You know you are seriously addicted to Tivo when you already have two Tivo’s and you still go out and buy a new higher capacity unit.
About 4 months ago I added a 70 hour Directv Tivo to my bedroom to supplement my living room Tivo, a HDVR2 which only held 35 hours…
Man, talk about a new appreciation of Tivo… this bedroom unit is more of a go to bed and watch TV as opposed to my living room Tivo which was more of a watch the best TV Shows and Movie DVR.
What’s so friggin’ cool about my bedroom 70 hour Tivo is that it records what seems to be an infinite number of suggested suprise shows, compared to the 35 hour Tivo which gave me a suprise now and again, but not like 10 or 15 shows a day! Wow!
Now having that 2nd Tivo in my bedroom worked out better than just 1 35 hour Tivo in my living room, but still at Sweeps time and with all those “must see” season finales, I found my living room Tivo was stuffed and bursting where 35 hours just wasn’t enough to get all the good stuff…
I had to play that annoying Tivo gain space game where you change the “keep until” dates from “save until I delete” to 1 or 2 days and every 1 or 2 days I’d have to catch the shows before they got deleted.
I hate that! But it was the only way to record new stuff and keep the old stuff I hadn’t had time to watch yet. Because if you had season passes with save until I delete checked, it’d hog up the hard drive to make sure there was room in the future… clever, but annoying…
The problem was as of recent I just didn’t have more than 1 or 2 hours a night to watch the shows that Tivo snagged for me.. I was getting backlogged…
I mean - hey - those 8 episodes or so of Alias and The O.C. which I hadn’t watched yet were clogging the Tivo. And while I wasn’t really enjoying the current season of Alias as much as last year, I still had hope that it will pick up and get better…
So, back to 35 hours just aint enough… instead of having to change keep until dates and play that reclaim space game every time I turned on Tivo, I decided to look and see how much it’d be to buy a new hard drive and bump the hours up…
A new or second drive would have cost me as much or even more to buy as I discoverd the Directv Tivo model DVR R10 which held 70 hours was only $99. for existing Tivo owners ($49. for new customers)!
Wow… that was a no brainer. Double my Tivo capacity for just $99. bucks - I’m in!
So now - it’s been about 3 or 4 days and I now have 2 70 hour Tivos and they are both stuffed with tons of viewing options… both have their own unique character.
The bedroom TV is more news talk, interview and morning show oriented. I have wishlists set up where I’ll find out what shows my fave stars are on and record them… Until Tivo I had no clue that shows like “Live with Regis and Kelly”, “The Tony Danza Show” and “The Early Show” had so many must see guest appearances… the casts of Lost, Desperate Housewives, The O.C. and on and on…
So - that bedroom set I use to research and find cool stuff with wishlists etc. Plus every night I drift to sleep watching something like Hardball or NewsHour…
Now, the living room Tivo has opened up to get all the cool new TV series and movies I had to pass on before… biggest change is I can stockpile movies for future watching… having Showtime and HBO is finally starting to pay off… plus I can also get all the tabloid and gossip tv shows like Access Hollywood, Entertainment Tonight, Extra and all the cool E! shows!
Only problem… I don’t have the friggin’ time… catch 22… so for now only 4 days into the new Tivo it’s fine, but I suspect it may get clogged again too… what, with Big Brother and the other cool Summer shows coming up, I’ll have my hands full of shows to watch and write about (that’s what I do - I write about TV.)
But, hey consider doing it - I highly recommend getting a 70 hour or larger Tivo or at the very least getting a second Tivo! And hey - get the Directv Tivo, because the Tivo service is only $4.95 for as many Tivos as you want hooked up… not $14.95 or whatever that Tivo charges for EACH DVR. Ouch.
Happy Tivo timeshifting!