Oh, TiVo. Isn't there not nothing you can't not do?

I mentioned it at somepoint, but I have a TiVo. Those involved with (or aware of) my decision making process know that this was almost a last minute decision; I had really wanted to set up a MythTV, and I had even found a decent primer or two to help me in setting it up. At some point though, I realized other people would need to use it. I also realized my whole point for wanting a DVR was so I would not have to babysit the VCR so as to make sure it was both set up to record and had room on its tape. Babysitting a DVR to just to keep it working was not anything I wanted to do. That was a hard decision, actually. I have been impressed with the XMLTV project, and to me that MythTV is using it is a plus (Of course, it is now not free in the U.S., due to no fault of the XMLTV people).

So fast forward to today, and there are still things that seem magical to me. I know they shouldn’t. I mean, I am in computer science and all. I have read enough about how it works and what it is doing, and have enough common sense, that I can explain (at least on a high level) how it does what it does.

So what is the whole reason I am even writing about this? Well, a couple of weeks ago Heroes and a few other shows started showing up on my TiVo. This was nice, but I was pretty aware this was going to happen what with the heavy advertising. The thing is, though, my favorite show isn’t on NBC; it’s on PBS. As much as I like our local PBS affiliate, I still somehow always miss the first episode of the season (and of course, how can you follow the rest of the season of This Old House if you miss that vital first episode?) Anyway, the magic of the DVR, it seems, is its ability to save us from ourselves

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