Word: tivos
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...TiVo has decided it knows what's best for me. Pretending to be a responsible journalist, I have the news on in my office, but my TiVo - the digital TV recorder that is a trusted sidekick for my job as a television critic - figures I'd rather watch So Weird, a goopy family show on the Disney Channel. And unlike my VCR, TiVo can do something about it. A couple of clicks from its infrared channel changer and instead of the conflict in the Middle East, there's One Day at a Time's Mackenzie Phillips - yes, she's still...
Thanks to TiVo, I no longer merely watch TV; I wrestle with it. Sure, I could turn off the TiVo's suggestions feature. But I'd feel like I was shirking my critical responsibility to embrace the medium's future. Besides programming TiVo to record my favorite shows, I also indulge in a special function that lets me rate programs with its "thumbs-up" and "thumbs-down" buttons, so that it learns to guess my tastes better...
...Then again, that's probably what Sony thought when it was pushing Beta Max vs. VHS. The evolution of technology is Darwinistic, but unfortunately survival of the fittest often means survival of the wealthiest. Memo to TiVo: Time to seriously consider wielding that patent power. Let's do the Multimedia Timewarp again...
...biggest problem is marketing - or as the TiVo folks put it, "education." It seems those of us who have spent the last 20 years figuring out how to program the VCR clock are terrified by the idea of switching to a PVR and all the extra technological challenges that sounds like it might entail. In truth, nothing could be easier than navigating TiVo's menus. All you really need to know how to use are the buttons market up, down, left, right and select. But computers have gotten such a bad rap with the technophobic, as slowing PC sales suggest...
...What the TiVoistas are secretly hoping is that Microsoft's recent entry into their turf will indirectly aid them. Redmond has the deep pockets to spend on ads that explain how a PVR works - ones much more direct and widely broadcast than TiVo's too-clever-by-half "male itch" ads. But Ultimate TV is still in its buggy and relatively featureless infancy; as with all Microsoft products, it's best to wait for version 2.0. So if the ads feed a need but discerning consumers try out both systems when they actually get to the store, TiVo wins. Right...