Why Tivo?

I've become completely addicted to Tivo. So much so, that when I go to real world sporting events, I find myself reaching for the proverbial rewind button. (Tivo, in case you didn't know) lets you rewind anything in slow-motion.) But my new favorite Tivo trick might just be more cool then that. After all, who doesn't want to skip those lousy commercials?

Our Tivo has become an irreplaceable part of the entertainment system here at ranchero indebto, as humble as it may (currently) be. Installing the Tivo allowed us to gain maximum benefit from our monthly DirecTV investment. Before Tivo, we inevitably missed 90% of the stuff we wanted to watch.

Some months, it almost felt like we were paying sixty bucks a month for absolutely nothing, because we kept missing our favorite shows. (If you're dropping serious coin on cable or satellite TV and you don't have Tivo, you'll do well to look into it!)

These days, we're no longer hamstrung by by the arbitrary bounds of broadcast schedules. Tivo has allowed us to become time-shifting mavens. A few clicks automatically commit our favorite shows to the hard drive. (Even better ... The "Season Pass" feature lets you grab every episode of a show in one shot.)

This Tivo commercial skipping trick makes it all that much cooler.

Now some folks, say advertisers, might get bent out of shape about a feature based on the virtues of skipping commercials. But as far as I know, Tivo doesn't hype the feature that way ... It's merely a 30 second fast-forward. Each time you poke the button, it jumps ahead in the prerecorded program by 30 seconds. Poke it four times and kiss those commercials goodbye.

Here's how to get your Tivo to jump in 30 second increments:

Once you playing a recorded program, press Select, Play, Select, 3, 0, Select. The Tivo will respond with three chimes. The Skip to End button should now skip 30 seconds at a clip.

You can turn 30 second jump off by repeating the sequence. (The skip feature will be reset any time your Tivo restarts.)

I don't know about you, but I don't need to hear Anna Nicole Smith say "TrimSpa, baby!" for the 300th time. Sorry, but I'm not ordering. And watching that Bowflex commercial for the 1000th time? It still won't convince me to call.

But if there's one thing I'm sold on, it's Tivo ... Now if I could just control it from my PC ...

(To Be Continued)