I am told that some people who do not own TiVos are sick 'n' tired of those of us who do waxing enthusiastic about them. Well, tough. TiVo has elevated my enjoyment of television a couple hundred percent by allowing me to watch what I want when I want without hassling with tapes and silly programming codes and all that this involves. With TiVo, you just press a couple of buttons that say, in effect, "Record The Jerry Springer Show every time it's on," and that's it. You will never miss another episode in which some guy's mother goes on national television to reveal to him that she's always been a transvestite pygmy.
You can pause, jump ahead, watch at double speed, freeze-frame nude scenes…whatever thrills you. I enjoy this invention so much that I have upgraded every time they've brought out an improved model and, though it hasn't been around all that long, I am now on my fourth and fifth TiVos. The two latest are both the new Series 2 model which, among its other innovations, allows you to install a package of services jointly called the "Home Media Option." I just installed this on the TiVo in my office.
Briefly, Home Media Option allows me to connect my TiVo to my home network which, in turn, connects to the Internet. Instead of obtaining program info via a phone line, TiVo now connects to the web and downloads it — faster and more often — from the TiVo website. I can log into the TiVo website (from my home computer or a remote one) and select shows for TiVo to record. This means, at least in theory, that if I'm over at Marv Wolfman's house and I suddenly realize I forgot to set up to record Mr. Personality, I can hop onto Marv's computer and tell my TiVo to add it to its task list. I can also take the JPG and MP3 files on my computer and send them through my home network to play or be seen on my TV screen. And once I get around to running a cable down to my downstairs TV room, I can connect my two TiVos and swap recorded programs from one to the other. At least, this is how it's all supposed to work.
Does it? I don't know yet. I just set it up, and it's supposed to download the required software to make all these things happen in about three hours. Check back then and we'll see.