It's soooo cool...that is, if you're willing to pay...
TiVo is basically a hard drive for your TV. It can hold up to 20, 30, or 60 hours of programming. I think it's got a 30Gb drive (60Gb coming soon) and it connects to the Internet via a phone line to download television programming in your area (cable, satellite, even reg. antenna I think). The beauty of it is you basically have a VCR with NO TAPE and a much FEWER limitations. Here's what I mean:
1) you can record more than one show at a time.
2) you can "pause live TV" - meaning you can record up to 30 minutes of a show and watch it while the TiVo records the rest. So you can start a show late or pause in the middle of it & not have to wait for the whole thing to record before you start watching it from the beginning.
3) give TiVo a show's name and it will look for all the times that show comes on for you. Plus, you can enter a genre of shows you like (like sports or scifi) and it will look for all the programs under that genre & record them for you.
4) ooh, one more thing - if you wanna keep a show, you can record from the TiVo to a VCR. Or you can save shows on the hard drive. Get a whole season if you like!
All this & more for only $300+ for the system (I think that new one is $350 at Best Buy) and $9.95/mo. for the service OR $250 for lifetime service (if you like it, go for lifetime - you'll have paid more than that after 2 years' time). It seems like smooth stuff if you're willing to plunk down the cash.
Anyway, check out
TiVo's website for more details. Microsoft has Ultimate TV which does the same, but I think TiVo is more versatile - Ultimate TV only connects with satellite (at least that's what the Best Buy salesperson told me). I think I'll be gettin TiVo soon, but the wallet's pretty thin right now