Would you watch TV if you didn't have a DVR?

I think you're absolutely correct- approximately 41-43 minutes of actual show for a one hour television production. This leaves around 17-19 minutes for commercials.

 

This.

I usually time shift sports by a half our or more then skip the commercials and intermissions. I gave up on football a couple years ago. You can watch an entire football game in about a half hour.
Baseball could complete a game in under two hours but they sell more concessions and commercials by stretching the regular season to three hours, and playoffs to four hours. A four hour baseball game is ridiculous.

For regular tv, I don't even know when most shows are aired. I check the list to see what has been recorded then binge watch a couple episodes. DTV's Genie annoys because their 30 second button is about 40-45 seconds. A three minute commercial break equals 4.5 X their 30 second button which either shoots you 15 seconds into the show or stops short and leaves you in the middle of a commercial.

 

Never had a DVR.

We dont watch much network stuff. Local news and I'll sit thru a football game here and there.

The wife watches comedy re-runs while she cooks.

Thats about it.

 

Ha, I even time shift the news. Pause it while making diner, feeding dogs, whatever, then pick it up and skip through the fluff and commercials.

The more I think about it, the answer would be no. I couldn't go back to watching tv without a DVR.

 

I don't have a DVR but the shows I watch with commercials have them removed before I watch them.

 

I have a hard time even watching DVR recordings unless it has TIVO's timeskip feature which can automatically jump over commercials to their exact end. The feature doesn't work on all programs because it requires a closed captions feed for it to work.

 

I still don't have a DVR. Not even a working VCR. Watch lots of TV.

 

I say I don't enjoy the commercials but they don't keep me from watching the shows I choose. I say I don't have a DVR either.
There are times the commercials do cause me to look elsewhere for TV viewing. Certain channels have a much higher commercial load than others so I understand your premise. I also don't watch a lot of TV...although winter is coming and that changes my options somewhat.

 

Couldn't imagine watching TV without a DVR any longer. Partly because I hate watching commercials and partly because I like the flexibility of watching shows on my own schedule. Also, a DVR is valuable for recording multiple shows simultaneously in those circumstances when two or more programs are on at the same time you'd like to see. (A VCR does most of these tasks too, though you need multiple VCRs and tuners if you want to record multiple programs simultaneously.)

The way I see it, the expense of the DVR is minor compared to the amount of time it frees up. For every hour-long program that is broadcast, I can cut out the 15-20 minutes of the commercials. If I watch two programs a night, I can save about 40 minutes of time. Over one year, that adds up to 14,600 minutes (or 10 days) not spent watching commercials. I can listen to a lot of albums with that extra time.

 

Sure. I don't have a DVR.

 

Yes, 42-43 minutes is about the average for American TV network shows without commercials and promos (and this does not include the next week's promo, which they sometimes bundle into the end credits). What's interesting is that Showtime often puts pressure on their dramatic producers to make the shows this same length, even though there are no commercials on their network. I think the idea there is the potential for syndication, but most of the Showtime shows I watch are raunchy enough (Ray Donovan, Twin Peaks, etc.), they'd have to be pretty heavily cut-down for broadcast TV.

Yes, you make some good points. When the DVR first came out about 20 years ago, I tried to explain to people, "you own a VCR. You get the idea of recording one show on a tape. Now, imagine that you had 500 tapes in one VCR, and you could jump over from one tape to another instantly and watch a different show. That's what a DVR is."

When the multi-tuner DVRs came out, I really jumped on that because too often, the end of one show overlaps with the beginning of another show, and I want to be able to record each of them without any compromise. So that's a big deal to me.

 

I don't have a DVR and I rarely watch TV.
For me personally there is not enough TV worth watching to justify owning a DVR.

 

"Watch TV"? Je'nais comprende-pas.

 

I'd just quick cable altogether and use my Apple TV for Netflix, Amazon Prime (soon) and Hulu......

 

With the exception of live sports, I only watch TV shows using my DVR so that I can time shift and bypass commercials. With live sports, I watch without the sound and when commercials come on I push the guide button so that the video is minimized.

Unfortunately, most commercials are so obnoxious that if I couldn't avoid them I wouldn't watch TV unless I could pay via iTunes or Blu-ray .

 

And what about news and daily programs?

 

I think News would be the only issue for me. The Nationals like CNN and MSNBC as I rarely watch local news. In terms of the Nightly shows like Colbert and the like, all the great parts turn up on YouTube the next day. I'm hoping more Apps for these other networks start being avail so I can a la carte it.

 

I don't even have cable but watch lots of stuff. Streaming has taken over in my home, but only for video!

 

I haven't watched live TV in decades. If I didn't have a DVR, I would record everything on my DVD recorders hard drives and watch from there. No way would I watch anything live, except for maybe baseball playoffs games.

 

I just fired Crumcast and now my source of TV is OTA and a Tivo OTA DVR is my TV hub. I don't want to watch TV without a DVR!

 

I know it's been said many times, but...I don't know how I survived without this before. Even something as sacred as sporting events, an area I previously thought would be off limits to DVRing, has been breached. It takes a certain kind of skill to avoid scores before watching a recorded event as popular as the World Series. But when the games run late, or are arduous marathons like most Yankee games, it helps to be able to zip through pitching changes, commercials, etc.

Otherwise, regular TV is unwatchable without a DVR. It's no accident that I find myself watching more content on Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon, but with garden variety TV I find myself having to swallow hard to get through some of these shows. Commercials just add insult to injury. Yes I could read a book, or watch a movie, or God forbid find a hobby that broadens my horizons as a human being, but I ain't got time for that.

 

The DVR premise is moot.

For those beyond the age of say, 40, the premise of this thread is anathema. Why? Because 1] this board, being a TV/film forum, is mostly supported by folks who get their "fix" via their favorite drugs of choice (series TV, etc.), and 2] those who grew up watching free over-the-air network television ...prior to the diverse programming available through cable & satellite access... watched television in spite of commercials. In the early days of VCR use, most folks would record their favorites and fast forward through commercials (other folks just went to the kitchen to make more popcorn).

Those under the arbitrary age of 40 have grown up with dramatically expanded choices ...as well as the costs associated with increased access. Along the way, commercial advertising has become cleverer and ...at the same time... more annoying. DVR's can only do so much. Even those paying extra for commercial free programming can't entirely avoid distracting drop-in ads promoting other demographically targeted shows or products. That, alas, has become the new normal.


Cat

 

I don't watch enough current TV shows to warrant a DVR. It's mostly Netflix and other streaming sites, or PBS.
If I do watch, it's regular over-the-air TV on weekends, or late at night when I'm bored. Mostly the digital substations. Old stuff, I'm afraid!

Off topic:
Come to think of it, I haven't really watched current TV shows since 1981. The last TV show I remember going out of my way for to watch weekly was "Police Squad"! I did watch "SCTV" regularly at that time as well.
In the last 3 years, I finally caught up with current TV shows, mostly through streaming services. For me, it took a LOT of adjustment to new techniques, violent content, and general presentation of these shows. Even though I don't see most of them, I gotta admit we are- or were just in- a Golden Age of TV content and production value.

 

I've always hated commercials. The DVR solves a problem I always knew I had. My remote has a 30 sec skip function, so I don't fast forward like the old days-I don't even see them at all. I would watch less "traditional" TV if I didn't have this magic genie for sure. But I also recognize that regardless of the technology, I watch way too much and should probably stop.