I don't have a Tivo I don''t feel the need to pay 12.95 a month to have a tv guide

I think you may be missing the point about Tivo. What you said is comparable to someone saying "I don't need a $1500 computer in my car just to play an MP3 file."

The $12.95 a month service (combined with the Tivo, of course) is so much more than a TV guide. It is an intelligent programming service that accommodates itself to your particular preferences.

Once you tell Tivo to record a few programs (and you don't tell it to record "..Wednesday night at 9pm", instead you just tell it to record "West Wing" and Tivo will find it wherever or whenever it might be on) Tivo will start recording, all on its own, other programs that it "thinks" you might like. You'll never miss an episode of a show because you forgot to record it or because it aired at a non-standard day or time.

After a few weeks, you won't even look at the "TV Guide" as you put it, you won't even care what's in it because Tivo will have recorded everything you want to see. You won't ever watch television again, in fact -- you'll only watch Tivo because when you turn it on, you've always got 30 or 50 or 80 hours of programming you like and want to see stored on the Tivo -- more than you can ever find the time to watch.

You really need to personally experience the power and flexibility of the Tivo interface to appreciate it. It's like trying to describe to someone who's never seen an empeg why it is so much more than a CD changer. Spend 15 minutes playing with a Tivo and you'll see what I mean.

tanstaafl.