Z car on TV

[Dans240z]

I was watching Full House tonight and a Valvoline ad came on. My brother said, have you seen this before? (he must have) I said, no that I had not and I continued to watch. The add went like this: There is a guy who makes automotive art, and the ad shows him airbrushing something and painting a picture. The ad shows his studios and other stuff. All of a sudden WHAM!!! he is checking the oil on a beautiful orange 240z!!! I could not believe it!!! My heart actually raced! There was a great shot of the engine, and it ended with the guy standing in between his orange and white 240zs. He said something about how they were works of art, or something of that nature. I was stuned, and really happy. Has anyone seen this ad?

[Mike]

I'm more amazed that you were watching Full House.

[mdbrandy]

I've seen that add twice over the past few months. I'm always surprized when it shows up, so I've never been able to pay enough attention to get any details on the cars!

[hls30.com]

Wow what a turn of events, watching TV for the commercials!

I would have the TV on Full House too(at least once), if I could catch the commercial-just the sort of thing that throws the Neilsons out the window...

WIll

[texasz]

Yes, I saw it just the other day and hope to see it on my TiVo!! Did you notice that both cars in the garage appeared to be Z cars? I just caught a glimpse but the second looked like a convertable kit Z car.

[Alfadog]

Whats with you yanks calling it a "TiVo"??? Is that American for television or something else??

[Bambikiller240]

Late in the racing season of 2004, that commercial was on Speed TV and ESPN2.

Whats with you yanks calling it a "TiVo"??? Is that American for television or something else??

http://www.tivo.com/0.0.asp

TiVo is a for pay service that includes a Digital Video Recorder (mine is a 100 hour DVR and DirecTV satellite receiver) and service that consists of a televison programmining feature that looks ahead for about 2 weeks so you can see what is on TV (and when) in the future. Also has a search engine that you can set up to automatically record programs that you choose. It's really quite nifty. Mine is always recording so I can hit a pause button and answer the phone, or whatever, then sit back down a continue where I left off. Mine also has 2 tuners so I can be recording 2 different programs at the same time, while I'm watching a previously recorded progam. Fast forward through commercials is great. I watch a 1/2 hour show in 22 minutes, and hour show in about 44-45 minutes. Like their advertisements say, "It'll change the way you watch TV", and "TV on YOUR schedule". You have to buy the hardware, then pay a small monthly fee for the service.

[MikeW]

I have the same setup as Carl only I have 3 units total (one for each TV in the house). One more thing about TiVo that Carl didn't mention is that you can rate shows using TiVo. If you see something you really like you can give it one or more "thumbs up" ratings. Something you don't like gets the "thumbs down". TiVo gathers this information and will use it to automatically record shows for you based on what it thinks you'll like. It determines this by looking at how other people rated stuff that you also rated. Because of this, and the shows you've specifically told it to record you rarely watch live TV. After all, there's always a bunch of good stuff waiting for you to watch on your own schedule.

[texasz]

I too have TiVo...two of them actually, a 311 hour series 1 unit and a 60 hour series 2 unit in the bedroom for times when what I want and the wife wants conflict (Thursday nights is the perfect example).

Both are on my network, the series 1 via a TiVoNet card and hardwired and the series 2 via a wireless USB NIC so neither unit use my phone line both use my broadband connection to download updates. Plus the series 2 has additional features like accessing your MP3 collection or photos from your network so you can listen/view them from the TV (very cool for parties when you wish to show off a slideshow of your daughter's latest pix!).

You also do not have to pay monthly as this adds up fast, I have the lifetime service on both units with is the same as the monthly service just a one time fee is the only difference. Cost savings is a breakeven point at about 24 month then after that point you are saving yourself money (I've had my series 1 for three years now and love it).

Also on the rating shows and allowing TiVo to automatically record things for you based upon what it thinks you will like...you can turn this feature on or off as you please. Mine is off because I don't want TiVo recording a bunch of stuff and filling up my drive with shows I didn't specifically ask for.

Something that has not been mentioned is the season pass feature! This is one of my favorite things as you pick a show you like, say CSI, and get a season pass, make a few settings as desired (i.e. record only first runs, keep all episodes, keep until space needed, etc) and you will never miss another episode of CSI. No more forgetting to set the VCR if you will not be home, no more missing it because you expected to be home but something happened causing you to be late, no more going on vacation and needing more than 6 hours of recording time that a VHS tape allows...man the list goes on and on.

It truely is like the commercials say, "It'll change the way you watch TV", and "TV on YOUR schedule".

My wife didn't see the point when I came home and told her I was buying one but now she can't stop telling everyone how great it is and how easy to use (she never could program the VCR).

[mperdue]

Alfa - Americans are hardcore when it comes to TV. Cheap bastards like me who get by with rabbit ears are quickly becoming the minority. I only get 3 channels that are really clear most of the time. Oh well, keeps me off the couch.

Oh and Dans240Z - FULL HOUSE?!?!??! You should quickly make use of the edit feature on this site!

[Mr Camouflage]

Whoa, too much information there Tex.

Let me dumb it down for you Alfa.

TiVo is like a video recorder, but its actually a computer that recordes the tv shows digitally, and you can what them back later. Its also completey irellevant to Australians.

You'd be better off building a cheap computer with a DVB-T card so you can watch and record free to air tv in HDTV quality. MythTV is an opensource (free) TV system that runs on linux. I built a HTPC (Home Theatre PC) and run mine on windows (for now). I just hit the record button when i want to "Tape" something. I can also watch DVD's on it, stuff I downloaded, play CD's or MP3's, or use it as a computer. Now if only I had a projector....

[mperdue]

I just hit the record button when i want to "Tape" something. I can also watch DVD's on it, stuff I downloaded, play CD's or MP3's, or use it as a computer. Now if only I had a projector....

A friend of mine has that kind of setup with the enormous movie screen sized HD projector. I don't go there often but when I do I hardly move from the couch. The only downside is that you really have to dedicate an entire room for it and it's best kept dark, like a movie theatre.