Things I Love Thursday: TiVo and How it Works with Netflix

It's time once again for another Things I Love Thursday! This one is hosted by The Diaper Dairies, so go check out what other people Love this week.

I am in love with my TiVo. We got the TiVo when the girls were very little, and I was SO excited about it because there's really not much in the way of great viewing material at 2am. And I don't know about you, but when my girls were in the midst of night feedings I did a lot of TV viewing while nursing. Some women gaze down at their newborn and contemplate the amazingness of life... I got hooked on Doctor Who instead.

Hey, it's better than infomercials!

...

Who am I kidding? With all that nerdy blood coursing through my veins it was only a matter of time before I discovered Doctor Who and got addicted to it.

It was super handy to have a TiVo around when the girls started sleeping through the night, because then I could record Doctor Who (which plays on PBS at ridiculously odd hours and at intermittent intervals) and never miss an episode!

Until that is... I realized that our local PBS station only plays season 1 over and over and over again and never moves on to season 2. Which really REALLY sucks if you've ever watched season 1 of Doctor Who because in the final episode (ok... I really want to spoil the story, but just in case there are some random Doctor Who fans out there reading this who haven't seen it yet...) something CRAZY happens and it has this unbelievable cliffhanger ending that leaves you screaming at your TV and BEGGING for more!

So I had Hubs add season 2 to our Netflix queue, but once he learned that there were only 3 episodes per disk, and that they'd automatically send the ENTIRE season in succession... he pretty much put the kabosh on it. I understand his point, if we had ordered it we'd be receiving Doctor Who and ONLY Doctor Who for the next month at least. And that wouldn't really be fair to Hubs because he won't watch Doctor Who with me, and pretty much rolls his eyes and leaves the room while I'm watching it.

Then just this last week I discovered something new and amazing!!! TiVo & Netflix can work TOGETHER!!! That's right! You can add movies & TV episodes to your Netflix "Instant Queue" and then watch them right away on your TiVo! How cool is that?! It's this new fangled thing called "On Demand", perhaps you've heard of it? I live in a cave and don't get out too often so it was all new to me.

Heard of it but don't know how to use it? Here's how!

First you go to your TiVo main menu.



See that little option in the middle called "Video on Demand"? Click that.



You'll get the wait a minute icon, and then eventually you'll see this.



The first time I saw the above menu my jaw dropped. You mean... you can watch YouTube...on my TV?! Wow...

So once you're able to pick you jaw up off the floor, scroll down to where it says Netflix, and then go over to the right hand side and click on Netflix account info. It'll give you a code. Go over to your computer, access your Netflix account, and then enter the code that TiVo gave you. This will make TiVo and Netflix work together!

Once you've done this, feel free to paruse your Netflix queue and start entering things into your Instant Queue. Some movies and shows have the option to watch instantly, some do not. So you won't be able to watch EVERYTHING via your TiVo, but you will be amazed at what you CAN watch instantly!

Then select "Watch Instantly" on your TiVo.



You'll have to wait a minute or so, and then you'll see this screen.



And yes, obviously Hubs and I have very different taste in movies. lol

Hmm... I wonder who likes Becoming Jane and who likes A Nightmare on Elm Street?

If I scroll down I can find what I'm looking for...

Doctor Who!



After I select Doctor Who Season 2 (I seriously hope the "new" Doctor is as good as the old one!) I get this list of all the different episodes.



When I select an episode, I get a screen very similar to when I select any recorded program on TiVo.



When you hit play, or resume playing in this case, it will take a minute or 2 for your TiVo to download the program before you can view it. Apparently TiVo waits until it KNOWS your going to watch an "On Demand" show before it saves it onto it's hard drive.

The best part??? It's FREE to watch "On Demand" shows unless in the menu it tells you otherwise. There are some areas, such as the Amazon department, where it will cost you to view the program. So be careful what you select! But to watch Netflix shows via TiVo is absolutely FREE if you are already paying for both the TiVo and an unlimited Netflix account. You can add as many movies as you like to the Netflix Instant Queue, so you can really go hog wild if you want!

Obviously I've been having a lot of fun with this, so I thought I'd let you know about it so that you can have fun with it too. :)