Damn You, TiVo
One year and nine days ago (this will be important later – I think it’s called foreshadowing), TiVo changed my life. We got it and it truly is the greatest invention since Al Gore invented err took the initiative in creating the Internet. TiVo is amazing in that the Uncle family has entertainment on its schedule and not the schedule of network television.
Yesterday, TiVo died. The receiver croaked. It was a sad day. We’re having services for it Tuesday (when the new one shows up). We can still watch the stuff it recorded but it won’t receive a satellite signal. TiVo came with a one year warranty. It’s a pity it didn’t die eight days sooner. Now, I am out $50 for a new receiver. The good thing is that we upgraded from 40 hours of recording time to 80 hours.
Even though the repair guy said that in all the time he’d been doing this that only one other TiVo croaked, I wonder if this crash after warranty is a conspiracy.
Same thing happened with both mine and the Mrs. cellular (yes, I know they’re not really cellular anymore) phones. We had contracts for two years on our old phones. Within literally days of the contract expiring, our cell phones would no longer hold a charge for more than a day and the automobile chargers would hardly work at all (the outlet charger would keep the phone going for a day). Also, we lost reception at our house. As good little consumers, we went out and bought new phones (now we have fancy new camera phones with tons of bells and whistles), a new service plan with a different company, and ported our numbers (which was easy to do, I highly recommend it).
And one more example is that the same thing happened with our coffee pot. We had a fancy coffee pot that cost about $150 and had all sorts of electronic timers and brew settings. It did it all. It was a popular name brand and I really liked it. It died shortly after the warranty.
I’m starting to wonder if electronics are programmed to self-destruct shortly after their warranty’s give out.
December 29th, 2004 at 11:42 am
Is it a DirecTivo or a plain Tivo? I have a plain one and a cable box, and I wouldn’t know if my RF tuner went out, because I just take the raw NTSC signal in from the box.
December 29th, 2004 at 11:49 am
DirecTivo. Other than that, I have no idea what you just said 🙂
December 29th, 2004 at 2:41 pm
I still use the same GE clock radio I got just before my freshman year of college, more than 20 years ago.
I got 10 years out of my Sony VCR before it crapped the bed on me. Eleven years and counting with my 27″ Sony Trinitron XBR television.
Not too shabby.
December 29th, 2004 at 3:44 pm
My CD changer, about 15 years old, started flaking out last year, so I bought a new one. VCR is about 3 years old. My stereo receiver, cassette recorder, speakers, graphic equalizer, and TV are all at least eleven years old. Some of that stuff is closer to 20 years old. All still works fine.
It seems to be only the newer electronics that suck.
December 29th, 2004 at 3:49 pm
It seems to be only the newer electronics that suck.
I agree. My stereo is 12 years old (works great), crappy 32 inch spare TV is 20 years old and works great, but the new stuff goes poop.
December 29th, 2004 at 6:39 pm
I still dont understand why you guys wont go for Comcast/Charter dvr (if you have cable)? I pay $9 a month for DVR service and get a “free” (comes with the digital cable package) dvr box. If it goes poop I take it back and get a new one that day (hasnt crapped out on me yet). I dont like how Tivo will soon start flashing commercials on your screen when you fast forward…nor do I like how you have to run a phone line to your box…too many damn cords to begin with. Oh yeah, upgrades are free with Comcast DVR, they are going to give out the (2) tuner boxes early next year so I can swap my old one out and watch 1 program and record another one at the same time. My two cents anyway…