I don’t know anyone with a Tivo (never saw the appeal to tell you the truth...all I watch is Law & Order and it’s not likely that Briscoe is gonna spring a nip on us...gawd, I hope he doesn’t) but I wonder if maybe you have to opt in/opt out of that kind of tracking?  It’s most likely an opt out, to be sure (they never make it easy) but I couldn’t imagine that you HAVE to let Tivo collect this data.  It’s like Nielsen households - my very paranoid, semi-Commie father once freaked out when we were ‘selected’ to become a Nielsen household - and this was in, like, ‘83.  I bet if all Tivo users knew they collected this data they’d raise some hell.

Re the library books thing - I was using my campus library card in the mid ‘90s to check out some books on the Illuminati and anarchists and so forth and the clerk there told me that if I wanted to read them, that I should go to the public library because (back then) the cards at the public library weren’t connected to your SSN; only your house number.  He told me that certain “red flag” books were tracked (presumably by the government) and records were kept of your activity.  When I asked my criminology professor (I wanted work in the NSA, of all places) he said it’s not unheard of for the government to track those things - throwback to McCarthy - but it’s not used in evidence for anything; just to get a read on you.  It’s still crazy, I know, but really nothing new.

That’s SO sickening… sickeningly FUNNY!

I wonder how much of this is real and how much of it is Tivo hype to show off that you CAN pause and rewind such things. Any publicity is good publicity…

My :twocents:

I LOVE my TIVO.  It cost me about 250 bucks, I pay 11 bucks a month for my membership fee, and I don’t watch bad television anymore.  There’s no reason to.  Recording stuff no longer takes any effort at all.  Surf through the guide to the show that you want to record, press record.  When you’re done watching, it asks if you want to keep it.  No looking for VHS tapes-- if I want to archive something, I route it through the dvd burner and save it.  I’ve been collecting all the Kim Possible episodes (because Naked Mole Rats rock hard!)

And I had NO idea that Tivo would know what you were rewinding.  My understanding is that whatever channel you are tuned in to, that channel streams constantly to the HD, and you can access any portion of that stream.  So people might have paused or rewound portions of the show, but how the hell would Tivo know WHAT portions of the show?

If they can tell, that’s kind of creepy.  But I’m not giving up my Tivo!  You can have my Tivo when you unearth my grave, saw through my wrist to detach the briefcase I’ve handcuffed to my corpse, and cut through the hardened case with an acetylene torch.  Man, when I’m watching Kings games, I get instant replay whenever I want.

Ok, I’m through ranting now.  And I have to change my underwear.

Ok, I feel compelled to comment on this one. I walked into work this morning and all that anyone (anyone being those Reality Tv, Dubya lovin, Al Bundy, corporate drones) could talk about was the “wardrobe malfunction”. This went on for the first hour or so of the work day. I didn’t watch the game. A group of us were doing our own version of “gladiator combat”. Yeah, we didn’t have cheerleaders nor a half-time booby flop (unless you count Jeff watching pron on his laptop), but it was time well spent with friends and deadgod was missed in the carnage.

Anyway, I think that this was a publicity stunt to generate interest in someone’s career. This could also be an attempt to get people talkig about another Jackson instead of Whacko Jacko. That guy should have been a priest with all the little boys he has played with.

This is how I really feel.
F**k the Jacksons, F**k them in the F**king Heads.

I have been thinking of a PVR myself but have not been able to seriously consider it at present for financial reasons. I did, just today actually, get a replacement for my failing Motorola cell phone and the new phone… has a GPS chip in it that, unless you delve into the menus to turn it off, will let Sprint track your location. If you shut it off it still broadcasts the signal but only for 911 emergency location (at least that is what the manual says). Nice to know that your phone can double as an electronic tether.

FreeVo and a spare computer, SEB.

Yeah, I’ve been looking into both FreeVo and MythTV as possible alternatives.

Yeah I agree.. I’m going to call John Ass-croft and demand that he ammend HR 3162 (Patriot Act) to include the TiVO service. After all.. we want to know if all these terrorists are watching Al-Jazzerra all the time right? Or history channel shows about our intelligence gathering capabilities?

Anyone caught watching Al-Jazzerra or the history channel for more than 45 minutes every day will be declared an enemy combatant and sent to GitMo for life.

We have the Dishnetwork PVR.  It rocks.  Don’t have to pay a subscription fee on ours, but Dish is starting to do that on the newer models.  Recording is nothing like dealing with the vcr, not to mention if you don’t get around to watching a show, it’s no big deal on the pvr. 

I thought TiVo was supposed to have a baseline model coming out that didn’t charge a subscription fee…

I don’t like the idea of Ashcroft and his Evil Boobies monitoring my reading and viewing.  That’s why I do most of my reading IN the library.

Wonder if Ashcroft is gonna investigate the Halftime “Boobie incident”?

I saw headlines for Bush and the intelligence investigation right next to the headline for the FCC halftime show investigation.  Mix those two up, might be an interesting read…

TiVo DOES have a baseline unit.  All of ‘em.  If you opt to not pay the subscription fee, you don’t get the guide or the automated recording features.  But you still get the manual recording and the instant replay/pause/rewind controls.

I love my TiVo.  It allows me to watch the programs I want to watch, when I want them.  I skip commercials, I ignore the crap, and I always have a menu full of stuff to explore.  I also find surprise gems now and again, because of the TiVo suggestions.

And personally, I WANT them to monitor my viewing habits.  I want them to know what I like or don’t like.  I want them to see that I got absolutely disgusted with a show, stopped it, deleted it and deleted the Season Pass for it.

And despite all the wailing and moaning, I doubt that such data could be put to uses more nefarious than “we should show tits more often”.

TiVo is awesome.  I believe you can opt out of having your viewing logs captured.  I did not, though.  My hope is that the Nielson ratings will finally be replaced by TiVo viewing which will much more accurately reflect what people are watching, which for me is almost entirely non-mainstream shows.
Here’s a link to their privacy info.
Here’s the question...why not trust them if you trust your credit card company, Amazon, online stores, etc.  After all the most rewound moment isn’t any different from the NY Times Bestseller list except that the technology allows much finer detail.

Honestly, I’m not happy with how much info about me is tracked without my knowledge as it is. That said, I’m not particularly upset with the idea that they track what shows I’m watching as much as the fact that they can tell what segment of a show I’m rewinding and watching repeatedly. That’s a level of detail I’m not really comfortable with and I honestly don’t see the point in their tracking it.

Not that it matters, I don’t tend to watch much TV anyway as most of the shows I have any interest in are on at times I’m either A) not home or B) asleep. A TiVo would be nice to catch some of the stuff I normally miss, but for the few shows I’d use it for I can’t justify the price and the other family members don’t have any trouble catching the majority of the shows they want to see.