A TV Collector's Catch 22 (rant)

[Electronic M]

They make NON-subscription DVRs and DVD-recorders that work just like VCRs (from an end user standpoint). I ditched tape timeshifting when it became more expensive, and analog sources dried up. I've been trying to achieve HDDVR capability, but Scrotum cable encrypts EVERY non-OTA channel (which includes every channel I care to record) they offer..So I can only tune it with one of their boxes which only have HDMI out for HD rez....I got an HDMI splitter that removes HDCP and a HDMI capture card, and while I was able to get it to work a couple of times I think the PCI bus of my media PC is dying...Since I can't get the card to work in it. That computer has had it's second recap, and barely came (mostly) back to life after the second. Eventually I'll be time-shifting and archiving in HD to bring my new show viewing habbits into the HD age.

The stuff I prefer to watch (anime) is not available OTA so I've got to go with some subscription (cable in my case), or the internet (which I can feed to my old and new sets via my media PC using it's S-Video/DVI/VGA video card).

There is enough on cable to keep me entertained, and while I used to be more tolerant of commercials my patience is rapidly dropping....What is driving me up a wall the most is that seemingly EVERY station (even local radio) has, in the last year or three, started synchronizing commercial breaks....Start time stop time and even the actual commercials in some cases....It feels like I'm in the Twilight Zone or hell when a commercial I especially hate comes on and I try to change channels (to something I want to watch/hear) only to not escape the commercials, and worse still sometimes to even have the same one I absolutely don't want to witness again be also playing on the channel I change to....If the person that decided it'd be a good idea to sync commercials between stations ever bumps into me and brags about it, I'll make them regret it something fierce. :

[Ed in Tx]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

They make NON-subscription DVRs and DVD-recorders that work just like VCRs (from an end user standpoint).

Yep I have 2 Dish DTVPal OTA only DVRs in service and 2 more spares (4 total) for when those will eventually bite the dust. Hard to even watch the local news and weather without the DVR. If there's something I want to watch I make sure one is tuned to that station and I start watching the buffered program delayed enough to be able to fast forward through the commercials. (Or, just record it on the internal HDD and play it later.) The continuous buffering is something VCRs never did or were capable of. The 300X FF-REV makes those pesky commercials go by quickly too.