How to Fool DVRs (and irritate viewers)
If you used your DVR to record the last episode of American Idol, you might have missed something — the ending!
Turns out, producers ran the show nine minutes longer than the usual time slot. (The winner, Jordin Sparks, was crowned at 10:03 p.m.) Problem is, most DVRs would stop recording at 10:00 p.m. Oops!
This likely wasn’t an accident. Some broadcasters are starting to end their programs “off-grid” (outside of standard 1/2 hour blocks; not an industry term, I just made that up now) to prevent the recorders from switching to another channel to record something else. Silly. Irritating.
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Or, it was a live show that ran long.
This isn’t new. US networks have been doing this for shows like Lost since at least last year.
Lucky are the people who’s DVR didn’t record the show at all.
“Television … is a vast wasteland” — Newton Minow speaking to the National Association of Broadcasters on May 9th, 1961.
Forty-six years later … talk about nadir.
thats why I always set my PVR to stop recording 10 minutes after the show is supposed to air.
Programmes should run as long, or as short as needed. To restrict artistic talent to a set “grid” is one of the reasons American television, and much of what passes for Canadian television, is so unsatisfying. If it takes eighty minutes to tell a story, so be it. But what is now happening to American programmes is simply an economic ploy to keep viewers past a point of channel switching. Newton Minow was right.
Actually – even though I’m sure Tod is right that this is being done to screw with PVRs – this is an ancient tactic, unintentionally invented by by CBS decades ago. The amnet wanted to find a spot on the grid to give a strong lead-in to their new newsmagazine program “60 Minutes.” They placed it after “Sunday Night Football.” Of course. football game lengths are unpredictable. Sometimes there’s even overtime. During the season “60 Minutes” would be frequently delayed. But gradually CBS realized this had the agreeable effect of causing viewers to decide to stick with Morley and Mike and the gang because other shows at had already started. To this day, CBS continues to deliberately schedule football so it goes past the top of of the clock Sunday night in the eastern time zone, along with other sports, like golf and football, and “60 Minutes” continues to benefit. The ratings challenged “American Idol” producers should remember there are dangers, though, with this technique. Don’t forget the infamous “Heidi Game.” A thrilling playoff NFL game in the 1970s was dumped during an extended overtime period because a switcher had instructions to punch up a special holiday showing of the children’s film “Heidi” no later than such-and-such time Sunday night. During a crucial field goal attempt, millions of viewers (including many in Canada) were suddenly cut to scenes of a little girl skipping through an alpine meadow. There was hell to pay for Heidi. Nobody got fired at the network, though….
“…[T]o prevent the recorders from switching to another channel to record something else.”
I’m pretty sure DVRs are capable of recording two programs at once, non?
J: A few higher-end DVRs can do that, but most can’t. Tivo can’t, for instance. (I think you’re thinking that the viewer can watch one show while it records another — that’s possible.)