TODAY’S ENDORSEMENT
Are you the only kid on your block without a TiVo (DVR)? Is there no happy little TV icon inhabiting your set? I know your excuses, “I don’t really watch much TV,†you say loftily. Or, “I only watch PBS.†Yeah, I bet. Because, really, if you watch anything at all, if your TV is not just a repository for holding a flower vase, you need to rethink your position.
I was once like you. I disdained the new media electronics. I held myself above the common man in my sense of TV-watchingness. No, I needed no DVD player, no digital video recorder. My children came to the rescue.
Two years ago at Christmas, after urging us to join modern times, they took matters into their own hands. We received both a DVD and a TiVo. Of course, our TV was so antiquated that it couldn’t handle the new technology so we had to go out and buy a new one. Wouldn’t want to disappoint the kids and not use their gifts! Once we were all connected we could start setting up our season passes. Pick a show, push a button and the TiVo records all the showings. Well, what did we usually watch? Lots of cooking shows. Stuff from the History Channel, some A & E things, endless tennis. And, yes, I admit it, some sit-coms: Scrubs, Arrested Development. But it was all very hit or miss because we couldn’t remember what night they were on or the networks kept moving them about. Now they are all neatly recorded and categorized on our “Now Playing†page.
Once you have TiVo, it’s like the garage door opener, the garbage disposal and the myriad other things that you didn’t know you needed but now cannot imagine living without. If you watch anything on TV, even if you only watch PBS, a DVR should definitely be on your wishlist this year. No more commercials, promos, or boring parts. You get to back up, go forward or play slo-mo. You get to watch what you want, when you want.
Seriously, you should get one. (I do not work for TiVo or any DVR manufacturer.)