What Commercials? [sports]

We were hold-outs and continued to use a VCR instead of going with DVR after it became available. After moving and then signing up for new service, though, we took the plunge. Wow, huge differences. I won't go into it all, but the best thing is being able to watch what you recorded before the recording is finished!

Asking around, I have found a lot of people are just using their DVR like they did their old VCR and especially not using the DVR for sports. Not in the best way in my view, which is to record - wait an hour to an hour and a half - start watching and blow through commercials and other slow moments like zebra conferences. When I get the protest that they don't want to watch it that way, the comments show that they haven't realized the very important fact that the fan that uses the DVR in the best way [in my view] catches up to the real-time game before the game is over.

My sports watching is a monumentally improved experience these days. What are the commercials like this year?

It is a great way to watch sports, only issue is if you also keep with your fantasy league or other sores online as you watch. That and you need to sort of isolate yourself from other media while you wait.

I loved the DVR before I dropped cable altogether.

Quote: AZDuffman

It is a great way to watch sports, only issue is if you also keep with your fantasy league or other sores online as you watch. That and you need to sort of isolate yourself from other media while you wait.

True. Usually it hits me, I wouldn't mind doing something else for a while. Read maybe? If patience fails your reward is watching the commercials.

Quote: odiousgambit

True. Usually it hits me, I wouldn't mind doing something else for a while. Read maybe? If patience fails your reward is watching the commercials.

I am watching Netflix as I write this. The past 10 years and even more the past 5 I find it hard to just "watch tv." I have to be doing something else. If it is football I will be checking stats or thinking of some project I want to work on. Even as a child I "played and watched" all the time, but it is getting worse and worse. I think I am not alone, people want to do more at one time.

Quote: AZDuffman

That and you need to sort of isolate yourself from other media while you wait.

When I had TV, this was the biggest bitch. You can't go online (homepage often has scores/updates), no Facebook (everyones cheering/crying), can't listen to radio (constant updates/highlights). You really have to disconnect completely if you want the pure experience. Not to mention staying away from fan friends and coworkers, because you just know they're gonna barge in and exclaim the play of the game that you have yet to watch.

Quote: odiousgambit

True. Usually it hits me, I wouldn't mind doing something else for a while. Read maybe? If patience fails your reward is watching the commercials.

I suggest giving it up altogether. I'm thinking AZ might agree.

What is it now...$80 a month? For what? If you can disconnect for awhile, you'll find that most of what you liked is complete garbage, a total life suck. Not only am I saving ~ $1,000 a year, but I've found no shortage of other stuff that I like soooo much more. My house and vehicles are in the best shape they've ever been. I've found reading and education sources that more than satisfy my media entertainment needs, more than TV ever did, and they're productive. Getting off TV has been as positive a move for me as getting sober, and I'm not even exagerating.

If you really want to watch something, watch it. But if you find your mind wandering, if what you're watching can't even hold your attention, stop. Get up, get out. We'll all be on our deathbeds soon enough; do you really want to have wasted all that time sitting in front of a colorful electric box?

Quote: Face

I suggest giving it up altogether. I'm thinking AZ might agree.

I've come close to ditching TV a few times the last few years. And there have been times in my life I had no TV and liked it just fine.

Sports has proved to be the big problem as far as giving it up completely, and the wife has the same problem. I've had a lot of people tell me they envy having a spouse that likes sports, and, you know, your spouse is going to pick something that you do together so it is also a matter of just what you would want that to be [g].

For anybody in the same situation, I do recommend DVR.

Quote: Face

I suggest giving it up altogether. I'm thinking AZ might agree.

What is it now...$80 a month? For what? If you can disconnect for awhile, you'll find that most of what you liked is complete garbage, a total life suck. Not only am I saving ~ $1,000 a year, but I've found no shortage of other stuff that I like soooo much more. My house and vehicles are in the best shape they've ever been. I've found reading and education sources that more than satisfy my media entertainment needs, more than TV ever did, and they're productive. Getting off TV has been as positive a move for me as getting sober, and I'm not even exagerating.

If you really want to watch something, watch it. But if you find your mind wandering, if what you're watching can't even hold your attention, stop. Get up, get out. We'll all be on our deathbeds soon enough; do you really want to have wasted all that time sitting in front of a colorful electric box?

I don't just agree I very much agree.

At the point I have gone 1 year without cable I plan to do a report on how it has gone. But 8 months in let me say dropping out of both cable and caring much about the NFL are no real loss. I bought a total junker of a house and have learned to do a lot of things by remodeling it. I made a garden that has amazed neighbors and family for its production. Next year I may get chickens or/and build a beehive. I have Netflix to watch. It is amazing how great it is.

When I visit my parents I check what is on cable. Rarely is there something I really wish I had at home. I'm talking 10% of the time. And that is as little as back in the day when you missed a show you liked.

Youtube and podcasts fill out the rest of my entertainment needs. Both now have "channels" so you subscribe and watch just what you want. I have fallen into channels that have inspired me to learn some "hard" skills that people used to know. Your mileage may vary and you may have other interests. But what Face is saying about wasted time put me down as +1 in the strongest terms.

Quote: odiousgambit

Sports has proved to be the big problem as far as giving it up completely, and the wife has the same problem.

Although there are some sacrifices involved, you can still stream your competition fix online. While I could not care less about the NFL anymore and my NASCAR passion has sort of waned in favor of good old fashioned local short tracks, I'm still a Leafs nut and tuned in to much of last years post season. Granted, some of the links are of less quality than straight-from-the-dish, and there are some pop up issues you have to deal with when you first fire it up, and the screen saver kicks on every now and again... but clicking and wiggling a mouse a few times is worth $1,000 a year to me. Plus, there's the benefit of seeing anything and everything. Blackout games, cross coast games, overseas games, anything from the Superbowl to preseason Aussie Rules, from F1 Championship to shifter karts. Majors, minors, and farm clubs. It's all there.

Yeah, it won't be high def, and sometimes it's worse than rabbit ears. But worst case, it's better than dish during the snow or rain =) And it's FREE (assuming you already have internet)

Quote: AZDuffman

At the point I have gone 1 year without cable I plan to do a report on how it has gone.

8 months is close enough. Fire it up and I'll add my $0.02 =)

It's a topic I could wax poetically on for a while. The ways my life has changed for the better since ditching the box are numerous and substantial.

Same as you, I'll see something on a TV somewhere and can't understand how I used to be drawn to it. There's just no substance to it, it's all empty calories. I'll still get Top Gear on Netflix to keep me awake in the morning before work, I'll still watch "Goon" before a hockey tournament, and I'll still stream a Leafs game or two each month. But other than "Game of Thrones", which is the single best series I have even seen in my life, and "Walking Dead", which is my guilty pleasure (and hope for the future =p), I have no use for it. All the things I used to watch... I now can't figure out how I tolerated it. TV used to take up 35-40 hours of my week. It now averages less than 2. Multiple days in a hotel? I don't even turn it on. I broke the habit. I'm free.

Same as you, I just work now, but it's fun work. I learned a bunch of new knots for fishing. I learned how to wire a house. I learned how to weld. I'm re-learning body work. Ash and I have been decorating my house, and much of it's been handmade. We made curtain rods out of old baitcast reels and a bamboo pole. We made curtains out of checked cloth and burlap. I redid the deck on my mower. I got every bit of NY rot off my truck and resprayed it, adding years to its life. I'm building a race car. The list goes on and on and on and on... Everywhere I look there's a task completed or a project finished or a skill learned, and every one of them were done using time typically wasted in front of the TV.

Another tv minimalist here. Went without over 6 months in Hawaii and never noticed. Don't think to turn it on. Have a couple guilty pleasures, but if I find myself channel surfing, I just go to off instead. Might watch 5 hours a week, mostly news.

" do you really want to have wasted all that time sitting in front of a colorful electric box? "

I can not risk not seeing the "TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS HOCKEY CLUB " winning the Stanley Cup !

I only DVR sports on a rare occasion. I feel the need to watch it live.

Quote: slyther

I only DVR sports on a rare occasion. I feel the need to watch it live.

Someone I was having a conversation with said he had seen it said that advertising research, etc, shows that people quite frequently will record a lot of their TV *except* sports, due to a similar widespread feeling.

The only thing I can say is that it shows plenty of sports fans have failed to realize that the DVR gives them so many more options over the VCR. Bottom line, to be able to watch something you are recording before it has stopped recording means there is no real advantage to watching it live. Not really. It does mean having the patience to wait before you start watching. Any amount of time delayed pays off; again, the trick is to catch up to real time before the end of the game, if you like it essentially live.

Quote: Buzzard

I can not risk not seeing the "TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS HOCKEY CLUB " winning the Stanley Cup !

No risk there.

Quote: ChampagneFireball

No risk there.

+100

Quote: Buzzard

+100

In theory, it could happen in the next 50 years by random chance...

Can not believe that many NHL teams would be involved in plane crashes .

Quote: odiousgambit

The only thing I can say is that it shows plenty of sports fans have failed to realize that the DVR gives them so many more options over the VCR. Bottom line, to be able to watch something you are recording before it has stopped recording means there is no real advantage to watching it live.

After you catch up to the live broadcast it is frustrating to have to wait through the commercials. If I can pause and rewind, is it too much to ask to be able to fast forward into the future and see live footage that hasn't happened yet?

I still await the sporting equivalent of NetFlix... even if it was a pay-as-you watch type affair.

Netflix nails it by having a incredibly low cost AND barrier to entry.