TiVo Trauma

It's been raining like hell for two days here in our corner of the world. Several of my coworkers have water in their basements, but fortunately ours is dry. However, we do have a dog who dislikes getting wet, so convincing her it's in her interest (as well as ours) to attend to her needs has been a bit tricky.

But in fact I have more pressing issues to contend with. Some time on Thursday our power went out. I have no idea why it did, but when it came back on it killed our TiVo. It restarts itself after a power loss, but I guess there was a surge, even though I have it, the television, and all the other associated components plugged into a surge protector.

When I got home that evening I noticed the light on the front of the unit was on, and I jokingly asked the dog if she had been using the TiVo while we were at work. Then I saw the blinking clock in our bedroom, and I realized that the TiVo was stuck in its startup sequence (if it had completed that sequence normally, an additional light would have come on). I tried unplugging it and initiating the startup sequence again, something that has been successful in the past, but no luck this time.

Half an hour on the phone with TiVo's tech support confirmed that the patient was DOA. Basically, if your machine can't get past the initial welcome screen, there's nothing more they can do for you, except offer to sell you a replacement. I've had the thing too long to contemplate living without it, and I have no interest in whatever sort of device the cable company might supply me with, so the replacement is on its way. Because I purchased a "lifetime" subscription to the TiVo service, I'm apparently within some sort of window; it's no longer under warranty, but it isn't costing me as much as it might have. I wasn't about to question it.

Meanwhile, there was some stuff on the TiVo that we hadn't watched yet, though not too much, that is now gone. Most of it is available in various places online. (I was saving season three of Mad Men to rewatch, but the DVD set is coming out next week.) There are also a few shows on cable channels we won't be able to watch until I get the new unit up and running. That's because the TiVo uses two CableCards, which are credit card-sized versions of a cable box. No TiVo means no CableCards, so at the moment we're getting only the broadcast networks and a few other channels. The television has a CableCard slot, so I might be able to pull one card and switch it to the TV. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to do that on my own, or if I need to get a tech from the cable provider to come and do it (which will of course mean spending more money).

It's very strange, after almost six years of being a TiVo user, to suddenly have to shift back to thinking about what shows are on on a given night, at what time, and if there's anything else on at the same time that we care about, as opposed to thinking about what we want to watch tonight from the pool of what we've already recorded, and having to sit through commercials. Technology is great, until it fails you.

The other thing I'm trying to do is get my old (circa 2003) Powerbook laptop to work with the TV so we can watch online shows on the larger TV screen. I picked up a cable yesterday, but when I connect it to the computer, the computer's cursor disappears, making it a little difficult to do anything with it. This isn't crucial, but it's something I'd been thinking about doing anyway, and it would be nice if I could get it to work.

I need to look into the alleged guarantee provided by the surge protector company, which is the whole point of buying those things anyway. And I think maybe I need to consider getting a better one for the whole A/V setup.