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)

Justin Bieber

Me - Justin Bieiber? BLECH! I  hate him!. You know his song Baby Baby? Well,  I  made a up a new  version  "Baby baby,  I hate you.  Oh, Justin Bieber stinks!" He sings like a girl, and he is a big baby. He even looks like a girl. The first time I heard him sing I thought he was a girl.

When my family first heard him, my mom joked that we would  put a video of  us singing on YouTube and call it  The Family  Glee Club because we are into The  Partridge  Family and Glee, but even if  we did, I don't think we would become famous. That  is  not  how life works. So, how did  it  happen to Justin Bieber since he can not even sing well? I  like to call him Justin Bibler. Even out of my teenage friends, only two of them like him,  and one of those friends is kind of weird just like him anyway which makes sense.

Mom- Justin Bieber, I just don't get it. What is it about him? Although I have heard worse singers, there is nothing special about his voice. It is just kind of average. He is not ugly, but his looks are just kind of average too. There must be tons of videos of people singing posted on YouTube every day, and a number of them must be better singers and/or at least better looking than Justin Bieber. Yet, he is the that one gets noticed and becomes famous?  How in the world did that happen? 

Who are all these young girls who love him? I have two daughters and neither one of them can stand him. In fact, one of the few things my two girls and their 17 year old brother agree on is that they all hate Justin Bieber. In fact, I don't personally know anyone of any age or gender who admits to being a fan of his. Still, I know he has plenty of fans because his records and concerts sell so well. He seems to show up in so many places too like on a recent episode of CSI. So again, I have to wonder what is it about Justin Bieber?

Do all these kids really love him because they really think he is so wonderful or do they love him because of his fame? I mean he was kind of famous before he became famous. Do kids look at him and think if it happened like that for him, being discovered on You Tube, maybe it could for me too? Or maybe, it's even that he seems more approachable to them because he was allegedly just a regular kid whose mother put videos of him singing on You Tube, and the rest, as they say, is history. He was not just some Hollywood or Broadway kid who has been acting and singing professionally since he was a baby. So maybe, he seems more like them to these kids and that's why they love him. Anyway, whatever it is I just don't get it.

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

photo credit: NRK P3 Justin Bieber, Oslo 2015 via photopin (license)

TV Then and Now

Me- When I was young, my favorite show was Jo-Jo's Circus. I  watched  all  those little kid shows  except Dora the Explorer.  I never especially liked that show but my sister loves it. My parents  always joke that it is Dora's world, and we all just live in it.

Now all,  I watch is Disney channel  Glee, and Full House. Every time my mom tells me that she has news, I ask "Is it about Full  House? Is it about Glee?"

Full House is my  favorite show every time someone says something it  reminds me of  something that happened in Full House. I also like to pretend that I am the  characters.

Glee is a show that my mom, my dad, my sister, and  I all like.  I  hope  that  Finn  and  Rachel get back together and  he  and  Quinn  have no part of  each  other. I  also hope that Sam stays with Quinn and not Santana. They can't  put a bad  girl  with a good boy!

As for,  Disney,  I don't  know how it  happened  but  somehow I got hooked. The only shows I  do  not  like on Disney Channel are Fish Hooks, I'm in The band, and Kick Buttowski.

Mom- When I was very young, we had about seven different TV channels and not everyone had color TV. There were no specialized channels like sports channels or movie channels or kids channels or whatever. If you missed a show, maybe you could catch the rerun, but there was no such thing as DVR or even a VHS nor could you go online to watch an episode of  a show that you missed. A show would have to run a certain number of episodes before it would go into syndication, and you could see old episodes every day of the week. Late at night, there was actually a time when there was nothing on TV but old movies and infomercials and stuff like that.

When I got a little older, our town was about the last one to get cable. There were a lot more channels and a lot more options but not necessarily more good options for what to watch. I mean, I am not a snob who says I don't watch anything but educational TV or anything like that  (although I am not too fond of reality shows), but  I am sure I never even watch more than half of the channels we receive in our house. In fact, there are four of us in the house, and each of us watches about two or three channels regularly. Even if you assume that there is no overlap in the channels each of us watches (which actually is not the case), that would still only be 12 channels we normally watch out of hundreds available to us. So more choice doesn't necessarily mean more good choices.

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

photo credit1: wuestenigel Remote control  (Fernbedienung) via photo
photo credit 2: x-ray delta one 1960 ... down under TV! via photopin (license)
photo credit 3: Robert Couse-Baker this is the video of affliction via photopin (license)