Brian Montopoli of CBS news recently set his TiVo to record
60 Minutes, but unfortunately for him, coverage of the Masters golf tournament ran on for an extra 45 minutes,
which meant he only got to watch about a quarter of the program he had scheduled to record before it cut off.This is one of the problems arising regularly from a schedule-based PVR system; if the schedule changes or is hampered because of a live event, like sport, there's not too much your TiVo can do about it, unless you have a dual-tuner unit and can record two separate programs at once (in which case, you can record the show you want and the show after it - thereby extending your potential recording time and making sure you don't miss an essential component of the one you want).
Or, better still, if you live in the U.K., get yourself Sky Plus - it takes schedule changes into account automatically, starts recording when your scheduled show begins, and keeps recording until it's finished.
1. I am getting pretty tired of reporters , journalists or people who just don't know making claims such as in this article snippet. Sports run overs, Presidential announcements and other unscheduled changes would not be caught by the alternative recording method (VCR) either. What you can do when there is a possible conflict is pad the recording a few minutes or record the next program also (you don't need a dual tuner unit in order to record consecutive shows on the same channel). Aren't journalists supposed to check their facts? I guess it's more important to get your article posted first rather than posted correctly. I feel if your going to write an article with a slightly negative connotation (as this one has "This is one of the problems arising regularly from a schedule-based PVR system;") you should have a good understanding of how the product actually performs. The software and algorithms used in the TiVo brand DVR/PVR are very complex and cannot be easily understood by reading a one or two prargraph description of the product. You need to actually use it for a week or two to understand how useful it is and how much it will change the way you watch TV.
Posted at 10:43AM on Apr 12th 2006 by Charles Gettel