Thursday, September 07, 2006

More of the greatest inventions of all time

Every once in awhile, I stumble onto something that totally rocks our world. This week that happened...

A little history...about a year ago, my VCR went kaput and I've never bothered to get another one. We don't watch a tremendous amount of TV and I figured the VCR is pretty close to being an obsolete technology, so why bother? The problem has been that I haven't been able to record any programs for the past year. There are a couple of shows, like "24", that I would like to watch but miss because that is bath and story time for Emma. Plus, there have been a few kid's shows that I know Emma would like to see, but they're on during the day while she's at school.

So last week, kind of on an impulse, I called the local cable company to ask about their DVR service. The next day, they came to the house, hooked up a new box and - TA-DAH - we now have DVR, which is just like Tivo, without the $14.95 a month charge (DVR costs $5 a month.)

I know the novelty will wear off, but I am so totally in love with this thing! It's so easy to use. When I got it, I set it up to record any airing of "Go Diego Go" and "Wonder Pets", two shows Emma loves but can't see because they're on weekday afternoons. And I have recorded "When the Levee Breaks", the new Spike Lee HBO doc on Hurricane Katrina. The other cool thing is that if you come in and turn on a show halfway through, you can send it back to the beginning. Or you can pause it even though it's live TV. Totally cool.

I was a little worried that getting something like this would make us watch more TV than we should. But I think it's made us even more selective. We're only watching what we want, and haven't been turning on the TV and channel-surfing to whatever might be on, even if we're not wild about it.

I'm sure people who have Tivo or DVR are rolling their eyes at my enthusiasm. But it's new and fun and I love it.

4 comments:

Julia said...

I'm probably one of the few people left that doesn't have dvr or tivo, but your enthusiasm just might push me over the edge. I'm going to check this out with charter.com and see what my costs are. Thanks for the hype!

Catherine said...

Hmmmm...maybe I should look into this!

Sounds great!

Catherine - who has 2 VCR's running every day to save channel surfing.

C's Mom said...

I have DVR...wanna know how often I've used it: ZERO.

I'm a loser with TV..although I did get wrapped up in AI last season ;0)

Ah, the time they will be a-changin' when I have my munchkin.

Amy said...

I actually got my TiVo when they ran the 'pay once & get a lifetime of service' plan! (they no longer offer that now...) but too bad for them cuz I got my toosh in right under the wire & have had my TiVo for over two years now & don't pay one red cent. *grin *

DON'T YOU JUST LOVE PAUSING LIVE TV? hehehe

-Amy & Ruby Cate
*who loves to TiVo her 'peep in the big wide world' show daily*