Best friends come in many packages and categories.
Living in New Jersey in 2000, I had a best electronic friend named Tivo Series 1. We had great times together - me being on the road, Tivo guarding the homefront, taping must-see programs like Survivor and WWE RAW, awaiting my safe return to reap what Tivo sowed.
When I moved to Southie in 2003, I met a new cool kid on the block - Hughes DirecTV Receiver with Dual-Tuner and Tivo. Although Series 1 and I still hung out, Dual-Tuner and I were spending more time together. Dual-Tuner always changed to the right channels (Series 1 sometimes misfired through the LED output), and was able to record two shows at the same time - no programming conflicts!
Unfortunately the divorce rate with electronic friends is very high. They are used to being replaced regularly. Mi nuevo amigo numero uno esta mi HD DVR. 2 tuners and 30 hours of HD programming storage capacity. Unfortunately Tivo and DirecTV like on different sides of the tracks, and just don't get along. DirecTV is ending its relationship with Tivo, and moving forward has eliminated built-in Tivo capacity from its boxes. It's very hard for me to pick sides...but DirecTV is simply much better than cable, and Tivo is the collateral damage victim of my decision. I feel awful about it.
HD DVR is cool, and it knows it. But it's just not a Tivo. Tivo is more elegant and user-friendly. HD DVR gets the job done - but Tivo gets it done with style.
Tivo has become a verb as much as Xerox and Google. DVR'ing something just doesn't have the same cache as Tivo-ing it. Tivo-ers were like a secret society of tech-savvy folks who knew how to control TV programming schedules and not let the networks control their lives. DVR-ers are simply using the concepts created by Tivo-ers.
I feel very guilty hanging out with HD DVR more these days than I do with Tivo. This weekend, I spent Saturday afternoon watching shows from HD DVR to clear some space for the many HD hours of 24 and American Idol coming this week. It reminded me of similar marathon viewing / now-playist list-clearing sessions I had back in New Jersey with my original electronic friend Tivo Series 1. Those fond memories of summer nights past...me and Series 1 hanging out by the lake, fishing until the sun set and catching fireflies until mom called us in for the night.
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