Question for DVR/Tivo Users

[Brian]

Just curious, for those of you who have a DVR, Tivo, or some other digital video recording device - do you save things on there for an extended period of time?  Do you just use it to record shows you might miss, watch them, then delete them?  Do any shows or movies get "saved" to rewatch several times, or do you keep things cleared off?  Just wondering.  We've had a DVR for a couple of years now, and it usually ends up getting fairly full by the end of the TV season.  We tend to keep some shows (The Office is one), and rewatch them periodically - or through the summer/until the DVD is released.  Although this isn't necessarily the case with The Office, it seems like many shows get "replayed" less and less, instead replaced with some new reality show during the off months.  Anyways, do you keep your DVR clear, or do you save things every so often?

[stormie]

The only things we save for the kids to watch again and again are children's shows such as Sesame Street, Between the Lions and Signing Time. The kids really like watching stuff over and over again. The other stuff we just watch and delete. I think our 80 hour tivo is about half full with just kids' shows.

[Tracy]

Same here, we pretty much keep shows and movies for the kids to watch over and over.  I tend to DVR episodes of Lost, even if I'm watching them -- as there always tends to be quite a few "huh?" moments that I like to revisit.  I also some of my favorite episodes of The Office on there for repeated viewings. 

[Darth Jaxx]

We record a lot of shows but tend to watch and then delete them.
Except... my wife TIVOs a lot of cooking shows. She keeps them because sometimes their instructions are vague, so she likes to revisit a recipe and see exactly what someone did.
We have cooking shows from 3 years ago.

[Phrubruh]

Same with us. The kids shows get watched over and over but the regular shows get watched and deleted. I think we pretty much only watch things that are recorded. Nothing is ever live anymore. I havn't been forced to watch a commerical in years.

[Jediknight760071]

I pretty much delete everything right away except for America's Best Dance Crew, Chowder, and Celebrity Rehab. For awhile I would save all the shows but after not too long it was just a waste of space...and I actually ran out of it and lost some episodes of LOST without realizing it... *grumble*

[john todd]

we pretty much just let ours fill up and then start deleting stuff at about 85%.  we record lots of stuff we never watch.  its nice to just have stuff on there for nights when nothing is on.

[Matt_Fury]

We have season passes for the shows we watch regularly, and my wife records a bunch of cartoons for her nephews whom she watches from time to time.  We usually delete items after we watch them with the exception of a season finale so we can, hopefully, rewatch it before the premier.

I also keep things like the Star Wars Family Guy episode, Battlestar Galactica: Razor, and stuff like that until I get them on dvd.

[Rob L]

I delete as soon as I've watched the shows, apart from some favourites which I'll keep until the DVD comes out - stuff like Ashes to Ashes and the new series of Doctor Who.  My problem is that when I record HD shows it takes up so much space and there's currently no easy way of backing stuff up in full HD.  For SD programs I'll put them on DVD-RW and then recode them in xvid of mp4 and store them on my PS3 as I find it looks great on there and takes up less space than on my DVR.

[ruiner]

Do I really need to connect a DVR to a phone jack to use it?

Or is the phone connection only needed for ordering PPV and porn?

[Muftak]

You do not need to connect to a phone line.

Mine gives me a new message every day telling me I need to connect and telling me how long it has been...going on 400 days now without a connection. I had to last year because of the daylight savings time shift, but other than special stuff like that, no need.

[Matt_Fury]

Tivo requires a phone line for software updates and you get pop-up ads telling you that it hasn't connected after a while.

My other DirecTv dvr's do not require it.

[Phrubruh]

I believe Directv requires it if you have more than two dvr boxes. One box and your fine just never connect it or you will be charged for all that stuff you PPV.

[Chris M]

I've got a handful of things that I've kept on the DVR for a very long time.  One of them was a VH1 thing called "When Star Wars Ruled the World." I've also kept the clip from Office Space where they beat up the copier (that's just too funny to me) and that's all I've kept.  I usually watch shows that I've taken off the History channel or Military channel that run during the day, watch them and then delete them.  Of course, sometimes they will sit for a month or two before I get time to watch them.

We don't have kids yet, so no kids stuff is recorded.