[mythtv-users] NEW - BIG PROBLEM! Watching LiveTV is very slow !!!!!

Bruce Markey bjm at lvcm.com
Wed Dec 15 01:04:15 UTC 2004


Ryan A. Carris wrote:
> On Thu, 9 Dec 2004 10:10:41 -0800, Scott Alfter
> <mythtv at salfter.dyndns.org> wrote:
> 
>>Why are you still watching live TV?  The whole idea behind a PVR (whether
>>it's MythTV, TiVo, or something else) is that you let it record stuff and
>>watch it at your convenience.  You don't have to be a slave to the network
>>scheduling goons anymore.
> 
> 
> I watch sports and news live;

I always record sports and news. There are no better examples
of the benefits of recording with a DVR where you can watch
a recording in progress and simply delete when you are done.

>  everything else is recorded.  It just
> doesn't make sense to record the morning news, when I only watch 10
> minutes of it before going to work.

It doesn't make sense to be stuck in the ringbuffer and limited
by the time you get around to starting the session. If you record
a news show that start before you wake up, you can see the top
stories and fast forward to the stories that interest you without
having to wait for them to be broadcast. This is a much better
use of your 10 minutes.

>   And I really hate watching sports
> delayed.  But, being able to pause and rewind is a feature I wouldn't
> give up, no matter what or when I'm watching.

Even if you wanted to watch near real time, whatever that means
or if it really mattered, you're still better off watching the
recorded file in progress than relying on the ringbuffer. If
you exit or change channels or the frontend hangs or you want to
look at your schedule or mark a show to record that you saw in a
promo or anything, you lose the recorded buffer. Plus you have no
option to watch it later or replay highlights the next day. With
a recording you can come and go as you please. I despise the idea
of being stuck in a ringbuffer for three hours. I deliberately
watch sports at least 20 minutes behind so I can skip commercials,
timeouts, dead ball, whatever. I don't have to waste as much of
my time as they have to waste during the game. I can watch all
of Tiger Woods' shots in less than a quarter of the time they
take to broadcast a round of golf.

> Now, can we get off this common reply.  This must have been discussed
> to death in a thread last month.

And the month before and last year and so on. Your opinion is not
the last word on the subject but a common mis-conception many
people have early in the DVR learning curve. You would not want
to record daily news and every sports event with a VCR because
you would need to load a blank tape and set a timer and wait
until the broadcast is over before rewinding the tape and watching
from the beginning. None if these are an issue with a DVR. You
mark something to record, watch it, or not, at your convenience
and delete it. Most people want to hang on to their old habits and
believe they are supposed to channel surf and watch things while
they are being broadcast and only a hand full of shows 'merit'
being recorded. For most people there are a series of revelation
along the way before they realize that they can record anything
they want to see and always have a good selection of things to
watch and have all the benefit of the recorded file. If they do
go channel surfing in the disposable buffer and find something
worth watching to the end, record that too.

News and sports are not examples of things you have to watch in the
A/V test mode temporary buffer (live TV) but are more like the best
examples of how you can get to most out of your TV time by taking
advantage of DVR capabilities.

--  bjm



More information about the mythtv-users mailing list