Friday, October 05, 2007
Calling all DVR and Tivo users
Neilson is doing a report on DVRs and Tivos for his Internet Television class. He is interested in hearing from people about their experiences with this technology. How did it change your viewing habits (and your life)? Are you happy with it? Is there anything you wish it would do that it does not? If you have Tivo, do you think it is better/worse/different from a DVR and visa versa? Anything else? So if you have some time and thoughts on this matter, please respond in comments.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
We have the DVR service from Comcast. I LOVE it! It's a lesser service than TIVO -- it doesn't automatically find all instances of a show -- you have to explicitly find and decide to record things -- and it has limited storage, but it is a big step up from no DVR at all.
Features I like:
1) Impulse recording is brain dead easy. Great for old movies you didn't know were playing, sports events, etc.
2) It's very easy to record sports shows or special shows in their entirety -- in other words you just pick the show, not the time.
3) Pause, Rewind and fast forward for live shows is very handy -- you can pause and take a phone call, and then resume watching
4) Setting number of scheduled recordings to keep live (e.g. 3 sesame street for anders; 3 Ellen DeG for me
5) Options to record NEW shows onlt or ALL shows is nice.
6) It's cheap (free for the first year, anyway, because I have their premium cable and internet package).
Things I don't like:
1) Storage is limited (on my free package).I don't like weeding to make room.
2) Special shows or sports shows that run into overtime will cut off unless you elect to record the following show as insurance.
3) I'd like a way to archive things I want to keep for a long tome/forever without using up active recording space.
Finally, it has changed my life -- there is always something I want to watch in the hopper, and I get to see shows I might miss otherwise (e.g. Dirty Sexy Money at Kate's recommendation) even though I 1) might not be home in time or 2) fall asleep too early.
Some bad things: I read less; there eventually may be a surfeit backlash associated with having TOO much to watch (we have on-demand too, which means that a lot of HBO, SHOWTIME, ENCORE, and many other shows are always available too;) so far this hasn't kicked in.
I have been thinking of how I can put my love for my DVR in words.
It has changed the way I watch mainly by allowing me to watch more shows, especially since I have been in school.
I have never used a tivo so I can't really compare the two all that accurately.
Things I love
-my DVR remembers from season to season what show I watched, I didn't have to tell it to start recording Heroes again.
-I can record only new shows or all the shows
-I really enjoy the pause feature
-I like being able to record two shows at a time, if I could add a 3rd recording at the same time i would
-i can record a yoga show i like that is only on at 5AM
-I can fast forward through parts of a show I don't care about.
Things I don't likeas much
-sometimes i run out of space
-i once had a dvr break and that was horrible
-i would like to be able to record 2 shows and watch a 3rd.
I don't have all that interesting things to add, I just love it.
I echo Trish and Molly- DVR has changed my life, and for the better.
I wish I had a bigger harddrive with my system, I have many movies with subtitles that have been sitting on my system for months that I never get around to watching (you really have to pay attention if you have to read!) I hate having to delete stuff I haven't watched or might like to watch a few times. An archive feature would be great. The time warner DVR box is slow too- if you surf too fast, the box has to reboot. I have used Tivo at other peoples houses, it is faster, and the interface is better. But I would not be willing to pay more for it.
Other things I like- Pause!!! Rewind!!! I love that you can pause a show (often something I wouldn't bother to record, like the zillionth episode of Law & Order), go do something, then speed through the commercials when you get back.
Post a Comment