Does DVR Capability Spoil the Experience?

[mwalls]

I think David and Big Silent Fan and some others have captured what I was getting at. Sure, for some people with their schedules, or the particular time a show is aired, a DVR may be the only option. But, having something recorded that you can rewind if you miss something, or hit pause to go to the kitchen, or stop and come back to later, in my humble opinion diminishes the "immediacy" or the excitement of being in front of the TV at a certain time for 90 minutes or miss it.

When I was a kid, just like many others here, you saw it when aired or you may not see it again for a long time. You rearranged your schedule. There was anticipation for 8:00 when the movie was to come on, or in the case of the days of the classic Horror Hosts, late night Saturday night. Miss it and that's that.

In my original post I said what got me really thinking about this was the viewing of Sudden Fear. Honestly, I DVRed it at the same time I watched it. But I got more excitement watching it "live" and having to rush to the kitchen and back with my drink so as to not miss too much. If I had not sat and watched it while it was on, but rather waited until later to watch the DVR recording, there is an even chance that I still would not have seen it. I would be off planning to record another movie coming on soon. Typically, if I don't watch something in my DVR queue quickly I might as well delete it as it will never be watched.

And in 30 minutes James Cagney's Taxi comes on TCM. I have never seen it. Gotta hurry and get a couple things done so I can be all ready to sit down in front of the TV at 6:45 and watch.

Matthew

[Donald Binks]

I suppose this "immediacy" thing goes for the days of cinema too. One would await the coming of a certain picture eagerly. In the "olden days" it would go to the big downtown cinemas first. If it was a prestige picture one would make some effort to go and see it in the picture palaces, but sometimes one had to be quick as it would only play for a week or so. If it was missed, one would have to await its release in the suburban houses and then, there may be some travelling involved if it was not going to play at the local house.

The eager anticipation was there, as was the focus on going somewhere so as not to miss out.

[Danny Burk]

"Time Shifting," which is how all video recording was once described has had an effect on us all. When we watched live programing, our life was scheduled to conform and if we went to the theatre, it was the same thing. The same for watching actual film or home movies...you watched from beginning to end.

I won't watch in bits and pieces - that *does* spoil it for me. I watch only when I have enough time to watch the whole movie in one sitting - not often enough, mind you - I'll make an exception for something like NAPOLEON because I don't have time to watch a 5-1/2 hour film at one time. Otherwise, it's late at night, no distractions, watching in the dark as movies were meant to be seen.

[wich2]

I wish we could go back to

A common wish. And an impossible one.

[Big Silent Fan]

And in 30 minutes James Cagney's Taxi comes on TCM. I have never seen it. Gotta hurry and get a couple things done so I can be all ready to sit down in front of the TV at 6:45 and watch.

Matthew

That's the Spirit! It's fine for watching the programs on TCM and PBS but I really dislike commercials.

For typical programs we use our DVR but even the commercial skip and fast forwarding can be a nuisance.

For favorite programs, I record them to my DVD recorder's hard drive. It's delay watching perhaps but after a few minutes to remove the commercials, my wife and I can watch an hour long program in about 42 minutes without any interruption. I can erase after watching or save episodes on DVD for the future. I've done that with the entire "Mad Men" series and others. We are anxiously awaiting the return of "The Americans" on FX. We've never had to watch any of the first four seasons with commercials because I've been doing this from the beginning. The series has two more seasons to go. http://tvline.com/2016/05/25/the-americ ... finale-fx/" target="_blank" target="_blank
Today, we can rent these from Netflix, but then they wouldn't be current episodes.

[Harlowgold]

I remember always being irritated when movie book authors would comment with a sniff and look down on watching movies on television, as if most of the world had a choice of watching a major 1948 film (to say nothing of an obscurity!) in a revival theater!! Other charmers are those who lambast the quality of orphaned, public domain prints online or on dirt cheap dvds as if there were other possible options to see these films. I'm happy to see a movie I'm interested in any way I can - online, on dvd, heck even with those obnoxious commercials on some of those over-the-air TCM wannabes - and if a much better option shows up later, great!!

Having been raised in a rural southern area with three channels, all of which signed off at 2 am, in the 1970's, I'm still not over the ability to watch a wide variety of classic films - and to be able to do any hour that I choose, wow!!