How often do you watch tv "live" instead of recorded/timeshifted?

[yoda313]

So do you only watch tv after you record it? Or do you watch only sports live???

I don't have a tivo so I generally watch a lot of stuff "live". BUT I do record a ton. I'd say I might be 50/50 on how often I watch live versus recorded.

[gadgetguy]

I mostly watch live. I do record a couple programs that don't come on until after my bedtime.

[Nitemare]

I watch so little TV that I see it all live.

[Conquest10]

I mostly watch it live but when there's something I miss I rewind it or when I go to the bathroom I pause it then continue when I come back. So its like 50/50.

[lordsmurf]

Long live Tivo, HDD recorders, VHS tapes, DVD-RW, etc !!!

My day is to valuable to piss away 20 minutes per hour watching commercials. The shows themselves are so stuffed full of product placements that they're ALREADY commercials as it is. The few things I record are watched later that night, just before bedtime.

The volume (loudness) of commercials was another big reason. I cannot stand it when the commercial is 2-3 times louder than the program. Hurts my ears, damages the speakers. When recorded, I can just skip right over them altogether, don't hear a thing.

[yoda313]

The volume (loudness) of commercials was another big reason. I cannot stand it when the commercial is 2-3 times louder than the program

DITTO!

Do they still have that maganavox smart volume thing that is supposed to level the volume of commercials??? Was that magnavox? Did it really work???

[handyguy]

Not too much.
As mentioned, it's much easier to record & skip through commercials. That saves about 20 min per hour of tv per day. Think of what you could do with that extra time.

[TBoneit]

I almost always watch from the DVR so I can pause, Skip commercials etc.

Life is to short to waste it watching adverts.

I have an older Gen 1 Tivo, Dishnetwork SD DVRS 1 and 2 tuner models, and a Newer Dishnetwork HDDVR equipped with two Satellite tuners + 1 OTA tuner (HD channels only) that can record three things at once. Two from the satellite and 1 from the OTA tuner if it is HD. Holds 30 +/- hours of HD or 200 +/- hours of SD content. Over the weekend it recorded 'Allo 'Allo, Fresh Fields, Last of the Summer Wine in SD. A couple of HD shows etc.

While that was happening I was watching shows from earlier in the week and switching back and forth to the computer display to do things there. Without a DVR I'd either have to pass on using the computer or not watch the TV show.

Almost forgot, something like sports, start it recording, came back in 1 hour +/- and start wqtching from the beginning. skip commercials and dull moments, do My own instant replays/slo-mo (in HD) and still be caught up to live by the end of the game.

[redstripes]

I try to dedicate one day to watching my favorite t.v.

[Capmaster]

Almost all recorded. Occasionally the Military Channel or Discovery Channel. Never ...ever ....network

[yoda313]

BUMP!

Just thought I'd revist this. Read an article on yahoo news about new commercial schemes they're coming up with. Apparently some are promoing "funny commercial" during a particaluar show that would be a series of them - something akin to the superbowl commercials on a much smaller scale I guess.

They are also doing things with celeberity ads offering beauty tips or whatever.

THis is all to battle the tivo/dvr revolution. I was suprised it said now about 17% of viewers have dvrs..

[TBoneit]

I'm afraid that in the future we will see split screen with commercials and show running at the same time.

To ensure you watch the commercial something important to the show will happen at that time and be referenced after the commercials are over so that DVR owner will jump back to see.

They'll be missing the point that they most likely will aggravate everybody watching.

Remember in their view you are stealing if you watch the show but not the commercials. They don't even want you running to the refrigerator or bathroom during commercial breaks.

Anybody remember the story about early days where they watched flow meters on the sewers and you could tell when the commercial breaks of popular shows were happening. Urban legend ot truth? you decide.

They miss the point that having a commercialed version and a non comercialed version on cable or satellite that is paid for to be commercial free could work. Just delay a day or two for the paid one. DVR equipped watchers don't watch live anyway.

Leads me to wonder how many watchers are getting non commercialed versions and watching from the internet. Cheap guys won't pay for a DVR expense.

I know if I sit and watch something live with family they get annoyed when I critique commercials. Like saying the side effects seem worse than the disease. Or yup, that's what I want to do pay for 24 moths and have nothing to show for it, car lease adverts. My modus operandi is buy a car, run it til the wheels fall off. My current car was bought summer of 88. It still runs me the 5-6 minute drive to work and then hoime again with occasional jaunts to the store when I can't avoid them.I just replaced the last of the original tires last year. It went flat on the rode and got damaged before I could get off the highway. The brakes have been changed twice already and so on.
Buy American.

[dcsos]

When are they starting the TARGET 24hr commercials channel?

And did you see how many commercials are uploaded (not by the advertizer) to YOU TUBE?

I Love commercials, but certainly not all of them, and I hate interrupting programs to play commercials
Why don't we have instead a dedicated "commercials channel"
am I the only one who would watch that?
as opposed to the infomercials channel (deadly)

[Relayerman]

Two of the greatest inventions ever made: TiVo (and the like) and the iPod (and the like). I'm 53 years old and when I got these 2 gadgets this year I was truly a happy guy!

Relayerman

[jagabo]

Why don't we have instead a dedicated "commercials channel"
am I the only one who would watch that?

Yes.

[dcsos]

But Jagabo, you only need to watch one show (60 seconds)!
its an easy channel to watch!

[EddyH]

Since the slow decline of VHS (and particularly since some cretin ate our video remote and hid most of the blank tapes), not to mention the rise of multi-channel access after many years of having only 5, or even 4 analogue terrestrial stations, I barely record anything any more. Possibly because there's little worth committing to tape (or HDD, DVD) also. By the time something interesting has popped up, we've remembered how to put the machine on and found & inserted a blank, it's finished. And I don't think this house has had anything resembling a TV guide for at least a couple years, so any planning is done on a largely ad-hoc and trailer-watching basis. The TV set is really something to watch prerecorded DVDs, play videogames, and kill time watching news/random (or traditionally regular) comedies and documentaries on nowadays for us.