Most "wife friendly" gadget my husband's brought home!
Written: Jul 20 '00
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Pros: easy to use, "surprise" shows
Cons: multiple tapings, addictive
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| BadgerGirl's Full Review: Philips TiVo PTV 300 Digital Recorder |
I don't mean to offend anyone with the title of this review. I know that there are many gadget-loving women out there, but I'm not one of them. In fact, I don't even like television! Part of the problem might be that I'm lacking a degree in rocket science and therefor cannot operate the universal remote for the TV/VCR/CD player/receiver/radio/etc, plus the second remote for the cable box. When the power surged during a thunderstorm and blew out the VCR, this all changed.
My husband had to have a TiVo. In fact, his exact words were, "But sweetheart, so and so has one and it sounds really cool!" I gave the typical response of jumping off a bridge after so and so, but reluctantly agreed to check out the TiVo. I was impressed by all the things it could allegedly do, but since I firmly believed that I'd never be able to figure the *&^# thing out, I wasn't going to pay too much attention to it.
TiVo came home and was ripped out of the box like it was Christmas Day. Set up went very well, at least from this observer's point of view. Many of the actual downloading and set-up instructions were right on the TV screen step by step. We did have to restart the set-up process once or twice for some reason, but once we got past that we had no problems.
I ignored TiVo for the first week. My husband had the remote and he did whatever was necessary. I only paid attention if something caught my eye. We went on a 2 week vacation and came home to the pleasant surprise that everything we wanted taped was taped, plus there were some shows that TiVo thought we'd like.
By now my husband and I are on a first name basis with TiVo. It's not "the TiVo", but just plain "TiVo." I will not willingly relinquish control of the remote when I get it. I enjoy flipping from live TV to what TiVo has taped and back again. The remote is very easy to use and I was able to figure it out for myself, which is always a plus. I really like rewinding live TV, especially since my husband and I usually start talking during the show and miss some crucial bit of information.
My favorite thing about TiVo is the surprise factor. Not the kind of surprise we got with the VCR, which was usually - "Oh no! It didn't tape the Friend's season finale!!!" TiVo's surprises are in the shows it thinks you will like based on what shows you rate thumbs up or thumbs down. Some days when I'm really bored or need something to numb my mind after a rough day there's nothing on TV. Now, I can take a look at what TiVo has recorded and chances are very good that I'll find something entertaining to watch. Even if I don't, I can still have fun with the musical tones TiVo emits as I flip through menus, approve, and delete things.
Since we've had TiVo, I haven't had to put up with the anguish of "I can't believe you didn't remind me to tape Survivors (or whatever vital-to-the-existence-of-humans show we can't see until it re-runs in 2 weeks)!" You can program TiVo to record on a "season's pass" which will tape your favorite shows every week, even if the network changes days or times. The only downside of this is that it will tape the show every time it sees it. If you are a South Park fan, TiVo will tape the new episode on Wednesday, and again on Saturday, and again on Sunday, so you have the exact same show taped three times. This is the only drawback I've found so far, other than the fact that I'm now watching more TV than I used to:P
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 399
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Epinions.com ID:
BadgerGirl
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Member: Jill Miller
Location: Middleton, WI
Reviews written: 73
Trusted by: 5 members
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