Heh. Heh. hehehehehehe... Beware. I'm one of them (http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/20/fashion/20TIVO.html?ex=1051416000&en=a77422bb2a91649e&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE)...
The problem with "just popping a tape into the VCR" is that it's the Wrong Tool. Sure, you can time-shift one or two shows occasionally by doing this, but there's a reason why no one does it: it's error-prone, finicky, a pain to set up, and if you actually want to do it on a regular basis, it requires constant interaction with the machine in order to make sure that you keep the schedules updated, keep blank tapes fed into the machine, and generally spend so much time on the process that it would probably have been easier just to re-arrange your schedule to watch the shows as they were broadcast.
Tivo...changes that, and not just from a mechanical perspective. It stops being a question of "I need to program the VCR to catch this show because I won't be home" and changes it to a question of "Do I feel like catching up on the last two weeks of Buffy, Angel and Six Feet Under tonight, or do I put it off until Sunday afternoon?" When every show is recorded and time-shifted, the entire nature of your interaction with television changes: it works on your schedule, not the other way around.
To me, the big problem with television wasn't that it was a "vast wasteland." There's always been a fair amount of quality entertainment, even honest-to-god art, on TV. The problem was that in order to find the 5% that didn't suck, I had to adjust my life so that I would be in front of the magic box when the good bits were on. Tivo actually fixes that, not once or twice, but permanently.
Re: What you need now...
Heh. Heh. hehehehehehe... Beware. I'm one of them (http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/20/fashion/20TIVO.html?ex=1051416000&en=a77422bb2a91649e&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE)...
The problem with "just popping a tape into the VCR" is that it's the Wrong Tool. Sure, you can time-shift one or two shows occasionally by doing this, but there's a reason why no one does it: it's error-prone, finicky, a pain to set up, and if you actually want to do it on a regular basis, it requires constant interaction with the machine in order to make sure that you keep the schedules updated, keep blank tapes fed into the machine, and generally spend so much time on the process that it would probably have been easier just to re-arrange your schedule to watch the shows as they were broadcast.
Tivo...changes that, and not just from a mechanical perspective. It stops being a question of "I need to program the VCR to catch this show because I won't be home" and changes it to a question of "Do I feel like catching up on the last two weeks of Buffy, Angel and Six Feet Under tonight, or do I put it off until Sunday afternoon?" When every show is recorded and time-shifted, the entire nature of your interaction with television changes: it works on your schedule, not the other way around.
To me, the big problem with television wasn't that it was a "vast wasteland." There's always been a fair amount of quality entertainment, even honest-to-god art, on TV. The problem was that in order to find the 5% that didn't suck, I had to adjust my life so that I would be in front of the magic box when the good bits were on. Tivo actually fixes that, not once or twice, but permanently.