Hard times have fallen upon stately Wayne Manor. We have decided to start cutting out some of the services that are no longer required. One such service is TiVo. I will be sad to see TiVo go, but truthfully we do not use the DVR all that much these days. In fact, I often find myself only browsing to TiVo to clean out shows that it has recorded but I won’t bother watching. I think it all started about two years ago when we got our new TV and some HD channels. Since the TiVo was only a series 2, it was not HD, so we just stopped watching television through the TiVo and as a result we really won’t miss having it around.
We also have a DVD player/burner that really only serves those two purposes. So, two devices, two distinct remotes, and a price tag of $29.94 a month ($12.95 for TiVo, $16.99 for Netflix). Right there is almost $360 saved in the coming year. But for someone who likes movies, what will I do? Sure, I could go with the TiVo Series 3 HD receiver, but that would cost $300 and I would still have to pay for the TiVo service, a service that offers a lot of functionality that I just do not use.
So, time to make a switch. While at the MTC in Waltham recently I came across a fact that seemed to be well known to everyone in the Universe. The xbox 360 will connect to a service call xbox Live (roughly $50 a year, far less than the $156 a year I pay TiVo), and that service will let me connect to Netflix, which means I can stream my movies from Netflix on demand. What’s more is that I can reduce my Netflix subscription to only $8.99 a month, saving another $96 on the year. I can ditch the TiVo, the DVD player, and my PS2 all at once, freeing up a bunch of space, cables, and probably saving on my electric bill.
So, last weekend I picked up the xbox 360 and managed to get everything configured correctly before the end of the evening. I can stream my Netflix movies in HD quality, the surround sound is working perfectly, and the xbox came with two games (Kung-Fu Panda, Indiana Jones) that our children enjoy playing (or, trying to play since they are still young).
I think I am going to like not having a DVR. For some reason I always felt obligated to keep up with the shows I am currently following. No, I don’t know why, I just did. I got the TiVo just over four years ago and during that time it has become increasingly easier for me to get caught up with shows I may have missed. Going forward if I miss a show I want to feel as if it was because there was something more interesting that had my attention, and less as if I was missing out on something. Besides, if I spend less time trying to stay caught up with only a handful of shows I may have more time for writing, preparing presentations, my book on the evil Al Gore and his weather machine, and all things bacon.
We got DVR about 6 months ago and for me it is a time saver. I don’t tend to watch TV actively, too much else going on. So I record the few shows I care about and when I get around to watching them, I can FF through the commercials.
However, given all that, I’ve noticed I’ve started to delete a lot of programs I just never get around to watch. And I’ve got some series set to only keep 10. So our DVR may go the route of yours. We’ll see.