Tivo, (originally named Teleworld) was founded in 1997, by Jim Barton and Mike Ramsay. They extended the idea of a VCR to recording on a hard disk, and the new feature set revolutionized watching TV. Started in the San Francisco bay area, testing began in 1998, and they had their IPO in 1999. As of 2005 they became profitable. The Tivo takes what was a natural extension of the VCR to the next level. It’s difficult to explain unless you HAVE one, and once you do you’ll never watch TV the same way again. I know, sounds like a big claim, but I have THREE in my house, and I’ll explain why.
>>> Time Shifting- Watch what you want, when you want. Okay, VCRs can do a primitive form of this via scheduling, but using the scheduling feature is time consuming and somewhat complex. How many people did you know who had a VCR flashing 12:00 perpetually? With Tivo, you pick a show, say Mythbusters, and get a Season pass. I can tell it I want all the shows, only first run- or only shows on channel 5. I can also tell it start five minutes early, or record however long beyond the time slot to make sure I have the whole show (say the game runs long).
>>> Fast forward through the commercials- Tivo lets you skip the stuff you don’t want to see, and rewind the good stuff. Slow motion? No problem. Phone ring while you’re watching live TV? Just press pause and it will buffer until you have time to watch it. And here’s a little tip. On the remote, if you press: Select>play>select>30>select you can enable a 30 second skip ahead feature, so you don’t even have to fast forward through the ads!
>>> Networking capabilities- I know, you’re thinking why do I need that? Well several reasons actually. First off, you don’t have to use your phone line to download scheduling information (did I mention the guide has all your current channels and shows for the next week or two automatically downloaded?). Next you can download cool Tivo content like music, or there’s even a new service from Amazon called Amazon Unbox- you can rent movies and watch them without ever leaving the house! Check the movie theaters for showtimes, or how about the weather? Got two Tivos in the house? Swap shows between them. Want to watch House on your computer? Copy it over with Tivo’s software. And if you have pictures or music on your computer, your Tivo can bring them to your TV. Imagine showing the grandparents the kids pictures on the TV instead of those 4×6 pictures!
>>> Wishlists and suggestions- Like Dirty Jobs? Then give it three thumbs up when it records, Tivo will find similar content and make suggestions on things you might like, based on the anonymous data of one million Tivo subscribers. Like John Wayne, but don’t know when his movies are on? Set up a Wishlist item including him, and when you get home you might find She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, or any of his other movies waiting for you. It’s like having your own personal TV butler.
There’s a very loyal following for Tivo, and with good reason. They make a great product. There are a couple of things you’ll need to know. There’s subscription service for the schedule (it will work without it, but part of the cool thing about it is all the functionality it enables). This particular Tivo allows you to watch one show and record another, hence the Dual Tuner moniker. However, this only works if you’re using analog cable and don’t have a cable box. If you use digital, then you’ll only be able to record one show at a time. The new Series 3
Purchase: TiVo TCD649080 Series2 80-Hour Dual-Tuner Digital Video Recorder
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Sources:
Tivo
Wikipedia
ACM Queue
Tags: TiVo