Tivo is an extraordinary brand of digital video recorder in the USA, Canada, and Australia. It's an end-user video appliance that captures television programming to hard disk storage for later viewing.

The gadget also provides an electronic television programming timetable, and provides recording options based on that list. Sadly it has not hit the Indian stores as yet. Reliance and Amazon have apparently tried to tie up with Tivo, but nothing has been finalised yet.

Even if you buy a Tivo from abroad it will not work in India. but countless potential customers are awaiting the launch of the product in the country.

Why it rocks

Know why Tivo rocks? When you're watching an exciting IPL match and you miss an over because you are on the Internet at the same time you can rewind it and catch it!

It literally thinks for you. And while many people don't really know what to watch on TV, TiVo thinks for you. It records whatever you should be watching.

For example you can program it to record something as random as films from the 1930s-1950s. You can program it to record only movies directed by Subhash Ghai, for instance!

Easy as anything

You connect your TiVo to your TV almost like a VCR, and it's always on. All the TV you watch is through the TiVo (it talks to your cable box or satellite receiver to change channels). You tell it what shows you want it to always record, and it does. You also tell it what shows or movies you like or dislike (you can even rate them!) and it remembers your taste for you.

Every time you switch on your TV, you hit the 'TiVo' button that brings up the main menu and you choose 'Now Playing'.

On this screen you see all of the shows/movies that TiVo has recorded for you, that are waiting to be watched.
 
There is actually a  120-hour TiVo, so there's usually lots of movies and lots of TV shows, waiting to be watched.

Compare that with waking up Sunday morning and surfing around to find that the only thing on is golf, parliament sessions and infomercials.

How it functions

TiVo gets program information two weeks in advance, programme description, regular and guest actors, directors, genres, whether programs are new or repeats. Users can select individual programs to record, or a 'season pass' which records an entire season.

There are options to record first run only, first run and repeats, or all episodes of a particular tv programme.

Hacking in

There are loads of people and groups who have figured out to hack into the TiVo box; improving service or providing service to countries where TiVo is currently not available.

TiVo has generally remained on good terms with these projects, although it has lately tried to clamp down on many of the 'back door' entry into the software, citing threats to their corporate interests. Many users have installed extra hard drives or bigger hard drives in their TiVo boxes to boost their recording capacity.

And with our country's disorganised cable industry, a technology like TiVo would be a boon!