Re:I a little behind the times on Tivo -fill me in (Score 1)

I used to be the VCR king. Filled all 8(!) slots in my VCR menu. Taped everything I wanted to watch. Had a system for everything. Spent endless amounts of time babysitting the darn thing. Then I got TiVo.

Here are some concrete examples why TiVo is worth its weight in gold:

VCR ERA

• If my VCR ran out of tape, it would rewind to the beginning (missing the end of the current show) and erase recent shows to record new ones. Result: missed/incomplete shows; 8-hour effective storage capacity unless I kept checking the tape every day.
• Even with index search, finding what was on a tape took forever (physical rewind/FF, ugh). Constantly-revised Post-its on tape box to list contents. When I found a show I wanted to see right now, watching it would fragment my tape. Result: tapes like swiss cheese, with unwatched shows interspersed among free segments. More accidental overwriting.
• Only failsafe mathod: to always watch the last show on a tape, then rewind, avoiding fragmentation. Result: forced to watch what the tape told me to watch, not what I wanted.
• Could only program 8 series in total. Who is only interested in 8 shows?
• Kept an eagle eye on the TV listings, to ensure my shows hadn't moved to another timeslot, etc. Much paranoia and effort.

TiVo ERA

• Unlimited number of program slots; we currently have 76 Season Passes, including:
  • Shows we watch.
  • Shows we like, but were cancelled. If a network later "burns off" the remaining episodes without promotion at some weird time, these last few episodes will magically appear on their own.
  • Shows that may come to Canada some day. Read about the latest craze in the US or UK (e.g. "Showbiz moms and dads"), set a Wishlist, forget about it. If the show is picked up months later, it will be recorded and magically appear on the Now Showing list.
  • Keyword-based wishlists, too. If a show description contains "PSP" or "Playstation portable", the show magically appears. See a pattern emerging?
• Controlling live TV means bathroom breaks/kitchen raids when you want, not the networks; reclaim control of your bladder! Instant replays are not only for sports fans: I constantly do instant replays of missed dialogue (husband talks over Family Guy; press one button; hear that line again; feel blood pressure go down). Does wonders for domestic harmony. And no more ducking my mother's phone calls: Michael will simply switch to some prerecorded reality show he likes, while I hang on the phone for a half-hour.
• With channels from multiple timezones (cable company's "timeshifting" package) and specialty channels' repeated airings, even a one-tuner TiVo catches most of what we want to watch. Prioritized Season Pass list ensures any unresolved conflicts affect the least interesting shows.
• If TiVo runs out of room, deletes the oldest unwatched show, by definition something we don't care about that much. You can protect recordings from erasure individually, a trivial effort.
• Channel-flipping is a thing of the past: there's always something "on" that we enjoy.

SUMMARY

Watching all the shows we love, whenever we feel like it, without having to decide whether [going out / answering the phone / going to the bathroom] is more important than whatever we'd otherwise miss, is worth WAY more than the price of admission. I hope you now understand all the ways in which TiVo is better than a VCR.