Sunday, April 09, 2006

My one true love: DVR

As I think is patently obvious, I love watching TV. So I absolutely adore my DVR. For those not familiar with the term, that stands for Digital Video Recorder. It's like Tivo, but it's available through Time Warner Cable, so it's part of my cable box.

Earlier today I had some friends over, and of course we hunkered down in front of the tube. Now, I've had DVR for about a year now, so it's not exactly a novelty. But such is the irrepressible spirit of the DVR: I will never get over the joy of what it offers. So with my friends as a captive audience, I couldn't resist demonstrating the beauty of my DVR for the umpteenth time. As I did so, one of them said, "Wow, you must spend a lot of time planning your TV watching." If you're familiar with DVR, then you know that this comment totally misses the point. One of the major advantages of having DVR is that it greatly cuts down on effort while simultaneously increasing your TV watching returns.

I honestly don't know how I survived without DVR. Thank goodness those days are over. No more Sophie's choices between two simultaneous shows (for example, that one horrible season when "The West Wing" and "The OC" were on at the same time). No more video tape labels with scribbles and cross-outs that I can't understand even though I'm the one who wrote them. No more rushing through dinner prep to get the food ready in time for prime time. No more planning bathroom trips and assorted chores around commercials breaks. Those of you with DVR or Tivo — which I'm thinking is most of you in this day and age — know what I'm talking about.

In the days before I got DVR, someone was singing the praises of his, and he said something that I'll never forget: "You plan your schedule around TV shows? Don't worry, it's nothing to be ashamed of. I did it too. Then I got DVR."

Or as a friend artfully described it today as he watched me gleefully refer to my list of upcoming recordings, "It's like an infomercial: Set it and forget it."

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