There's a dilemma brewing in our household. No, it has nothing to do with sundresses, swim fins and jello. It has to do with a decision between TIVO (our stalwart friend) and UVerse (the new upstart in the digital TV world). I will, for the benefit of the loyal three or four readers, attempt to explain what each one is and how they work, and then, the dilemma.
Okay, first TIVO. TIVO has been around for quite a while now and has been in our household for over eight years. In fact, TIVO has become a part of our household. The DVR (digital video recorder) is very easy to use, with one remote (better known as "the clicker"), that does everything but make breakfast. We recorded, watched and switched between all our various channels and programs with the click of one, or maybe two buttons. Life was good....or so we thought. Note: The word "we" will also mean "I", because I know that this was totally my decision and I will get 110% of the blame.
Then came UVerse. You see, there was a very crafty salesman at the ATT store when my wonderful wife got me an IPhone for our anniversary. I got all the necessary accessories and when those were purchased he launched into how wonderful the "new" UVerse television DVR system was. Note: Again, I take full responsibility for this. My wonderful wife, (known by those who know her as "Wonderwoman"), stood there listening, every once and a while saying, "It's up to you honey." Don't be alarmed. I know she said this because should anything happen in the future like electrical downtime or the non-recording of a wanted show or another war in Bosnia, I would be fully responsible! I'm not quite that stupid! I was married before you know.
After his talk he went on to inform us that it would save us about $50/month. This is the part that got us (me). I thought, "Gee, we can cut back on our bills while at the same time I can get 750750470 channels. Note: There will be nine, count them, nine football channels. So, we, (I), decided to start the paperwork procedure. We left the store three hours later.
On July 24, the man from UVerse came to the apartment. I had to take the day off without pay, which I thought was a small price to pay for all these channels. Five hours later the new system was up and running. The technician gave me the full amount of training on the new equipment, (including the DSL which will now be 50% faster than before), showed me the highlights on both the TV's and computer, explained that since this was still a trail run, (to see if we wanted it or not), the TIVO was still attached and working, gave me the explanation of how to switch between TIVO and UVerse, (it seemed easy at the time), then gave me the small chore of setting up the remote (clicker) in the living room, so that the TV would respond to it. Three hours later, after much work and some very bad words, the clicker would not work and after a 45 minute call to UVerse it was determined that I would need to call Zenith, (the TV's manufacturer) and see if there was a problem with the TV. This should have been a hint. I proceeded to play with my new toy and watched a movie on HBO, which is a wonderful thing when you've never had it before. I was blindly in love.
I know that this sounds wonderful thus far. However, here are the problems in switching TV services:
1) If you don't turn off one or the other, you pay for both.
2) Nothing ever works as it seems. Case in point, it's taken three calls to UVerse to figure out how to switch back and forth from TIVO to UVerse easily, (and by the way, it's not easy. It involves three clickers and about 38 button pushes. By the way, if you hit the wrong button the system is all fouled up and you are left to figure out just how you can get back to the original screen and start over. This is not fun, people!
3) The "normal" glitches in the world of TV signals aren't handled the same on two different TV systems. We came to know and not get upset about the TIVO not working from time to time. Now, losing 7543729547 channels is not only annoying but very frustrating, because I need my TV fix before bed. Also, at night there's nothing you can do about "glitches".
4) We haven't made the leap of faith it takes to turn off our loyal TIVO, diving into the unknown world of UVerse, and it's hard to make the decision. DARNED HARD!!!
So, for all you people out there who have a known system of TV watching, stick with it. The grass isn't always greener. Note: It is pretty cool though to have two TV systems to play with. Clearly this won't last. And, by the way, whatever decision I make, it'll be wrong.
That's my life.
Byeeeeeeeee
2 comments:
We are just going to have to bite the bullet and tell TiVo "bye-bye." I will miss his cute little square self and the ease wtih which he has made my addictions attainable. That said, the time has come . . . we MUST pick one and stick with it and, unfortunately for our adorable square friend, the new system seems superior with the only fault being I am too technologically challenged to make it work. Alas and alack . . . tis true and I must be true to the truth . . . or my version of it, anyway. Eventually, when I can figure out what happened to all of my shows, I'm sure I will be happy. Maybe. Perhaps. But I will miss my happy little TiVo pal. He never reminded me he was smarter than I. He rocked.
Never leave Tivo. Never never never.
Infidel.
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