• by Cece Forrester , May 12, 2005

People who are not familiar with TiVo tend to assume that it is simply another recording device, perhaps an improved type of VCR. But this is a fundamental misunderstanding of the TiVo user's experience. Originally, viewers had only two choices: Make yourself available to watch TV when a program was on, or miss it. Home videotaping was supposed to change all that.

But do you remember why you pretty much stopped using your VCR for timeshifting after the initial fascination wore off? Looking up when a show is supposed to be on, bending down, pushing buttons, trying to read the display, re-setting the clock, deciphering the tape position counter, rewinding and changing tapes... you soon found it was hardly worth the trouble. On-screen displays were only a partial improvement. But the TiVo form of DVR takes the user experience as far beyond the early '80s-based videotaping process as it transcends the 1950s be-there-or-be-square viewing experience. It does this by overlaying a user-friendly, on-demand interface on existing, real-time program-delivery technology.

Here's a rundown of everything you need to know but didn't know how to ask about the TiVo user's experience, from the initial trip to the store to teaching the machine about your preferences.

There are two pieces to purchase: a black or silver box about the size of a DVD player or VCR, which you get at Best Buy or Target for $100-300 (depending on recording capacity and rebates), and a subscription to the service for $12.95 a month, which is billed to your credit card.

TiVo works with broadcast TV, cable, or satellite. You or your household's electronics wizard connect the box to your TV, cable box and VCR with cables in one of several configurations, and to a phone jack in the same room (you can use a splitter to keep your regular phone equipment plugged in). The system makes an outgoing call once a day to download updated program information. The TiVo box uses the Linux computer operating system, which makes it relatively reliable and stable.

You get a TiVo remote, which brings up the main TiVo menu, which is the interface with search and recording features and settings. It's not quite a mouse, but very easy to get used to. The menu screens are colorful and easy to read. Navigation from screen to screen is fairly quick.

The remote selects channels as usual, but there are several enhancements: Hit a button and it will temporarily display a listing overlay, or Channel Banner, for the program you are viewing, including name of program, channel, program length, rating, actors, episode name, episode description and year originally aired (or year made for movies). This is superimposed on the screen without interrupting the program. A different button will call up a program guide overlay, or Live Guide, that you can scroll to see what's currently on every channel, or what's on a specific channel hour by hour for 2 weeks ahead. This can replace or enhance channel surfing.

Hit another button to display a status bar showing where you are in the program (e.g. you are at minute 42 out of 1 hour). Another button gives you an instant replay, taking you back eight seconds each time you hit it, which is very useful in answering the question, "what did he just say?" or "did I see what I think I saw?" It soon becomes a habit, to the point where you catch yourself wanting to do the same with the radio, and sometimes even in real life.

Other buttons let you back up at any of three speeds, or pause/freeze the program. Like the instant replay, the freeze capability is amazingly addictive, not just for leaving the room and coming back, but also for examining details such as end credits.

It is easy to set TiVo to record any program, either a single episode or multiple episodes. Once an episode's listing has been displayed, from any of a variety of entry points, the touch of a button adds it to the "To Do List." You can also watch the program while it is being recorded. Unlike a VCR, TiVo lets you watch the earlier portion of a recording in progress. All recording is to the machine's hard drive. There's nothing to put in, rewind, or remove. Programs can also be transferred to VCR, though this process can only happen at normal playback speed. Newer premium models will allow you to transfer to DVD instead.

One of the things you quickly discover is that conflicts are not as big a problem as you assumed. Many primetime series either offer multiple airings of each episode on the same channel or are repurposed elsewhere. These showings tend to happen at odd times that are not popular for watching live, but ideal for recording. This may explain why, according to new research from Horowitz Associates, DVR users watch more programs on cable than before they had the device.

This reality of scheduling is what prompted me to get TiVo in the first place. It sounded like it would be nice to have, but I felt no urgency. Until, one day, TNT mentioned in their upfront presentation that they would soon be carrying Angel, one of my favorite series... (Great! I thought) but at four in the afternoon. Epiphany: It's never going to get any better, it's only going to get worse! Already tired of missing "NYPD Blue" when I didn't think to tape it as insurance against a change in evening plans, I realized that TV without serious timeshifting just doesn't work for people any more. I went out and got TiVo a few days later.

Program data is why TiVo is much more than timeshifting. It's actually a search engine for TV. There's no need to look anything up separately, or bring to your selection any prior knowledge of what's on, unless you are aware of something coming up more than two weeks ahead. All the information now resides in the system, updated daily. (This is why TV Guide made a deal with TiVo instead of trying to fight it.)

After learning of its many features and capabilities, one may form the mistaken impression that TiVo is overwhelming to deal with. I have seen it suggested that remembering to set the machine to record one's favorite TV programs will be too much bother for some people. This misses the main point, which is how automatic the system is for the user. There is no "remembering" with TiVo.

Another common objection is that light TV viewers will have no use for something like TiVo, so its penetration is naturally limited. But consider what makes light TV viewers light. These are the people who always were unwilling to accommodate their personal schedules to the networks, very selective about what they watch, and uninterested in putting in the amount of work it would take to compensate for the situation by seeking out the programs and taping them. But that doesn't mean they wouldn't find many programs worthwhile if they could be easily made available at those times when they happen to be in the viewing mood.

The learning curve, especially for seniors, is another objectionthe same one raised ten years ago to explain why the Internet would never catch on with the older generation. But what actually happened? Let their teenage grandson get them set up, and they are soon surfing and e-mailing right along with the rest of us. And much like the Internet, the beauty of TiVo is that you can use it in as streamlined or complex a way as suits you.

Even those who understand the many advantages of TiVo, are aware that it has limitations. You can't record two things at the same time; the menus won't do everything you want; there are too many decisions to make; storage capacity is limited; you can't get a show after its air date if you didn't record it. And there are all kinds of issues for households with multiple viewers and multiple TVs.

Malcolm Gladwell said in "The Tipping Point" that for something new to spread from the early adopters to the masses, it has to be streamlined and simplified. But this is still TiVo's first generation. Its advantage is that it can be plugged in now and work with the existing delivery structure, which is still based in real time. As more and more audiences and delivery systems disengage from this structure, the next generations of on-demand technology can leave these limitations behind.

Already, the formation of a new set of viewing habits is occurring among the early adopters. There's been a good deal of speculation about how people will use these new tools to control their experience with advertising. Much of itand most of the panicturns out to be founded more on inference and partial information than on practical experience.

Tomorrow: What it means, and a modest proposal.

Cece Forrester is a media planner in Chicago.