22 May 2004 | Mike D. said...

Yep, the pause button is one of the thousands of things Tivo (and Sony) got right.

Can I just say though that the placement of the "Previous Channel" (enter/jump) button is as bad as the pause button is good? I use previous channel almost as much as any other button on the remote and it is stuck in the upper portion of the remote. In order to use it, you must slide your hand away from the comfortable, balanced battery compartment to the unbalanced upper part of the remote. If you're flipping between your two tuners (DirecTV), you can use the down arrow button to perform this feat, but if not, you're stuck using the tiny enter/jump button.

It's just one negative in a huge sea of positives though.

22 May 2004 | tubedogg said...

IMO that remote doesn't look nearly as handy/well done as the 'official' remote that ships with TiVo-produced units.

23 May 2004 | pb said...

I suspect the "previous channel" button is not widely used because channel changing on Tivo is so slow.

23 May 2004 | Anthony Baker said...

I've got Tivo with DirectTV and the remote is definitely different than the one displayed here -- and better, IMO. The thumbs down program button is red, the thumbs up is green. The play button is smaller, but situated right above the big-ass yellow pause button.
My only complaint is the previous channel button is a very small one down at the bottom right edge of the control -- an odd place for something I use often. Additionally, the power button is very small and placed below the volume button (as I recall).

That said, Tivo rocks. My wife and I had our first child nine weeks ago and Tivo is a lifesaver. Want to watch a primetime show you love during a feed at 2 a.m.? No problem! One of my best friends, on the other hand, is also a new mother, Tivo-less, and has recently complained about the onslaught of mind-numbing programming she has to wade through over the course of 24 hours.

Fortunately, we've arranged with her to watch her kid and ours from time-to-time at our place in exchange, we'll Tivo programs for her she loves so she can watch them while she's over here.

I love good technology.

24 May 2004 | ek said...

I'm a former TiVo user and, you know what my favorite bit of TV-related technology is: the off button.

This may not be true for everyone, but I've found that there's an inverse relationship between the amount of television one watches and one's overall level of contentment with life.

Reminds me of one of my favorite Calvin and Hobbes strips. Calvin is reading a book and asks Hobbes: "it says here that religion is the opiate of the masses...what do you suppose that means?" Hobbes shrugs, but in the background, the T.V. has a thought bubble reading something along the lines of "it means Karl Marx hadn't seen anything yet."

I know this is off topic, but when people start calling things like TiVo "lifesavers," I can't help but get a little riled up and depressed at the same time. There are things called "outside" and "quiet thoughts" that are really, really cool. They don't come with a pause button, but that's kind of the point.

You know what, there's probably also an inverse relationship between my level of blog reading and my general level of contentment. Hmmm...

24 May 2004 | Paul said...

Concerning remote design without regard to TiVo, I am still waiting for someone to boldly ditch the "chunk of wood with bottons on it" ergonomics of virtually every remote out there.

I envision something puck shaped with finger indents along its edge (a bigger indent for the thumb - think of the painter's pallet) with a little row of buttons available to each finger. Something you can grab and, without looking, operate.

It could have a numeric keypad and other lesser used funtions on the underside operable with your other hand. (I guess you would have to make a lefty and righty version.)

24 May 2004 | lisa said...

paul you have a vision -- make one!
i'd love to see it

24 May 2004 | Don Schenck said...

WHAT EK SAID!

24 May 2004 | Brad Hurley said...

I'm not a TV watcher myself either, but most of the people I know who do watch TV seem pretty happy and content. It can even be a kind of social glue: when I worked in an office, my colleagues would always chat about the previous night's episode of some show or sitcom, and I remember when I was a kid one of our regular family events was to sit around the TV on Saturday nights (we called it "Coke and popcorn night") and watch Flipper, I Spy, The Man from Uncle, Secret Agent, and other shows (this was in the 1960s). It was a shared experience; I felt that watching TV really brought us together as a family.

I'm not saying we should sit around watching television all day, and I agree that people who are television addicts end up living their lives vicariously, missing out on direct experiences that are much more enriching. There's a kind of canned vacancy that I've observed in people who watch too much TV, they tend to have a warped view of the world. But there's some good stuff on TV, and it's a very powerful medium. I think it still has potential, despite the abuses and profiteering that have brought it to the sorry state of "57 channels and nothing on" that is so often the case today.

24 May 2004 | Darrel said...

re: EK's comment...do Tivo owners watch more or less TV overall?

Outside is nice, but so is TV at times. ;o)

24 May 2004 | Don Schenck said...

We went nine years (1986-1994) without a television, and it was nice. I challenge you to go without a TV for a year. During that time, you will begin to wonder "WHERE do people find the TIME to watch TV?". You simply cannot imagine watching TV; you're way too busy.

I read this book after we got rid of our TV.

Now, we have one. I watch Alton Brown's "Good Eats", Jamie Oliver, and the NHL playoffs. Dat's about it. Oh ... and the occasional PBS/TLC/Discovery stuff that's good.

24 May 2004 | jf tv said...

*Off Topic* What happened with the Leslie Post? She say yay or nay?

24 May 2004 | Graham Hicks said...

do Tivo owners watch more or less TV overall?

I've heard that TiVo owners watch an average of five to six more hours of TV a week, which is one reason why I've avoided buying one.

Having worked on remote controls before, let me say that it is a very difficult problem with a ton of technical constraints. Remotes are basically considered a commodity (most people don't choose a system based on the remote) so any kind of innovation or risk is rare.

24 May 2004 | One of several Steves said...

Interesting. That remote shown is vastly different than the remote for my Tivo.

The big pause button is definitely a nice touch, but it suffers from something that almost all remotes do: they don't operate consistently from remote-to-remote in behavior the *second* time you push the pause button. Some remotes treat the pause button as an on/off switch, resuming play the second time it's pushed, and some treat it as a slow frame advance. To be honest, I don't even remember which way Tivo's works.

One thing that's better about the Tivo remote compared to the one shown here is that pause, advance, rewind and play buttons are all in a circle, making it easy to bounce all over the place with your thumb.

And Mike's right that the previous channel button kinda sucks.

24 May 2004 | Jeff Croft said...

I've been a TiVo owner for many years (since they first came out), and I'll say this: I absolutley watch more TV since I got it, but I watch it on my own time. Before TiVo, TV was ruling my life. I had to schedule my life around my shows. It was bad news. Post-TiVo, I rule the TV. I watch more TV, but since I do it on my schedule, it is much less invasive and detrimental to my life than before. Now, I only watch TV when I truly have free time.

TiVo is truly one of the best electronic inventions ever, in my opinion. I've never been more happy with any gadget I've purchased than I have been with my TiVo.

24 May 2004 | stp said...

...the designers understood the purpose of the object, the behavior and needs of the audience, and the point of the product.

Hmm, well, maybe.... or maybe it was the marketing department. Remember, when Tivo came out it was all about "Pause Live TV!!!!" That was the selling point of the gizmo, and I would be willing to bet it had at least a little bit to do with the big ass pause button being front and center.

And Tivo doesn't make you watch more TV any more than McDonald's forces you to have a big butt. Its all you, baby. Its all you.

25 May 2004 | Don Schenck said...

Leslie said she'd decide after she's done watching TV.

:-)

26 May 2004 | hartmurmur said...

I HATE my TiVo remote. Mine doesn't look like the one in your photo though. My bad remote.

The shape is the worst part. When you pick this thing up in the dark, you have no idea which end to point at the TV because of it's symmetrical shape, unless you touch a few of the buttons on the face.

Overall, I think I watch less TV with my TiVo and do it when I want. Looking forward to OLN and the Tour de France!

26 May 2004 | One of several Steves said...

The symmetry of the Tivo remote is a bit annoying, and there have been a few times I've reversed a program rather than advanced it as I had intended, but it's a small annoyance from my perspective. The button arrangement is highly asymmetrical top-to-bottom, so it's very easy to tell by feel which way the thing is pointing.

As far as viewing patterns, I would guess I probably watch about the same or slightly more TV in aggregate, but I watch much less crap than I used to and just stuff that I actually enjoy and get something from. Also, because I pretty much watch everything at different times than when it's broadcast, I can zip through commercials, meaning that an average hour of broadcast TV actually takes me 45 minutes to watch.

29 May 2004 | Will said...

I've got the same remote featured in the photo above - the Sony Tivo remote - and it is FAR superior to the standard Tivo remote. It's far more comfortable in the hand and its face is smaller so your thumb has easier access to most of the buttons. I especially like that the Sony remote is assymetrical - having one bulbous, weighted end that rests comfortably in your palm.

Hooray for great design!

30 May 2004 | Mary said...

I have a Tivo remote and it often makes me think of changing my job :)) I'm a web designer and it makes me nervous when something is designed without thinking of usability, and the design itself leaves much to be desired. It's a great relief to see they've finally started doing some analysis. The new remote is MUCH better!!!