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December 17, 2005

Ideas for Better TiVo

I enjoy TiVo, it's true. But it could be better. I've been very disappointed in TiVo's suggestions, the TV shows it is supposed to spontaneously record based on your stated preference and viewing habits. It has never done anything so specific and interesting as to conclude I am gay -- actually, the only thing I can really remember it recommending is Rosanne and the Simpsons. Part of the problem, to be honest, is because I insist on keeping an entire season of Survivor on the hard drive at a time which, even though I have a super-duper whopper hard drive that Chris installed, still leaves not a lot of room for suggestions. But the other problem is that the programming just doesn't seem that creative.

My first idea was for an ultra personalized TiVo recording service. It would work like this: You'd hire a professional TiVo programmer (some kind of smart nerd who consumed a lot of media, but ideally you'd have a stable of different kinds of experts to consult with -- like the little old lady, or the sports fan, etc.) to talk to you about your viewing preferences for a half hour or so on the phone, they'd look at your existing playlist, and then, using your online interface, they would add things based not only on what you liked to watch, but what is actually good and interesting (I know, I know -- there's not thatmuch to choose from). Chris actually offered to do this for me, after my hinting around about it, and I think that would be great. But then after a conversation with Arne, it seems like you could simplify this and just offer downloadable playlists based on different, real personalities. You might chose from the following:

• celebrity playlists, like Madonna, Jon Stewart, Oprah, Dave Barry, etc.
• playlists created by your favorite "faith" leader, like that Dobbs guy, or maybe the Pope!
• playlists created by random individuals, like "Julie, a 12 year old girl who loves horses and lives in Detroit" or "Brian, a 23 year old aspiring rap-star who works at an auto parts store." You'd give away TiVos to people who created the most interesting playlists as part of a competition.

Anyway, you get the idea. At the very least, they should make it easier to have a "friends" function like Netflix -- which, incidentally, kind of sucks because you can't see what your friends-friends are watching. I really don't understand why they don't do more stuff combining the Friendster-type stuff with media consumption -- or at least, do it a little more effectively and deeply.

Posted by mary at December 17, 2005 3:49 PM

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