[geeks] TiVo Observations (new owner)

[Dan Duncan]

On Mon, 12 Jul 2004, Lionel Peterson wrote:
> 2) What is up with those "TiVo Suggestions"? I found several odd
>    programs recorded (3 stooges, Kim Possible, Charlies Angels:
>    Full Throttle, etc.) are any of them "funded" by third-parties?
>    (Could I pay TiVo to recommend a show be taped?)

Until you train TiVo on which programs you like, I'm not sure what
it will grab.  It could very well be funded by third party ads.

> 4) Is there a way to shut off "random" recording? I haven't had
>    a real problem yet, but a couple times TiVo would "announce"
>    that it wanted to change channels to record a show (one of it's
>    suggestions) while I was watching something else. Since I have
>    a cable box, it can only record what I watch.

1) Either start training suggestions, or turn them off.
2) Don't fight the TiVo.  I rarely try to surf live TV, even
though it does this very well.

> 5) My Replays seem less intrusive (I don't really want TiVos advice)
>    but that may also be because my Replays are on TVs without cable
>    boxes, so they can easily record one channel while I watch
>    another.

The DirecTV TiVo has dual tuners, but the standalones don't.  I
bought and still have an original TiVo and mine is old enough to
qualify for a transfer of the original lifetime subscription if
the thing ever breaks on me.  I've upgraded the hard drives several
times from the original 14 hours and TiVo has upgraded its software
several times and I got to beta test (the original version lacked quite a
few features) and I still love the thing.  I only intend to replace it if
it breaks or if I get DirecTV.

Mine doesn't do any of the home media stuff (too old) but I got to
play with the beta version on a friend's unit and it just never
seemed all that useful to me.  To me, the whole point of connecting
multiple units together would be for "clustering" purposes where
recording duties would be load balanced to cover shows airing
at the same time and available disk space, and also to allow
playback of different shows on different heads, but as far as
I know it still doesn't do all that.  Perhaps soon?

-DanD

-- 
#  Dan Duncan (kd4igw)  dand at pcisys.net  http://pcisys.net/~dand
# I have lived in the world just long enough to look carefully the second time
# into those things that I am most certain of the first time.  -Josh Billings