[megazone]

A lot of people still dump to VCRs, or standalone DVD recorders. TiVo Desktop only works for the geek set with PC video software and DVD burners - which doesn't cover a large chunk of TiVo's users.

Batch playback is useful for saving to off-board devices, or just having a marathon showing, or, like it or not, setting it to show a bunch of kids shows in a row so the kids are entertained without having to touch the remote.