DVRs

Me-  My family has a DVR, but not just any DVR one that is crappy! When we record things,  we  never get the whole show. The ending of  every show is cut off so we never know how things end. With  Glee, we  had   to  tape  the beginning of  Raising  Hope. We  ended  up like that show too so that was a win-win. Every single time my mom and  I watch Disney Channel,  we never see  the end  of  any episode  that  we record. I  am not even exaggerating. Every time  we finish watching a show, I  think to myself  'I  would   just  like   like  to  see  the  ending  of  at  least  one  episode.' Is that too much to ask for?

 Mom- I thought the VHS was one the of the greatest inventions ever. Being able to record TV shows and watch them when you want as well as being able to rent and buy movies and watch them at home whenever you want that was just amazing. The DVR is truly one of the greatest inventions ever. It took every thing that was great about the VHS and made it even more so. Being able to set a show once and record an entire season instead of having to record one episode at a time, being able to pause and rewind live TV,  those things were incredible to me.  I am not one of those people who always needs to have the TV on whether I am watching it or not.  I only want to watch what I want to watch when I want to watch it. Therefore,  the DVR was a miracle to me. True, you can watch shows any time you want on the computer. However, at least for me, sometimes it is hard to find exactly the show and/or the episode you are looking for especially if you are not willing to pay for it.  I mean why should I pay again for shows I am already paying for through my cable subscription. For me, it is the DVR all the way.

However, not all DVRs are created equal. The one we have through our cable company is probably the worst DVR in the world. A good DVR will easily let you search for shows. Ours does not. As a matter of fact, our DVR does not even let you search more than a week in advance. A good DVR makes it easy to skip recording a program one time. Our DVR does not. A good DVR knows when a program is on at a different time or on a different day and ends when it is supposed to not before a program is over. Our DVR does not. It will not record a program on a different day or at different time unless you specifically set it for that date and time. It ends a recording when it thinks the show should be over not always when it actually is over. I cannot tell you how many times the ends of our shows have gotten cut off particularly shows that are on after sporting events or that are on certain channels like Fox and Disney.

A good DVR makes it easy to prioritize your recordings. Our DVR does not. In fact, the way it prioritizes recordings is a big secret  that it obviously handles itself because I cannot seem to find any way for me to do it manually. A good DVR records what you want when you want. Our DVR has been known to record shows that we never set to record or wanted to record. Other times, it won't record shows that we do want to record and did set to record. We prefer to set most of our shows to record first run only. However, when we do that sometimes when one of our shows is a rerun it doesn't record that episode, which is fine, but then when the next new episode is on it still doesn't record the new episode. If we set it to tape all episodes of a show regardless of whether they are new or not we end up with too many episodes (especially of my children's shows) and too many conflicts regarding  which shows are going to record at all, which as I said before is something that the machine decides for itself. A good DVR is a wonderful thing. Our DVR is not. I don't celebrate Christmas, and I am long past believing in the tooth fairy  but I hope next year one of them or the good fairy or somebody or anybody brings me a TIVO.

And that's our view. Tune in again for another  Talking Topic.

photo credits
photo credit 1: willspot DirectvDVR via photopin (license)>
photo credit 2: stevegarfield Will Record: Comcast TiVo via photopin (license)
photo credit 3: Jamie McCaffrey TiVo is in the house  (5/100) via photopin (license)