HDTV Almanac - How Much Time-Shifting Do We Really Do?

[alfredpoor]

The good old VHS recorder started something that Tivo took to a higher level, and the result has shaken the video broadcast industry to its very foundations.
Or has it?
Conventional wisdom says that U.S. television viewing households hate commercials. It says that they use digital video recorders (DVRs) so that they can skip over the advertisements. [...]

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[ralph43]

I totally agree with you. I thought more people would timeshift like I do but apparently that is not the case. I have three DVRs and use them whenever I can to be very selective in my viewing and to skip commercials except for the super bowl.

[jordanm]

My wife uses the DVR all the time and timeshifts. She also skips ads.

Me I watch mostly movies so there's nothing to time shift. I do occassionally stop the flick to get a drink or use a bathroom. The DVR lets me freeze and resume a flick if using the DVR. A disk of course has pause, and play.

[videograbber]

I thought more people would timeshift like I do but apparently that is not the case. I have three DVRs and use them whenever I can to be very selective in my viewing and to skip commercials except for the super bowl.

I also have 3 DVRs. I used one of them to record the superbowl. I then skipped over the game to check out the commercials that cost $7M/minute to air. Without the DVR, I wouldn't have sat through the game to see the ads. [/irony]

[rick_r]

I DVR almost everything I watch but I still find one or two commercials in an hour show that I find interesting and I watch them. The point is if a commercial applies to me and I find it interesting I watch it. The commercials that don't apply to me and are boring I do not watch.

[Roger Halstead]

Like you we probably run close to 90% time shifted. Two (or more) programs come on at the same time, they come on when we are doing something else, or they may come on late at night. Also long programs usually get broken up into 2 or 3 sessions. Time shifting is probably the most used feature we have.

[terrypaullin]

Sorry - just had to weigh in on this one. A classic case of what I hate to see on behalf of newbies to our H.T. avocation. A bit of data from a little known source who obviously undersampled a group of users and posted by someone representing it as fact. DVRs are rampant! Since their widespread adoption, I have installed hundreds of theatres and nearly every one of them has a DVR. Probably more than half have multiple DVRs, as I do. Also, contrary to some beliefs, Prime Time has never been better - (Duh, that's why the DVRs). If you watch 4 prime times a night, the DVR saves you one hour of your life. Once people figure that out, the DVR is a no-brainer. What we need now is the ability to record more than 2 channel at once, more memory, and fewer articles that distort the real truths.

Terry Paullin

[Roger Halstead]

I should have added I also have multiple HD DVRs, now if I could just save HD to DVD

[alfredpoor]

Terry, I don't dispute your experience, but this study has a ring of truth to me. Remember how many VCRs had flashing "12:00" displays because people never learned (or bothered) to set the clock? And without the correct time, they couldn't use it to record shows. Just because someone owns the hardware does not mean that they are going to use it.

I would argue that anyone with a home theater is by definition not representative of the general television-viewing public. (I do recognize that HDTV Magazine is aimed at the television afficionado, and when I make sweeping statements about TV in general, I recognize that the experience and interest of people who read this site can be quite different.) Lots of the general public are much less concerned about quality and technology issues. (Witness the high percentage of people who zoom standard definition content to fill their widescreen displays, or who think that watching DVD movies on an HDTV is high definition.)

Next time you're at a Little League game or a neighborhood barbecue or some other gathering, ask around and find out how many people have DVRs, and how they use them. I suspect that you might be surprised by what you find, and that was the whole point of my post in the first place.

Alfred
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