Way OT: Need TV show taped..., Working late, going to miss THE SHIELD Options

[Mueller]

I know strange request......

I only watch one show religiously and that is THE SHIELD on FX cable channel

There are two shows back to back tonight and the Session Finale on Tuesday..

I'd like to get all 4 shows taped, I'll gladly pay for the VCR tape and shipping.

Thanks
Mike Mueller


PM or email me
mueller914@yahoo.com

[campbellcj]

Dude, one word for ya... TIVO The technology is not perfect (yet) but overall it rocks. My VCR is only used for one thing now: playing the Elmo tapes (and anything else not available on DVD) for the boy.

I (of course) have mine programmed to grab everything with the word "Porsche" in the description that hits the airwaves, er, satellite waves. It also grabs Monster Garage and various Speed Channel stuff for me, automagically. As well as every Sesame Street episode in the universe, and some random Spanish language stuff too (LOL, I guess the nanny watches some TV when we're at work). You can also pause, rewind or slowmo anything, even live TV, and then catch up the time (FF) during commercials.

Someday very soon you will be able to access your DVR (digital video recorder) over the web or perhaps even by phone to tell it to record shit for you. There are probably already guys who have figured out how to hack video out of Tivo boxes (they are basically just Linux computers; hard drive and all, with MPEG-based compression.) So you could potentially access your recorded shows from around the house, or even over the 'net. Or email the sweet race clips to your buddies.

Too bad the Hollywood lawyers will never allow half of this stuff to be done, legally. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/happy11.gif)

(And no, I don't work for Tivo, I just think it's one of the better things I've wasted money on in quite a while.)

[Dave_Darling]

Ayyyy-men!! My roommie just got a job (only out of work for six weeks, lucky man!) a month ago and to celebrate, he bought a Tivo. Wow...

The major downside? You'll spend more time in front of the idiot box, at least for the first couple of months. All those interesting shows you never knew you absolutely had to watch!

--DD

[SirAndy]

playing the Elmo tapes (and anything else not available on DVD) for the boy.

campbellcj,
do you have the one about exercising with elmo?
i think they call it Elmocise.
i've been looking for that on for years ...

Andy

[airsix]

Like they're saying, get a TIVO. It all boils down to this: YOU WILL NEVER AGAIN HAVE TO PLAN YOUR LIFE AROUND WHEN A SHOW IS BROADCAST. There are shows I watch now that I don't even know what day/time/channel they air on.

In all my life it is the only consumer electronics device that actually delivered beyond my expectations. It knows what I like and records it all. I sit down and pull up a menu of stuff to watch. None of this fast-forward -- oops, went to far, rewind, fastforward, rewind, wrong tape, recorded over it BS. You pull up a menu of recorded shows and pick the one you want. Delete it, keep it, pause it in the middle , whatever. Pause live tv is also cool - especially when your phone is always ringing or you get a lot of "Pop in" guests. Jump back 8 seconds if you missed something someone said. I could go on and on. The chairman of the FCC got one for Christmas. A week later he proclaimed "This is God's device.". That pretty much sums it up. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) After using it for a while you will become so completely intolerant of "regular tv" that you won't be able to stand tv without Tivo. DDD said you'll watch more tv, but I actually watch less because I don't have to watch stuff when it's on - I watch it when I have time. With the commercial skipping you can watch an hour show in about 40 minutes.

-Ben M.

[anthony]

Even better than plain Tivo is Tivo + DirecTV. The DTV tivo boxes have two tuners. You can record two things at the same time and watch a third that you've already recorded. Add to that the fact that's it's a bit cheaper than ATT/Comcast digital cable, the picture quality is superior, channel selection is better, and you never have to watch a commercial again.

[airsix]

Robert X. Cringely's "Pulpit" is about Tivo this week.

http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20030327.html

-Ben M.

[campbellcj]

Even better than plain Tivo is Tivo + DirecTV. The DTV tivo boxes have two tuners. You can record two things at the same time and watch a third that you've already recorded.

Yeah, that's the flavor I have (DirecTV). I had to run an extra coax into the family room to utilize the dual-tuner function, but it was worth it. I also have a DirecTV box on this computer, into a tuner/capture card. Next step is to hack the Tivo so I can watch stuff that is on its hard drive downstairs...