New daylight savings in 2007 may cause DVR problems

[anubis13]

When daylight-saving time starts earlier than usual in the United States come 2007, VCR or DVD recorders could start recording shows an hour late.

Newer VCRs and DVD recorders have built-in calendars to automatically adjust for daylight time. Users would have to override them, switching to "manual" to ensure shows continue to record correctly.

Full story here http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/08/08/daylight.saving.ap/index.html

[TBoneit]

I Wonder it will affect devices like a Pioneer that gets time and guide data over cable. It autosets the time from some signal on the cable.

What effect will it have? It may or it may not try and adjust the clock and timers. I'm not sure.

[ROF]

Depends on the response of your cable company. I suspect they'll be sending you a notice with your bill detailing any changes. I also suspect they will correct this issue for you. There won't be anything you'll need to do on your end, except maybe re-boot your "guide channel".

[Xylob the Destroyer]

...
Newer VCRs and DVD recorders have built-in calendars to automatically adjust for daylight time. Users would have to override them, switching to "manual" to ensure shows continue to record correctly...

all of my VCR's get their time setting from the local PBS channels via embedded time signal whatsit

[Wile_E]

IMO, the way they have it implemented now is backwards. Winter is when we need more daylight in the afternoon. Right now in winter, it gets dark around 5pm. I wish they would get rid of DST entirely.

[SLK001]

IMO, the way they have it implemented now is backwards. Winter is when we need more daylight in the afternoon. Right now in winter, it gets dark around 5pm. I wish they would get rid of DST entirely.

In the winter, DST doesn't exist. Time is entirely Standard Time. But it would be nice if they would take some of that excess daylight from the summer and tack it onto the winter days!

[yoda313]

Hi,

Oh didn't think of that. I have a vhs vcr that has daylight savings auto switch. I'd have to put it on manual again since it doesn't have any kind of autoupdate with the net.

Kevin

[D.A.R.J.R.]

Dont some of these pvrs have firmware updates that could fix the problem?

[TBoneit]

One other thought occurs to me today

Most electronics that have these built in calendars also have a setting for whether or not your location observes DST or not. Some parts of America never switch from Standard time. So most devices have a setting for yes or no on DST. Example: A Palm Tungsten when setting the date and time asks about DST.

So as a workaround you could just set DST off and manually change the clock twice a year, if your autoset which my VCR and DVD Recorder have don't change properly due to the autoset feature. ON the other hand my Dishnetwork DVRs do not have a calendar built in as they get their time and date as a part of the data stream.

Cheers

Edit: The OP where it says Don't Panic below the name, I'm guessing it is from the character on a certain British TV Show.

[RottenFoxBreath]

dont panic was written on the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy's cover,im sure.

[doxtorRay]

You all can come and join us in beautiful Arizona. We never did fall for that daylight thing.
Oh wait, we're already getting crowded here.
Never mind.

[TBoneit]

Well, The Don't panic I am familiar with is from Mr. Jones the Butcher on Dad's Army. It was his tag line, Don't Panic, Don't Panic, Sort of Like Here Come the Judge from Laugh - In. http://www.phill.co.uk/comedy/dadsarmy/index.html
It ran from 1968 to 1977 I Still get a good Laugh from it as well as 'Allo 'Allo

Cheers

[BobK]

IMO, the way they have it implemented now is backwards. Winter is when we need more daylight in the afternoon. Right now in winter, it gets dark around 5pm. I wish they would get rid of DST entirely.

And if they get rid of DST entirely then in the winter it will get dark around 4pm instead of 5pm- pretty much the opposite of what you seem to want.

[AlecWest]

I've never been a big fan of DST and wish they'd just dump the idea. But if we have to live with it, I can't say I'm too disappointed with the decision to extend the end of DST to the first Sunday in November. One of my beefs about DST is that kids, used to it being still sunny at 5:00-6:00PM, are plunged into darkness for Halloween night ... making them easier targets for cars and not as careful as they should be.

My question (I don't really know the answer) is how this will affect computers. Mine automatically adjusts for DST and Standard Time. Does this mean another Microsoft update will have to occur?

[rkr1958]

Most of you from the US are probably too young to remember but in 1978 (or so), President Jimmy Carter, because of energy concerns / shortages, signed an executive order that implemented daylight savings time in January / Februray of that year. Do you know what the big news story that each of the then 3-Network news progams led with for the first few weeks ... the number of children waiting for the bus or walking to school that were injured or killed because it stayed darker longer in the mornings.

[AlecWest]

That's odd. When my kid was going to school, the earliest he had to go outside to wait for a bus was 7AM ... which, even in winter, was after sun-up. Even when I was going to school (ancient history, hehe), I can't remember waiting for a school bus in the dark ... or walking to school in the dark ... even during the first experimentations with DST (Uniform Time Act of 1966).

BTW, guess who first proposed DST? Benjamin Franklin! And it was first implemented unofficially by certain railroad companies in the mid-1880s.

[Tbear]

It was President Nixon in '73 or '74. I remember Michigan didn't go for it until the normal time to do it then, the last sunday in April.

[rkr1958]

It was President Nixon in '73 or '74. I remember Michigan didn't go for it until the normal time to do it then, the last sunday in April.

You're right ... it was President Nixon in 1974 ... DST started on January 6. In 1975 it began on February 23 then in 1976 when back to starting at the end of April.