Our DirecTiVo was dying. Every now and again, frequently at times, it stopped, hung. Maybe it waiting on a bad block on disk. Maybe it was just the heat. But the only option offered by DirecTV was a replacement with their dreaded DVR.
My first impression was positive. The guide responded quickly. The on-screen display is unobtrusive.
But on closer inspection, this was designed by a committee of retarded monkeys with no sense for how the ability to control the television changes how we use it.
The remote is cluttered. Do I really need three power buttons?
Why are you starting from sleep at the Game Lobby? I have never willingly selected that, so don’t even bother showing it to me.
Speaking of sleep, what’s the deal with the screen saver? Trying to keep my cathode ray tube from burning in the Game Lobby?
But now that I have a chance to sit down and completely reprogram all of the shows I’ve chosen to record over the past eight years when there is absolutely no reason why I should have to do that, I wonder WHY THE FUCK DirecTV can’t make a searchable version of the TV guide so that I can find the shows I want to record you fucking incompetent pieces of shit.
How about making one that displays the show that’s actually playing on my TV?
This is why all efforts at interactive television have failed miserably.