Obvious Diversion

“I don’t want my television, but I want to keep my Tivo.”

I made this comment at lunch the other day and was met with some puzzled looks. I’m on the verge of moving into my new place and I’m considering not getting a television to go with it, but I don’t want to give up my Tivo. With the newly released HME Tivo Developers SDK, it’s only a matter of time before someone creates an application that gives me full scheduling control over my Tivo from my laptop. Once that happens, the tv becomes optional. In the short term, it’s viable for me to schedule shows through Tivo’s online scheduler and watch them on my laptop via TivoToGo, provided of course I run ethernet to the Tivo in order to speed up the transfer process.

Television works in my life as it’s intended: as a distraction. When I lived on the Lower East Side for about 6 months in a shared apartment, there was an old tv, a new dvd player and no cable. As a result, I watched the occasional movie but enjoyed nothing in the way of television programs. It was great. I got much more done with my time and felt a larger sense of fulfillment. Eventually my stay there ended and I found myself back with a tv and cable.

Today, I realize I really only want to watch a small handful of shows including The Daily Show, Family Guy and Arrested Development. Any other shows that I watch I could pretty much do without. So, why not let my Tivo grab them, I copy them to my laptop via TivoToGo and watch them there? I’m mulling it over. The truth is this is such a strange substitution for what I really want: an iTunes Television Store.