New Technology TV

While many people aren't aware of the of it, there's good chance that their digital video recorders have the ability to be programmed to record specific TV shows from places other than the living room. This is especially true if the digital video recorder in question happens to be a TiVo. That's because TiVo provides an online service that can allow you to access your TiVo digital video recorder over the Internet and program it to record a TV show or movie for you to watch later. The service comes free as part of your TiVo subscription and is available on TiVo Series1, TiVo Series2, and TiVo Series3 boxes. To say that you can access your TiVo box online this way isn't quite accurate- or rather it is accurate but you access the box in a rather indirect way. This service actually works by letting you access your TiVo account on TiVo's web servers, so that when you make the changes to what you want recorded those changes take place on the servers. Then, when your TiVo box periodically contacts those web servers, the new scheduling information will be downloaded to the TiVo and then the actual TiVo box can carry out your instructions to record the TV program of your choice.

This system can create something of a problem for the less experienced user. That's because of the way TiVo boxes contact the TiVo servers. Since the TiVo boxes contact the servers at irregular intervals boxes won't necessarily receive your updated instructions in time to act on them and record the program that you want recorded. How long in advance of the program being aired you have to change the instructions depends on which TiVo box you have. For example, the TiVo Series3 box makes contact with your home wireless network every half an hour to update its information. Therefore if you have the TiVo Series3 box, you need to make any changes at least a half an hour before the show that you want to record is on. If you have a TiVo Series1 box though, you have to plan further in advance because the TiVo Series1 model only connects to TiVo's servers via phone line and does so only once every twenty four hours. The TiVo Series2 box can connect to the servers via either wireless broadband or a dial up connection, so in order to know how far ahead to plan, you need to know which one your TiVo box is set up for.

The implications of this kind of technology are obvious- if you get to work and find out that something that you have to watch on TV is going to come on before you get home, you can just contact TiVo and take care of it (assuming your TiVo box is on a wireless network). If you're on an extended vacation, you can also update the DVR's instructions for which show you want recorded.

While this service is valuable, it can also be augmented with the addition of a SlingBox which will allow you to download the contents of your DVR directly over the Internet to your laptop or other portable device. There are lots of ways that modern technology can make sure that you catch all of the TV programming that you have to see, and these are just a few of them.