A bunch of useless crap
Published on January 3, 2007 By MasonM In Misc
LMAO. I'm watching some stupid sitcom or other, I have no idea what it's name might be, but one of the characters has a TiVo and is going nuts because he has been trying to show it off to his dates and the shows it has been recording are the types of shows typically associated with gay men. Yeah, it plays to stereotypes and all of that, I didn't write the show ok? But it's funny as hell.

I can just imagine the types of shows the stupid thing would record for me. I don't watch much tv anyway, but when I do it's pretty eclectic. I think the thing would just burst into flames trying to figure out what I want to watch.

Comments
on Jan 04, 2007
What? Your not gay??
on Jan 04, 2007
If I Tivoed, it would be shows like the discovery Channel (Dirtiest Jobs - Deadliest Catch).  They would think I was a nerd.  ANd probably be right.
on Jan 04, 2007

I know the TV show you're talking about but also forget the name of same.  It was pretty funny though.

The whole TiVo auto-recording of suggestions feature is one that I turned off as soon as I got the boxes setup in my house (DirecTV PVRs with TiVo).  If I hadn't done that then I'd have been getting literally tons of crap recorded that I have no interest in.

As an example, I came home to find that TiVo was assuming that I wanted lots of Nickelodeon cartoons (I like cartoons as much as the next person, but my tastes run towards Tom & Jerry, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Looney Tunes, Bugs & Daffy, etc.) -- the reason: my children were watching a lot of Nick programs (Spongebob type) as soon as they got home from school.  (For the record, I have no problem with my children watching those programs, just not interested in same myself).  TiVo was building up "preference" information based on my whole families TV watching and it had no idea that as the main user of the box I wouldn't want my system filled up with kiddie programs.

Actually, in my household I could run the gamut of programming on a TiVo's suggestions.  I'd wind up with Taxicab confessions (HBO's trashy show), news talk, the Simpsons, Heroes, Mission Impossible (TV shows), and a lot of other stuff.  I think the only thing it would really avoid would be Lifetime/Oxygen/Oprah type shows, and probably "gay interest" programming as I tilt away from such programs myself.

Anyway, TiVo's suggestions feature isn't necessarily bad, but you definitely have to give it a longer period to learn your tastes.  Running it for just a day or two while it learns your habits will wind up with more false positives than you'd normally want.  Using the box for a longer period (say 6 months or a year) will have the box learning more about your tastes and getting better at making suggestions of programs you might like.

on Jan 04, 2007
What? Your not gay??


Not the last time I checked.
on Jan 04, 2007
If I Tivoed, it would be shows like the discovery Channel (Dirtiest Jobs - Deadliest Catch). They would think I was a nerd. ANd probably be right.


Same here.
on Jan 04, 2007
The whole TiVo auto-recording of suggestions feature is one that I turned off as soon as I got the boxes setup in my house (DirecTV PVRs with TiVo). If I hadn't done that then I'd have been getting literally tons of crap recorded that I have no interest in.


Yeah, I would have to disable that right off.
on Jan 04, 2007
I don't have Tivo...never thought it was necessary when a good old vcr, now dvd recorder, works just as well. It seems like redundant technology to me. But I don't know that much about it either...

on Jan 05, 2007
TV is SOOOO 20th Century!

That's my new catchphrase! Make people think I'm hip for abandoning TV for better things, when in reality I'm just cheap!
on Jan 05, 2007
I know the TV show you're talking about


mind of the married man (HBO) did an episode where the TIVO kept recording stuff that gay guys would supposedly like. that was a few years back...