You can read more about Jack's TiVo experience by visiting the November 11th Viewpoint discussion.
See Entry For:
DAY TEN: One Last Look Around Before We Go

I've spent countless hours over the last couple of weeks playing with TiVo, looking at TiVo community sites and searching for info about TiVo. Like the Walkman, introduced by Sony in 1979, TiVo is a transforming technology; a product that is changing the way media is consumed. Two weeks into to the blog, I've covered the basics and I became so enamored of some of the features that, on the final day, I am forced to give only cursory mention to features like Multi Room Viewing, the sharing of programs between two different TiVo boxes.

To put a nice big bow on the blog, I'll close with my Top 10 list about TiVo discovered over the last two weeks.

1) TiVo's brains. Probably the most surprising discovery of the last couple of weeks is how accurate the TiVo Suggestions have become. My wife and I like radically different types of shows (except for America's Next Top Model which by the way has gotten so much free press from me these two weeks that Tyra Banks should personally send me an autographed cast photo). The fact that TiVo is now recommending both the WWII documentaries and soccer shows that I like as well as the home shows that my wife likes is quite remarkable.

2) TiVo's Live TV guide. Unlike the normal grid type TV schedule, the TiVo guide allows me to see more information about more shows on a single screen at one time.

3) TiVo WishLists. After struggling through using the cable company's DVR for a year, WishLists have quickly become key for keeping track of changing interests. I've added an average of two WishLists a day over the last two weeks. Combining this feature with TiVo Suggestions means that I spend less and less time looking through the guide and deciding what to record and more time playing with my daughter, Kate.

4) Hooking TiVo Into My Network. Attaching any device into a network is cool. If it's easy to do, that's even cooler! The fact that doing this adds additional features is triple cool. TiVo recently announced a partnership with NetFlix for movie distribution. Networking TiVo is key to many coming advanced features. See numbers 5 and 6 for the networking driven features available now.

5) Photos. I've taken thousands of digital pictures over the last several years. Most of these pics sit on my hard drive collecting virtual dust. TiVo has given me the option of creating the equivalent of the old rotary tray machine based slide show without moving the photos from the PC in my office. Now, TiVo has put the onus on me to take better photos. Even if my vacation photos are terrible, TiVo just me gave an easier way to bore people with my pictures of the family trip colonial Williamsburg.

6) Music. I've always wanted to own a big Wurlitzer jukebox. Given the space constraints of a small Brooklyn apartment, this won't be happening anytime soon. TiVo has reduced the footprint my jukebox by using my home PC as a music file server.

7) Online Scheduling. Tell TiVo to record a show from anywhere with an Internet connection. You should buy a TiVo for this feature alone.

8) Support. Forget about the phone support. I judge an organization's support by the amount of information created by TiVo and available on their website. TiVo has all of their manuals online as well as a huge amount additional troubleshooting content. Obviously, TiVo is addressing customer issues because the answers are all over their website.

9) The Future. TiVo continues to innovate and add new functionality. The most interesting recent announcement is for TiVoToGo. TiVoToGo makes TiVo content portable, either to burn onto a DVD or download to a PC or handheld for later viewing. This functionality is a must have as handheld devices begin to offer video: thing iPod for videos.

10) The Cult. TiVo fans tend toward the fanatical. Several sites have cropped up with fans arguing about the minutia of TiVology. I love this passion for a product. The willingness of product users to have heated exchanges around the pluses and minuses of a feature is a perhaps the best indicator of the strength of that product.

TiVo, in a very short time, has certainly changed the way I watch television. I've had a great time writing this blog and learning about TiVo. Thanks to you for reading. Thanks to TiVo for lending me a box. The final bit of advice I'll give is this: When you finally head to TiVo.com to buy your first TiVo box, get the biggest hard drive. You're going to need it.



DAY NINE: Online Scheduling: Remind Me Again How I Ever Lived Without This?

How many times have you been sitting in a London Internet café, thousands of miles away from your home, a couple of hours before heading into a Arsenal v Manchester City soccer match and realized, “I forgot to set up the VCR to tape the match”. Maybe this hasn’t happened to you. It happened to me in February of this year. It was the “DOH!” heard ‘round the world: I was attending a huge sporting event, and if I decided to streak on the field, for example, the only record that would exist for me would be my police record because I wasn’t set-up to record it.

TiVo has changed all this with Online Scheduling. Now from any location on the planet you can tell you TiVo, “Hey, there’s a Bea Arthur marathon on TVLand, record it for me.”

Yesterday, I explained the registration process. Now, I visit tivo.com and click on the “I HAVE TIVO” link on the left navigation bar, choose TiVo Central Online and sign in. From here, I schedule recordings for any of my TiVos from anywhere. I have two options, to Search TV Listings and to Browse By Channel.

First, I search by Title. I input the term “Geographic” and get 24 listings for shows with Geographic in the title. I backup and search by Actor/Director for Eastwood. I get 80 results! (Multiple showings of Pink Cadillac, Joe Kidd and Heartbreak Ridge take up most of them. But there are also a couple of old episodes of Rawhide.) I click on For A Few Dollars More playing on Sunday morning November 21 on AMC. I have a chance to see other showings. The listing also shows me the names of the other stars and the director, Sergio Leone. I now click on Leone’s name and get a listing of upcoming shows by, with or about Sergio Leone. I can already tell I’ll be surfing Online Scheduling later. This time, I back up and choose to record the Eastwood movie. I choose the priority and ask to get an email confirmation. Two things happen next: 1) I get an email telling me TiVo is going to record my show and 2) when TiVo connects to the service the next time, it downloads a message confirming that it will record my show. So, unbelievably, cool.

Browse By Channel works exactly as named: enter a channel, a date and a time and you’ll get a listing of shows in a time grid format.

Over the next hour, TiVo Online Scheduling teaches me many important things. For example, Lee Van Cleef was in Escape from New York with Adrienne Barbeau who was in an episode of the Drew Carey show with…you see where this is going. And now that I know how to use it from any spot with Internet access, I’ll probably use it most sitting on the couch in front of my TV. I’ll do this because I can!!

Mailbag

I answered a number of questions earlier today in the live Viewpoint chat. You can access the archive from this very page. I got a number of questions that I didn’t have time to get to. So, I thought it appropriate to answer a couple here.

Q: “What about TiVo High Definition boxes?”

A: Those DirecTV HD DVRs with TiVo are available from DirecTV. My pal, Gregg has one and loves the clarity of the HD picture with the smarts of the TiVo. Haven’t used one only because I don’t yet have an HDTV. Check this TiVo flavor at http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/imagine/HDDVR.dsp

Q: “How did you get to be such a huge soccer fan?”

A: I’m not sure. But I will tell you that having a TiVo helps my fandom immensely. Some of the matches from Europe are on at very early hours. I’ve set up TiVo with WishLists for my favorite teams.

I’ve got one final day of the blog and I’ve barely scratched the surface. On Monday, I’ll recap my experience and talk about a couple of interesting services TiVo will be adding in the future.



DAY EIGHT: The Call

Now that it’s midway through the advanced TiVo week, I thought it was about time to give TiVo’s tech support a bit of a workout. In preparation for using the TiVo Online Scheduling, I need to have an account on tivo.com. This requires a short registration beginning with the email address used when activating the service. Thus far, I’d used the online support a few times to see how extensive their answers were. Pretty much any question you could ever want answered is covered in online support but I wanted to use the phone. I decided that I’d call up saying that I couldn’t complete the registration process because tivo.com was not recognizing my email address. (I figured this out because I originally entered the wrong email address.) At this point, the light bulb went off. I had been dying to test TiVo’s phone support. The plan was as follows:
1) Call TiVo
2) Give them the wrong email address
3) Play dumb
4) See what happens

Having been in the technology business for a while, I can say with the authority of experience that 99% of all support phone calls could be avoided by visiting the web. I cheerfully ignore my own advice and waste the time of a tech support engineer. Here’s how it went down (I’m paraphrasing):

[ring]
[TiVo Support recording answers and presents me with a menu. I realize that, even though my problem could be answered by following the menu and getting a recording, I press the button for “Give Me A Live Human.”]
[hold music for around 15 seconds]
TiVo Support Engineer: TiVo Support
Me: Hi, I’m having a problem registering for the Online Scheduling feature.
TSE: Ok, can you give me the number of your TiVo box?
Me: [read number of the TiVo]
TSE: What happens when you try and register?
Me: It doesn’t recognize my email address.
TSE: What is the email address are you using?
Me: [read him the CORRECT email address, not the fake one I had planned on using]
TSE: That’s odd. That’s the address on the account. Can you try reentering the address?
Me: [at this point I realize my fatal mistake and just enter the correct email address] It worked. doh!
TSE: Thanks for calling TiVo support.

At this point, the support engineer sends me to a short questionnaire about my support experience. The whole call from start to finish lasted a grand total of 90 seconds. Needless to say, TiVo support performed flawlessly. My performance left something to be desired. I decide not to waste anyone else’s time and slink back to my couch where I watch an episode of This Old House that TiVo had taped for me. TiVo: 3, Idiot: 0.

Mailbag

The tivo@newsweek.com mailbag is overflowing. So, I’ll answer a few questions today. The first question comes from Alex, “I'm in the market for a TiVo. […]I understand that you can buy a lifetime contract of sorts, or pay monthly. Is that correct? If so, why wouldn't everyone just go with the lifetime deal (it's not all THAT expensive, right)?” Yes, the TiVo service fee can be either paid monthly at $12.95 or paid one time at $299 for the lifetime of the TiVo product. TiVo does offer a discount on the monthly fee if you have multiple boxes. It’s quite reasonable. You can buy it at tivo.com along with the Humax combo DVD recorder/TiVo and other TiVo gear.

Judi from Edinboro, PA asks several questions in her email. Q1: Is the phone connection for updating the TV listings? A: Yes, TiVo dials in, and based upon what you’ve told TiVo about where you live, sets up the correct programming information. TiVo maintains programming listings for around 13,000 cable companies as well as information for the satellite companies. TiVo also may download messages about lineup changes for your cable company or other service changes.

Q2: Is a dedicated line needed or can it work off of your basic voice line? A: No dedicated line is needed with TiVo. Nor does it interrupt phone calls or services like call waiting. If you have connected TiVo to a home network, the TiVo service may be accessed over the Internet.

Q3: How much time is spent with TiVo being ‘on the phone?’ A: Not long. I connected to the TiVo service over phone before I hooked TiVo into my home network. It took around 5 minutes. Once the information is downloaded, TiVo works some of its super secret mojo and organizes the information.

Tomorrow, I cover my new obsession with TiVo’s Online Scheduling. It’s fast. It’s cool. It’s why the Internet was invented.



DAY SEVEN: The Music TiVolution

Today, I explain how TiVo turned my home PC into a jukebox. Yesterday, I discussed the installation of the TiVo Desktop. The TiVo Desktop powers both the Music and Photo Home Media Features. And if you followed my lead from yesterday on how to use the Photo feature, you’ll have no problem getting the hang of the Music feature.

On Sunday morning after a night of loading up a 1 year-old on birthday cake (and the sugary frosting), I am ready for some relaxation. My wife has another idea: clean the house. Before we get into the vacuuming, dusting and moping, I take a few minutes to get some tunes flowing through TiVo to my TV and stereo. On day 1, I mentioned that I wired TiVo into my stereo system as well as the television. So far in my short history with TiVo, I haven’t really had the opportunity to crank up the stereo. Today, I change all that.

I visit the TiVo Desktop on my home PC and, identically to the way I surfed my Photos, I surf my digital music files. I’m a music nut. So, I have hundreds of CDs that I’ve ripped to my home computer hard drive. I got tired of having to pull out the books that consolidated my CD collection and search for a CD. I finally picked my favorite hundred or so and turned them into MP3s. But up to this point, I’ve never been able to make use of these digital music files outside of my office.

From the Music tab in TiVo Desktop, I drag and drop the tunes I want to stream to TiVo, press Publish and head back to the living room. I press the TiVo Central button, head into Music & Photos and select Jack’s Music. From here I look at all of the music folders I’ve published and choose a record by The Shins called Chutes Too Narrow. I see the banner at the top tell me that I’m listening to The Shins just like it would tell me what TV show I’m watching. Brilliant!

Now, I want to try one other thing before we start cleaning the house. I head back into my office to the TiVo Desktop and browse for a couple of minutes. I find a few playlists that I have created in my desktop MP3 player and publish them. (For all you mp3 geeks, TiVo will handle m3u, asx and pls type playlist files.) I then head back into the living room, check TiVo and find that my playlist is published. Once I’ve got the playlist cranking through TiVo, I’m ready to clean.

Mailbag

Matt in Brooklyn represents in the tivo@newsweek.com mailbag. He asks, “Many football and baseball games run longer than they were originally scheduled. How do you make sure that TiVo will tape all of a sporting event?”

Great question, Matt, and particularly appropriate today. This morning I wake up very early. I check the score of the Monday Night Football game to find that the Colts beat the Vikings 31-28 on a Vanderjagt field goal with 2 seconds left. Luckily, I had TiVo tape the game. When I set up to record the game, I had TiVo add additional time to the recording using the TiVo Overtime Scheduler (some TiVo old timers informally call it “padding”). After deciding to record an event, chose Options, under Stop Recording the default is On Time. However, you can choose increments of up to an additional three hours. I ended up taping much more of ABC than I needed but I wanted to be safe rather than sorry. It paid off. Keep filling the mailbag at tivo@newsweek.com and maybe you’ll be the envy of all your friends. Tomorrow, I place a call to TiVo Support to see how smart these TiVo folks really are.



DAY SIX: My PhD in TiVo

Last week we covered the basics of TiVo: TiVo 101. This week I move into graduate studies to learn some of the more advanced features of TiVo.

My daughter, Kate, had her first birthday party on Saturday. Many of our friends and Kate's friends would be over. From any computer connected to my network, I can send photos to TiVo as a part of the Home Media Features. So, this would be the perfect time to test the Photo feature by creating a slide show of Kate's first year and having it on the TV during the party. Sounds simple enough. Here's what happened…

First I visit TiVo.com to download the TiVo desktop. The desktop comes in two flavors: PC and Mac. I download the PC version from the PC in my office. Then, I started in the install process. In about 3 minutes, the install complete and I started the TiVo Publisher desktop software. There are two tabs on the screen: one titled Music and one Photos. I choose the Photos tab. The screen is divided into three quadrants with a file browser in the top two and one area at the bottom for the photos to be published to TiVo. I surf through my hard drive, find the photos I want to use in the slide show and drag them into the bottom half of the screen. Here's a picture of the screen after I selected the Photos.





After I've loaded around a hundred and fifty pictures, I press Publish and go to the living room where the TiVo is located. At the TiVo, I press the TiVo Central button and choose Music and Photos. Upon entering the Photos folder, I check my first photo. I happen to have my camera in hand and get a picture of our dog, Charlie, looking at a picture of himself and Kate direct from the TiVo. It's Charlie the Meta Hound.





Now that my test is complete, I'm ready to set up the Slideshow. TiVo allows you to control the speed of the Slideshow by choosing a pause time for each photo. You can also shuffle the photos and repeat the show. For the sake of speed, I didn't use folders but TiVo allows you to do that. Next time, I'll organize the photos into folders to make them easier to manage. I could've then chosen to include subfolders within the Slideshow. I pick a 10 second delay for each photo, shuffle and repeat.

The guests begin arriving and I regale them with my TiVo tales when they ask about the Slideshow playing on the TV. All told, the Photo Home Media Feature took around 35 minutes to from installation of the desktop to starting the Slideshow. The bulk of the time was spent in selecting the pictures I wanted to use. As a proud parent, I am more than happy to show off the thousands of pictures we've taken of Kate. TiVo just gave me another way in which to do that.

Mailbag

Today's mail from the tivo@newsweek.com mailbag comes from Sarah in Decatur, Georgia, "Does my home network need to be wireless for TiVo to connect to it?" No, a wireless network is not required. TiVo can connect to either a wired or wireless network. No matter if your network is wired or wireless you will need an adapter card. I happen to have a wireless network because it's more practical given the layout of our house. If you don't have a network currently installed research both wired and wireless as there are advantages and disadvantages to each. You will need to be connected to a home network to take advantage of the TiVo Home Media Features. Tomorrow, I'll delve into the Music Home Media Feature and tell you how TiVo can turn your home PC into a jukebox.



DAY FIVE: TiVo Meets The Network

We are now a few days into our relationship and TiVo knows a lot about me. I talked over the last few days about setup, TiVo Suggestions and scheduling. Now, I’m ready for graduate studies in TiVo. For this, I will need to get TiVo hooked into my network.

A few months ago, I caved and joined the wireless revolution. We moved to a new apartment with multiple floors, so a wired network was no longer practical. So, I marched myself down to the electronics store and walked out with an armload of wireless gear. After a few snafus and some misconfiguration – all due to my stubborn insistence that I can do without reading the user manual (see Monday’s blog entry) - all three home computers were connected to our bouncing baby wireless network. I am now ready to add TiVo to the wireless family.

The TiVo box can connect to the TiVo service two ways: via a phone line or over the Internet. Guided Setup requires a connection via phone line. After this initial setup is complete, TiVo can be configured to connect to the service over either a wired or a wireless network. I visit tivo.com to determine which wireless network adapter I will need and pay a quick visit to Best Buy to pick it up.

Back at the apartment, I open the box of my Linksys USB network adapter and plug it directly into the back of my TiVo. From TiVo Central I navigate into the Phone and Network Settings and find that TiVo has recognized my new network adapter. Excellent!!! There are 4 or so wireless networks in my neighborhood. So, I take a few minutes to tell TiVo which network I want to connect to by visiting the Wireless Settings page. This setup requires me to enter the name of my network and any special security settings I have. Since I’m using most of the standard settings for my wireless network, it takes me roughly 4 minutes to complete this setup. The final step is to configure TiVo box to connect to the TiVo service via the network. Now, I can take advantage of the TiVo advanced services like Music and Photos and, when I add a second TiVo box, multi-room viewing.

The fast network install left me with some extra to watch some TV. It’s 9:25. So, my wife and I decide to watch last night’s episode of America’s Next Top Model while TiVo finishes recording The Apprentice. If you haven’t seen the show, the premise is that a group of young women compete for a modeling contract. Tyra Banks hosts the show and acts as den mother, role model and whip cracker. Each week a different potential model gets sent home. I won’t tell you who gets sent home this week in case it’s still sitting on your TiVo. Suffice to say, you won’t be surprised after watching the ANTM contestants “go-see” some famous designers. The hilarity peaks when designer Mark Bouwer tells one of the contestants, Cassie, that her 29-inch hips are too big. LOL. My wife and I rewind some of the moments a couple of times and howl with laughter.

Supermodel histrionics are contrasted with a History Channel International show called History Explorer which TiVo recorded earlier in the day. We watch about 10 minutes of an episode about archaeologists digging on a cathedral site in Coventry. My wife finds this show terribly boring. So, I save the rest to watch later.

Mailbag

Today’s mail from tivo@newsweek.com offers some excellent advice. Jeremy from Columbus, Ohio writes, “Thanksgiving is approaching and the annual round of Holiday shows isn’t far behind. Be sure to set up your WishList now so you don’t miss The Grinch.” Excellent idea. Navigate to Pick Programs to Record from TiVo Central and choose Search Using a WishList. From here, you can create all sorts of crazy holiday WishLists. Create a WishList for the keywords, “Santa” or “Christmas.” Once you’re finished, choose Auto record WishList programs and TiVo will automatically record Rudolph’s Shiny New Year or A Christmas Story.

Keep filling the mailbag. tivo@newsweek.com I’ve got the weekend off to figure out how to get photos and music from my hard drive to the TiVo and, of course, to watch lots and lots of television.



DAY FOUR: What TiVo Tells Me About Me

Yesterday, I went crazy telling TiVo what to record. Before I find out what TiVo has waiting for me today, I want to see what other folks are interested in watching. On their website, TiVo keeps lists of stats on the popularity of top programs. Their lists are sort of like the Nielsen ratings for the in-crowd - those of us with a TiVo. (Ok, Ok, I'm a late bloomer but it's never too late to get on the bandwagon.) TiVo uses anonymous stats on the programs recorded and aggregates all of this information to produce their lists.

My first reaction to the week's TiVo Top 25 Ratings is that I'm just not watching enough television. For the week ending October 23, Desperate Housewives was the number one show. Some folks at work are raving about it but I have yet to see it. (I make a mental note to get a Season Pass for it.) The Apprentice clocks in at number 2 and Lost rounds out the top 3. Haven't seen Lost, either. How did I miss both Desperate Housewives and Lost? The ALCS was, predictably, popular given the classic battle of the Yankees vs the Sox. I'll be interested to see how this week's election results rank. I didn't tell TiVo to record election coverage only because it didn't occur to me. (TiVo has online scheduling which allows you to schedule recordings via tivo.com. I plan on testing online scheduling this weekend and writing about it next week.)

The other interesting list is the TiVo Season Pass Hot 100. This list shows how many people request a TiVo Season Pass for a given program. Of the roughly 2 million TiVo boxes in the US, The Apprentice tops the list of favorite series. My big prediction is that Extreme Makeover: Home Edition will begin to slowly climb the list from its modest spot at 39th as more TiVo watchers discover the genius of its unique combination of fix it and human interest.

Now that I've seen what my TiVo compatriots are watching, it's time to see what I will be watching. From TiVo Central, I choose Now Playing on TiVo. Wow. TiVo already has several programs for me to watch. Several things that I've set up to record are there including a couple of shows from The History Channel and a few from Discovery. Everything that I told TiVo to record has a yellow dot next to the title. Also on the Now Playing list is several shows that have a TiVo branded dot next to the title. These are the items that TiVo has recorded for me as TiVo Suggestions. Clean Sweep is one of the programs recorded. My wife loves that show. So, I make sure that I save that show until she gets a chance to watch it. There's also a documentary from the Discovery Times channel which looks promising. I'm impressed so far. The TiVo Suggestions are automatically recorded when there is enough disk space and are deleted if space is needed for other programs. However, TiVo keeps a list of all upcoming TiVo Suggestions accessed through TiVo Central. These TiVo Suggestions can be given Thumbs up or Thumbs down ratings. When individual titles are given Thumbs down they will disappear from the list. All the while, TiVo is learning more about my preferences.

My first piece of email from tivo@newsweek.com is related to TiVo Suggestions. Mark from Dallas, Texas asks, "How does TiVo know what shows I'm going to like?"

The answer is quite easy: TiVo Suggestions are based on a magical formula that is kept in a highly guarded vault underneath an unmarked building in an office park near Sunnyvale, California. Actually, I made that last sentence up. I have no idea exactly how it works. TiVo uses what I like to watch combined with other information. The exact data used and the algorithm is part of TiVo's secret sauce. There is much speculation on a few TiVo fan sites regarding the ingredients of this secret sauce but the point is that after only a couple of days of playing with the TiVo, it's surprisingly accurate. The accuracy should improve over time.

I've barely scratched the surface of TiVo's capabilities and I'm already nearly a week into it. Tomorrow, I'll connect TiVo to my home network. Then, I'll be set up nicely for next week when I get into advanced TiVo features like Music and Photos. Keep the emails coming. tivo@newsweek.com.



DAY THREE: The Mind of TiVo

Today, I set out to learn about scheduling recordings with TiVo. My wife loves The Apprentice. It seems that The Donald is a good place to start. My goal is to record this season's remaining episodes of The Apprentice. I cruise to Live TV and head to my WNBC, Channel 4, and scroll through the programming guide to the Thursday lineup. I find the show, press the "Select" button and a menu quickly pops up asking me if I want to either "Record this showing" or "Season Pass and other options." After selecting "Season Pass," I choose "Get A Season Pass." Now, I can decide if I want to keep an entire season's worth of episodes, whether or not I want the repeats and first runs and when TiVo should delete the episodes. TiVo gives me the default, which I take, and TiVo adds The Apprentice to my To Do list. All The Apprentice episodes will now be recorded.

Now that I've got the hang of things, I go hog wild with the recordings. I get Season Passes for America's Next Top Model on UPN and ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and choose an episode of Frontline on PBS. I'm about 20 recordings in when I try and record Adaptation. on HBO - only to find that there is a conflict with another show I have already asked TiVo to record. TiVo wisely asks me if I want to look for other showings of the same program. What a cool feature!!! Fortunately, HBO is showing Adaptation about 12,762 times over the next couple of weeks. So, I choose an alternate time and I'm conflict-free and ready to record.

TiVo's command center is called TiVo Central. TiVo Central is the heart and brains of the TiVo service and is accessed through the TV shaped button marked "TiVo" at the top of the remote. From here, you can access recorded programs, schedule recordings, change settings and view messages. To review my selected recordings, I head out to TiVo Central and choose "Pick Programs to Record" then "To Do List." In a quick glance I see that everything I want to record is there. Back to the "Pick Programs" menu to "Search by Title," which allows me to do exactly as it describes. Through an easy-to-understand letter selection, I can build titles and look for programs. If you're looking for Spongebob Squarepants, you only have to enter S-P-O-N and you'll get a list of programs with matching titles.

Also in the "Pick Programs to Record" menus is the option to build a WishList. This is exactly the feature I was looking for in a DVR. With TiVo, I can Search Using a Wishlist to record based on my preferences. Here's how it works: choose the kind of WishList you'd like to create, enter a keyword, much like you would do in an Internet search engine, and, then, choose a category like movies. For example, I entered "soccer" and "Movies." Then, I instructed TiVo to record any movies with Soccer in the title or description. You can create WishLists by Actor, Director, Category, Keyword or Title.

After soccer/movies, I setup another WishList, this one for Director Robert Altman. Immediately, TiVo tells me that Dr T and the Women, Gosford Park and Short Cuts - all movies directed by Robert Altman - were coming up within the next week. I can now choose to record each individually or, more simply, TiVo will record all Robert Altman directed movies automatically. TiVo's WishLists will save me the time of having to individually record all of my favorite movies by Kurosawa or all NY Jets football games. So far, WishLists are my favorite TiVo feature.

By now I've setup roughly 30 individual recordings, a few Season Passes and 3 or so WishLists. Here's my first major problem: I am going to be recording a lot of television. I watch more TV than I probably should. And now, there's even more to watch! Not that it's a bad thing, mind you. Guess I should have gotten a TiVo with a larger hard drive. TiVo comes in a variety of flavors. My version happens to be the smallest, the 40 hour version. But there are larger versions, 80 and 140 hour to be precise. I'm only about 45 minutes into setting up recordings and already I want to upgrade.

Later, when I'm sitting at my computer, I get an Instant Message from a friend with a link to a new Humax brand TiVo box with a built in DVD player/recorder. With this new Humax TiVo box, not only can you save shows on your hard drive, you can also archive them to DVD for later viewing. Seems to me this is ideal solution to my size problem. Check it out at http://www.tivo.com.

Tune in tomorrow (I've always wanted to say that), when we find out what TiVo has recorded for me. And don't forget to keep those emails coming…tivo@newsweek.com.



DAY TWO: TiVo Time

I left you yesterday thinking that I was going to try and fool TiVo into believing I was an 87 year old grandma. After you find out what I learned today, you'll understand why I became sidetracked. Before setting up recordings, I decide to check out Live TV. The programming guide, called TiVo Live Guide, looks radically different from the normal grid based cable-style guide. The screen is divided into three sections. The top half provides detailed information on the program currently running on Live TV. Bottom screen left is a list of channels and the title of the current program with the current channel highlighted. The bottom right section contains details of programs coming up in the next few hours on the current channel. Sound confusing? It's not. TiVo Live Guide is the most intuitive way to present programming information that I've seen. The text is small enough to jam a lot of information on the screen but is still easily readable. The abundance of data and easy readability will come in handy when selecting programs to record. Let's say I'm watching CSI. I can quickly see who is on The Late Show at 11:35 with a couple of remote clicks, press the record button and I'm all set to record Dave!

TiVo Live Guide also provides filters. If you're a sports nut, you can have TiVo only show you sports programming available. If you're a movie buff, TiVo can give you all movies currently playing. This feature is ideal if you have a cable package that includes hundreds of channels.

TiVo does offer the ability to switch to a more traditional looking program guide, if you prefer. But after seeing TiVo's unique programming guide, I'll never go back.

The remote is roughly the length of a hot dog, a bit shorter than my cable remote. Since the TiVo remote now controls my channel selection and all of my TV functions, the cable remote is banished to the remote graveyard.

The TiVo remote has two buttons I didn't recognize: a red "thumbs down" and a green "thumbs up." These two buttons help TiVo learn my likes and dislikes. While I'm surfing through Live TV, I can give two thumbs down to, say, Sewing with Nancy and three thumbs up to The Daily Show. These "Thumb Ratings" will take my will help TiVo better decide what to record for me. Thumb Ratings help make TiVo Recommendations more accurate. Over the next two weeks, I'll report on the accuracy of the ratings. Though, the sinister side of me was immediately tempted to scroll through and give thumbs up to all of the programs my grandmother likes. I took the middle ground, instead, given that I only have a short amount of time to learn about TiVo and the fact the weekend was packed with sports.

It's standard DVR fare to provide the ability to pause, review and slo-mo TV live. Sports can really put this feature through its paces, especially when wielded by a sports fanatic. I have what my wife calls a "mildly unhealthy obsession" with English soccer. So, I was more than happy to have an excuse - "it's purely for research purposes, darling" - to watch my favorite team, Arsenal, play Southampton on Saturday on Fox Sports World and put the altering of Live TV to the test. The Gooners were losing by a goal and had the ball in Southampton's end. In the final minute, Robin van Persie kicked a left-footed goal for Arsenal to keep them at the top of the league. I used TiVo to rewind and watch the goal (and the instant replay of the goal) over and over and over again. I couldn't tell a difference in quality between Live TV and the recorded version. And the picture quality on pause is superb, much better than with the cable DVR.

Though I would've had much more fun talking about my feelings and, possibly, shopping for new linens, duty called. So, I spent the rest of the weekend testing the rewind and slo-mo features on NFL games.

Now that my I've honed my abilities to better manage channel surfing and mastered the control of Live TV, I'm ready to move on to recording. Tomorrow, I'll find out how quickly I can fill up TiVo's hard drive with old kung fu movies, episodes of Molto Mario and a full season of America's Next Top Model.

Don't forget, send your questions about TiVo to: tivo@newsweek.com, I'm extremely busy watching lots and lots of TiVo over the next week and a half but I'll try to respond as quickly as possible.



DAY ONE: TV, VCRs, DVRs and TiVo

THE PAST
I love television. This is not a recent development. When I was 10, I would get up and sneak past my parent’s bedroom well after my strictly enforced bedtime. I did this solely to watch my hero, Johnny Carson. Some kids had Superman. Some kids had Hulk Hogan. I had Johnny. Thus, began my life-long love affair with TV.

As I grew up, both life and TV became more complicated and my relationship with TV changed (maybe a better way to put it is, I actually got a life). There were hundreds of channels, thousands of choices and an increasing number of demands on my time. I still loved TV but I wanted to watch it on my own terms.

The VCR proved only a partial solution to my problem. It required too much programming to use effectively. And the quality of the video was marginal at best. The net effect being that TV in the time of the VCR was (kind of) on my terms.

Next, I tried the Digital Video Recorder (DVR) from my cable company. This DVR, built into my cable box, was a slight step up from my VCR. It used a hard drive to store the programs. This, I loved. I liked the fact that programming the DVR to record just required looking through the programming guide (despite the user interface being slow). But, this box had no brains. I still had to manually select everything I wanted to record and watch later, a time consuming process to say the least. I once spent 45 minutes setting up a week’s recordings. My frustration grew and then, miraculously, I was offered a way out of my DVR disappointment; I was asked to spend three weeks evaluating a TiVo.

THE PRESENT
So here we are. I, needless to say, have jumped at the chance to compare my cable company DVR with a TiVo. Several of my friends are already TiVo freaks and now I get to find out what it’s all about. The time frame forces me to push TiVo’s technology to its limits and observe what happens. The bonus for you? I fill you in on everything I find out. I do all the work; you reap all the reward.

Going in, I know that there are several things I want. First off, I want a recorder that works more like a search engine, a TV Google if you will. It also has to get to know me – my likes and dislikes. Finally, TiVo needs to provide me a faster way to scroll through channels. After all, I’m a guy, and guys love to surf channels – the faster, the better.

THE SETUP
Here’s something you should know – I am an idiot. So, you’re in luck. When I’m done with my TiVo test drive, you’ll know whether or not the technology is idiot-proof. Step one in the idiot litmus test: immediately discard the user manual. I find this to be the true test of how easy a technology is to figure out. However, TiVo is one step ahead of me and I find some of the “getting started” instructions printed inside the box. It’s the first time I’ve seen this tactic. Clever, TiVo. Very clever. TiVo – 1, Idiot – 0.

The inputs and outputs on the back of the TiVo are clearly marked and intuitive. All of the necessary cables are included in the box (unlike the last two printers I bought). I have the TiVo box fully connected to the cable, phone line, TV and stereo within minutes. I turn on the TV and power up...“Houston, we have a picture!”.

After TiVo starts up, the Guided Setup begins and I’m asked to activate the service. I go to the website and enter the number TiVo gives me on the TV screen. I’m informed the service works two ways, I can either: 1) pay for the service by month or 2) pay for the lifetime of the product.

The remaining part of the setup walks me through the system configuration. This is the part I hate most about getting any new technology. It’s boring, and usually, pretty easy to screw up. TiVo keeps it simple. Most of the questions are about my location, zip code, time zone and so forth. Once complete, TiVo needs to download channel information, programming guides, etc., so, while TiVo dials in, I take my daughter, Kate, to the park.

When I get home, TiVo has its information. The most interesting part of the configuration process are my programming options. I find I can delete all of the channels I will never, ever watch, forever banishing them from my personalized programming guide. Those channels are dead to me. Genius.

Though I don’t suggest you try this at home, I have setup and configured TiVo without using the manual so I’m onto to my next task: fooling TiVo into thinking I’m an 84-year grandmother. Check in and see how I do.

Finally, I throw this gauntlet: Over the next two weeks, feel free to email me with any TiVo questions or challenges you may have. I shall do my level best to answer and/or meet them. tivo@newsweek.com