Why We Can't Live Without TiVo

We cannot live without our TIVO. We never would have believed it before we got it but it's true. We never have to worry about missing a favorite show because it's on a 'special night and time' or if the kids decide they just aren't ready for bed. We can pause to make sure we don't miss anything when the kids are up or the phone rings. We can rewind to watch a great play or to catch what was in the black smoke Eko stared down on LOST last season.

My father-in-law offered to buy a TIVO for my husband when he graduated with his Master's in Clinical Psychology. We had no idea what it was or why we would want it, but he usually gives pretty good gifts, so we said that was fine as a gift. The first thing it changed was how we watch 24. Prior to getting the TIVO, I would pick up our daughter from daycare and rush home. My husband would rush home from school and we'd rush a SupperBake into the oven, hoping it was done in time to eat before it started.

With TIVO we didn't have to rush near as much. We'd come home a little more leisurely, get dinner ready, pause the first fifteen minutes or so, fast forward through the commercials, and, barring phone calls or some other distraction, we would finish about the time the show actually ended. We have applied the idea to virtually every show we watch regularly. It is rare indeed that we watch 'live' television.

Survivor is one of our favorite shows. A couple of times each season, it is on a special night or at a special time - most recently because of March Madness. Each season, we set a Season Pass for Survivor and it will automatically record all episodes, regardless of day and time. Every day or so the TIVO connects to the TIVO service and downloads programming information, allowing it to adjust dates and times as needed. Each Season Pass is put on a list - the programs you consider more important on the top of the list. If there is a conflict, the higher show gets recorded. The lower show will either not record or record at a later time. This is particularly true of shows on channels like TLC or Discovery, which replay later in the evening. We can either watch as it records or later at our convenience.

Another feature we love is TIVO KidZone. KidZone allows us to decide what our kids can watch without us being there to moderate at all times. Our children are all five or under. We have the KidZone set at "Y" so they can only access shows rated "Y" and under. They can flip through the channels but only approved ones and then the program only shows up if it is the appropriate rating [even Disney has "Y-7" from time to time]. They are early risers, but my husband and I are not. We put the TV on Disney before we go to bed and when they get up, all our five- or three-year-old daughter has to do is turn the TV on and we don't have to worry about them seeing something they shouldn't or having them come get us out of bed before we're ready to get us to change the channel. It also allows them to pick recorded shows that we allow them to. If they decide they don't want to watch Handy Manny, they can pick a recorded Backyardigans or other KidZone show, and not accidentally get my husband's Sopranos.

There's a lot of things you can do with TIVO that we don't. If you hook it in to your home network, you can program it remotely as well as transfer programs to your laptop, etc. That's one of the next things on our wish list - a wireless adapter for the TIVO. Also on the wish list - a dual tuner [so we can record more than one show at a time] and a TIVO with a DVDR!

TIVO was the best gift my father-in-law could have given us.