My last article dealt with video-recording yourself when you practice your presentation or speech.  While I value the lessons learned by video-recording yourself in practicing, don’t stop with your rehearsals.  The next step is to record your live presentation or speech.  How you deliver in front of a live audience will be a bit different than your delivery in practice; and, both situations need to be studied.

By recording the actual presentation, you will be able to see yourself in action.  Do you smile at times?  Do you have enough volume?  Were you heard?  Were you making eye contact with your audience?  Did you look natural and comfortable?  Were you understandable?  Did the pitch of your voice rise because of your nervousness? 

Many of the questions I am asking here are not covered in my first article because recording yourself in a practice session will not produce nervousness – at least it shouldn’t!  But my questions here deal with how you handle your nervousness.  For example, the pitch of the speaking voice will only rise unnaturally because of nervousness.  On the other hand, you may speak distinctly in your rehearsal but be considerably less intelligible in the live situation because you are subconsciously pulling back your volume.

Maybe you were speaking too quickly.  Speed is one of the most interesting components of public speaking that can never be judged honestly until you hear yourself in a recording.  You may speak at a good pace in normal conversation but increase your speed dramatically on stage because of excitement, nervousness, or because you want to get it over with as quickly as possible.

These are some of the easy questions to ask yourself as you listen and watch your performance.  But you need to go even further.  How did your audience react to you?  Many who successfully finish their speech or presentation often don’t remember what happened.  They are so thrilled to have it over that they can’t remember specifics.

This is where the video-recorder can be most beneficial.  If you have a few jokes that have gotten no response, for example, then maybe you should change your style of delivery.  Not everyone can tell a joke successfully.  Maybe your humor is funny to you but not to your audience.  On the other hand, your audience may have laughed at something you said that you had never considered humorous before.

You may have a wonderfully supportive audience who thanks you and was enamored with your presentation.  But you still don’t a visual or an aural representation of what really happened until you are able to playback the video and watch yourself in action

Become your own best critic if you want to be the best that you can be in public speaking.

The latest and most popular TiVo version, the TCD652160, provides all of the great TiVo satisfaction to which we have become accustomed and, by connecting to the Internet, it adds a new wealth of incredible services which allow us to do many cool things, including download movies immediately from the Internet!

When considering the purchase of a new TiVo digital video recorder, there are two classes of purchasers.  The first group is those people who have never owned a digital recorder in the past and the second group is those who are considering an update for HD services and Internet connectivity.  This article is for both groups.

Digital Video Recorders became a mainstay technology for many people with the advent of TiVo several years back.  TiVo became so popular that it turned into a verb.  Just like with Internet searches–I Googled it– people now say, “I TiVo’d the show” or “did you TiVo it?”

Many cable and satellite providers offer digital video recorders with their contract.  However, these are not TiVo and people do not get the same TiVo experience.  At a small extra cost, TV provides immense programming options.  Of course, the core, the foundation, that we all love is the ability to watch our favorite TV programs whenever we want.

If you are new to the TiVo world, this is the model that you should buy.  However, if you already have a DVR, should you upgrade to the TiVo TCD652160?  To come up with an answer to this, let’s look at all of the enhanced features of this TV offering.

This new TiVo device now supports up to 20 hours of high-definition programming (for up to 150 hours, choose the TiVo TCD 658000).  Today’s Top LCD TVs provide a picture that is absolutely stunning.  You do not want to have to scale back when you are watching recorded programs.  Thus, the HD additions alone make it worth the price of admission.

But there is so much more!  When you combine TiVo with network and Internet connectivity, the options available skyrocket.

TiVo now connects to your home network and the Internet enabling you to transfer your shows to portable devices (such as your MP3 player–very cool!), put shows on a DVD, transfer between two devices, play music through your computer’s music library, show photos and home videos, and, perhaps most importantly, order movies on demand through the Internet.

One recent user summed up the sentiments of many by simply saying:  “Awesome Product”.  The TiVo TCD652160 HD Digital Video Recorder is just that.