Okay, it's not "brand name" Tivo, it comes with my cable, but like cell phones, once I broke down and got it (only about a year ago), I wondered how the hell I got along without it.

I don't watch much TV either, mostly out of lack of time rather than any views on the quality of shows, but I do have certain things I like to see (the kind of shows you and Bowser describe factor heavily), and the ability to program them in is great. Then when you have a nice backlog, you sit down in front of the TV/DVR with a nice cup of tea, turn it on, and bingo. Nothing but the good stuff.

Bonus: Gleefully tossing those damn VCR tapes in the trash. Remember having to scout around on a six hour tape to figure out where your show started? Even assuming you were smart enough to label the tape.

The modern cable TV environment is great. Sure, 90 percent, as Delbert says, is crap. But it always has been. When you have a couple of hundred choices of channel, and thousands of shows, suddenly your 10 percent is a lot more shows than it used to be.

I could now easily kill entire days watching only high-quality TV if I let myself. Did you know there's a Sundance channel? I didn't until recently.

The ability to stop and rewind a live show would make DVR worth it almost by itself. What I need now is an AM/FM radio with a hard drive...