A technological dilemma

With the Olympics in full swing I am reminded of how much I have come to rely on the DVR (Digital Video Recorder). It is not uncommon for CNBC to be broadcasting the curling match I want to watch, while NBC simultaneously is showing a variety of events that I also want to see. Plus, I don’t want to miss any of my regular shows.

Today, I am in charge of running the boy’s basketball concessions with my Link Leaders; therefore, yesterday I was preparing my DVR for a busy night of recording my favorite TV shows: Survivor, Vampire Diaries, Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, and Project Runway. Typically, despite the quantity of shows I dare not miss, I never have a problem plugging in all the Thursday shows I want to save for later. However, yesterday when I was programming my TiVo I ran into a glitch: only two programs can be recorded at a time—usually a non-issue, but usually the Olympics are not on TV. In addition to my plethora of regular shows, I also wanted to record the NBC footage starting at seven o’clock (it’s time for women’s ice skating) and my fiancé wanted to TiVo the US women playing Canada in hockey. Dilemma.

Had this been the 2006 Olympics I would have been bummed to possibly have to miss a few shows, but never angry that I could not record them. In 2006 if I had wanted to see a show during a time when I could not be home, I recorded it on a VHS tape. Back then I could never tape more than one show at a time, much less two! Now, in 2010, I can record two shows at once plus catch most previously broadcast shows on Hulu or directly on network sites.

Conversely, as it turned out, the DRV dilemma was a much simpler one to solve than I had first thought: Vampire Diaries, Grey’s Anatomy, and Private Practice are all reruns tonight.

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