A SIDEWAY'S LOOK : FREEZE FRAME: IT'S MAGIC IN A BOX.

Byline: Tom Hoffarth

You can have any knucklehead explain the benefits of sports TV viewing with the newest and greatest gadget on the market called TiVo. But until you see it for yourself, and actually gasp in amazement as what just happened, it's not the same.

Think of a super VCR that allows the viewer the incredible ability to - get this - not only pause live action, but then watch it whenever you're ready to continue or jump back to the live coverage. You in essence watch the game on whatever delay you've encountered.

For anyone who's ever been zoned in on a sporting event and had a spouse interrupt with ``something important'' - and sure, it was, but you just missed the key play of the game - remember this feature.

Declining divorce rates are already being predicted.

The trick is that it records everything you're watching digitally onto a hard disk.

Other features are just as remarkable. The slo-mo button allows you to go frame-by-frame of the live broadcast as well. Since it's hooked into a phone line, the current programming guide for your cable or dish system is continually fed into the box, allowing you to see a schedule of other things while you're watching a program, and then jump over if you want.

It records DVD quality and allows you to transfer a recorded show onto a VCR tape if you desire. A splitter is needed if you want to record one show while watching another.

The price may seem prohibitive, but again remember the value - $499 for the 14-hour memory machine; $999 for the 30-hour special. The service runs $9.95 a month or $99 a year, but the $199 lifetime price is the best deal.

It will come spousal-approved.

Until this week, it's only been available through order on the TiVo Web site (www.tivo.com) or at Good Guys and Fry's Electronics, but it goes on sale nationwide at Best Buy in time for the NFL openers.

Competing with TiVo is a machine called ReplayTV, which is not yet in the stores but sells for $699 (10 hours), $899 (14 hours) or $1,499 (28 hours). Among other things, ReplayTV does not have the slo-mo or closed caption ability as TiVo does.

``We think it's all a matter of how the people value it,'' said TiVo director of strategic marketing Bob Poniatowski.

For something like this, we're thinking priceless.