Home Theater Hacks

Hack #94. Must-Skim TV

Slide through boring baseball games, pausing only for crowd-pleasing catches and game-tying errors. Cram that unnecessarily lengthy reality show into a scant 15 minutes of onscreen viewing.

TiVo really is "TV your way." Most people assume it's just about pausing live television to visit the restroom, or watching your shows when you're good and ready to do so. But there are more tidbits to be incorporated into your television-watching modus operandi. Here are a few I find rather useful for reducing downtime in potentially engaging shows.

Sliding Straight to the Instant Replay

While the networks do a fine job of highlighting notable sports plays, it just doesn't help if you're out of the room fetching a cold one or more pretzels for your friends. If you're a sports fan and TiVo fanatic, you've no doubt discovered the Replay button. With a flick of the thumb, you've skipped backward a few seconds to catch the splash of that San Francisco homer. Flick it again and you're back at the wind-up.

But did you know that the Replay button, when combined with , can reduce an entire game to just minutes—without missing a single crowd-pleasing catch or game-tying error? You won't even have time for that cold one! Here's what you do…

Select a game from TiVo's Now Playing List and start it playing. Hit the button on your TiVo remote three times to zip through the game at high ...