Saturday, March 22, 2014

Things I've Noticed: My PVR is becoming more selective

I've had a PVR for the last few years and overall I'd definitely say it is worth it.  Not since VCR technology became popular has a piece of technology so dramatically changed how I watch television.

Before the VCR I watched what was on or I made my own fun - movies were seen at theatres or during special times of the year (my personal favourite childhood film - Star Wars, but in the original (to me) cut, with the station logo on the bottom right-hand corner and the commercials - why can't the new special edition of Star Wars smell like my Grandparent's living room carpet? - now that would be special!)

Once VCRs showed up, I could do two things:
1) As you could record stuff, you were no longer limited to watching things when they aired - also you could take late-night movies and watch them whenever!
2) You could watch things more than once a year.  Once I recorded Star Wars, I could watch it every weekend (which, in my own 9-year-old way, was probably my introduction to true fandom)

But now PVRs allow you to record one thing while watching another - also you can pause live TV and  can ask the machine to tape shows for you in series recordings - meaning you no longer have to know when your show is coming back, as the machine will tape it for you.

Unfortunately, leaving all this power up to the machine (or at least to my machine), means that sometimes it simply decides not to tape things for you - maybe it thinks these shows are not really worth your time or perhaps it believes you need to see the same repeat of Murdoch Mysteries again rather than watch that new show you've been waiting for - I'm sure a lot of you are thinking perhaps it's just a glitch, or maybe the schedule was off, but I'm pretty sure that the more I use this tool, the more it's starting to make suggestions, suggestions which will lead me to watching only PVR-approved materials in the not-to-distant future…

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