I bought my first Tivo in 2002.  It was a great innovative product then, and I remained a loyal customer for years.   I brought my Tivo with me when I left Seattle three years ago and moved to LA.  I was happy with my Tivo service in LA.  I knew all the tricks and tips and Tivo was the only DVR at the time that was moving into the area of internet content and that allowed you to record your programs in one room and watch them in another.  I loved my Tivo boxes (I owned four!).

Then, about 8 months ago. the area where I lived moved to a third party satellite provider that would not work with Tivo and I was forced to use the standard DVR that they provided (for a fee).  I don’t know the back story on why some providers will not work with Tivo, so I’ll go to my default and blame Rupert Murdoch, although I have no proof to back up this claim   After a few painful months of spotty service and shows that didn’t record, I canceled the satellite service and went with the only cable provider available to me.  It was better than the other but still fell far short of Tivo’s excellent features and reliability.

Two weeks ago we moved, and much to my delight, my current cable provider was “Tivo friendly”.  One of the great things about Tivo is that you own the box.  If you move or change providers, you retain your boxes and all of the tv shows and movies you’ve saved on them.  But since so much of what I watch now is in HD, I decided to upgrade to the new Tivo HD boxes.  I called Tivo, explained my situation and asked them they would do to get me into a new Tivo box today!   They knocked fifty percent off of the price of each box and gave me six months of free service on each.  Deal!  I had my cable provider take away their substandard cable boxes and HD boxes and replace them with a cable card for each TV.  It was painless and required no installation on my part.

My Tivo boxes arrived in the mail and TR and I did the simple set up ourselves.  Tivo connects to you home wireless network easily- just type in your network name and password using your remote control.  I was thrilled to see the familiar Tivo logo and even more thrilled when I started playing with it and discovered a huge array of new features. Music- yes.  Radio- yes.  Traffic and Weather- yes.   Buy Movie Tickets- yes.   Podcaster- yes.  Games- yes!… and then I clicked in the VOD (Video on Demand).

No, it’s not your cable company VOD, instead it’s a one stop feature where you can access Blockbuster, Amazon Video, Netflix, YouTube, Walt Disney Studios, Jaman Movies and Shorts, Music Choice, access your own pictures and home movies by True Media and there is a new feature call Free VOD and Web Videos.

Using Free VOD and Web Videos you can view video content from Tivo partners like The New York Times, CNET and Onion News Network.  There is a search-able list of videos and web series and if your favorite web series is not listed, you can still watch it through Tivo by simply entering the RSS URL using your remote control. Geek me was in hog heaven!  I dug right in.

As you may already know, I am a friend and fan of  Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show.  Kevin Pollak, his on air sidekicks, Jaime Fox and Samm Levine and his devoted and often hysterically funny crew deliver the most in depth, entertaining and insightful interviews on the web (and tv for that matter).  I watch it live at http://kevinpollakschatshow.com live every Sunday at 5pm PST and I enjoy participating in the live chat room while I watch.  But now,  if I miss an episode, or want to watch it again, I can do so from the comfort of my bed or enjoy viewing with friends in my living room on my big screen tv.

Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show is featured in the Free VOD and Web Videos area of the Video section of Tivo Central.  You can subscribe to Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show or any of the other programs lists the same way you do with traditional television.  You can choose to record one episode, or take a season pass that will store as many episodes as you choose (up to 10).

There are many other Tivo features and hundreds of other viewing choices available through the Tivo service, far too many for me to list here.  But if you have any questions, feel free to ask me or better yet, come on over and lets watch TV!