TiVo Camouflage

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TiVo Camouflage

There are times I laugh my ass off when I read the latest Bill Simmons has to say in his Sports Guy column over at ESPN.com, and then there are times when I laugh my ass off and recognize him as a total genius. From his mailbag column this week, in which readers email in questions for him:

Q: I love TiVo, but why can't I change the name of my saved shows? In the days of the video, I could tape what I want, change the name to "Broncos Highlights -- 1994" and rest assured my wife would never look at it. Now, if I TiVo something she might not like, "Naughty Nurses" is right on the saved list. Has there ever been a better product with such an obvious oversight?
--Brendan Lane, Darnestown, Md.

Sports Guy: You're a genius. They should add a special feature called "TiVo Camouflage" for an extra $9.95 a month. Every time you record a movie like "Naughty Nurses," TiVo Camouflage automatically changes the title of the show to something concurrently running on the NFL Network. That can't miss.

Seriously, this might be the best thing ever.

(Reposted by Jason Levine from Q Daily News)

by Jason April 12, 2006 in TiVo

Comments

If you hack your Tivo, and use TivoWebPlus (http://tivowebplus.sourceforge.net), you can do that now for free!

Posted by: Ken at Apr 13, 2006 5:45:23 AM

Heh, the monthly fee plan won't work, at least unless you are the one paying all the bills, your wife will be like "What is this TiVo Camouflage thing?"

In all seriouslness, your best bet is probably to do something like transfer the show to your PC to get it off your TiVo, you might even be able to rename the file and transfer it back, thouh I'm not sure if the name or other info is in some metadata somehwere in the .tivo MPEG2 file.

Posted by: Robert Aitchison at Apr 13, 2006 9:02:57 AM

Actually, this isn't that hard to do if you use a cable box along with your TiVo instead of TiVo's tuner. You can start to record something, change the channel on the cable box and let it record. So, set it to record that three-hour golf tournament and then change the channel on the cable box and authorize the Girls Gone Wild marathon.

Posted by: Gowan at Apr 13, 2006 3:08:30 PM

Aitchison is absolutely right. It needs to be called something like "TiVo NFL ExtremeStats Pkg", but operate exactly as Simmons describes. That way, you just have to convince the SO to let you order some obscure stats package.

Posted by: Dave P at Apr 13, 2006 3:47:14 PM

I can change the name of a show in the list view on my 5000 series ReplayTV. It may be discontinued, but it still beats Tivo!

Posted by: Jeff at Apr 14, 2006 10:14:15 AM

You guys are all totally missing the point. Get divorced or, better yet, don't get married, and you won't have this problem.

Posted by: Casanova at Apr 14, 2006 10:40:33 AM

TiVoWebPlus lets you change the names of programs, and the associated info, as well.

You all need to get hacking..

Posted by: twosox at Apr 14, 2006 1:14:00 PM

Bill Simmons is a one-trick pony.

Posted by: B Dobbs at Apr 20, 2006 6:40:00 AM

If you're hiding shit from your wife, you don't have a healthy relationship!

Posted by: Jeff at Apr 21, 2006 9:29:51 PM