[mythtv-users] Will I be able to watch tv and record another channel with Directv

[Bruce Markey]

Boyd II, Willy wrote:
...
> Like someone said before me when this last came up, thank you so much
> for enlightening me on how I should be using my tv and PVR software. :-)

You're most certainly welcome. It takes some people a long
time to break old habits and realize what they can actually
do. Even though I wasn't addressing you or constraining what
you do in any way, I'm glad I could help =).
 
> Seriously, I don't see myself using only scheduled recordings.  Unless I
> magically
> find more time to look at future programming, there's only a few things I
> know in
> advance I wanna record.

How do you know which shows you like to watch now? And why
would you think that when you happen to turn on the TV there
will be something on that you want to see? If you do 'find'
something while surfing, you can mark it to record on an on-
going basis. Then, in the future, you can watch an episode
whenever you'd like rather than waiting for it to come on.

> And if I see something in the EPG interesting,
> usually
> it still not interesting enough for me to wanna keep if after I watch it.

Well, yeah, delete it after you've watched it. Two keystrokes
on exit. You don't have to keep things just because you've
marked then for record. The problem with the ring buffer is
that you loose it if you change channels or go back to a menu,
or get called away for longer than the max time of the buffer.
If you record, you don't have to worry about any of these things.
When you do finish, delete. There's no long term committment ;-).
 
> Most of the time I sit down in the front of the tv just because I have some
> free time and wanna watch tv.

Right, exactly. So why would one want to spend that time
choosing between Oprah, Judge Judy, or Jerry Springer when
they could spend that time watching their favorite shows?

I normally have 30-60 hours of shows I know I like to see
recorded and waiting. This list of choices is always more
compelling than "what's on" for two reasons. First, if there
is something on that's more interesting than the stuff that
I record, I add a rule to record that title also. And, second,
if I'm recording a title that I don't really care about and
never end up watching, I remove the rule to record it.
Therefore, everything that I have recorded should be more
interesting to me than anything that is on now that isn't
being recorded.

>  Not because I spent an hour or two over the
> past week building up things for myself to watch.

Hum, that seems backwards. How much time do you spend in a
week channel surfing hoping to find something "good" on?
I chose Nova once and Survivor once and Joe Schmo once...
(no, wait, three times, Spike TV kept changing title) and
got dozens of hours of shows I know I want to see. I've spent
no time searching for them and never missed an episode because
I was busy or I forgot.

If I see a promo, or a review or mention of something that 
might be mildly interesting, I save and exit (note: can't do
this in the ring buffer :) go add a record rule then go back
to what I was watching. I don't need to remember what night,
or channel, or time, or even what it was about. It shows up
on my recorded list and I start watching. If it sucks, I
delete it and the record rule. If I like it, more episodes
will get recorded. 

I like Junkyard Wars. I know from the logos that it is on TLC
but I don't remember what channel number that is 'cuase I don't
need to know. I know it is repeated a couple times per week
but for the life of me, I couldn't tell you what day it's 
supposed to be on. All I know is that they show up in my
recorded list, I watch them (delete them at the end =) and I
never miss an episode.

I normally have 70-80 titles on the Priorities page. Many of
these are only interesting sometimes and I delete more than
half the episodes without watching them. I record Newsnight
with Aaron Brown, SportsCenter, and Screen Savers every day
and spend no more than 5-15 minutes fast forwarding through
each of these (I only spent a few minutes several months ago
scheduling these shows).

I never watch "Live TV".

> True, I will sometimes like to be time-shifted.  In this case, I'll just
> change to the channel, then pause it, and go to the bathroom or make a
> sandwich or whatever I wanted to do.  Come back and I can un-pause it, and
> skip through commercials when they come up.  Afterall, that's really all the
> ringbuffer is:  a recording in progress (that gives you the freedom to
> change channels, and doesn't stick around when you're done).

And you know how hard it is to convince newbies that Live TV
really is recording. Let's go one level deeper. Because of
the way the frontend and backend need to communicate with each
other, the buffer is less efficient than playback of a file
on the filesystem. There is less CPU usage and less frame
timing jitter if you watch a file while it is being recorded
than if connect to the backend encoder for a live ringbuffer.

Watching a file in progress has at least these advantages over
the live buffer; less CPU, less jitter, you can exit to a menu
and return, you won't lose the time-shifted portion if you 
accidently change channels or if the frontend crashes, you can
watch it hours or days later if you are distracted. On the down
side, when you hit the end and the delete popup shows up, yes,
you have press the up arrow then enter to delete the file.

My point was (is, and will be) that I'd watched TV without a
DVR for decades. I know how that works. I've had several DVRs
in recent years. After a series of realizations, I now see that 
turning on the screen can be a completely different experience
than it use to be. Rushing to sit in front of the boob tube at
7:59 on Thrusday night to watch Survivor now seems like a very
silly thing to do. I now record lots of things I might like to
see and watch them whenever it's convenient for me. I don't
really care about what is being broadcast right now unless I
want to verify that the things I've chosen are actually being
recorded. Other than that, what's on now and what I choose to
watch now are two completely separate things.

--  bjm