Questions for Americans

[fahye]

...and anyone with two cents to throw into the pot re: the iTunes question.

1) What is this Tivo thing, anyway?

2) Do I want to buy one of those little card thingums and sell my soul to the iTunes store? Like, will I get hopelessly addicted to being able to download anything I want and end up spending all of my trip-to-America fund on obscure 80s pop and episodes of weird scifi shows?

Inquiring minds want to know!

Inquiring minds are also trying to avoid writing up a President's Report and taking out the recycling.

*kicks heels and looks around for entertainment*

Comments

[agoodshinkickin.livejournal.com]

TiVo is awesome.
...
What? You wanted more than that?
Okay, fine.

It's basically a service that provides a special hard drive for your television. Never miss a show you like and be able to fast forward through the commercials when you do get around to watching it. The best part is that you can watch while it records, so in a sense you can pause and rewind live tv. It's easy to program, and you can even have it look for similar programs if you like.

If you happen to have a wireless computer network, you can use TiVo to play MP3's as well as display pictures on your tv set. There's a new thing called "TiVo To Go" which allows you to push tv programs onto a computer. Very convenient for travel and stuff.

Amazingly enough, my house actually watches less tv now than before we had TiVo. If there's nothing on TiVo we know there's nothing worth watching....and we read more. It's kind of bizzare.

[glamaphonic]

TiVo is LIFE.

TiVo > ALL

Except pilotlove.

[fahye.livejournal.com]

...

*kicks Australia*

Kangaroos: *kick back*

That sounds so good. So. Good.

[fahye.livejournal.com]

...oh, shut up.

*steals your icon, vindictively*

Australians would probably use TiVo for evil. SPORTS. Australians watch stunning amounts of sports. It's enough to make you cry.

[glamaphonic]

1) I had that same "bitchplz" icon. You remind me that I need to get it back.

2) My brothers use TiVo for that same evil. It's so sad.

[fahye.livejournal.com]

Carrie makes all things good. Lee looks like he's just smelt something horrible :D

[varadia]

I am hopelessly addicted to iTunes, because it makes me happy.

But, I have not had budgeting problems with it. By which I mean to say, if you can say 'I will spend $20 per month on iTunes' and stick to it, you will be fine.

If not, and you are horribly addicted to music?

Avoid.

[darthrami.livejournal.com]

I <3 iTunes. And I have not gone crazy overboard with it, and it actually helps, because I can pick and choose and buy individual tracks for $1 instead of spending $16 on an album where I really only wanted one track. But as for you... I don't know. XD




*wants tivo, precious*

[unravels.livejournal.com]

I agree with everyone about iTunes, it hasn't been a problem. You can always budget by getting an iTunes card once a month or whatever, putting in the code, and then you'll have that credit balance up in the corner every time you go in to remind you how much you have left for the month, etc. And there's nothing quite like instant gratification. :D The only downside is that it's a pain to send those files elsewhere if you want to share them. I usually record an album I buy to a cd and then re-upload from there if I want to share anything.

Tivo's a new addition to this house. I've set it to record all new episodes of House, which is nice, and I can also tell it to record all shows with a particular actor in them, etc. Or just to search for that actor/director/etc and I can check it every so often and choose to record or not. It's usually pretty accurate. Drawbacks: I can't record to anything but Tivo. Like I can't make a DVD copy of anything it records. Apparently you can hook it up to a VCR somehow, but so far I haven't been that desperate.