Home Theaters

Much ado is made of the On Demand services offered by several purveyors of content. The word is bandied about as though it was a foregone conclusion that it was true.

Let us be clear. There is no On Demand for anyone. On Demand connotes that the user can order anything ever committed to video tape or DVD and have instantaneous results. At best, the On Demand that I have seen is a small subsection of the content of a few purveyors available in a few minutes time.

the basic Series 2 unit - a model of simplicity that pleases like nothing else for the avid television fan!

TiVo is the best design of DVR software that I have ever seen. It outclasses the offerings of any cable or satellite purveyor, and has usability that must have been worked on by many people who genuinely cared about the outcome. Everything works as you would expect, kind of like the original Apple Mac operating system. The only other thing today that I can compare usability with and not be talking about another level of convenience would be the best of the Nokia cell phone offerings.

the  HD unit will make you, and your LCD or plasma screen very happy…

Times have been tough for TiVo, and lots of red ink was used on their profit charts. However, with the updates to the software, the deals with content providers to bring content directly to the units from the internet, and the outcome of the litigation against Dish Network, the future looks rosy for the foreseeable future. also, with each one of the updates, the TiVo itself gets closer to the ideal of the instantaneous concept of On Demand. The provisions being made for content to be made available proves that the same sort of care to design the ergonomics is used with content acquisition.

With purveyors of upgrades and repairs like Weaknees, the ability to personalize, update and care for each TiVo is possible. The only thing that will cause devastation is catastrophic hard drive failure, and thankfully, that happens less and less.

sometimes deals can mitigate the up-front cost, but even if you can’t find a deal, biting the bullet leads to lots of happiness!

It’s too bad that Dish Network did not have the sense to work with TiVo, as they could have been the envy of all the customers of other cable and satellite services. Those of us who have DirecTV cling to our DirecTiVos for dear life, as the powers that be seem to have forgotten how happy these units make their subscribers. With the move to HD by many, and the extra dollars generated by classification of that as premium content, it would make sense for every content provider to make a deal with TiVo, but sadly, humans don’t always choose the best course.

Although buying a TiVo outright isn’t as appealing for some as renting one from their content provider, the joy that the unit provides must be factored in - simply recording the content is not enough. Getting to the content, working the controls, and classifying and prioritizing is also important, and cannot be easily quantified. It’s like driving a great car versus a Yugo - both might get you from A to B, but how happy you will be when you arrive is wildly different.

-