To my annoyance, my parents decided (yet again) to change to another satellite provider. In the last 10 years, my parents have moved from DISH network to Comcast to Direct TV and now back to DISH Network. There could be more but I have probably repressed it.
With this last upgrade, we acquired DVR capabilities on two TVs. While I am perfectly fine to just get a VHS tape (those are rectangular objects with tape inside that records TV or movies), I was excited to join the world of digital recording (much to the joy of my friend, Jen-knee).
Most of my shows are on summer hiatus, but I loaded in some of my favorites to test. After the initial set up I awaited the joy of not having to rewind or fast-forward on one of my 3 remaining Walmart tapes (I started with a brick of 10) to watch something I would have missed otherwise. The first week was fun as my parents didn't really watch TV but then today the unmentionable happened - something was DELETED!! My parents came into the equation and I discovered the ridiculousness of the DISH Network hookup.
You see I missed a little known fact... a stupid fact. There are four TVs with satellite (bedroom, kitchen, living room, and computer room) and two of them have DVR... BUT only one of these DVR TVs includes a box (living room). The other (computer room) is completely reliant on the other's box. This moronic set up makes it so that the two TVs can watch two different shows EXCEPT when the DVR is recording.
So when the technologically impaired 'rents decided to watch TV in the computer room (and I'm trying to record, let's say... Gilmore Girls) the parentals push buttons until they can watch TV (this also cancels the recording).
My parent's solution: "Just let us know when you are recording."
But I ask the obvious question... Isn't that what DVR is all about? Not having to have Mom act as my DVR and remember when I'm recording. Also, I was looking forward to just setting my shows to record and not having to know when the season premiere is scheduled or when re-runs end and a new episode is on. OR recording anything that includes 30 Seconds to Mars or when Jared Leto decides to make an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel.
So far, my love of the DVR has not grown. In fact, it has caused a some minor irritation but hopefully with time I will train the parents on proper DVR etiquette, learn where the hell my FUSE channel is in the new 9999 channels, and eventually give up the almost thread-bear VHS tapes that still rest next to my trusty Mitsubishi VCR.
