Top Product: The TiVo Box

05/01/2001 English German

Edition # 30
San Francisco, 05-01-2001

Photos in San Francisco City Hall Economy in Crisis Changes in Immigration Law Pink-Slip Parties Filing an Income Tax Return Accounts/Checks/ATMs in the USA American Expressions: "Gung Ho" Preparing For the Marathon Wine of the Month Top Product: The TiVo Box

Top Product: The TiVo Box

Figure [1]: Cable box, video recorder, and TiVo box

Michael And here is this month's newsletter's top product: the TiVo box. In Germany, you have the problem that only crap is on TV, which is constantly interrupted by commercials. In America, it's even worse, and that's why the company TiVo came up with a box that contains a small computer that continuously records the TV program onto a hard drive while you're watching.

If you miss a dialogue in a TV show because you were munching on potato chips too loudly, you can quickly press the TiVo remote and jump back in time--up to half an hour if needed. However, you will then be watching the program on a delay: you are watching the past while the TiVo box continues to record the present. That's also a clever way to skip the frequently inserted commercials. You let TiVo record the show, watch it with a slight delay, and fast-forward through the commercial breaks.

Some readers are already shouting: Hahaha, my VCR can do that too! To which your uncle from America says: Not so fast, kids. The TiVo box can record one show while playing another that's already been saved. Or even play the beginning of a recorded show while it's still not finished! So if you come home late and your favorite TV show has already started, you don't have to freak out and run to the gun cabinet (see the second-to-last newsletter), you just let the TiVo box play the beginning of the show while it continues to record the end. This way, you watch the show just slightly delayed! During commercial breaks, you can fast forward to catch up a few minutes until you're back in the present!

This time delay feature is also useful when you're watching something live on TV but need to quickly run to the phone because someone is calling during prime time. You simply press the "Pause" button, and the TiVo box continues recording the show. When you later press the "Play" button, the TiVo box resumes playback from the interruption point in the past while still recording the present.

Furthermore, the box knows the entire TV station schedule by heart because it secretly calls TiVo headquarters every night and downloads the current day's schedule for all available stations in your area. And, thanks to smart software, you don't have to tell the TiVo box, "Switch to channel 2 on Tuesday at 7:00 PM and record for half an hour." Instead, you just tell it the name of the show. For example, if I say "Seinfeld," it asks me if I only want the next episode that's airing somewhere soon or if maybe I want to obtain a so-called "Season Pass," which is like a "season ticket" that records every "Seinfeld" episode that airs at any time on the 60 or so channels we can receive. The box can store 30 hours of television, and you don't have to deal with video tapes, as the computer in the box saves it on its hard drive.

Figure [2]: The TiVo has been diligently recording and is serving up a personalized television program.

You come home in the evening, turn on the TV, and are offered a menu with shows that were recorded during the previous night and the past day. In my case, there's a list with "Seinfeld," "The Simpsons," the 6 o'clock news, and various movies that aired on the pay-TV channel HBO (similar to Premiere in Germany).

You simply keep recording everything, better too much than too little (you can always delete it later) -- even news broadcasts. Because all of that isn't even enough to fill the entire TiVo storage, the box tries to record shows that are similar to the ones you have selected, if there is still space. On the remote control of the TiVo box, there are two buttons: thumbs down and thumbs up. With these, you can give the box bonus or penalty points, depending on how much you like the automatically selected shows. That way, the box is constantly learning and getting better.

Figure [3]: The TiVo knows the TV schedule and can even tell you what the current episode is about at the push of a button. The bar at the bottom shows how much of the recorded program has already been played. You can, of course, click it away.

Moreover, the box shares your ratings with TiVo's data center during the nightly phone calls to their headquarters, and supposedly anonymizes this information before it gets sold to advertisers--a video recorder and Allensbach Institute in one. However, you can call TiVo and request that your data not be used, and they promis this will be promptly be taken care of. I really like the box, and it has completely changed my TV habits because I no longer wait for something to air on TV. Instead, I have so many recording that if I have time to watch TV, I can immediately turn it on and "watch away" everything the box has recorded and interests me. Angelika has also become fond of the box and no longer rushes to the TV when a show is on. Thanks to my intensive TiVo courses, she watches TV when she has time! Admittedly, I'm always the one who munches on potato chips the loudest and therefore often misses a dialogue. No problem anymore. Thank you, TiVo! A true top product for newsletters!

Or, as they say in American: "The best thing since sliced bread." This is a common expression used to suggest that something is considered a great invention. Here's some background: In America, you can have a freshly bought loaf of bread sliced into perfectly even slices by a machine installed at most bakeries and supermarkets. Indeed, a great invention that Germans will be chewing over for a long time. By the way, Angelika often says "Das sind ja wieder Bemmen!" when I cut bread into extra-thick slices -- can someone explain the etymological origin of this apparently northern German word to me? Until next time!

Angelika und Michael