I'm not really a "gadget person", but I just acquired a digital cable box with an integrated Digital Video Recorder (DVR) from my cable company, for less than I was paying for the digital converter by itself, and I have to say that it is nothing short of awesome (yes, I am easy to please this weekend!).
While I do have a programmable VCR, I never use that feature because it is very touchy and less than reliable.
This DVR uses the online cable guide and one can choose a program, press one button and the DVR will ask you if you only want that show or the entire series. It can record multiple shows simultaneously and you can change channels while it is recording a show. You can even pause a "live" program and resume it after the bathroom break.
When accessing a recorded show, you can see a list of shows saved, right along with the date, time and synopsis of whatever you are looking at. You can continue to save the show, commit it to video tape or erase it. It can hold a total of 40 hours of programming.
I was initially afraid that this would make me into a couch potato, but instead, it has been liberating. I can record any show, and watch it at my leisure instead of being tied to the networks programming schedule.
I am somewhat surprised that the networks have not tried to kill this technology since it allows one to skip right over commercials.
No more missing Enterprise or those late night episodes of Stargate. :-)
Here's a question: If you tell it to record, frex, _The Simpsons_ (since _Futurama_ is no longer on) and the whole show starts 20 minutes late because some blasted football game on the same station runs overtime yet again (or you want to record a show during the week but the President makes a speech or something like that similarly delays the start of the program you want to record), does it sense that and record the show when it actually comes on, or does it record the scheduled time period and thus you get the last 20 minutes of whatever is on before and the first 10 minutes of the show you want? Obviously, *that's* a feature I want someone to build into a VCR or other record-off-the-air device . . .
-- Ronn! :)
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