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TiVo, PVRs Not Making A Splash
Sudderth writes "Too expensive? Too complicated? Lack of support from the TV industry (which depends on the commercials that TiVo users fast-forward through)? Newsweek has an excellent article on why personal video recorders like TiVo and ReplayTV, which have been embraced by tech-heads, are being ignored by almost everyone else."
I'll admit it. I get that "engineer's dread" right before I have to set up a new gadget. (The "I have a degree in engineering and will look really stupid if I can't figure out how to wire this stupid thing up" worry.) I also resign myself to having to make at least one trip to Radio Shack.
Given that my TiVo had to hook together with the cable box, my TV, my VCR, DVD player, sound system, and the phone line, I thought it was going to be awful. It was one of the easiest things I've ever set up. They had pretty much idiot-proof instructions and every cord or cable you could need for almost any possible configuration of devices. I think they could legitimately stress ease of setup and use in their ads and win over some Joe SixPacks who fight with their VCRs. (Clear directions! Record a whole season by pushing one button! Never look at a blinking 12:00 again!)
(BTW -- I yanked the VCR out of the mix 2 weeks later and moved it to another TV. Between the TiVo and my DVD player, the VCR was pointless)
When violence rules the world outside / And the headlines make me want to cry / It's not the time to just keep quiet
OK. I first have to admit that I do watch some television. The Simpsons, and Buffy. Buffy is my guilty pleasure. Well, I smoke too, but I don't feel guilty about that.
....
... FOUR WORDS: TURN OFF THE #*(#@@$*&#@()!!&@#) BOX!
But if I had to give it all up tomorrow, you're damn right I would. What happened to television is a sad and pathetic story of an amazing new technology that could have been used to educate and better the world at large. It is, many years later, nothing more than an outlet for stupifying worthless garbage that does more to keep the populace stuck in their seats getting fatter and more reclusive with each passing moment of escapist fluff.
That is not to say that there are not programs and services available over television that are worthwhile, or that there is a lack of satire or true art on television. But really, does it matter?
The buying power of the exact same John Q. Public that can't figure out tech stuff are the ones that drive this economy. Their piddly expenditures on a daily basis reflecting the flashing lights they say last night in between their tired, rehashed, stale-joke sitcoms and Robitussin-like news programs ("it'll be over quick, and it won't be especially pleasant, but we'll dress it up and make you feel better!").
Frankly, I'd like to see a grand majority of the American public DISALLOWED TO WATCH TELEVISION. Go to your room America, no TV and no dessert. NOW SIT AND THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU'VE DONE.
And rather than lament the fact that the same horrid fate is befalling the internet at a much quicker rate, we sit here discussing what's wrong with America that they don't want TV to be easier. HOW MUCH EASIER CAN IT GET? They just want to veg out and waste their precious moments drooling at the flickering box. DO YOU REALLY WANT TO MAKE IT EASIER FOR THE MORONS THAT POPULATE THIS INTELLECTUAL WASTELAND TO WATCH EVEN MORE TELEVISION?
Why don't you just get them a nice couch w/ an intravenous nutrient delivery method built into the arm and a toilet underneath that only requires them to think about it to flush, oh, and while you're at it, embed the remote control at their fingers (Bonus: They can't fight back when we instate military rule!) while you're at it
Sheesh
Okay, 10 words.
Or send mass e-mailings and make lots of sales phone calls. Those really work, I know!
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