Wednesday, June 11, 2008

I've Got Issues

Hello. My name is Michelle, and I’m addicted to TIVO. Actually, I’m addicted to ReplayTV, but whatever. Who doesn’t call it Tivo? With the exception of football and hockey, I don’t watch live tv. In fact, I prefer to watch football games that I’ve Tivo’ed. If I don’t have something saved, then obviously there’s nothing I need to watch.

I don’t have the tv on when the wee ones are around, so I do get enough of a stockpile for the times I want the tv on. When I’m home alone working, for example, I like to have something on in the background to keep me company.

This all works out well until the day that I turn the tv and the Tivo on and realize that it isn’t recording a show it’s supposed to be recording. And then I realize that I. Can’t. Watch. TV. Through. My. Tivo. It isn’t recognizing the signal. Panic begins to set in.

Granted, I got the ReplayTV for Christmas before Mister Man was born, so it’s over five years old. And my husband has been complaining for years that it doesn’t record in high def – primarily because high def didn’t exist way back in the Stone Age when we bought it. Err, he bought it. But I refuse to pay my cable company an additional $14 (plus tax, mind you) a month for the recording service.

This can’t be happening. I need my Tivo. I can’t watch tv live. It absolutely drives me nuts. Ok, it drives me nuts unless I’m in bed trying to fall asleep to the Food Network. Details.

Being at least moderately handy, I checked all the connections. They were all good – pulling them out and replugging them in didn’t help, either. Having it reconnect to the ReplayTV service didn’t do anything. *sigh*

I put the remote down and settled into a very quiet day of work.

When my husband arrived home with the wee ones, I implored him to fix it as soon as I finished my conference calls. Nice guy that he is, he dubiously agreed to try.

He got as far as I did. See, I told you he was dubious. Apparently for good reason.

I trudged off to my yoga class, disappointed that I was going to have to do something that involved spending money I didn’t want to spend.

When I got home, I discovered that my husband had continued to investigate and determined that it still wasn’t working.

Him: Well, all that’s left is to take it upstairs and try it on a different tv to see if it’s the cable box.
Me: Ok, ummm. Why haven’t you done that yet?
Him: Oh. Well. Uhhh.

He then proceeded to unhook it and take it upstairs. Yay, it worked upstairs! Boo, that meant that the video output on the cable box was malfunctioning. Yay, that meant all my husband had to do was take the cable box up to McHenry tomorrow and exchange it for a new one – provided that they had another one in stock when he got there (don’t ask, really don’t ask). Boo, I can’t set it up upstairs in the meantime because that would involve completely unhooking the modem and resetting up our wireless network. I’m pathetic enough to ask the question though. Rest assured, he gave me the look and confirmed that I was insane for asking if that was an option.

For some unknown reason, he decided to hook it up again until he took the cable box in. Maybe he just wanted to torture me. But somehow, somehow the act of hooking it all back up made it *gasp* work again! Whoo hoo! My Tivo capabilities are back.

One small problem though. The channel guide is all gone, and unless the Replay unit recognizes what tv shows are on, it won’t record anything. Apparently, that’s an easy fix though, and my husband did the exact steps I’d done two minutes before asking him to help me get that last piece fixed and … of course it worked for him. I swear they were the exact same steps though!

So now, I once again will be able to watch tv without having to deal with commercials. And my addition is again sated. I’m beginning to think that maybe this isn’t a good thing, however!

7 comments:

Kellan June 12, 2008 at 12:34 AM  

We don't have TIVO, we are basically still living under a rock over here at my house - not even digital cable - can you believe that?! I would love TIVO - maybe one day.

Nice to see you - take care and see you soon - Kellan

MaBunny June 12, 2008 at 6:53 AM  

I can live without Tivo, because I've never experienced TIvo joy:))
If something is on, I watch it. If its on Lifetime TV and I miss it, I know it will be shown in an Encore presentation, yada yada.
Glad it got to working again though, I know how machines that are supposed to make our life easier frustrate the bejeebers out us when they don't work.
have a great day Michelle!

justme June 12, 2008 at 7:44 AM  

we have 2 tivos and i love them. actually when i listen to the radio in the car and i missed something on the news i go to hit a rewind button and then i forget that it isn't tivo. i get sad. i love me my tivo.

dlyn June 12, 2008 at 7:44 AM  

If my car is malfunctioning, all my husband has to do is like touch the steering wheel and it stops doing whatever it was doing wrong when I was driving it. Very funny blog - I will be back to read you some more!

Cookie June 12, 2008 at 10:37 AM  

I don't have Tivo yet. I'm too cheap! Your post makes me feel a little better about not having it now. I'm already addicted to the internet. When my computer isn't working, it's not a pretty sight!

Mom June 12, 2008 at 11:48 AM  

I am with you on this one, I rarely watch live TV and I LOVE to tivo a football game then start to watch it about hour after it starts so I can skip all the commercials! Are we sisters??? :)

Michelle June 12, 2008 at 10:04 PM  

Kellen -- I can believe that. Honestly, had my husband not bought me the Tivo and not insisted we get a new tv two years ago, we would still have the 32" Sony tv I won in a raffle many moons ago, and I'd still be recording things on my VCR!

MaBunny -- If you don't want to require Tivo for everything (one of the downfalls of traveling is my Tivo is gone!), stay away from the Tivo.

Feener -- OMG! I'm so with you on the radio thing. I do it all the time and keep waiting for them to come out with the radio version of Tivo!

dlyn -- Welcome! Can I borrow your husband for my car (and other sundry electronics)? It has some funky stuff about it -- which is why I'm half-shopping for a new car. Plus, it turned 11 years old yesterday. Gotta love the magic touch!

Cookie -- Being cheap is not a bad thing. We have ReplayTV now and haven't upgraded to anything else because I refuse to pay any more money for the service. But I can't give it up!

Steph -- You're starting to scare me here. I fear we may actually be separated at birth. My best time with football was when I was out on a Monday and watched the Vikes beat up on someone in 40 minutes for the whole game! Of course, I do the reverse with the Super Bowl, but that's a whole separate story.

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