Sunday Afternoon

Yesterday, I bid a bittersweet farewell to a couple of old friends — DirecTV and my steam-powered Series 2 office TiVo. The antique TiVos in other rooms will be replaced when I get around to it.

I made the change for a couple of reasons. With DirecTV, I could get both the east and west coast feeds of the major networks so I could record Leno at 8:35 and Letterman at 11:35. The new model TiVo I got — the TiVo Premiere XL4 — can record four shows at the same time so I can now record both shows from one feed — and would if I still cared as much about either as I once did. I think I'll still "Season Pass" Jay, mainly for the monologues while they last. I also wanted some channels that my local Time-Warner service (my new provider) offers but DirecTV does not.

But my main motive was this: DirecTV is changing their signal in a way that will no longer work with real old satellite receivers. I had real old satellite receivers because they had the best interface with TiVos. The DirecTV folks told me they'd be sending me three new satellite receivers since my old ones would soon stop working. I told them not to bother since their new receivers don't have a low speed data port. They said, "Okay, we won't send them" and then they sent them. I tried one and it didn't play well with my TiVos so I sent them back and decided to get rid of my old TiVos and DirecTV. I'm not sure yet how I like the new TiVo or Time-Warner Cable but will report here when I decide.

I do know that for some reason all the channels I'm paying Time-Warner for are not coming through, including the channel that airs the show I produce. They're working on it…and reducing my bill until I have what I'm supposed to have. I do know that so far, I find the new TiVo screens much more difficult to navigate than the old ones but maybe I'll get used to the new interface. Man survives by adapting to his environment and his video equipment. In fact, to some of us, those are the same thing.