HAF disaster

[ToonGal]

For the first time, instead of the HTPC being a pet project in my office, I wanted to show the man of the house how easy it was to PVR instead of VCR. Take it out of the curiosity stage into the house-wide deployment phase. Game 1 of his beloved San Jose Sharks vs. the evil Avalanche was the perfect example of how time shifting would be a great boon, given we had evening plans that would delay his ability to watch until late in the game.

I showed him how easy SageTV is:
- Use 'search' for "San Jose Sharks" to bring up entries
- Highlight the specific game in question on ESPN2 to watch
- Modify end time adding 1:30 AFTER the slated end in case it went to 3OT
- Double checked 'recording schedule' to ensure it got recorded

He was amazed at how quickly we found where/when it was on and how easy to program. The funds for an add'l PVR250, USB250, and MVP(s?) were now $$ in the bank.

We got home about 2 hours into the 3 hour game. He was desperate to watch it, and upset he had to wait until it was over to watch. I told him the beauty of PVR is that we can watch real time even while recording. HAF factor rising immensely by this point. We could put our son to bed, take our time, and watch the game still in semi real time.

Fired up the TV, VCR (old TV; necessary RCA connection for now; new TV help thread already posted), and PVR w/ my new JP1 enabled remote. With 8 button presses, we were ready to watch the game. ESPN2 had some filler with ESPNNews at the beginning of the recording, so I showed him how we could fast forward 2.5 minutes with the touch of a button. More ENews, so another 2.5. And another. And another. Uh oh. Where's the game...? Another, another, another. Time shift an hour. Another. Help...?

Turns out ESPN2 showed the game to the NATION, but FSW showed the game to the Bay Area. Oops. In my defense, the FSW listing was a generic "NHL Hockey" at record time, while ESPN -listed- "SJ vs. Col". Lots of good sports news to watch at least though. Needless to say, HAF went WAY down quickly. With 12:00 left in P3, a 5-2 lead (with a Marleau hat trick, sigh) in the bag, there was nothing left but to watch the useless part of the lame duck game and the thuggery by the opps.

Over a full day later, and I still haven't heard the end of it. I have permission to PVR game 2 tomorrow, but "don't think I won't tape it at this point".

All this time prototyping and trying to perfect it before showing any real signs of life, and it had to end up this way. At least the Sharks won.

[mikbro]

On behalf of all the Husbands out there first let me express my sincerest aplogies on behalf of those of my gender and marital status...

Any man lucky enough to have as tech savy a wife as you should be fully supporting your endeavors - nay - lauding them to all who will listen!

To you, ToonGal I say hurrah, hurrah!

[olyar15]

Well, I think in your defence, if he had taped it, wouldn't he have taped the exact same show? It seems that this was a problem with the guide information, and unless you local TV listings are more up-to-date.

[ToonGal]

@olyar15:
Depends on the source of TV guide info. Probably wouldn't have been Zap2It.

Part II:
Being a bright sunny Saturday, I took our son out for the morning to the library (story time), shopping, and lunch. I was in no rush to get home, because the PVR was programmed to tape ABC's game 2 at noon for 5 hours (in case it went to 4OT+), and I could start watching by 1-2pm when we got home. My spouse chose not to partake, napping and 'wanting to watch the game live, just to avoid any issues.' Fine. The boy and I had fun.

Taping miscues notwithstanding, I was positive this was going to work out just fine. Game was about 2 hours in when I started watching. Q1 was exciting, even though SJ was down 0-1. As if karma was there to balance the score, the spouse came in and asked, "Is the score 3-1 yet...?"

The only reason I -didn't- go for manslaughter (crime of passion; not pre-meditated), was the larger karma that balances marital 'events'. That, and I was glad to see SJ got the 2nd goal instead of Col, given this information...

@mikbro:
With all the smart men populating this board, I have the spouse who doesn't seem to understand the first thing about PVRs...

[turak]

I've had the same problem with flyers games. Almost all of the flyers games are on comcast sportsnet here and blacked out on the other channels. If a flyers game is being covered by ESPN, my tivo always records ESPN instead of CSN. It also took me longer then it should have to learn that I needed to add an extra half hour onto the games for (regular season) OT. Go Flyers!

[phenixdragon]

Blah, THE BLUES are out so there is nothing left to watch until next season – that is if there is a next season