I probably don't have to tell you the virtues of digital video recorders. No longer at the mercy of programming schedules, you watch what you want when you want to watch it. Because you can record two channels at once, and it records all day and all night, there is always something good on television. And you can skip over the commercials.

DirecTV HR10-250 HD Tivo

We bought ours expanded to a full terabyte of Maxtor Quickview hard disk, so we can store 130 hours of HD video, and 870 hours of standard video. We never miss a program since the machine is never out of room.

If you don't have Tivo yet, you are really missing out. It truly changes the way you interact with your television. You are in control now. You no longer have to be home at the right time to watch your favorite shows. They will be recorded for you, and you can watch them any time you like.



You can fast forward past the commercials. You can pause the action to get a sandwich, or to see that scene again. You can push a button to replay that last 8 seconds to catch the dialog that was mumbled, or competing with the telephone. You can freeze the frame to study the background, the wardrobe, or the special effects.

This Tivo has four tuners (2 satellite and 2 over-the-air), so you can record four HD programs at once.