[mythtv-users] To "Live TV" or not to "Live TV" within myth...

[Matt S.]

On Fri, Dec 19, 2008 at 7:14 PM, Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:
> On Friday 19 December 2008 16:54:03 Matt S. wrote:
> em 2 years
>
>>
>> What about super bowl parties?  Do you want to explain to your friends
>> they should wait two hours so it can automatically skip some
>> commercials by the time you get to the end?  Lots of folks actually
>> want to watch those commercials too.
>
> Anything faster than a Commodore 64 can have the commercials flagged just
> minutes after the game ends, and watchable flagged portions just minutes
> after it begins.
>

Right - but that's not what I was saying...

In order to watch an entire football game without commercials, about
the soonest you can start after the recording begins is sometime in
the third quater because in a 3.5 to 4 hour football game, there is
only 60 minutes of play.  That means that only ~25% of the entire time
is watchable, the rest is TV timeouts, commercials, and half-time.
Therefore, if you start watching it, and you start doing real-time
commercial flagging, you're likely to catch up to to real-time in the
recording if you don't wait at least 2.5 hours from kick-off.

Point being - if I'm hosting a super bowl party (just as a single
example), or any football game, and I invite friends over to watch -
I'm going to watch it live, because that's what everyone expects.  No
one is going to want to start watching it 2.5 hours after it starts
just because we could miss all the commercials by the time the game
actually ends.  I actually think some guest might be looking for blood
to know that what they're watching is not live.



Thanks!
Matt

(side note: personally I usually watch most sports recordings once
they're 50% recorded at least because it's a good idea when you're
personally watching it + time stretch is nice for things like baseball
- just doesn't apply as well when you've got guests who come over to
watch the game).