# How might I get started with TIVO? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 7, 2002, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-might-i-get-started-with-tivo/135716 "2002-11-07T14:27:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2002, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-might-i-get-started-with-tivo/135716/21 "2002-11-09T16:45:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by slackergirl \* > \*\* I want to just chuck my cable box, VCR, and DVD player at once and replace it with one box. \*\* [drool] [/drool] ---
**Author:** ![jonpluc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/fbc32d/32.png) [@jonpluc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jonpluc)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2002, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-might-i-get-started-with-tivo/135716/22 "2002-11-09T16:58:35Z")
True but 2-3 years is too long to wait…its the same pandoras box for any constantly improving product. There will ALWAYS be soemthing better right down the road…at some point you just have to bite the bullet and buy something. Say you watch 30 hours of tv a week, thats 4680 hours of recording pause time etc youll miss and i tell you if your personal time is worth anything to you the system will have already LONG paid for itself in 3 years. I NEVER watch commercials anymore, in fact i have quite the intolerence for them now. If i get caught up to what i call"reality time" i set my TV on pause and go find myself something constructive to do for 10 min or so just so ill be able to watch the entire show w/o commercials. And for sports fans it makes watching baseball wonderful!You can fastforward thru all the between pitch jock scratches and adjustments and really watch an entire baseball game in about an hour less time than the actual game and once you get good at it you can be caught up to “real time” by just about the end of the game anyway and not miss one single pitch! ---
**Author:** ![slackergirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b38774/32.png) [@slackergirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slackergirl)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2002, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-might-i-get-started-with-tivo/135716/23 "2002-11-09T17:13:31Z")
Well it all depends on how you use your TV/VCR currently. I tape things even when I’m home, just so I can fastforward through commercials. The only time I watch live TV is when there are competing shows I want to watch, like on Tuesdays when I have the Buffy/Gilmore Girls conundrum, or Sundays when I have Angel/Alias issues. The current generation of Tivos doesn’t offer anything that will improve siginificantly on the way I use my television, and I’m not ready to invest in satellite (as a renter who plans to move at some point in the next few years). So I’ll wait, and jump in when the cost I have to pay gives me some serious improvements over what I have now. ---
**Author:** ![Eleusis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2002, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-might-i-get-started-with-tivo/135716/24 "2002-11-10T04:07:16Z")
> [@](#): > > In some areas Dish customers can upgrade their boxes to contain a hard drive. Those people don’t have to pay the subscription fee, because they can select and record straight off the existing electronic program guide. The features are essentially the same - recording, commercial skip, live pause and rewind (up to 30 minutes). The dish PVR is IMO profoundly inferior to Tivo. The Tivo software is intelligent, and learns your preferences, then records shows for you when you aren’t using the TV. It also lets you set up “season passes”, first run only or all the reruns you want, and order them by preference with smart conflict resolution. The Dish PVR timer is basically a “date, time, channel” mechanism only. The dish searches are inferior to those of the Tivo, which allow you to search by genre, title, actor, director, etc… It’s been a while since I’ve researched the Dish PVR, so there may have been software upgrades to address these issues ---
**Author:** ![slackergirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b38774/32.png) [@slackergirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slackergirl)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2002, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-might-i-get-started-with-tivo/135716/25 "2002-11-10T16:12:30Z")
Ummm, I’m not sure about the season pass thing - but the dish does allow you to search for genre, title, actor, and director. The preferences thing is coming, in a biiiiig way. That’s actually more a responsibility of the broadcaster than the box itself - the box is already capable, and can learn who is holding the remote in the household based on surfing patterns and channel preferences. The infrastructure to broadcast responses to those queries isn’t in place yet. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2002, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-might-i-get-started-with-tivo/135716/26 "2002-11-10T16:56:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eleusis \* > \*\* > > The dish PVR is IMO profoundly inferior to Tivo. > > The Tivo software is intelligent, and learns your preferences, then records shows for you when you aren’t using the TV. It also lets you set up “season passes”, first run only or all the reruns you want, and order them by preference with smart conflict resolution. The Dish PVR timer is basically a “date, time, channel” mechanism only. > > The dish searches are inferior to those of the Tivo, which allow you to search by genre, title, actor, director, etc… > > It’s been a while since I’ve researched the Dish PVR, so there may have been software upgrades to address these issues \*\* I’ll let you know. I’m getting the Dish PVR next week. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2002, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-might-i-get-started-with-tivo/135716/27 "2002-11-10T23:58:23Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by jonpluc \* > \*\* If i get caught up to what i call"reality time" i set my TV on pause and go find myself something constructive to do for 10 min or so just so ill be able to watch the entire show w/o commercials_\* BAHAHAHAHAA! I do that too! ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2002, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-might-i-get-started-with-tivo/135716/28 "2002-11-11T00:01:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by slackergirl \* > \*\*Ummm, I’m not sure about the season pass thing - but the dish does allow you to search for genre, title, actor, and director. \*\* So you can tell it “I like Sebastian Spence” and it will automatically find and record anything on any channel that has Sebastian Spence in it? ---
**Author:** ![jonpluc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/fbc32d/32.png) [@jonpluc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jonpluc)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2002, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-might-i-get-started-with-tivo/135716/29 "2002-11-11T01:03:13Z")
Yup ---
**Author:** ![Eleusis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2002, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-might-i-get-started-with-tivo/135716/30 "2002-11-11T05:45:17Z")
But with Tivo, you can also set up advanced “Wishlists” - and if anything _ever_ comes up with Sebastian Spence, it will record it automatically. ---
**Author:** ![Eleusis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2002, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-might-i-get-started-with-tivo/135716/31 "2002-11-11T05:47:36Z")
To clarify, I think the Dish PVR will only let you search the current program guide (out to about 2 weeks into the future IIRC). ---
**Author:** ![Eleusis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2002, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-might-i-get-started-with-tivo/135716/32 "2002-11-11T06:09:49Z")
Sorry I couldn’t get this all together in one post… The Tivo lets you give every show or movie from 0-3 thumbs up or thumbs down. It takes this information and using a complex algorythm, determines what you like based on multiple genres, actors, directors, etc… If you aren’t recording anything, and don’t use the remote for 30 minutes, it will ask if it can change the channel to something it thinks you may like. If you aren’t there to tell it no, it will record stuff for you, with no further user input. It’s working for you whenever you are away from the TV. Mine catches a great documentary I would have missed otherwise at least once a week. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2002, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-might-i-get-started-with-tivo/135716/33 "2002-11-11T12:46:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eleusis \* > \*\*The Tivo lets you give every show or movie from 0-3 thumbs up or thumbs down. It takes this information and using a complex algorythm, determines what you like based on multiple genres, actors, directors, etc… > \*\* And then tries to record either Mexican soap operas or NASCAR races. 😕 There was a wonderful (print) article in Esquire or FHM or one of those called “My TIVO thinks I’m gay”. The writer’s TIVO would only record Will and Grace programs with Ethel Merman in them. I love my TIVO ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2002, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-might-i-get-started-with-tivo/135716/34 "2002-11-11T12:51:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jonpluc \* > \*\*Yup \*\* So you make that setting one time, and then forever, every time something comes up with that actor, it is recorded? ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2002, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-might-i-get-started-with-tivo/135716/35 "2002-11-11T13:07:24Z")
Mine doesn’t record very much stuff on its own. It doesn’t have time. LOL! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-might-i-get-started-with-tivo/135716.md?page=1)