TV Viewing Spin Off - DVR - Do you have one?

[Lora]

People were mentioning in Hollie's tv viewing thread that they DVR their shows.
So I am wondering, do you have one? We just have the old fashioned VCR.

Also, if you have one, do you have to pay a subscription fee? I am fairly clueless about all this. Sorry!

[Ashley Anne]

we have TWO -- and we are NOT a high tech family! Couldn't live without it!! I like tv, but I don't have the kind of schedule that lets me watch things on-time. Also, we've all gotten used to not having to watch commercials!

Honestly, with little kids, I love it. We can pause for bathroom breaks, rewatch things, etc. I very rarely let them watch straight tv -- I have a lot less control that way. Much easier to have them dvr things that I approve.

[Lora]

AA, do you have a monthly fee or how does it work?

[wanda]

We have one and I can't imagine life without! We rent ours from the cable company for only a few dollars a month ( 5 or 7..) I'd have trouble being comfortable purchasing one though. Our machine has been replaced many times because the hard drive keeps going out. Repair guy says it's unusual, but we're probably on our 4th machine and it needs replacing again.

[jennc]

What AA said. LOVE the Tivo!

[cherir]

We have two as well, and will not EVER live without it again. DH is bad about getting his shows interrupted, and this makes it SO easy. If we have to pee, the phone rings, etc., we just pause the show and come back to it. Plus, we tape all shows we watch and NEVER watch a show live. We zip through them later from the DVR and skip all commercials, saving much time overall.

I don't even know how much it costs - it is worth it. I'd pay at least $20 a month if I had to, but honestly I think it is just a few bucks.

Lora, go get it - it will change your life.

[Esther]

We have Verizon Fios and it comes with our service. All of our TV's have DVR watching capabilities. You can tape on one TV and watch on all the others. We've had a DVR capability for almost a decade, I cannot imagine life without one! Too many of my shows are on opposite each other (esp Tues and Thurs nights). We can tape 2 shows at a time on ours.

[Tina]

Nope. We aren't a big TV watching family. Honestly there is nothing on TV that would upset me if I missed it. The boys like their football on Sundays, but we just schedule around it. LOL.

[Julie]

We have dvr. Love it and wouldn't live without it! Definitely a necessary luxury.

[Lesley]

Nope - satellite is too expensive as it is. Can't justify the additional cost.

[RhondaH]

We have one too! LOVE IT!!! I think we pay just a few $ a month for it.

[April]

WE have TWO DVR's. One is technically dh's and the other is mine and the kids.

DO. NOT. WANT. TO. GO. BACK. TO. LIFE. WITH. OUT. IT. EVER!

I never sit down to watch my shows when they come on. FF through commercials. Watch them after the kids go to bed usually. Can watch 10 pm shows without worrying I will fall asleep (which I usually do so I watch them the next day).

Our DVR's are 9.99 for the first and 8.99 for the second. Well worth it, IMO. We used to just pay 4.99 at first but that was only for a year. Now we are hooked! Good plan for Time Warner, for sure!

[Sandy]

We have 3 DVRs. 1 in the main family room, 1 in the basement, & 1 in our bedroom. We don't use the one in the bedroom much. We DVR everything then we can FF through commercials and can watch shows when ever we want.

[TinaMarie]

We don't have one either.....I have a VCR and record a few shows that way.....or I'll just go online and watch them.

[ann]

Nope, we don't have one. We don't watch much TV, and we only recieve broadcast signals (no cable or satelite). I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything by not having a DVR.

[Christina]

No, we don't have one. I don't have too many must-see shows (only Mad Men and House, and Mad Men's finished for the season), and if there's anything I really want to watch, I download it with BitTorrent.

[Esmeralda]

Another no here. I have the very basic cable package, so we mainly get the 3 big networks and FOX. I have a VCR that tapes things, but since I bought it at a garage sale without an instruction manual, I cannot figure out how to program the timer to come on. That is annoying.

[Linda]

nope - but we don't watch TV at all, just videos/dvds so there would be no point.

[sarah]

We've had one since 02 and, like others have said, we can't live without it! We had 2 for awhile, but have one right now. I LOVE it! We can record 2 shows at a time with ours. It's so nice! I set it up to DVR series and it catches first run usually (you can program it to do that).

[Tammy]

I'm guessing the others have answered the questions about the logistics of it, but just thought I'd add that we have one and LOVE it. It's the only way we watch tv nowadays. No planning your life around when a particular program is on, which is what I like the most.

I also like the feature of pausing live tv for when we do watch something in real time -- for when the phone rings especially. We don't watch a lot of tv, but when we do watch something, we like to actually see a program in full. One program I actually encourage Alec to watch is Jeopardy, but it's on around the time he's getting ready to go to bed, so with the DVR we can watch it when it's more convenient.