I’m in love with my DVR

Photo: apdk/Flickr

Please don’t tell me whether Jack Shephard blew up the island, or whether Jack Bauer lives to fight another day. I haven’t watched the season finales of Lost and 24 yet—they’re on my DVR.

I’m saving my two favorite shows for an evening when I can kick back and revel in them. I want to watch them at my convenience, not the network’s, so I’m not rushing in from work, dealing with a sick dog, or debating the merits of zoysia grass versus tall fescue with the landscaper.

Another reason I prefer to watch a recording is that I can fast-forward through each 2-hour program in about an hour and a half (sorry about that, advertisers, but I swear it doesn’t affect my decision about which toilet-bowl cleaner to buy). I also make ample use of pause and rewind (a godsend for deciphering Jack’s mumbled threats or simply replaying a scene to get a slow-mo look at the Smoke Monster).

Other things I love: It’s incredibly easy to use—in fact, it’s hands-down the most intuitive tech product I’ve encountered. Many folks say TiVo is even better than the Scientific Atlanta model I rent from my cable company, but I found it easier to go the rental route and get a recorder integrated with my set-top cable box.

It’s also brain-dead simple to record a whole season of a series (just choose “Record all first-run episodes on this channel” option), and I’m blown away by the ability to record two new programs while watching a previous recording. Plenty of other consumers evidently agree with me—about one-third of households in Nielsen’s People Meter Panel have a DVR, and the research firm says this device is “changing the TV landscape.”

I’d agree. I half-jokingly tell friends that the DVR has changed my life—I know that sounds pathetic, but my defense is that watching TV is part of my job covering TVs and services for Consumer Reports.

It’s not that I’m new to recording. I was quite expert at recording on a VCR, if I do say so myself, but even so, I was constantly juggling tapes, accidentally recording over something I hadn’t watched, or losing the last episode of a six-part series on Masterpiece Theater. And it killed me to settle for a low-quality standard-def VCR recording when the original was in glorious HD. The day I ditched all my old videotapes was a happy one.

True, I don’t relish forking over $10 a month to the cable company for the DVR service, but I consider it money well-spent. In fact, if I ever have to flee the house at 4 a.m., I’m going to grab the DVR as I head for the door. I’d take my plasma TV if I could, but I can’t quite get my arms around it.

I can’t say much about DVD recorders because I skipped right from the VCR to a DVR. DVD recorders offer a middle ground in convenience and quality, and the advantage there is that capacity is unlimited. With a hard drive, I occasionally have to purge some unwatched recordings to free up space for something else. Or when I’m nearing the limit, I’ll record a show in standard-def, because it takes up about one-third as much space as its high-def counterpart. There’s a way around that: I’m deciding whether to buy an add-on drive for my DVR or a DVD recorder for off-loading some of my archived programming, like the entire season of Monk.

Have you made the move to a DVR yet? Do you think you will? If not, why not? —Eileen McCooey

Comments

[Andrea]

Response to Al:
Yes, there are DVR's available to purchase just like you used to buy the VCR. Some of the top of the line DVR's with the latest technology are the ones at www.premiumnannycameras.com. Click on Stand Alone DVR's on the left menu. These are very reasonably priced in today's market! Good luck!

[RussInSanDiego]

In case you are contemplating the purchase of a TiVo HD in order to record analog cable service (the majority of cable subscribers still receive analog service), here's a word to the wise: DON'T DO IT!
Although TiVo continues to claim that the TiVo HD (aka Series 3) can tune and record analog cable signals, they have known for at least a year that the product is extremely unreliable in this feature -- and this is a feature that most owners want to use! There are extensive threads about this matter on TiVo's own website (see tinyurl.com/tivoanalog) and on the tivocommunity website (tinyurl.com/tivoanalog2). The company refuses to address the problem, leaving many of us wondering about their integrity.

[Karl]

@Tatum:

"As a PR and former advertising professional, I don't think I could ever bring myself to buy a DVR ... although it is always so tempting!"

You can always get a DVR to skip the content and watch the commercials again and again!

@Al:

"Are there any DVRs that do not require you to subscribe or pay?"

See the post below yours by m1k3g. If you use a PC-based "media centre" you have options to take advantage of the benefits of a DVR without the subscription fees. While they do take some technical abilities to set up your own (mainly following the many tutorials available online), there are certainly ones out there to buy, pre-made.

All my experience has been with MythTV systems (Canonical provides a version of their free OS pre-configured with it at www.mythbuntu.org, along with instructions on compatible hardware), so I don't know if the many "Windows Media Center" computers out there have subscription fees or not. In any case, the Windows-based pre-mades seem to lean to the more expensive end of what's required.

@everett

"The era of endless, unlimited, free copying as we all have done w/ analog VCRs IS done / gone / past!"

It's not quite gone / past, yet, but it is indeed getting to be pricier to stick with HDMI cables all-round (rather than going the component HD route). Same sort of thing happened with DVD to VCR recording; one can still do it freely, with a piece of hardware in between the components if picture fades are a problem.

[everett whitney]

TO: B. Good - " Cable Card w/ a TIVO recorder ..?"

Great that your local cable outfit apparently DOES choose to adequately support cable cards!

MOST will not !

Cable cards have long-since been found to be out-of-favor with the Vast Majority of local cable companies & are NOT supported at all !

In-the-end, after paying for each "service call" whenever that cable card mysteriously stops functioning / one looses his cable connection as a result, the final result IS the elimination of that device & installation of the captive Cable Company's Dual Tuner, Hard drive S.T.B..

everett

everett

[James]

I love DVR's...I just wish the service associated with them was more reliable. I lost the entire 2 hour season finale of "24" because my VERIZON FIOS DVR just decided randomly not to record it. It has done this numerous times to numerous customers. Their position is to just reboot it. My pposition is not to trust it.

[B. Good]

Note that the TivoHD can REPLACE your cable box completely by inserting a cable card (provided by your cable company). You can then record any 2 channels at once (even High Def) and even simultaneously watch something you had previously recorded. Really, if you can spare the expense of buying the box, try Tivo for a month. I'll be surprised if you go back to your cable company's DVR. (*I have NO relationship with Tivo, nor do I own their stock. Just a satisfied customer.)

[everett whitney]

TO: Al-20May-"Any that record w/o a fee?.."

Google / search "DRM" =a.k.a. Digital Rights Management or 'Do Not Copy' or the 'Digital Millennium Copyright Act' . . . .

Any of these explain about the embedded bits within the digital stream of many of our DTV broadcasts now, which ARE enforced by the HDMI cabling.

The $13 / monthly paid for TIVO 'HD' hard drive Recorders or that ~ ~ $12/monthly to our local cable companies is at least partially to pay for all the royalties due to the Studios & Performers !

The era of endless, unlimited, free copying as we all have done w/ analog VCRs IS done / gone / past!

everett

[Kiavash]

No plan to go a separate DVR with $10/m. Almost all shows are available online and the new PC's have video output (or some with HDMI) and can be connected to TV. Even better there are some free open source programs that make the experience exactly the same as a DVR. Do you have a semi-old PC at home? put Linux on it and try give boxee a try. You will be surprised how easy and cost effective it is.

[Al]

Are there any DVRs that do not require you to subscribe or pay? In other words, are there any DVRs that works like traditional VCRs? Thanks for any advice.

[m1k3g]

Not only made the move, years ago, but went the final step last year and built my own. Having a combination PC/DVR hooked up to a 50" HDTV is definitely the way to go. Not only does it automatically skip commercials, but if we don't like what's on live, or recorded TV, we can simply fire up Hulu or some other streaming website and find an infinite number of videos to watch. Broadcasters have long missed the boat when it comes to digital entertainment and I don't feel one bit sorry for them.

[E. Nowak]

We have a Tivo DVR that we bought and run via DirecTV. I love it! I can't imagine going without it. (Except: my husband's job is on the line and I'm dreading that day when we may need to cut expenses: Tivo and the Satellite are going to have to go to save money.)

Apart from never having to watch commercials, the convenience is amazing. I know that when I sit down, I have always got something to watch. I can pick and choose what and when I watch -- and I never have to miss a show. Also, I can make the machine search for specific people and it will record shows those people are on. (For example, I love Kathy Griffin, and it recorded Craig Kilborn's show last night because she was a guest). I can search program listings for up to 10 days. I find this particularly handy since I have HBO and I want to make sure I find all the movies I can to make that purchase worthwhile.

I do feel guilty about the huge energy drain that these machines have. They have to be "always on" so they are energy hogs. I wish they would make a machine that goes into a low energy mode like a computer does.

[Tatum]

As a PR and former advertising professional, I don't think I could ever bring myself to buy a DVR ... although it is always so tempting!

[Mike Wyman]

I started using a TIVO six years ago. Three years ago, when I signed up for an HD package with DirecTV, I went with DirecTV's DVR which, being digital, is far superior to the analog TIVO. Generally, the only time we watch live events is when we watch sports.

That said, I have seen the future of TV and it doesn't involve DVRs or cable companies or satellite TV companies. We have signed up for mlb.com's premium MLB.TV package. This allows us to watch any game ever played this year, whenever we want. For each game, we get a choice of whether we want to watch the home or away TV broadcast. Most of the broadcasts are in HD which, using the HDMI output on my notebook computer, I can watch in full screen on our 50" plasma.

The only downside is that I can't watch a "local" game until 45 minutes after the game is over. This is generally not a problem, as the local team's games are generally always available on regular TV.

Some day, all TV will be delivered this way.