DVD-Software.info

[kw5kw]

Hi
New to the group, just added it today.

I do not have Tivo, and know very, very little about it except:
1) it exists.
2) it's a digital recorder for television that does not use tape.
3) After you pay several hundred dollars for the equipment, you have
to pay money to use it. I have an antenna, with no plans to get
satellite tv or cable tv.


Ok, some questions:
1) Why would I want to pay somebody to record and send me the
program? I don't make a six figure + salary. I don't need another
monthly bill.
2) Why can't I do it myself? I would just like to set up a recorder
and record a show or movie or whatever.
3) Is it used once and erased? Can I download the recording? (save
it for future... say years in the future... viewing like I do my VHS
tapes?)
4) I did go out and buy a HDTV receiver for Over-The-Air recption,
can I record from it?

Thanks in advance.
Russ

[Joe Smith]

kw5kw wrote:

[Gordon Burditt]

[biteme]

"kw5kw" <qwerty.kw5kw@swbell.net.qwerty> wrote in message
news:spPkd.21082$bP2.9144@newssvr12.news.prodigy.com...
:

[Leslie A Rhorer]

You have perhaps seen other posts on this forum already.

The main advantage of the TiVo, to my way of thinking, is it allows one
to manage their TV viewing. The TiVo can search through all the available
channels two weeks ahead of time for your favorite actors, directors, or
titles. It will search everything including the program description for
keywords like "volcano" or "Christmas". It can limit the search to movies,
TV series, documentaries, etc, and it can further refine the search by
medical, documentary, sports, comedy, etc. Recording all television
documentaries on auto mechanics every week is a simple, one time setup
taking only a minute or so. One can manually browse the upcoming events by
time, channel, or title, and it can limit the search to your preset favorite
channels or to every channel you receive. It worries about the schedule
moving to another day, or a program being on twice in one night, so you
don't have to. (Note: 15 or 30 minute delays or rescheduling caused by
unscheduled interruptions like breaking news or what have you will not make
it into the schedule, so TiVo won't know to change its programming, so in
this respect it is no better or worse than tape.) Receording every episode
of a series is a simple matter of pressing "Get a Season Pass" in any of the
programming or viewing screens. One can select to record new showings only,
new showings and reruns, or all showings including duplicates. The latter
can come in handy when resolving time conflicts between season passes or
other recordings.

If you configure the TiVo to record suggestions, it will try to figure
out what kinds of programs you like and record ones it thinks may be of
interest to you, even though you have not specifically set it to record the
item. It does this two ways. One is it looks at the types of programming
you have set to record, and tries to extrapolate a pattern. Secondly,
whenever one is viewing a program, one may press the thumbs-up or thumbs
down key up to three times to tell the TiVo how much one likes or hates a
program. Three thumbs down, and TiVo knows you're not liable to like
anything very closely related. Three thumbs up, and the actors, director,
and genre are likely to be of interest to you. I've found it does a pretty
decent job, but your mileage may vary.

The TiVo models vary a great deal in capacity, but it is possible to get
TiVo units with over 600 hours of recording capability. Off - the - shelf
units can easily be gotten with over 120 hours. Even the smallest TiVo has
14 hours record time, and most have 40 or 60 hours. That number alone makes
tape look silly, especially for non-archival viewing. Upgrading the hard
drive yourself is easy if you are a techno-geek and slightly familiar with
UNIX, slightly difficult otherwise. For archival viewing, simply copy the
content to tape or DVD. The TiVo even has a special playing mode
specifically designed to make copying to a VCR easy and secure (it won't pop
up messages or respond to viewing controls when in record to VCR mode).

Finally, TiVo presents the recorded programs to you in Random Access,
clearly labeled with the channel number, the duration, the date and time it
was recorded, and of course the name of the event. Oh, yeah, it also gives
you a synopsis / review of the material, all right up front. The worst
thing about tape was the blind serial access. I spent an annoyingly large
amount of time trying to fast-forward to the beginning or end of whatever
program I wanted to watch, and I can't count the number of times I
accidentally overwrote something I had not yet seen with new material. This
was often accompanied by yelling from the other members of the household
because I had erased THEIR programs. With TiVo, you watch what you want
when you want, without having to worry about your spouse or children - or
you - not wanting to watch the second and third recordings on the tape when
everyone wants to see the 1st, 4th, and 5th. When you are done with one
program, you delete it and only it. One no longer needs to even think about
the order in which the shows were recorded, or try to remember who has vied
what on a tape.

Oh, and I almost forgot. All VCRs can fast forward or rewind at low
speed while watching the content, but only expensive (mostly commercial)
recorders can rewind and fast-forward at top speed while viewing the
content. TiVo can rewind and fast forward at fast, very fast, and extremely
fast speeds while viewing the content. It can easily jump instantly to the
next 0, 15, 30, or 45 minute past the hour mark all the way through the
content, or it can jump instantly to the beginning or end of the program.
During any of these operations, it displays the numbers of minutes into the
event digitally and on a bar graph. You can even rewind live TV while you
are recording it, or start watching the program at the beginning when the
live event is only half over.

The answer to #2 is even with a human in direct and continuous
attendance, the VCR is not able to to many of the things the TiVo can do,
and for the rest, the TiVo does it all automatically far better than the
human would ever care to atempt, or even can. It's quite possible to use an
abacus to handle trigonometric and exponential functions. How many
scientists and engineers - or even housewives - have you seen using an
abacus lately?

"kw5kw" <qwerty.kw5kw@swbell.net.qwerty> wrote in message
news:spPkd.21082$bP2.9144@newssvr12.news.prodigy.com...

[Leslie A Rhorer]

"biteme" <biteme@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:10p81cnhmltjp49@corp.supernews.com...

[Joe Smith]

Gordon Burditt wrote:

[kw5kw]

": > 4) I did go out and buy a HDTV receiver for Over-The-Air
recption,
: > can I record from it?
:
: That's like buying a top of the line PC and only having access to a
56k
: modem connection. You're right... Tivo really isn't for you.
:
:
:I live in the Fort Worth/Dallas Metroplex, and we have 16+ OTA DTV
stations with several having sub-channels. Plenty to choose from from
Digital and High Defination.

Or are you saying that Tivo isn't good enough to record hd?

[kw5kw]

Thank you Leslie, as you have actually answered my question.

I can see where a TiVo would be a good thing... maybe for Christmas,
so my wife will never have to miss her General Hospital again.

Thanks
Russ

"Leslie A Rhorer" <lrhorer@satx.rr.com> wrote in message
news:YZVkd.5323$pu3.180@fe2.texas.rr.com...
: You have perhaps seen other posts on this forum already.
:
: The main advantage of the TiVo, to my way of thinking, is it
allows one
: to manage their TV viewing. The TiVo can search through all the
available
: channels two weeks ahead of time for your favorite actors,
directors, or
: titles. It will search everything including the program description
for
: keywords like "volcano" or "Christmas". It can limit the search to
movies,
: TV series, documentaries, etc, and it can further refine the search
by
: medical, documentary, sports, comedy, etc. Recording all television
: documentaries on auto mechanics every week is a simple, one time
setup
: taking only a minute or so. One can manually browse the upcoming
events by
: time, channel, or title, and it can limit the search to your preset
favorite
: channels or to every channel you receive. It worries about the
schedule
: moving to another day, or a program being on twice in one night, so
you
: don't have to. (Note: 15 or 30 minute delays or rescheduling caused
by
: unscheduled interruptions like breaking news or what have you will
not make
: it into the schedule, so TiVo won't know to change its programming,
so in
: this respect it is no better or worse than tape.) Receording every
episode
: of a series is a simple matter of pressing "Get a Season Pass" in
any of the
: programming or viewing screens. One can select to record new
showings only,
: new showings and reruns, or all showings including duplicates. The
latter
: can come in handy when resolving time conflicts between season
passes or
: other recordings.
:
: If you configure the TiVo to record suggestions, it will try to
figure
: out what kinds of programs you like and record ones it thinks may be
of
: interest to you, even though you have not specifically set it to
record the
: item. It does this two ways. One is it looks at the types of
programming
: you have set to record, and tries to extrapolate a pattern.
Secondly,
: whenever one is viewing a program, one may press the thumbs-up or
thumbs
: down key up to three times to tell the TiVo how much one likes or
hates a
: program. Three thumbs down, and TiVo knows you're not liable to
like
: anything very closely related. Three thumbs up, and the actors,
director,
: and genre are likely to be of interest to you. I've found it does a
pretty
: decent job, but your mileage may vary.
:
: The TiVo models vary a great deal in capacity, but it is
possible to get
: TiVo units with over 600 hours of recording capability. Off - the -
shelf
: units can easily be gotten with over 120 hours. Even the smallest
TiVo has
: 14 hours record time, and most have 40 or 60 hours. That number
alone makes
: tape look silly, especially for non-archival viewing. Upgrading the
hard
: drive yourself is easy if you are a techno-geek and slightly
familiar with
: UNIX, slightly difficult otherwise. For archival viewing, simply
copy the
: content to tape or DVD. The TiVo even has a special playing mode
: specifically designed to make copying to a VCR easy and secure (it
won't pop
: up messages or respond to viewing controls when in record to VCR
mode).
:
: Finally, TiVo presents the recorded programs to you in Random
Access,
: clearly labeled with the channel number, the duration, the date and
time it
: was recorded, and of course the name of the event. Oh, yeah, it
also gives
: you a synopsis / review of the material, all right up front. The
worst
: thing about tape was the blind serial access. I spent an annoyingly
large
: amount of time trying to fast-forward to the beginning or end of
whatever
: program I wanted to watch, and I can't count the number of times I
: accidentally overwrote something I had not yet seen with new
material. This
: was often accompanied by yelling from the other members of the
household
: because I had erased THEIR programs. With TiVo, you watch what you
want
: when you want, without having to worry about your spouse or
children - or
: you - not wanting to watch the second and third recordings on the
tape when
: everyone wants to see the 1st, 4th, and 5th. When you are done with
one
: program, you delete it and only it. One no longer needs to even
think about
: the order in which the shows were recorded, or try to remember who
has vied
: what on a tape.
:
: Oh, and I almost forgot. All VCRs can fast forward or rewind at
low
: speed while watching the content, but only expensive (mostly
commercial)
: recorders can rewind and fast-forward at top speed while viewing the
: content. TiVo can rewind and fast forward at fast, very fast, and
extremely
: fast speeds while viewing the content. It can easily jump instantly
to the
: next 0, 15, 30, or 45 minute past the hour mark all the way through
the
: content, or it can jump instantly to the beginning or end of the
program.
: During any of these operations, it displays the numbers of minutes
into the
: event digitally and on a bar graph. You can even rewind live TV
while you
: are recording it, or start watching the program at the beginning
when the
: live event is only half over.
:
: The answer to #2 is even with a human in direct and continuous
: attendance, the VCR is not able to to many of the things the TiVo
can do,
: and for the rest, the TiVo does it all automatically far better than
the
: human would ever care to atempt, or even can. It's quite possible
to use an
: abacus to handle trigonometric and exponential functions. How many
: scientists and engineers - or even housewives - have you seen using
an
: abacus lately?
:
: "kw5kw" <qwerty.kw5kw@swbell.net.qwerty> wrote in message
: news:spPkd.21082$bP2.9144@newssvr12.news.prodigy.com...
: > Hi
: > New to the group, just added it today.
: >
: > I do not have Tivo, and know very, very little about it except:
: > 1) it exists.
: > 2) it's a digital recorder for television that does not use tape.
: > 3) After you pay several hundred dollars for the equipment, you
have
: > to pay money to use it. I have an antenna, with no plans to get
: > satellite tv or cable tv.
: >
: >
: > Ok, some questions:
: > 1) Why would I want to pay somebody to record and send me the
: > program? I don't make a six figure + salary. I don't need
another
: > monthly bill.
: > 2) Why can't I do it myself? I would just like to set up a
recorder
: > and record a show or movie or whatever.
: > 3) Is it used once and erased? Can I download the recording?
(save
: > it for future... say years in the future... viewing like I do my
VHS
: > tapes?)
: > 4) I did go out and buy a HDTV receiver for Over-The-Air
recption,
: > can I record from it?
: >
: > Thanks in advance.
: > Russ
: >
: >
: >
: >
: >
:
:

[Seth]

"kw5kw" <qwerty.kw5kw@swbell.net.qwerty> wrote in message
news:AN3ld.12655$fC4.358@newssvr11.news.prodigy.com...

[Leslie A Rhorer]

"kw5kw" <qwerty.kw5kw@swbell.net.qwerty> wrote in message
news:qP3ld.12656$fC4.10880@newssvr11.news.prodigy.com...

[Joe Smith]

kw5kw wrote:

[Joe Smith]

kw5kw wrote: