dave

Say you want to record every new episode of Punk'd, plus all reruns that you *haven't* already recorded.

In TiVo, you select Punk'd from the schedule, hit the "Record" button, select "Season Pass", and then select the appropriate option. Total time invested, probably 15 seconds.

When you want to watch said show, you don't need to find the right tape, rewind, or any of that. You hit the List button, scroll to the appropriate show, and play it.

When commercials come on, you hit the Skip Ahead 30 Seconds At A Time button until you're through the commercials; if you accidentally go too far, you hit the Skip Back 8 Seconds button until you're in the clear. If you go way too far, you hit the rewind button, of course.

When you're done, you can delete the recording or choose to save it. You don't have to worry about labeling tapes (all that's done for you) or wearing them out ('cause it's a freaking hard drive). It's alllll good.

To do the same thing with a VCR, you would have to manually scan TV listings, and set an individual record time for each and every episode you wanted to record. Then, you'd have to make sure you had enough tape space to record said shows. If you didn't, you'd need to be around to swap out tapes.

When you want to watch, you need to find the appropriate tape, rewind it if (or you did this before - either way, time was wasted doing it), hit play, and find the appropriate spot in the tape for your show.

When commercials come on, you have to fast forward through them manually, not 30 seconds at a time. I get through a typical commercial break in probably ten seconds. How long will it take to fast forward those five to seven minutes? Probably one to two minutes.

When it's done, you've got a junky tape laying around and taking up space. Wee!

Plus, another huge benefit of TiVo is that you can <b>pause live TV</b>. You're watching the Daily Show, the phone rings. Pause, answer. Finish conversation, unpause. Pause it in the middle of the joke? Skip back 8 seconds.

Or you can rewind live TV as well. What did Bam's grandmother say? Skip back 8 seconds. Hmmm, still can't tell... something about MTV movie... skip back 8 seconds... "Put that in your MTV movie". Ah.

Trust me, if you had it, you would quickly think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. That's 'cause it is. It gives you control of your TV back.

(I can record two channels simultaneously while watching a prerecorded show without a hiccup. Try that with your VCR!)

[ Edit - I need to get a new freaking keyboard. I had to type "cause" about eight times, and I still wound up with "casue". Jesus Christ. Keys are starting to die like every other day. ]