlier, or we would have been left in suspense!!

Aaaaaaaaaaargh!

Certain disaster averted.
But still…that was close!

Normally, you can flip to Live TV and then rewind half an hour, but that only works if one of the two receivers is actually on the channel you want to see.

They weren’t.

I was only six minutes off, but it was enough to miss the entire ending.

So, I waited until this morning to search on Youtube, and I found the part I missed!!

*******SPOILERY INFO BELOW*******

Don’t click on this link unless you want to know who wins!

For those of you keeping track at home, our TiVO cut off right at minute 2:55 of the above video. See? That was CLOSE.

And, for the record…Claire and I were VERY excited to see that “our contestant” was named the winner. Her prediction was right! :)

Rock.
On.

And to think I thought he was crazy…

Published on Saturday, May 26, 2007 in DVR, From the offline blog, Random Thoughts and TV Shows. 1 Comment

A few years ago, my hubby told me he wanted to get TiVO. I thought that was a horrible idea. He was crazy! His entertainment system was so confusing to the untrained technophobes that visit, that I actually created a detailed instruction list, complete with digital pictures of which remote to use in what order. (Who am I kidding? It’s confusing to anyone the first time you see it.) And, now, he wants to add another piece of equipment to the mix!? Who cares about recording shows? What’s wrong with live TV…I mean, if there are no commercials, when would you go to the bathroom?

Little did I know how foolish and naïve I was being.

Fast forward to the present…

TiVO how do I love thee? Let me count the ways…

The thought of sitting through a live TV show is almost as painful as using dial-up to check your email. Ack! I’ve become such a spoiled brat when it comes to the TV that it’s not even funny. I can honestly say that we watch less TV and more shows. How is that even possible?

I vaguely remember the days of trying to rush home to see an episode of The X-Files and how I tried to plan my social life around certain shows, but tried to do it in a way that no one could tell that’s what I was doing. I get knots in my stomach just thinking about it. I remember waiting with bated breath to find out if those evil networks were going to pit any of my favorite shows against each other in the new line-up. You mean I have to choose between Ally McBeal and Will & Grace? Barbarians!

Growing up, we didn’t have cable, and my parents still don’t. We only had network television. My mom didn’t use the television as a babysitter, but we were allowed to watch some shows. Losing television privileges was one of her harshest disciplinary techniques.

In our house, ABC was channel 5; CBS was channel 8; PBS was channel 11; NBC was channel 13, and FOX was channel 17. To this day, that’s how I think of the channels. I’ve even been known to say, “Oh, Thirteen is showing a special on channel 9…” Of course, with TiVO, you just click on it and it plays. You don’t have to remember the channel or the day or the time or when a show will actually play in the Mountain Time Zone. Who knew life could be so painless?

Claire is never going to know what it’s like to hold it until a commercial break. She’s never going to have to suffer the Wrath of Dad because she was talking through an important part of a show. She’s never going to have to secretly schedule her life around a show. She can never be threatened with truly missing a show because she chose to be naughty. She’s going to think her parents lived in such an old-fashioned time. She’s going to think we actually had to write real letters to people and had to do our research in a Library.

And, yes, getting TiVO has made the act of “turning on the TV” a little more difficult, but not any more that it already was in our house. As overheard in our entertainment room, one of our friends to another, “Dude, do you know how to turn on the TV?”

“Are you kidding? I don’t work at NASA.”