It tends to be generically known as "Tivo." Mine isn't--it's from my cable company and isn't Tivo, but I've had it for about a year now and I have no idea how I lived without it.

There used to be big piles of VHS tapes of shows and movies I recorded off the TV, with Post-It notes telling what's on it, and me having to plow through fast-forward endlessly trying to find the beginning or the end of something I'd saved.

Now, I just record something, and it goes on the old hard drive. There's a nice index I can sort in various ways. I can watch a piece of a show, go away to something else, come back, and it's waiting where I left it. You can start watching a show while it's still being recorded. My cable box has two tuners, so I can watch one channel while recording another, or record two shows at once. It's hooked into the live TV feed so I can pause live TV, or go back and look at something I've missed.

My system (part of the service) can be programmed to record any favorite series or show. It knows when to start or stop, and can tell new shows from re-runs. It knows if the times change, and works with it.

It can hold about 60 hours of normal TV (a lot less of HDTV). Oh, didn't I mention it also works on HDTV? That's a lot of VHS tapes.

There is a monthly fee associated with the service in many cases, but it's worth it. If you get cable, ask your cable company what they've got in this area.

I fart in the general direction of video tape. Good riddance!