Tivo and the Oscars
Mar 1st, 2004 by mark
My wife and I are big Tivo fans. We bought our first unit three years ago and have been avid users ever since. The problem with one Tivo is that it isn’t two Tivos. So we bought a second one, a Series 2, just last month. Due to our viewing habits we have the original one located in our bedroom, for late night viewing of old situation comedy reruns. The Series 2 machine is in our home office area, where we watch the rest of our weekly schedule. The big screen television in the living room is now used for DVD movies and special programs.
In the month that we’ve had both machines the percentage of live television we watch has plunged to zero. Just this past weekend we remarked that it had been a while since we’d watched anything live. And with the Tivo’s fast-forward capabilities we never watch commercials. As close as we come to live television anymore is waiting until 20 minutes after it starts recording to begin viewing so that zipping through the commercials won’t catch us up to the live broadcast.
This past weekend I also remarked that I was looking forward to seeing the Oscars this year, as I wanted to see how the final Lord of the Rings movie installment would fair.
You guessed the rest. Not having seen any live television for a while meant we were totally unaware that the Oscars were on LAST night. Oops. Tivo is pretty slick, pausing live television, recording every episode of a season pass, searching by actors or other keywords, et cetera. But it can’t go back in time to record a show the user was ADD enough to forget to program in the first place.
Sigh.
