I want my ReplayTV!

One thing I've learned from first moving from Canada to the U.S., then back again after nine years, is that it's the little things you miss. Stupid things like Coffee Crisp bars when I'm in the U.S., and Red Vines up here. Most of it, you develop new tastes and habits and move on. I'm doing okay without the Red Vines. Yes, I miss Target, but I really needed to wean myself off big-box shopping, anyway. But there's one little thing you can't get in Canada that's quickly becoming a huge, gaping hole in our lives: ReplayTV!!!!!

Sadly, our ReplayTV doesn't work up here. For some completely inexplicable reason, ReplayTV "is not supported" in Canada. Or Mexico. What that means is the box can't download channel information from the cable company, so the sleek silver unit is nothing more than dust-collecting trash once it hits the Great White North. We knew this before we decided to move. We just didn't know how much we'd miss it. We were in deep, total denial. Oh man, watching TV is so lame without a DVR. I missed my favourite show tonight (Arrested Development) because I had to go out and couldn't just press a button to record it. You have to turn to the lame TV Guide channel to find out what's on, and you can't skip ahead to see what will be on later. And you can't pause or rewind the show, so if you're interested in what you're watching, you have to sit there and watch it WHILE IT'S ON. This is communism, straight up. We might as well cancel our cable, because we get so frustrated watching TV without the aid of the Best Invention Ever that it's hardly worth it to tune in.

I've done some research, and apparently you can "hack" the ReplayTV and get it to download content from a nearby U.S. city or something. Oh yeah--I'm all over that. Even the consumer electronics/ computer nerds in the forums we consulted say it's hard to do, so I doubt I could get it to work.

Oh well. I guess I'll have to go back to remembering when my shows are actually on if I want to see them. I guess that means I'll be reading a lot this winter.

The XM Satellite Radio works fine, though. So not all is lost.