Ever since Annie Barrett posted an open letter to her ultimatum-giving DVR/life partner a year ago, I’ve been living in fear that my DVR would one day develop a mind of its own. On April 7, it happened. It was set to record the return of Samantha Who?, which I was particularly psyched for because it appeared to be a Barry Watson-heavy episode. My recorded shows list said the episode was waiting for me, but when I tried to play it, all I got was a dark screen. Hell no. After a few more failed attempts (it turns out that screaming calmly pleading "plaaay," as you select play from the beginning doesn’t help), I gave up and just wanted the listing gone. My DVR/life partner wouldn’t let me delete it. It was as though it wanted it to sit there in the queue — like some severed head skewered on a stake in the middle of a medieval town square as a warning — to remind me that it could, in fact, crush me whenever it wanted to. And I realize I got lucky this time: It wasn’t a show that I write a TV Watch for. It wasn’t a series premiere or a season finale. It wasn’t an episode that couldn’t be viewed on the network’s website. But the next time, it could be. (Shudder.)
So, because we’re all about the group therapy on PopWatch, I think it’s time we all share our most painful DVR mishaps. I’ve got a friend in L.A. whose DVR just decided not to tape America’s Next Top Model for the third week in a row. She’s not amused. My coworker Gretchen Hansen says her DVR fought back recently, also around the time of a scheduled Top Model recording — could the machines be working together? — by "blinking like it was picking up signals from outside our solar system. Then it started playing the toe pick scene from the movie The Cutting Edge, and THEN it died." ("Wait, you have The Cutting Edge on your DVR, Gretchen?" "It’s on my DVR twice. Why? Don’t ask me. Ask my DVR.")
Your turn. Make us weep!
Comments (1-30) of 91 Add your comment
My DVR up and decided not to record the season finale of “Make Me a Supermodel.” Can you imagine my frustration after watching this show week after week to then not be able to see who finally won but instead having to read about it? WTF!!!????
I’m just wondering if anyone else has been screwed over by DirecTv. The whole reason I started with them was that they had TiVo, so I stayed loyal. But the recorders kept crapping out on me, so they would replace them. Then a few months back, they replaced it with their own product, they no longer have TiVo. “But it’s a sub-standard product, I want my TiVo back” I told them. “It’s the same thing” they kept syaing. “Uh, no it’s not. If I pay for a BMW and get a Kia (no offense to Kia, but I paid for BMW), it’s not the same thing”. They didn’t see the difference. So I miss my FAR superior TiVo product, one egonomicly designed, for this crap that keeps messing with me (dare you to try and catch the end of a show like the Daily Show, if you don’t skip right, it just sits at the end, asking if you want to delete it, no way to view Jon’s Goodbye). And the biggest fubar it made – The returning Lost episode, just decided not to record it. WHAT?!? Screw you DirecTv, screw you.
my dvr sometimes decided it wants to just record half of an episode. not even half – sometimes 6 minutes, 18 minutes, etc. apparently, sometimes my dvr acts like me when i am working out. i want to go the full hour, but i get lazy.
Mandi – sometimes you just make my day – for real!
Anywho – I was about to express some of my DVR/LP issues – but then out of fear of revenge (i.e. I’d get home tonight and last night’s episode of Without a Trace, love Enrique Murciano, will be inexplicably gone) I decided simply to say – DVR/LP – Love you!! You’re the best! I really don’t mind that you sometimes cut off the ends of good episodes, or won’t let me record more than 2 shows at once, or forget that I asked you to record EVERY single new episode – it’s all good – you are the best..that stuff doesn’t even bother me…I swear…
A few weeks after getting my tivo it decided to update itself during the middle of primetime. It had to restart the entire system while updating the whole thing took about 30 minutes cutting off the last 20 minutes of two shows and the first 10 of the next show.
Wait a minute. My DVR recorded the Cutting Edge on a whim as well. It took a week for my husband and I to quit accusing the other of recording it. We finally agreed it was some weird glitch in the matrix (while deep down inside I still thought he recorded it) and moved on with our lives.
MAYBE IT WAS SOMETHING BIGGER.
I tried to get the NBC lineup last night (opting for baseball) and no such luck – totally revolted. Thank god I caught up online this morning. Son of a mother & father indeed!
GGB…I feel your DirectTv pain, my TIVO died and they gave me one of “their” DVR’s which promptly broke and had to be replace two weeks later. The worst thing is, I know have two disconnected DVR’s sitting around my house with a whole bunch of shows recorded on them. I told the lady at DirectTV that they owe me John Adams on DVD since some of the episodes are on the TIVO, some on the old DVR and some on the new one. They don’t think it’s funny.
I loved my Tivo, it understood me!
Maybe it is ANTM that has an issue – my DVR had the red recording light on the whole hour and when i went to watch it, only 1 MINUTE was recorded…that’s not even enough for the “Previously on…”
Also, my DVR will record the majority of shows sometimes, then shut off anywhere from 5-15 minutes before it ends, so I lose the best parts! Then one random LOST ep was just skipped over – even though it has a season pass and is scheduled to record any new eps.
This post seriously makes me feel better though – I thought I was the only one with a janky DVR!!!
Last year my dvr went wonky in the final minutes of a cliffhanger episode of Heroes (Sylar vs Peter/Mohinder) GAAAAAAAAAAAH!
Luckily one of my friends who lives across from me had it.
The one and only time my DVR malfunctioned was when it decided not to record the SEASON FINALE of LOST last year! The SEASON FINALE! Fortunately I was able to watch it at abc.com the next day but that was one painful night.
My DVR decided to delete EVERY SINGLE PROGRAM TIMER – yes, that’s right. It did not record any shows for 5 days! When I sat down to watch my weekly GH marathon, I realized it had not recorded anything – all week! I went into the scheduling area and saw it had wiped out everything i had programmed. I cannot tell you how long it has taken me to get all my timers (i love tv) back up – but now, when i tell it to record new episodes only, it also records every time that particular episode repeats. AHHH! Dish Network – I am not happy.
During my two week honeymoon (extended because a hurricane hit Jamaica the day we were supposed to leave), the power went out in our condo in DC. It came back on a few minutes later, but the cable box needs to be manually turned on. We missed two weeks worth of tv and my wife nearly killed the dvr when she found out the last three episodes of her favorite telenovela were replaced with a black screen.
Anyway, I’m beefing with Tivo right now. The device I spent $250 on in 2005 doesn’t do High definition. So to get my favorite HD shows recorded that way, Tivo wants an ADDITIONAL $300 (and of course they offer no trade in program) plus $12 a month for the service. Meanwhile, my cable company will rent me their HD DVR for $12 a month with no purchase necessary.
I’m torn. On the one hand, the hashmarks and the 8 second instant replay buttons are awesome, and Tivo’s interaction is great. But do I want to get burned by Tivo AGAIN? The jury is still out on that question.
Mine has yet to skip anything but will randomly give season passes to shows I’ve aked it to only record once. This is particularly true of the NFL Network for some reason.
BTW, a few questions for the experts…I have the DirecTV dvr. Can it record more than two shows at once? Mine won’t and it will only record a second one if you’re watching one of the shows it’s recording. Useless…. Also, if you have DirecTV can you get TiVo or another DVR or is their brand the only kind available? I’m still new to this whole dvr thing.
If I watch another show while recording another, the show I’m recording will have red lines streaming across the screen. This also happens if I rewind a show. The problem is that it happens arbitrarily and with no consistency, so I feel like I’m being held hostage.
its been f***ing up all my showtime shows- i end up having to wait to see it on demand
My DVR/LP is great – but I find it does get cranky if I do not re-boot at least once a month. This means unplugging the darn thing and then plugging back in after about a minute or so. it is just like re-botting your computer, although there is that scary time right before the re-boot when you are scared that all the shows you taped are gone 4eva. I alo try to turn the cble box/DVR off as often as possible – it still records, but seems to help with the weirdness.
THe weirdest thing my DVR/LP ever did was “forget” to record “Top Chef”, but it was OK, since it is on about a million times in re-runs anyways. I heart you, DVR!
I’ve never had a Tivo problem (knock-on-wood!) but I had a VCR problem once. Way, way, way back in the day I was in love with 7th Heaven (I was a 16 year old girl — I promise I’ve grown), and I was going to miss the episode where Annie gives birth to the twins. So I set the good old VCR. Instead of taping WB, it tapes UPN, which happened to be showing the Dilbert cartoon. Devastating!
I too had a DirectTV Tivo for a few years. Then it died. It was one of the saddest days of my life. DirectTV replaced it with one of their own. Since then I have had 3 of their kind. They suck! To top it all off, everytime they send you a new DVR, the extend your contract. Stay away from DirectTV!!!!
The machines are taking over. The Cylon robots on Battlestar Galactica had their “safety lock” released and know they have free will. They’re pissed about being controlled by humans. Your DVR/Tivo saw this and they’re beginning to fight back.
Apparently, it’s a known problem with the new DVR machines from Time Warner Cable. I’m told you can go through 4 boxes that have this problem, but that once you get a box that isn’t glitchy this way, you can then count on it to be a good reliable box . . . . For what that’s worth.
The only major problem my Tivo has ever had was last year when it refused to record Reaper. For some reason, it just would not record it even after I called the tech support people 4 separate times. None of them could figure out why it wouldn’t record. I guess my Tivo just doesn’t want to record a show about the devil yet it will record Desperate Housewives and Gossip Girl just fine!! Go figure, oh well, I can always watch the episodes online if I really need to!! Other than that, my Tivo is great and I love the thing!!
MY DVR is GAY.
It will find any storyline with boy on boy action and records it. It has recorded foreign films with boy on boy action for no reason that I can think of except maybe it has a thing for gay men with accents. All I can assume is that my DVR is 1. making assumption, that I am a gay man, based on my DVRing of Project Runway and America’s Next Top Model along with WWE or 2. It’s just GAY. I make no judgements… I have a gay dvr and i’m proud of it.
I don’t have a DVR but I think you’ll appreciate this weird TV problem I have. When I tune in to Dancing With the Stars on my living room TV, it is broadcast in Spanish. The show’s closed captions are in English and all the other channels I receive at that time are in English, but Tom, Samantha & everyone else is dubbed in Spanish! The ABC channel broadcasts in English at all other times. Weird, right? Don’t worry, I don’t miss out on all of the talking on DWTS, though, because I can watch the program in English on my bedroom TV!
I went away for the weekend, trusting my PVR (is that a Canadian term? It’s the same thing as a DVR though, I think) to record BSG on Friday night for me. And it did…but then it didn’t stop. When I came home, my entire PVR was filled, including over 1200 minutes of programming from The Space Network (where BSG airs here). My old, unwatched movies and TV shows were being systematically deleted to make room for this monster of a recording, that I couldn’t make stop until I deleted the “in progress” recoring.
I lost several movies I had been hoping to see, which isn’t tragic because you can always rent or hope that the movie channels repeat it. But I also lost two unwatched episodes of Friday Night Lights!
(This is especially tragic because Canadians can’t use Hulu or watch any episodes that are broadcast online by the major networks)
If you have a misbehaving TiVo, including a DIRECTV TiVo, you really need to visit the tivo GODS at weaknees.com.
My DVR will record every rerun of certain shows even though we set it to record only new episodes. How many times does it think I want to see the same episode of America’s Best Dance Crew that my 12 year old recorded? But what I hate the most is that if a show runs over its sheduled airtime than you just lose the end of the show. When I first got my DVR I would never see the beginning of ER since it starts a minute or two early and I always lost the last minute or two of Lost as well. With all the technology in the world something as simply as recordig my favorite shows has to be this hard? Oh, and how about the fact that if the cable company has to replace your DVR you lose all your recorded shows. Seriously, isn’t that stuff in a server somewhere??????
Sorry for the spelling errors in my previous posting. I’m at work and trying to be quick!! ha ha. Happy Friday everyone!!!
My wife had a similar problem to your Samantha Who? issue last night. She went to watch her recording of Cold Case, and it was black. And wouldn’t let her delete it. Which turned out to be a good thing. I told her this morning that sometimes the DVR just needs to be turned off and then turned back on again, and the show will work. Cold Case was there, like nothing had ever happened.
DVRs are like teenage children.
Sarah, see my earlier comment. Clearly your PVR (a Cylon clone of a DVR perhaps?)is taking over and is communicating with the Cylons!