This article in yesterday’s USA Today reported that many DVR users watch their recordings of ”water-cooler” shows like Grey’s and Survivor right away, but save stuff like The Office and House for later in the night or week.
Well, duh.
Still, I’m glad to read stories like that. They make me feel less isolated. I mean, I basically exist in a two-character world… population: me and my DVR/life partner. (I have friends, but they know what’s up.) So, other DVR-sters, I’m interested in hearing about some of your methods amidst the madness of this beautiful but psychologically treacherous machine. What shows do you absolutely need to watch in real-time, and what gets saved for later, if ever? Do you have remote-control tricks I need to know about? How many series do you record? I bet I record more! You wanna go?
Related: Do you PopWatchers ever feel like, since all of TV is atyour fingertips, it ends up caving in on you? This, I think, is theDVR’s downfall. There just aren’t enough hours in the day! We’re allbusy. So is it better to delete an old show you don’t technically needto see, or will you make the time for Episode 3 of a promising newseries (or a rerun of Nickelodeon’s GUTS) if it kills you? Iusually do. And I’m starting to feel like a very strange type of robotthis fall, one with a glowing red ”recording in progress” lightpermanently reflected onto her left cheek. I don’t like looking in themirror anymore. The red light just never goes away.
CAN WE BE SAVED?
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i’m pretty much on a one-day delay with the DVR’d shows…that way i can fast forward thru annoying commercials and boring stuff like: up until the last flower on the ‘rose ceremony’ on ‘bachelor’ and the endless tyra-spiel at the end of ‘ANTM’…
i also FF through any scenes with the creepy, weird eyebrowed son on ‘nip/tuck’.
i do watch ‘the office’ in real time tho! and ‘lost’ because that’s the only show i watch with hubby…right now my tally is 18 shows on the DVR…how did we live w/out it???? what savages we were running around with VHS tapes, sticky labels and markers…my DVR was messed up yesterday and i was on the phone with cablevision at 5:30 am to fix it… i was panic stricken…now all is well, thank god!!!
I rarely (if ever) watch anything live. I wait about 20 minutes so that I can skip the commercials.
And the new season is so good, I’m sure my little red recording light is gonna burn out.
In “real time” I watch Lost, Project Runway and The Amazing Race. Everything else can wait until I have time to pay attention. I’m an early-to-bed, early-to-rise type so I often watch shows the morning after I record them.
I have 12 shows I watch regularly, plus a host of BBC America mysteries that I save and watch on dreary weekend afternoons.
i rarely watch anything live, though i’ll admit that i couldn’t even wait 20 minutes for last year’s 24 season finale. my must sees are 24, lost, weeds, battlestar galactica, project runway and veronica mars (though studio 60 is creeping its way in to high priority). wire is a favorite, but i often save up several episodes to watch at once since it’s so intense. everything else (csi, ugly betty, gilmore girls, w/o a trace, etc.) i just save on my tivo and slowly get through them whenever.
The networks make it so that you HAVE TO use your DVR. Especially on Thursdays.
Real Time: Ugly Betty.
DVR: My Name is Earl and The Office.
Real Time: ER
DVR: Six Degrees
Yes, I still watch ER. I have to admit, I was lured by the promise of interesting storyline with John Stamos. So far so good.
i just got my dvr and i absolutely dont know what i was waiting for. i loooove it.
I’ve found that if i set the office and grey’s to DVR, and then start watching the office around 8:50, i can go all the way through the office and right into greys skipping all of the commercial breaks and still finishing up around 10. it’s amazing
i have to say, i don’t watch ANYTHING in real time. i DVR it all. if there’s something i want to watch in semi-real time, i’ll wait until the show is 15-20 minutes in and then speed through the commercials.
but i would argue that dvr has ruined the way i watch media. it’s gotten to the point where i am comfortable only half paying attention to things because i know i have the luxery of rewinding if i miss anything. this has proved problamatic when i go to the movies. i can’t tell you how many times i’ve said, “wait, what just happened? oh i wish i could rewind!”
The only shows I watch in “real time” are Desperate Housewives, My Name is Earl and LOST. I will set DVR to record and start watching 15 to 20 minutes into the show to avoid commercials.
Other shows I still DVR and watch whenever..Footballers Wives, Mile High, Sons and Daughters, ER, The Class and Nip/Tuck.
DVR I have found does cause me to watch more tv…
I have about 20-22 shows (YEAH, I know it’s bad).
I try to watch most of them live if I can; the “watercooler” shows are priority (in case a co-worker decides they want to talk about it — i hate having eps spoiled ya know?)
I don’t know what I’d do w/o my DVR — it’s actually made me record more than I normally would (esp the late night talk shows)
I watch Lost and Gilmore Girls in real time (actually a 20 minute delay so I can skip commercials and still end about the same time). I watch Stewart/Colbert the next morning. Earl/Office wait until Friday. CSI, Studio 60, House, The Nine, Rescue Me, Project Runway can be watched anytime before the next showing. 12 season passes, plus those lovely BBC America shows like Life on Mars and Waking the Dead when they are available.
Alas, I do not have a DVR yet and still rely on my VCR. I watch House either in real time or whenever my roommate and I can get around to watching it together. Lost and Heroes are watched on Thursday nights with my boyfriend since we prefer to watch them together and don’t see each other until then. American Idol (when it’s on) I try to watch in real time.
We definitely have way too many shows on our PVR. My wife & I actually have set some shows to only keep two episodes, so we don’t end up with a week and a half’s worth of Daily Colbert Hour taking up space.
One thing that’s saved us is The Movie Network offering an on demand service, which lets her watch Stargate Atlantis and me watch Dexter without taking up hard drive space.
D-d-d-d-do you have it? GUTS!
I’m not gonna lie, I have at least 5 episodes of GUTS DVR-ed. There aren’t many shows that I absolutely must watch live, but I’ll usually catch up on them the night they air, or the day after. I don’t leave stuff till later in the week. Especially not The Office.
I have to agree with dave re: owning a DVR and its impact on your attention span; the ability to simply rewind live TV makes the radio (satellite and live) a source of constant frustration for me. Especially satellite, which has a freakin’ remote but with NO PAUSE or REWIND buttons. I feel like I say “Wait, what?” in my car at least 5 times a day.
My DVR doesn’t get much use. But I do use it at the beginning of the season to see all the new pilots. I mean, ALL of them… if two pilots premiere at the same time, I watch one show, DVR another… then I slowlly narrow down which shows I’m gonna watch.
My Real time shows: Heroes, Lost, Ugly Betty, Grey’s Anatomy and Battlestart Galactica.
My DVR shows: Nip/Tuck, Studio 60, Project Runway.
That’s it, 8 hours of television a week, and I still feel like a lazy human being… I really should cut down.
Yes, I am in no position to condemn any one elses’ DVR obsession. Following our recent Committment Ceremony, Ole’ Bessie’s (that’s her name, duh) been so possessive, I rarely leave her side. Only Bessie understands me…my every want and need. When she betrays me and records something I did not intend in place of what I meant to record, I get so mad. But baby, I only hit you because I love you!
And I bet my Bessie (who’s been with me more than three years now and already been in the shop for a cHIP replacement) is carrying around much more extra weight than all you wippersnappers. I’ve got 2 weeks of both Daily Show and Colberts, 3 weeks of Scrubs reruns (2 eppies per night), 2 weeks of That 70’s show in syndication, an entire season’s worth of The Dead Zone (which I still haven’t caught up on) and none of that’s even in prime time! Bessie’s been working overtime lately to get on top of the new TV season! Everybody Hates Chris, The Amazing Race, Desparate Housewives, How I Met Your Mother, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Veronica Mars, America’s Next Top Model, Lost, Project Runway, Ugly Betty, Grey’s Anatomy, Battlestar Galactica, (and during their reruns on channels ranging from Bravo to SciFi, 30 Rock, Heroes, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip – none of which I’ve actually even had time to watch yet to decide if I even like them!) Poor Bessie couldn’t manage to come up with a way for me to keep seeing My Name is Earl and I’m going to have to hope they rerun them real soon. So take that DVR wannabes!
And I NEVER watch anything live, unless I accidentally start too early and catch up with the live show. But most of my must see shows (see my previous post), I try to at least watch the same night so I won’t be spoiled (I have a nasty habbit of getting onto the EW website every morning, where they have a nasty habit of putting key plot points or key ejectees boldly on the home page where you can’t help but see it, even if you only wanted to read Pop Watch! Are you listening EW!!!@#$@#)
I totally agree with HH – I now need TiVo for the radio. My husband constantly explains how this really wouldn’t work: you need a constant source of power, blah, blah, blah,. But you can always hope that the show you are listening to (most NPR shows do) have a podcast that you can generally get later on the day it aired. Ahhh TiVo and iTunes – how did we ever get along without them?
I guarantee that I DVR more shows than you. I will officially challenge you. I have a TV-related blog, so I watch A LOT of TV. I have 3 Tivo’s plus a DVR device from my cable company. Top that!
I never watch a show live. I may start it 20-25 minutes into the show, so I can watch it without commercials. But I never sit through commercials anymore.
Daytime/Daily TV – 1 soap, 2 talk shows, 2 game shows, and 1 nightly news broadcast
Monday Night – DVR 8 shows, watch Prison Break for sure
Tuesday Night – DVR 5 shows, watch Dancing with the Stars for sure so I can vote
Wednesday Night – DVR 10 shows, watch Dancing with the Stars Results Show and Project Runway for sure and Lost if I have time
Thursday Night – DVR 6 shows, watch Survivor and Grey’s Anatomy for sure before work the next day
Friday Night – DVR 4 shows
Sunday Night – DVR 6 shows, watch The Amazing Race and Desperate Housewives for sure.
Did I beat you with the number of shows?? E-mail me if you want a list of what I DVR!
We DVR everything and watch it all after the kids go to bed. It really makes our evenings go much smoother since we don’t have to rush through our routine just to get to our shows. I do regret it a little bit though when I see that a show I watched went down in the ratings. Should I have watched it in real time instead?
My DVR has definitely increased my tv viewing tremendously. Now I can watch shows like Project Runway, Meerkat Manor, The Closer, Rescue Me, etc. that normally I wouldn’t watch because of the odd times I have to catch them because of too many shows piled up in prime time. Also because some prime time shows like to go a minute or 5 extra which screws up catching another show that starts at the top of the hour.
We often hold back some shows like Veronica Mars and Lost so we can watch two episodes together. We almost always watch Survivor and Amazing Race within an hour or two of it taping because (1) we can’t wait and (2) we don’t want to accidentally hear who got voted off in the news. But I usually save these shows for at least a few days after in case friends missed them and need a copy pronto.
Our DVR has two tuners so we can get two shows on simultaneously. My favorite thing is to watch a recorded show while taping two shows. Talk about multi-tasking!
I don’t know about you people, but the darn TIVO is saving my marriage, since the husband had to watch baseball (well, at least until Red Sox season was over) and if it wasn’t for the TIVO I would have never watched anything I wanted.
Oh, and my XM Skyfi2 radio has a pause and rewind, up to 30 minutes, which is cool.
To Patti
There is a ‘TiVo’ for the radio: the radioSHARK. It’s a really cool device!
DVR is like CRACK COCAINE, lol. It really is too addictive. And now I don’t know what I would do without it. Life wouldn’t be able to go on……..lol
For the most part, I watch all shows after at least 15 minutes go by (for a one hour show) thereby allowing us to skip all commercials and end on time or 15 into the next show.
Where there is a big pileup, and frankly this is only Thurs, we watch some dvr’d shows on slower nights.
I agree with the person who said the DVR has them watching shows they would not have otherwise–for scheduling reasons or just because you don’t know where/when to look for it–Rescue me, Project Runway, 6 Feet Under, Eureka, Daily Show, Colbert are new favorites since I got the DVR. I use the search function a lot to give new shows/Networks a try. Then if I love them I lock them in.
The best part of the DVR is not being locked in to a few networks and their schedules–leading to more flexibility and variety. It must be killing them to not have captive prey!
I think I have it the worst….I have TWO dual channel dvrs and some nights they are burning up!!! There are somethings you just can’t wait until a later time to record and I just haven’t gotten smart enough yet to watch my Showtime shows On Demand. So I still record them.
Most shows I start watching about 20 minutes in to avoid the commercials. Shows I watch like that are Gilmore Girls, Veronica Mars, Studio 60, and Lost. Most everything else, it depends on my mood that night. I have lots of CSIs stacked up right now waiting for viewing. I will ALWAYS watch Project Runway at some point the night it airs too. Lots of stuff gets stacked up for the weekend for when I am a total bum and play the catch up game, but it seems like I never manage to completely catch up! I come home from work, watch a show or two or three, watch whats on that night, and record more stuff to try and catch up on! It’s a never ending battle that I swear I am never going to win.
I forgot to add–I also have two tuners and can watch a recorded show at the same time as taping two others.
Of course we watch more shows now, but do not spend more time doing it–because there are no commercials!!
I feel like a network exec!! I get to control the TV! Mwuhhahaha
Veronica Mars starts at 9:20 every Tuesday.
the shows back up for us too, but we just save them for weeks with repeats on, or even for the summer. we allow Monks, CSIs, Eureka, sitcoms, any show that is not a contest or won’t be written up all over to wreck any surprises, just let them pile up so we have filler for slow weeks.
we also let some shows build up to watch in one long streak of 3 or 4 in one night. Like 24, Veronica Mars.