Updated:- Friday October 20, 2006

Introduction

This document is a Work-In-Progress. It will probably never be finished. At some point it will be left to languish in whatever state it is in at the time.

Most of this was written to document my experiences from the time I opened the box. This was a conscious decision so that I could record my learning experience with TiVo. Some weeks later I now know the answer to many of the issues raised. The section at the end, under the heading A Couple of Weeks Later, was written further down the track when I no longer considered myself a newbie. I had a bit more experience under my belt!

If you are not sure what a TiVo is, and you would like to find out, you can read all about it at Wikipedia (preferred), or at the TiVo site. A TiVo is an intelligent DVR (Digital Video Recorder) which, among many other functions, allows you to pause or replay live TV. Their claim is that it will change the way you watch TV.

Let me start with my television viewing habits. I don't watch TV very much, normally just 2 hours per day on 6 or 7 days per week. I watch 2 programs and half of a third between 10 PM and midnight on 2 broadcast channels. Until last month I had not subscribed to cable for about 15 years. Because I hardly ever watch TV it hasn't been worth it. Back in the early 1990's when the Playboy channel went from subscription to Pay-Per-View, that was the final straw that caused me to cancel my cable subscription.

Sure, I've been known to watch reruns of Seinfeld and M*A*S*H on odd occasions. And sometimes 60 Minutes on CBS, not for the program content, just for the commercials.

My 12 year old Sony VCR lost its ability to record a couple of years ago. So instead of having it repaired or buying a new one, I decided it was time to move on to the next generation of video technology. I'll never be an early adopter, and obviously I've missed the boat this time too. So after much procrastination I finally ordered my first TiVo. Everyone I have ever heard on the subject speaks glowingly about them, so I concluded that getting a TiVo was the way to go.

The shipment arrived promptly from Amazon via UPS Ground. It was a flimsy Amazon cardboard box with one of the lid panels open. Not surprising, it appears to have been sealed with just 2 small strips of sticky tape on the top of the box. However the contents appeared in good condition. The TiVo box inside was in perfect factory condition, and was encased in plastic air pillows on the top and side, but not underneath.

On opening the TiVo box I found the very large red "Start Here" document. A full size wall poster actually. I had been forewarned that TiVo had done an excellent job with their printed and on-screen documentation. Specifically that the online instructions were done in such a way that you didn't need to be a technical whiz to set up an use the TiVo. I found the printed setup instructions to be very easy to follow also. Using cable bag A, I connected the TiVo to my TV using the composite A/V cable, not the Coaxial RF cable. I connected it to my home network using a wired Ethernet cable, not the wireless or telephone options.

After making all the connections it was time apply power to the unit. I understand that a TiVo is essentially a Linux based PC with an 80 GB disk, so I connected the power cable to my Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS). The only sign of life was a green LED at the bottom of the front panel, not visible if you are looking down on the unit, so I did not notice it at first. I was expecting to see a flashing 12:00 (just kidding! Even my old VCR doesn't do that).

But just like the instructions said, the "Welcome" screen appeared on the TV. The setup went smoothly except for one minor glitch. A window I can't get back to without completely starting over asked what type of cable connection I had. From memory the choices were something like analog cable with a a converter box, digital cable with a converter box, or the choice that I selected, satellite or cable without a converter box. This proved to be the wrong choice, because from that point forward it assumed I had satellite and was forcing me to select one of the satellite services. Eventually I worked out how to jump back several steps, I selected the first choice, and had no further problems with the setup process. I would like to see those choices again to review exactly how they are worded.

Now it was finally time to play with my new TiVo box. I spent the rest of this first evening learning how to do the most basic functions, watching live TV, setting up to record programs, and of course, pausing live TV.

On reading the Viewer's Guide, I got quite a shock. I read on page 2 that the pause live TV feature could only pause the program for a maximum of 30 minutes, and equally bad, if you changed channel before catching up with live TV, the remainder of the program was immediately lost. I guess I had assumed that as I was interrupted by phone calls, or preparing a meal or whatever, I could pause it anytime during the 2 hours of watching TV each night and view the remainder of the program at my convenience (or elsewhere).

It soon occurred to me that I could set it up to record my 3 programs each night, but I could have done that with a new $60 VCR! However, I later learned that unlike a VCR I could watch the programs as they were being recorded, and even pause or move backward and forward to my heart's content. In practice it seems this is also pausing live TV, and you end up with the program being saved for later viewing.

At last it was time to pack it in for the night. I powered off the TV, then realized I didn't know how to power off the TiVo. Wait a minute, I thought, it probably wants to be left on at all times. As obvious as this is, it hadn't occurred to me until now. Seeing it is in reality a Linux based PC complete with a hard drive and at least one fan, its power consumption is significantly more than that of a quiescent VCR. The power consumption of the average PC is 65 watts, not including the monitor. The TiVo specifications state that its power consumption is 40 watts. This being the case, the cost of running a TiVo for a full year at my marginal cost of electricity, 20 cents per kilowatt hour, is $70. Trust me on this calculation. This is an amount over and above my careful calculations of the cost of TiVo ownership. I'll update this when I measure its actual consumption.

Then it occurred to me, how do I power it down if I need to move it? I can't find any reference to this subject. I did find reference to what happens when a power failure occurs. And I did find Standby mode, but it's not clear what this does. The Guide says it will continue to record programs and continue to connect to the TiVo service while in Standby mode, so what does it do? It is not stated what the purpose of this mode is. It goes against my normal practice to simply pull the plug on an intelligent device, but I don't see any alternative. And because of my admittedly unusual pattern of TV viewing, why do I need to leave the TiVo running for 22 hours a day doing nothing except consuming electricity.

Day 2

As I walked into the living room next morning I immediately became aware of noise from the TiVo. That's funny, thinks me, it sure didn't sound that loud last night. Maybe it's because the room is so quiet. I put my hand flat on top of the unit, and noticed a vibration. I also noticed that my hand caused the noise to all but completely disappear. It appears the top panel is only supported around the edges, and the vibration causes the top panel to resonate. A book placed on top cured this!

I haven't had the opportunity to continue the adventure today. I happened to notice around 6:15 PM that the red "Recording" LED on the front panel was lit. I made a mental note to follow up on this later tonight. I noticed around 8 PM that the LED was off, but was back on around 9:45. When I switched on the TV at 10 PM, I bumbled my way through the process of discovering that it had been recording a sports program on channel 33, ESPN. It had also recorded a program on channel 38, the golf channel. I have no idea why. I didn't even know there was a golf channel. How boring! I haven't set it up to record anything yet. Is this an example of it having a mind of its own? I don't like that.

Anyway, I now know enough to view TV through the TiVo, and even to pause it and catch up. That's it for today. It's time to relax for the remainder of the evening.

Day 8

An Ongoing Learning Exercise

Things I haven't worked out how to do yet

How to return to the beginning of a recorded program without having to fast reverse. That is, the opposite of the Advance button.

How to record just part of a program. I would like to be able to record just 25 minutes of a 60 minute program.

How do you power it down as a prelude to powering it off. What happens after a power failure. I haven't been able to find any reference to this area in the manual.

I would find it useful to have an optional indication when watching in time shift mode. The current time bar display would be fine if it was possible to leave it on. It has a very short timeout, I would like it to be there for a longer time, and sometimes for it to remain until you catch up with live TV.

I haven't come across any way of determining how much disk space is being used, and how much remains, or to express that in less technical terms, how much recording time remains. If I go on vacation for a couple of weeks, how do I know if there is enough space to record my programs without it deleting some I haven't viewed yet.

The Ant's Pants (aka Really Cool)

The automatic rewind of 8 seconds when resuming normal play from level 2 fast forward. If you have a fast reaction time you get to see the final few seconds of the last commercial which I don't mind at all. I notice that it's affected by alcohol, after a couple of glasses of wine I need to press the instant replay button also! What's more, this 8 second feature works in reverse when resuming while fast backwarding. Sorry to be so cryptic, it's something you need to experience for yourself.

You record two consecutive programs on the same channel. You start watching the first program. When it reaches the end of the first program, the second program continues continues seamlessly without you having to press any buttons.

Pardon My Negativity

There is a half second interruption when recording starts or stops when watching a live program.

Similarly a minor interruption is included in the recording of a program under some circumstance related to viewing/pausing an earlier part of the program being recorded. A few words of dialog are lost.

Similarly similarly, a minor interruption occurs occasionally when viewing at the extreme point of the 30 minute delay.

Traps for young players

The single program I watch more than any other is the 10 o'clock news on KTVU 7 days a week. On a week night sporting news is the final segment, starting at around 10:55. On Saturday and Sunday an expanded sports segment starts at around 10:40. I have TiVo set up to record the 10 o'clock news every night using the Season Pass feature. On week nights it records the full hour. On weekends it records only 45 minutes. Now I'm not a big sporting fan, but I do like to see what the Oakland A's, the San Francisco Giants, the Oakland Raiders, and the San Francisco Forty-niners did today. I realize this is not directly a TiVo issue, it is because of the way the program information is set up.

Comments that don't fit anywhere else

Folklore has it that there are many people in the population who find programming a VCR difficult to impossible. Even setting the time is supposedly a challenge for many. Well, I've got news for you. TiVo is not the answer. The whole TiVo experience has been a real eye opener for me, I consider myself reasonably technically savvy, but I feel I have some distance to go before I am comfortable that I have reached an acceptable level of expertise with it.

Because programming a TiVo is based primarily on programs and to a lesser extent on channels and times, for the system to work the program data provided to TiVo must be exact. Back to my KTVU example, in baseball season a Giants game will often go past the start time of the 10 o'clock news. And so the 10 o'clock news is broadcast from, say 10:20 to 11:20. On the night of the Raider's opening game of the football season, the opposite of this occurred. Tivo thought the 10 o'clock news started at 10:18 PM, but it actually started on time at 10:00, so the first 18 minutes of the news were not recorded. No doubt there is nothing TiVo can do about these situations.

Now that I don't need to organize my life around the times TV programs are broadcast, I find that I usually decide not to watch live TV. There is some advantage of starting to watch a live program 15 minutes late because you gradually catch up as you speed through the commercials. But the problem is that because I know it's no longer important to hurry home to watch a program, I have noticed a tendency to never get around to watching some recorded programs. Moral of this story:- How important was it in the first place?