<div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div class="im"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
I can't believe all the anti-live-tv sentiment here. There are plenty of<br>
reasons to watch live tv where scheduled recordings don't make much sense:<br>
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1. background noise: I tune in to CNN while I work and just leave it on<br>
most of the day with the volume low.<br>
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I've never understood playing a TV show with talking and pictures as "background noise." If I hear talking, I tend to listen to it. I can't imagine much TV is actually worth "listening to" without the pictures--unless maybe you actually put on the "audio described" track so they tell you what's happening. I find that music is much better background noise for me--since it's not distracting/doesn't pull me in trying to follow some discussion, but is something to listen to.<br>
</blockquote><div><br></div><div>I say background 'noise' but typically the volume is barely above the ambient noise level of my room... just loud enough to remind me its on so I look to it periodically. CNN, and the other news channels, are very good about letting you know what's being discussed in a glance.</div>
<div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div class="im">
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
2. severe weather: If I notice things are looking particularly bad, I tune<br>
in to one of the local networks to see if they are saying anything about<br>
it... may need to scan a few channels to find one that didn't just finish<br>
talking about it.<br>
<br>
3. breaking news: If I hear about something major going on, I flip through<br>
the major networks/news channels to see if anyone is reporting it.<br>
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For breaking news/weather alerts, I'll actually schedule recordings on a bunch of channels, then start watching one and if they're not talking about the thing I'm interesting in hearing about, I'll use MENU to go to Jump to Program and switch to one of the other programs. I'll do this for each of the recordings I started, then use JUMPPREV (no default binding) or PREVCHAN (H) to flip through all of them--and I can jump backwards or forwards in them to find the spots where they /do/ talk about the important stuff... It's basically channel surfing evolved--channel surfing but with the benefit that MythTV keeps recording the shows when I'm "surfed away" so I don't have to worry about missing the important stuff because I'm on some other channel when they talk about it...</blockquote>
<div><br></div><div>I have 100+ channels and 3 tuners and a lot of recordings scheduled for thing I know I want... I can't dedicate tuners to recording a channel around the clock just in case I want to catch an unscheduled news/weather event.</div>
<div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"> 4. a change of pace: I have a couple of dozen shows I record... but</blockquote><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div class="im"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
sometimes I want something different/new so I channel hop, watching a few<br>
minutes of this or that until I find something that keeps my interest.<br>
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When I'm looking for a change of pace, I look at the guide and see if there's anything interesting. Since browsing everything means I'm unlikely to find anything, I'll often browse a list of everything on a given channel ( Manage Recordings|Schedule Recordings|Search Lists|Channels ) that tends to air things I'd like (or one of the independents that typically pick up cable shows I haven't seen once they go into syndication). Sometimes I'll use Manage Recordings|Schedule Recordings|Search Lists|New Titles to see what new shows (premieres, movies, series, specials) are coming up (this is how I found, "Solar Flares: Are You at Risk?"). Sometimes I'll look at Manage Recordings|Schedule Recordings|Search Lists|Movies to find movies that are airing that I never got a chance to see.</blockquote>
<div><br></div><div>I have a bunch of seldom watched recordings that I fall on most of the time... but sometimes nothing in that list suits my mood so I just burn an hour switching between a few different channels. Sometimes I find something I like and set it to record, most of the time I just wish I had that time back. But either way, even with hundreds of hours of recordings and movies, sometimes nothing strikes a fancy and I resort to good ole channel surfing.</div>
<div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div class="im">
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
5. KIDS!! I don't know about your family, but my kids will watch just<br>
about anything that airs on Disney and Nick... if I told them that live tv<br>
wasn't an option, they'd give me a list a mile long of shows they want<br>
recorded... I'd have two tuners running around the clock recording stuff<br>
for the couple of hours /week they actually watch tv. Far better to just<br>
let them watch what is on, they don't complain, and I don't burn disk space<br>
needlessly. I just record a couple of their favorites so they always have<br>
something... just in case.<br>
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A friend of mine with kids sets up recording schedules for the kids' shows with appropriate priority and sets a maximum number of episodes to keep and "Record new and delete old". He'll then move the ones they want to keep watching over and over into Video Library.</blockquote>
<div><br></div><div>I do exactly this with several shows... always keeping 3 or 4 episodes of their favorites. But they often prefer just to watch whatever is on their favorite channels... and I like that they can as then I don't have a bunch of recordings that will never get watched cluttering up my drives. </div>
<div><br></div><div>One other example of when live tv is appropriate... when you have a guest who doesn't know anything about your system and you don't have time to teach them. For example a babysitter on date night. I can show them how to open "Watch TV" and how to change channels and they are good to go. Far easier than asking them what shows I should schedule and how to watch them.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Anyway... 95% of the time I am watching recordings (excluding leaving the news on all day) but live TV does have a purpose. Mythtv is not new to our household... I've been running since 0.12 (I think)... but we have always used live TV to some extent... not often, but enough that I feel it is a critical feature.</div>
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