Oct
2009
DVRs Need Time Update Features
If this rant sounds familiar, it’s because it is.
Last December I ranted about how Sunday football games were constantly throwing CBS’ Sunday night programming into chaos. At that time I was complaining about a 32 minute delay to the evening’s programs, but that was nothing compared to tonight’s whopping 71 minute delay. Thank you New York Jets and Buffalo Bills for throwing the game into overtime and then changing possession 500 times!
So,CBS has opted to play 60 Minutes in its entirety, meaning that Amazing Race, the show I’m waiting on, will not start until 8:11 my time. Well, my TiVo still shows it as airing from 7 – 8, and that is when it will record, leaving me without one second of the show.
Well, I’m lucky in that I also get West coast channels, so I can still catch the show at its specified time, but since I wrote the original rant, I have learned of something that exists that would fix all of this. Apparently there are signals that channels can send out in some countries and tell the DVRs that a show is running late and it will shift the schedule on your DVR for you automatically. So say a show is starting 5 minutes late, the network sends out a signal and your DVR will change the settings from 7 – 8 to 7:05 – 8:05.
Why don’t we have this here? I can’t imagine it is the complicated to do, and the technology already exists, so why isn’t it here? Instead, people that watch any show on Sunday night on CBS are totally hosed if they set their DVRs and left their houses for the evening. DVRs are now accounting for approximately 39 percent of all television viewing, so shouldn’t a bit more concern be given to making sure they record at the right time?
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Luis | October 21st, 2009 at 7:00 am #
Frankly, I'm surprised that they have this at all. It is my impression that the studios and networks despise DVRs, as they allow viewers not only to skim past commercials (at least on some models), but they also wreak havoc on the careful plotting by networks to schedule against each other. But mostly, giving assistance to people who use DVRs to record content would imply their express consent to record shows–something which I thought they were diametrically opposed to, despite the actual legal status of such an act.
Sean P. Aune | October 21st, 2009 at 3:10 pm #
Luis – You know, I hadn't thought about this, but you're right on every aspect you mentioned. That may be why we are seeing this in other countries such as the UK and not in the USA. As the UK is almost all BBC, what do they care, but here the networks fight tooth and nail … lots of food for thought here.