Network TV Timing: Not Getting All Your Shows Recorded?

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2006/04/10/publiceye/entry1486286.shtml' target='_blank'>http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2006/04/10/publiceye/entry1486286.shtml</a><br /><br /></div><i>"If you, like me, watch many of your programs via a TiVo or other Digital Video Recorder (DVR) device, you've been continually stymied in your efforts to catch "60 Minutes." Yesterday, for example, coverage of the Masters golf tournament went until about 7:45 here in New York, which meant that I only got to watch about a quarter of the program before it cut off. "60 Minutes," in fact, might be the most TiVo unfriendly program on the network schedule, because it often follows live sporting events, which don't have set end times. During football season, for example, it's a virtual guarantee that the show won't start at its scheduled time, which means TiVo users are often out of luck. "</i><br /><br />I often have exactly the same problems with my Media Center 2005 machine, and quite often it's on Spike TV. Even though I have the MCE recording defaults set to record four minutes before and four minutes after a show (the maximum), I quite often miss parts of my shows. For instance, I was recording an Ultimate Fighting event on Spike TV and immediately after it was the first episode of The Ultimate Fighter. The first show ran long, and MCE stopped recording the second show about three minutes from the end, so I never got to see who won the fight until I recorded the same episode a few days later. I know that the Tivo's and MCE's of the world are slaves to the data they get, but there has to be a technological way of solving this problem.

[Damion Chaplin]

Same old story if you ask me. Remember VCRs? Things were a lot harder before there was any kind of network synchronization. My strategy was to choose the channel I recorded off of the most (undoubtedly the one playing Star Trek at the time) and synchronized my VCR clock to that channel's "time". That was back when channels started things on the hour (according to their clock) and didn't start the next show while the credits from the last show are still running (hint hint NBC). So yes, every once in a while, the crucial last 2 minutes of Law &amp; Order or the final joke on South Park are cut off, but I'd never go back to manually programming the recorder...

What I don't understand is why networks and local channels don't sync their time with an atomic server. Wouldn't it be a whole lot easier if everyone was on the same time? The thing is there will still be networks that start their shows early. NBC, to use the same example, knows that during the last minute of an hour (or half hour) is when people channel surf the most, so if they can start their show one minute earlier, they may just catch the surfers who are just looking for something other than a commercial to watch... So even if we all synchronized our clocks, there will still be cheaters.

Your best bet is to download the episode in its entirety from the internet - something that's becoming more and more common. (See my upcoming post on Disney/ABC's new venture :wink: ).

[jeffd]

damion, I don't see how that has any impact on shows that start off-time due to unforseen events. Frankly I don't see this being fixed untill cable/tv companies actually impliment start and stop markers for its shows that can be sensed by DVRs.

Yea..not anytime soon. ;)

[Damion Chaplin]

damion, I don't see how that has any impact on shows that start off-time due to unforseen events.

Wait, what? It's supposed to be relevant? :wink:

I guess my point was that whether you program your VCR manually, or trust that your DVR 'knows' when the show starts and ends, you're still going to get screwed when 'unforseen' events occur, e.g. a ball game going into OT. So, given that, I'm just happy not to have to schedule it manually.

Having online access to the episode (or ball game) in question is still, I think, the best solution. Then it doesn't matter when it airs.

My ramble on the atomic clock thing was just a rant only marginally related to the topic...