TV Networks Shift Times, Run Longer Shows

[electron]

Several people have asked me recently why one would need more than 2 tuners. Here is the reason why they are needed more and more. Yahoo posted an article exlaining how TV networks are making the shows start/end later in order to confuse DVR/PVR's, and worst case, the device will have issues when recording a show following the 'time-shifted' show by either clipping the show or not recording it at all.

Read the article

 

[smee]

This has been an issue on the Replay and TiVo discussion boards for a long time now. At first, everyone was upset primarily with NBC (who decided to super-size programs). Now it's grown to other networks.

I found my own way to handle this problem. There are no programs on the 3 main networks that I watch anymore. I don't even surf through those channels. The only thing I watch on FOX is The Simpsons (which has a long history of starting early). This really simplifies recording time conflicts. :blink:

ABC - nothing
CBS - nothing
NBC - nothing
FOX - The Simpsons
UPN - Enterprise
WB - nothing

Disney also does annoying things with time shifting. They will run several-minute-long "programs" (e.g., behind-the-scenes interviews that are really commercials for movies) on the hour, and then let programs run long - messing up recordings.

Of course, TBS started the whole thing by offseting start time by 5 minutes from the very beginning (long before DVRs/PVRs).