# Poll: "Live" TV



## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

How often do you watch "live" broadcast or cable TV (programs that have NO recording, NO time shifting, NO future buffering) on a TiVo?

Streaming content (Netflix, YouTube, etc) does NOT COUNT AS LIVE TV.

Inquiring minds want to know!


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## dave13077 (Jan 11, 2009)

I would say 50% live, 50% recorded (including Netflix).


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

dave13077 said:


> I would say 50% live, 50% recorded (including Netflix).


LOL- You posted before I even finished posting the poll! So go back and vote now


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## sbiller (May 10, 2002)

http://blog.tivo.com/2012/01/tivos-research-says-only-38-percent-of-tv-viewing-is-live/#.USEM2BG9KSM



> We dont know if youve noticed, but the television landscape is changing drastically, rapidly, and this is just the latest proof. We crunched some numbers, and it seems that only 38 percent of television viewing is live. After tracking anonymous usage across 2 million TiVo devices, we saw that delayed TV or online on-demand content drives the remaining two thirds.


I know I'm the exception... I'm a news junkie.


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## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

sbiller said:


> http://blog.tivo.com/2012/01/tivos-research-says-only-38-percent-of-tv-viewing-is-live/#.USEM2BG9KSM
> 
> I know I'm the exception... I'm a news junkie.


That's Tivo's research on people watching through a Tivo which doesn't necessarily parallel the rest of the country's viewing habits. Plus they don't state a definition of live tv for their purposes - does watching even one second behind in the buffer qualify as live?

With non-buffered being a caveat in the poll, my choice has to be reduced to never or very rarely and of the very rare times that I do, it isn't long before I pause or "rewind" it for some reason and end up in the buffer and therefore no longer watching live tv.


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

I think the only time I have accidentally watched live TV is if I turned the TV on when I was headed into the kitchen to wash dishes or cook.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

Way too many choices in the poll, but I'd say on average about once a week. Some weeks I do so more often though.


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## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

It could use some additional clarifications since IMNSHO it's a somewhat flawed poll.

I think a better option that could have been included is "to watch live, i.e. as the program is recording" I do that quite frequently, as much as 75% of the time, I may start a bit late, but I'm watching Elementary on thursday night and I'll have it finished by 11PM that day.


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## Teeps (Aug 16, 2001)

" About how often do you watch "live" TV (non-recorded/time-shifted/buffered) on a TiVo?"

When the buffer runs out while watching some live motor sports racing, IE last night watching supercross.
Or.
When testing channels.


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## CoxInPHX (Jan 14, 2011)

When I am not watching a recording the TiVo is always on Live TV, mostly CNN or a Music or Music Video channel.

That would not however be the case, most of the time for a TV with a Mini attached, maybe the office would be tuned to CNN though.

The TV is always on for the dogs when no one is home, too.


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## PCurry57 (Feb 27, 2012)

Key bring non-recorded being a news junkie myself TRM, Politics Nation, Last Word, Andrea Mitchell are on a season pass. Sometimes I'm watching time-shifted as it records. Normally not though as I'm buddy emptying the Tivo's other recordings. Difficult (impossible) to skip commercials watching live non-time shifted.


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## sharkster (Jul 3, 2004)

I do some newsy show stuff live and when the husband is home watching with me I watch live (he talks too much so I don't want to waste the stuff I've recorded for when he's there and I end up missing half of it).

I was huge with semi-live. I miss that. I still catch some things semi-live but I have to make sure that it won't be interrupted if both tuners are going to start recording before I'm done. One of the last updates screwed that up. You can no longer be in semi-live and have a recording start because it will zip to the channel change and you lose your buffer.


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## CoxInPHX (Jan 14, 2011)

sharkster said:


> but I have to make sure that it won't be interrupted if both tuners are going to start recording before I'm done. One of the last updates screwed that up. You can no longer be in semi-live and have a recording start because it will zip to the channel change and you lose your buffer.


Does any one else think maybe the buffer behavior was intentionally changed to support the Mini?


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## Jonathan_S (Oct 23, 2001)

crxssi said:


> How often do you watch "live" broadcast or cable TV (programs that have NO recording, NO time shifting, NO buffering) on a TiVo?


By a technicality the only correct answer would 'never'; the TiVo is always buffering even if you never paused it.
So even when you're as close to live as you can be you're about a half second buffered because the data was written to disk and read back before being displayed.

Technicality aside I very rarely choose to watch liveTV, and even when I do I often end up doing something to let a small buffer build so I can FF through commercials.


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## chiguy50 (Nov 9, 2009)

Jonathan_S said:


> By a technicality the only correct answer would 'never'; the TiVo is always buffering even if you never paused it.
> So even when you're as close to live as you can be you're about a half second buffered because the data was written to disk and read back before being displayed.
> 
> Technicality aside I very rarely choose to watch liveTV, and even when I do I often end up doing something to let a small buffer build so I can FF through commercials.


+1

Why would I watch "live" when I have TiVo? Like Jonathan, on the rare occasion that I happen to turn on the TV and see a program that interests me, I either select it to record for later viewing or pause it to let the buffer build up so that I can continue to watch it w/o commercials or at my own pace. I've invested almost $2K in my TiVo's for the privilege of accessing this wonderfully convenient technology; I'd need a very compelling reason to forgo it.

If you're looking for a percentage for your survey, I'd estimate I watch live TV at most 2% of the time.


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## Bierboy (Jun 12, 2004)

What does this have to do with the Premiere? Thread/poll should be in the Coffee House....


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

scandia101 said:


> That's Tivo's research on people watching through a Tivo which doesn't necessarily parallel the rest of the country's viewing habits. Plus they don't state a definition of live tv for their purposes - does watching even one second behind in the buffer qualify as live?
> 
> With non-buffered being a caveat in the poll, my choice has to be reduced to never or very rarely and of the very rare times that I do, it isn't long before I pause or "rewind" it for some reason and end up in the buffer and therefore no longer watching live tv.


I was careful to define my terms for my survey  I can't stand surveys that are not well defined... and for exactly the reasons you are saying. For this survey, ANY future buffering means it is not "Live" and is really no different that just pressing "record" and watching it a few minutes behind. Of course, if people don't read or heed the instructions, it will still mess up the results. Thus is life with surveying.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

morac said:


> Way too many choices in the poll


Better too many choices than not enough


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

dianebrat said:


> It could use some additional clarifications since IMNSHO it's a somewhat flawed poll.
> 
> I think a better option that could have been included is "to watch live, i.e. as the program is recording" I do that quite frequently, as much as 75% of the time, I may start a bit late, but I'm watching Elementary on thursday night and I'll have it finished by 11PM that day.


Almost every kind of poll/survey is flawed in some way. Every time I have ever performed a survey, I learned how it would be better had it been done differently.

But in your example, watching anything that has future buffering or recording is not "live" TV. The definition of "live" is fairly clear- you are seeing it as it is being pushed over the air.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

Teeps said:


> " About how often do you watch "live" TV (non-recorded/time-shifted/buffered) on a TiVo?"
> 
> When the buffer runs out while watching some live motor sports racing, IE last night watching supercross. Or. When testing channels.


I don't think testing would count as anything meaningful. But you brought up a good point- if you were watching something buffered and ran out of buffer and caught up, you actually would be watching "live" TV at that point.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

CoxInPHX said:


> When I am not watching a recording the TiVo is always on Live TV, mostly CNN or a Music or Music Video channel.
> 
> That would not however be the case, most of the time for a TV with a Mini attached, maybe the office would be tuned to CNN though.
> 
> The TV is always on for the dogs when no one is home, too.


For the purpose of the poll, I would not count cats, dogs, or other non-humans watching. It is only about what you actually watch, not what is being displayed


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

Jonathan_S said:


> By a technicality the only correct answer would 'never'; the TiVo is always buffering even if you never paused it.
> So even when you're as close to live as you can be you're about a half second buffered because the data was written to disk and read back before being displayed.
> 
> Technicality aside I very rarely choose to watch liveTV, and even when I do I often end up doing something to let a small buffer build so I can FF through commercials.


Future buffering, not past buffering, is what dictates if it is "live" TV or not. If you are not watching it at the same time it is being broadcast, you are not watching "live" TV. The half second delay in process doesn't count, since there is no way the user could watch it any sooner on a TiVo.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

Bierboy said:


> What does this have to do with the Premiere? Thread/poll should be in the Coffee House....


You are probably right. The answer is only that I just don't monitor/read any other forum, so it never occurred to me to place it anywhere else.


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## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

A few times a week for me. Mostly watching the news. 
Other times, like now when I'm surfing, I have a hockey game on as background noise.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

I very rarely watch live TV. Any event that is broadcast live I will still time shift it. And the news I always time shift it. One of my Elites must record the news for over 18 hours a day. So I just watch the most recent broadcast when I want to watch the news.

But I also started time shifting my TV watching in 1984 when I got my first VCR. At one point I had over half a dozen VCRs recording things so I would pull a tape out 20 to 30 minutes into a program and start watching it. Of course with a DVR things are so much easier. And with a TiVo even easier.


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## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

crxssi said:


> Almost every kind of poll/survey is flawed in some way. Every time I have ever performed a survey, I learned how it would be better had it been done differently.
> 
> But in your example, watching anything that has future buffering or recording is not "live" TV. The definition of "live" is fairly clear- you are seeing it as it is being pushed over the air.


But I hate to harp on this, but if I'm finishing Elementary at 11PM on a Thursday, even if I started delayed, I'm going to consider that falling under the "Live TV" definition. It's certainly not "time shifted" the way it would be if I watched on another day or after it had finished airing.

Unless the poll is being used for a specific data point you want to make that excludes that particular scenario.

However soup to nuts, what I'm doing is effectively "watching it live" because I have completed watching it when it's over at 10:59PM


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

dianebrat said:


> But I hate to harp on this, but if I'm finishing Elementary at 11PM on a Thursday, even if I started delayed, I'm going to consider that falling under the "Live TV" definition. It's certainly not "time shifted" the way it would be if I watched on another day or after it had finished airing.
> 
> Unless the poll is being used for a specific data point you want to make that excludes that particular scenario.
> 
> However soup to nuts, what I'm doing is effectively "watching it live" because I have completed watching it when it's over at 10:59PM


I personally call that time shifting. Live to me is only when I watching in real time. At least realtime with a DVR since it's always recording to the hard drive and then what you are watching is being read from the hard drive.

Otherwise I would need to change my vote since I do that with several shows. Start watching 20 to 25 minutes after it starts and catch up with it in realtime the very end of the program. I'll do this tonight with "The Walking Dead" At least that is my plan, but you never know. Sometimes I plan to do it with a show and never get around to watching until several days or weeks later.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

dianebrat said:


> But I hate to harp on this, but if I'm finishing Elementary at 11PM on a Thursday, even if I started delayed, I'm going to consider that falling under the "Live TV" definition. It's certainly not "time shifted" the way it would be if I watched on another day or after it had finished airing.


You can believe what you like, but your example is not "live" TV. What you are doing/describing requires the features of a DVR to perform time shifting, even if it is just a few minutes.

Watching TV "live" gives one absolutely no option to skip forward at any point. If it were paused and then resumed, it is no longer watching "live" TV, either.



> Unless the poll is being used for a specific data point you want to make that excludes that particular scenario.


I created the poll primarily with the question of "tuner" grabbing on the Mini. The only reason a Mini would need a "tuner" would be for watching live TV. Under any other scenario, you can just press "record" on a program and then watch it buffered through as it is being recorded. Same situation with a non-primary TV where you install a TiVo with MRV but no antenna or cable. But I also was curious as to how often people actually did not use the TiVo as a DVR. I knew the wording could be a problem, since there are lots of different use cases.

I have to say, the results have shocked me. What I expected to see was something like 80% or more reporting they never or very rarely watch "live" TV on a TiVo. At the moment, it is less than half that number.


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## BigJimOutlaw (Mar 21, 2004)

Live TV is still pretty important. Plus not every TV in the house has a DVR. National average is almost 3 TVs per house, DVR penetration is only roughly 0.5. So even in DVR households, live TV is common by default.

I watch live TV in the kitchen (no DVR) while I am cooking or eating... usually it's a news channel. Kids with after-school programming watch it live or close to live, or grandparents who keep the news on all day, or someone with no particular shows to watch just wants to channel surf before going to sleep. The important stuff get recorded, but casual TV use hasn't disappeared.


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## SullyND (Dec 30, 2004)

crxssi said:


> I created the poll primarily with the question of "tuner" grabbing on the Mini.


Remember; The Mini is also intended to be used by MSOs. Comcast et. al want you to be able to use it as a tuner.


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## JohnnyO (Nov 3, 2002)

Interesting thread.

I can not imagine purchasing/using a TV at home without a DVR. We own two TVs. We have two TiVos. One TV might be ripe for a Mini, as it is in front of an elliptical machine and is maybe used 5 hours a week. I'd say 90% of what we watch has finished recording before we start to watch it. The other 10% we start to watch while it is being recorded, but if it is a show with commercials, we let it get 10-20 minutes ahead. This is especially true for NFL football games. My goal is to get to halftime within a minute of actual halftime. Once the 3rd quarter starts up, I wait about 20 minutes and start watching. Again, my goal is to finish watching the game while being within a couple of minutes of the realtime finish. I consider this time-shifting.


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## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

crxssi said:


> I created the poll primarily with the question of "tuner" grabbing on the Mini. The only reason a Mini would need a "tuner" would be for watching live TV. Under any other scenario, you can just press "record" on a program and then watch it buffered through as it is being recorded. Same situation with a non-primary TV where you install a TiVo with MRV but no antenna or cable. But I also was curious as to how often people actually did not use the TiVo as a DVR. I knew the wording could be a problem, since there are lots of different use cases.
> 
> I have to say, the results have shocked me. What I expected to see was something like 80% or more reporting they never or very rarely watch "live" TV on a TiVo. At the moment, it is less than half that number.


With that as the definition and goal of the poll, I can say that I would not be affected by mini tuner allocation.

If the question was "am I done with a show when it stops its broadcast at 11PM" my answer would be "yes"


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

crxssi said:


> How often do you watch "live" broadcast or cable TV (programs that have NO recording, NO time shifting, NO future buffering) on a TiVo?


Just to be ABSOLUTELY clear.. "NO future buffering" means you're not even changing to a channel then hitting pause?

If so, then I would say "very little". I can't give an exact #, because I *do* purposely buffer up CNN, and FF through parts I don't care about.. so I *do* eventually catch up to real time, and keep watching until it gets to another segment I don't care about.. (then I pause & watch something else for a while). I sometimes do the same thing with CSPAN, which has much fewer interesting segments, but also doesn't have commercials. Both are mostly what I use very late night as semi-background noise when I'm going to sleep and/or if I'm too tired to pay attention to a show but not tired enough to actually go to sleep.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Never. With the rare exception of some live news event happing at that moment.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

I said a few times per week but that answer is a little misleading. I rarely intentionally watch live TV to watch a specific show. I have my DVRs set to record the news shows I want to watch etc. But in reality I will end up surfing a little a few times a week for no real reason and because I do have reception issues will watch some live TV to check out reception at times.


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## dave13077 (Jan 11, 2009)

crxssi said:


> LOL- You posted before I even finished posting the poll! So go back and vote now


Done


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## compnurd (Oct 6, 2011)

90% of the TV we watch is live. We record alot of our favorite shows and watch them at certain times.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

compnurd said:


> 90% of the TV we watch is live. We record alot of our favorite shows and watch them at certain times.


 90%!!! That's a much higher percentage of live TV than I watched even 25 years ago.


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

I'm in complete shock that nearly a third of the folks on this board are watching live TV daily. While it seems like some of those are news-oriented, I'm still surprised. Skipping commercials was my number 2 reason for a tivo, number 1 was to timeshift shows that were inappropriate for kids, and managing the buffer is simply too much work (for me).

I wonder how this would translate outside of the walls of TCF? Makes it more clear why Tivo has such a hard time expanding when live TV remains so prevalent.


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## compnurd (Oct 6, 2011)

jrtroo said:


> I'm in complete shock that nearly a third of the folks on this board are watching live TV daily. While it seems like some of those are news-oriented, I'm still surprised. Skipping commercials was my number 2 reason for a tivo, number 1 was to timeshift shows that were inappropriate for kids, and managing the buffer is simply too much work (for me).
> 
> I wonder how this would translate outside of the walls of TCF? Makes it more clear why Tivo has such a hard time expanding when live TV remains so prevalent.


nope not news... we watch alot of food network and other watch as a family shows during most times. we record our primetime shows and depending on the person either watch them together or seperately


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

jrtroo said:


> I'm in complete shock that nearly a third of the folks on this board are watching live TV daily. While it seems like some of those are news-oriented, I'm still surprised. Skipping commercials was my number 2 reason for a tivo, number 1 was to timeshift shows that were inappropriate for kids, and managing the buffer is simply too much work (for me).
> 
> I wonder how this would translate outside of the walls of TCF? Makes it more clear why Tivo has such a hard time expanding when live TV remains so prevalent.


Some of the reason live TV is used, is that it is an easy way most people can watch TV, turn on the TV and watch, or at most change a channel, simple compared to using a TiVo. This does not apply to TCF people only to the general public, remember the VCR, was used mostly to watch rented movies, the joke was the flashing 12:00 am clock on most peoples VCR)


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

Understood- which is why I think suggestions are so powerful. Why "channel surf" when you can "suggestion surf"? 

Agree with the 80s VCR analogy. My family had a tape for each day of the week (and family favorite shows) so everyone could catch up with their favorites due to sports, homework, and such. Nobody else I knew had a clue how to do this.


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## slowbiscuit (Sep 19, 2006)

jrtroo said:


> I'm in complete shock that nearly a third of the folks on this board are watching live TV daily.


I'm not shocked at all, I'm sure plenty of folks use it as background noise (news or weather channel are good candidates) when you're doing something else like cooking, chores, surfing, working from home etc. Watching DVR'd shows requires effort.


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## allan (Oct 14, 2002)

slowbiscuit said:


> I'm not shocked at all, I'm sure plenty of folks use it as background noise (news or weather channel are good candidates) when you're doing something else like cooking, chores, surfing, working from home etc. Watching DVR'd shows requires effort.


That's me! Often, when I get home from work, I turn to the news and watch it while I'm reading, fixing a meal, or futzing around online. Until some particularly obnoxious commercial comes on, I'm watching it live. Admittedly, it never takes long for that to happen, but I often start out watching live.


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## moedaman (Aug 21, 2012)

Since I'm not a sports or news junkie, I rarely watch live tv in the first place. I think the last live telecast I watched was the Super Bowl. So I never watch live broadcasts on my Tivos. Besides, that's what the tv's own tuner is for.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

The TV has it's own tuner?


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## moedaman (Aug 21, 2012)

aaronwt said:


> The TV has it's own tuner?


Yep, I found it one time going through all of the inputs. Found out what it was for, so I decided to connect an antenna to it.


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## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

jrtroo said:


> Agree with the 80s VCR analogy. My family had a tape for each day of the week (and family favorite shows) so everyone could catch up with their favorites due to sports, homework, and such. Nobody else I knew had a clue how to do this.


I did this all the way up to 2005. I had two VCRs and *at least* 10 6hr tapes that I rotated through. It was a godsend when the newspaper started printing VCR+ codes in its TV guide.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

compnurd said:


> 90% of the TV we watch is live. We record alot of our favorite shows and watch them at certain times.


You record a "lot" of shows yet only watch recorded TV 10% of the time? How do you have the time???


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

jrtroo said:


> I'm in complete shock that nearly a third of the folks on this board are watching live TV daily.


Check your math and look again- it is nearly TWO THIRDS that are using Live TV functions. Yes, I am also in shock.

UPDATE: He said "daily" which is about a third. Two thirds are live TV anytime. My bad...


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

Ah- check my words. Daily is around 35%.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

jrtroo said:


> Ah- check my words. Daily is around 35%.


Ah!!! My bad!!! You got me!!!


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## TIVO_GUY_HERE (Jul 10, 2000)

I voted never. But I do probably start watching something live, but within minutes I have paused it. Living alone I don't have anyone else to piss off by doing so. 
LOL like right now my tivo is paused while I read this thread....


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

steve614 said:


> I did this all the way up to 2005. I had two VCRs and *at least* 10 6hr tapes that I rotated through. It was a godsend when the newspaper started printing VCR+ codes in its TV guide.


6 Hr tapes? Amateur! T160s! (For a while, T130s, while admittedly not TOO much longer than T120s, were pretty cheap too.. and would often give just enough extra to store another episode of a show in EP of course.)


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

mattack said:


> 6 Hr tapes? Amateur! T160s! (For a while, T130s, while admittedly not TOO much longer than T120s, were pretty cheap too.. and would often give just enough extra to store another episode of a show in EP of course.)


EP?!?!  I typically used the speed that gave you two hours on a standard tape since the quality was better. Especially after I went to SVHS.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

aaronwt said:


> EP?!?!  I typically used the speed that gave you two hours on a standard tape since the quality was better. Especially after I went to SVHS.


I had one VCR so it was 10 hour tapes for me (EP). Analog cable quality wasn't great so EP didn't matter much. A few years back I converted all my old VCR tapes to DVD. I ended up with several hundred DVDs. I automated the process so I don't even know what is on most of them.


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## oosik77 (Nov 22, 1999)

I watch the news live every morning but beyond that NOTHING.


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

jrtroo said:


> Ah- check my words. Daily is around 35%.


In the real world outside this enthusiast forum, I am sure it is well above 50%. Only TiVo knows however.


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

It seems the networks have less to worry about from DVRs that I would have thought. 

What else- do folks watch recorded shows without fast forwarding? Manually record shows only when they are out? Not pause to use the facilities/make popcorn/get a drink? Anarchy!


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## Tony Chick (Jun 20, 2002)

I voted "several times a day". We're not "sit and stare at the TV" people, we're usually each doing something else at the same time and commercials are actually useful to be able to go and do something else for a few minutes. We sometimes let the commercials run even when watching a recorded program . I always have the news and late-night chat shows on live in the background. My wife also likes to watch the "Dancing with the Stars"-type shows live so she can get on the phone with her friends during the commercials to talk about it.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

aaronwt said:


> EP?!?!  I typically used the speed that gave you two hours on a standard tape since the quality was better. Especially after I went to SVHS.


Like I say.. I am "theoretically" a video snob, but recording TIME wins out every time. That's why I record virtually all SD even though I have 2 (plus one dead one) HD capable recorders and a HD TV.
Even if I have a 2 TB drive in my Tivos, that wouldn't allow me to store very much HD.

When I was recording analog, I would use higher than Basic (lowest quality) once in a rare while, but not very often.


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## swerver (May 18, 2012)

Some people sure get worked up when other tivo users watch live tv, personally I don't care and don't quite get why it bugs others so much. On the other hand... using an hd tv with an hd dvr, yet recording and watching sd? That I will never understand...


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

swerver said:


> Some people sure get worked up when other tivo users watch live tv, personally I don't care and don't quite get why it bugs others so much. On the other hand... using an hd tv with an hd dvr, yet recording and watching sd? That I will never understand...


Why, my wife uses SD in her recordings, she just does not care, so why should I fight with her over that, we have all HD TVs and Series 4 TPs.


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## SullyND (Dec 30, 2004)

I could not care less about HD for anything other than Football, and even there only a little less.


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## compnurd (Oct 6, 2011)

99% of what we watch is in HD


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

Well when it comes to TV entertainment (versus news) there are 3 parts to every show:

The plot (the story)
The visual experience
The audio experience
How important each of the above is to someone is certainly personal. I prefer the whole package as apparently do others on this forum. However there are budget limitations to everyone's "home theater". I am guessing that for many people along with not caring that much about the visual or audio experience they have not spent enough money to actually make higher quality video or audio look or sound that much different.


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## sushikitten (Jan 28, 2005)

Only when my parents are visiting.


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## slowbiscuit (Sep 19, 2006)

swerver said:


> Some people sure get worked up when other tivo users watch live tv, personally I don't care and don't quite get why it bugs others so much. On the other hand... using an hd tv with an hd dvr, yet recording and watching sd? That I will never understand...


You do realize that some channels are still only available in SD, right? Yep, they're niche channels but on Comcast there's a bunch of them. Stuff like Military, NASA, a bunch of Encores, etc.

I agree that there's no point to recording the SD equivalent if HD is available, but some folks are too lazy to remove the SD equivalents from the guide and so their ARWLs sometimes get SD.


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## mlippert (Apr 3, 2010)

I voted _Once every few months_. However, if the poll was for watching an entire show "live" then I should have voted _almost never_.

Even if I start watching a show live I will inevitably rewind to watch something again, or pause during a commercial.

I never turn on the tivo/TV with the intent of watching a "live" show. When I watch anything live, I inevitably am starting in the middle as it was a result of channel surfing or the Tivo having reverted to live tv and my getting interested in the show, at which point I will frequently go to the beginning of the show in the tivo buffer, or at least as far back in the show as I can.


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## chiguy50 (Nov 9, 2009)

slowbiscuit said:


> You do realize that some channels are still only available in SD, right? Yep, they're niche channels but on Comcast there's a bunch of them. Stuff like Military, NASA, a bunch of Encores, etc.
> 
> I agree that there's no point to recording the SD equivalent if HD is available, but some folks are too lazy to remove the SD equivalents from the guide and so their ARWLs sometimes get SD.


. . . And I'll bet their TiVo's have a clock blinking 12:00.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

jrtroo said:


> I'm in complete shock that nearly a third of the folks on this board are watching live TV daily. While it seems like some of those are news-oriented, I'm still surprised. Skipping commercials was my number 2 reason for a tivo, number 1 was to timeshift shows that were inappropriate for kids, and managing the buffer is simply too much work (for me).
> 
> I wonder how this would translate outside of the walls of TCF? Makes it more clear why Tivo has such a hard time expanding when live TV remains so prevalent.


I'm an ex-TiVo user, but I'll still comment, since I'm using MCE, which is like a stripped-down TiVo with the crashes you associate with Microsoft, so it's a pretty fair comparison.

I watch live news usually twice a day. For me, a DVR is absolutely necessary to enjoy cable TV, but at the same time, there are some programs that are inherently only useful live. I also watch sports occasionally, where a DVR has no use.


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

Bigg said:


> I also watch sports occasionally, where a DVR has no use.


Totally disagree with this. Soccer is great to pick up overnight and watch "as if" live, while being able to get a bite to eat without missing anything.

Also great to watch football and tennis to see the action and not the fluff and commercials. Just start watching an hour (or two) later and get it in in half the time.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

I think any sport is great to watch with a DVR. Anything on TV that has commercials can benefit from the use of a DVR.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

jrtroo said:


> Totally disagree with this. Soccer is great to pick up overnight and watch "as if" live, while being able to get a bite to eat without missing anything.
> 
> Also great to watch football and tennis to see the action and not the fluff and commercials. Just start watching an hour (or two) later and get it in in half the time.


I don't want to watch a game where I already know what happens. It takes all of the fun out of it. I won't DVR games at all.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

Bigg said:


> I don't want to watch a game where I already know what happens. It takes all of the fun out of it. I won't DVR games at all.


How will you know what happened if you don't jump to the end and choose not to research it? It is no different than a movie spoiler- just don't expose yourself to them.

(Personally, I don't understand why people like sports, but I do understand the concept)


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

With the social connections like Twitter I guess it could be difficult to watch some sports delayed. A good example was an NFL playoff game. A co-worker had planed on watching it delayed by around an hour on his DVR, but he kept getting tweets during the game from his Mom, sisters and brother who are all located around the country. All tweeting about the game since they were watching it live. So he had no choice but to quickly catch up to the live feed because of that.

For me, there is almost nothing worse than being forced to watch a ton of commercials. For football there is already more than two hours of extraneous crap during a football game between commercials and other things going on. And if you break it down to actual play time it's even worse, since even though a football game is 60 minutes, the majority of that time when the game clock is counting down, there is still nothing going on.


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## ybtrue (Jul 20, 2009)

The only "Live" tv I watch is Basketball. Everything else is recorded.


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## slowbiscuit (Sep 19, 2006)

aaronwt said:


> With the social connections like Twitter I guess it could be difficult to watch some sports delayed. A good example was an NFL playoff game. A co-worker had planed on watching it delayed by around an hour on his DVR, but he kept getting tweets during the game from his Mom, sisters and brother who are all located around the country. All tweeting about the game since they were watching it live. So he had no choice but to quickly catch up to the live feed because of that.


 Seriously? The solution to that is watch the game, not your phone/tab.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

slowbiscuit said:


> Seriously? The solution to that is watch the game, not your phone/tab.


Well his family is scattered around the country. His mom is in her late 80's so I can understand doing what he did. Since you are interacting with your family which he does not do very often. If I were in the same situation I would have done the same thing. But fortunately I don't need to worry about it since my Mom and Dad do not use Twitter, Facebook etc. Plus my entire family lives near me. We aren't scattered around the country.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

I guess there is one item of this thread most interesting to me: the equality between "always" and "never". What's missing though is the source of your content. If you have OTA only then I doubt your TiVo gives you CNBC or The Weather Channel so you can't use it as a sweet STB to lose the cable company's junk. With cable you may have a selection of 200+ channels, OTA not so much. Even with cable I probably only have two dozen in the guide as favorites. OTA doesn't repeat as often so more reasons to record prime time.

I use my TiVo all day to watch "live" TV. During prime time I let it record shows that I usually watch on weekends and use the TV "live" or listen to CDs or Pandora. A delayed sporting event is ok if you can't watch it live, but it's like recording the news. Recording late night shows is good if you need something to do on a snowy day, or if you are retired, or just hate commercials. Nothing gets me going like _The Daily Show_ in the morning. Like some others, I usually select one or two shows to record by the season for those dry spells.


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

Hell, I even watched the superbowl delayed by nearly two hours. I watched a movie, then was able to watch the game in the same amount of time, while viewing the best commercials. Close the laptop lid and put down the phone. 

But, everyone can enjoy it how they want. A football game watched this way lets you finish at about real time and in around an hour.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

crxssi said:


> How will you know what happened if you don't jump to the end and choose not to research it? It is no different than a movie spoiler- just don't expose yourself to them.
> 
> (Personally, I don't understand why people like sports, but I do understand the concept)


Internet, newspaper, tv news. And it just isn't the same knowing it's not live. I've got a basketball game on now (halftime), and no way I would use DVR functions. I actually don't even have the remotes near me when I'm watching it, just a soda and a quilt. It's juts on for the time it's on.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

Bigg said:


> Internet, newspaper, tv news.


I guarantee you I see or hear NOTHING about "sports" on any of the above. It is not that difficult.



> And it just isn't the same knowing it's not live. I've got a basketball game on now (halftime), and no way I would use DVR functions. I actually don't even have the remotes near me when I'm watching it, just a soda and a quilt. It's juts on for the time it's on.


Well, to each his own! I don't see anything interesting, mystical, exciting, or special to some sport activity being live vs. delayed a minute vs. delayed an hour vs. delayed a day. The outcome really has no real bearing on life anyway, so it isn't time sensitive.

Of course, the more it is delayed/time shifted, the greater the chance of a spoiler. That I can appreciate. But, again, that is no different than a movie or people talking about the episode of SVU you have not watched yet or whatever.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

crxssi said:


> I guarantee you I see or hear NOTHING about "sports" on any of the above. It is not that difficult.
> 
> Well, to each his own! I don't see anything interesting, mystical, exciting, or special to some sport activity being live vs. delayed a minute vs. delayed an hour vs. delayed a day. The outcome really has no real bearing on life anyway, so it isn't time sensitive.
> 
> Of course, the more it is delayed/time shifted, the greater the chance of a spoiler. That I can appreciate. But, again, that is no different than a movie or people talking about the episode of SVU you have not watched yet or whatever.


It's very time sensitive if you talk to other people about the sports, like I was texting a friend about the game during commercial breaks. Sports are different because the game is focused on a single outcome- win/lose, and it's a live event.


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

What you are saying is that the actual watching live is irrelevant. 

However, what you are saying about the social aspect of sports is completely relevant. At that point, I would go out to a bar and really socialize, if possible.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

jrtroo said:


> What you are saying is that the actual watching live is irrelevant.
> 
> However, what you are saying about the social aspect of sports is completely relevant. At that point, I would go out to a bar and really socialize, if possible.


My friend was in another town an hour away, and we still texted about the game... Same for Facebook for other alumni.


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