TVSquad

According to a study performed by NDS, the makers of DVR technology, DVRs within households actually save relationships. 79% of the users polled said the technology has improved their love lives. There are several reasons I find this interesting.

First, the study is done by the manufacturers of the product. While I have no doubt the study is genuine, it is somewhat suspicious that such a favorable report is produced by those who profit from it.

Second, the article does not state exactly how the DVRs help relationships. There could be several reasons, of course. DVRs in the house could lead to a lack of squabbling over the recording of favorite television shows. Since you could watch the shows whenever you want, it could make for couple-bonding time in front of a TV with a DVR.

Most importantly, it could lead to a lack of actual conversation between the couple which means it's less likely that something will be said incorrectly by one party or skeletons will come flying out of the closet to ruin the relationship.

Ain't technology grand?

The unexpected death of Tim Russert two weeks ago prompted numerous tributes and memorials from NBC and MSNBC, but because Russert was a news personality, they really couldn't re-air Meet the Press episodes or the night of the 2000 election to really show Tim Russert's substantive work.

The death of comedian George Carlin on Sunday was just as shocking -- and also attributed to a heart ailment -- but for Mr. Carlin there are many hours of his work available and relevant to rebroadcast. It'll give audiences a chance to re-appreciate his unique brand of comedy. In his long tenure with HBO, George starred in 14 comedy specials. Now, you'll be able to see a few of them one more time.

HBO is presenting a series of encore presentations, including his last concert, George Carlin: It's Bad for You, on Friday, June 27, at 9 o'clock (ET) on HBO (the main channel). The show debuted in March. But that's not all.

I was going to title this post "What are the most DVR'd TV shows?" but wasn't sure if DVR'd is a real word or not. And did I even spell it right?

Anyway, the list of the top 15 recorded shows for the past year has been released, and there are little or no surprises on it. Grey's Anatomy tops this list with 3.78 million viewers, while the Tuesday edition of American Idol comes in a close second with 3.73 million. Full list after the jump!

Let's face it, we get old. Some of us live a long and glorious life, dying happily in our sleep next to the 26-year-old Penthouse Pet of the Month who is just with our wrinkled old selves because we have money. Others live to the ripe old age of 30 and have a wonderful Lastday ceremony. It really doesn't matter...we get old one way or another.

Most of us try not to admit we are getting old. We use dyes, we have surgeries to move things around, and we pump ourselves with poison so our faces to retain that wonder wax museum sheen. Yet, there are those occasions where you hear about something that triggers that little part of your brain that makes you want to whip out the Bran Flakes and prunes. Here are just a few television-related events that may just have you looking for retirement communities in Florida.

While TiVo may have revolutionized television, and even coined a new word as the word TiVo has become synonymous with the digital video recording technology it pioneered. But a company based on a single technology, revolutionary though it may be, can struggle. And since its inception in 1999, TiVo has operated in the red. With other companies undercutting TiVo in the DVR market, the company lashed out at everyone and anyone for infringing on their intellectual ideas.

This New York Times article details that on November 29, the Patent and Trademark Office recognized TiVo's patent on the technology allowing viewers to watch one show while recording another. Couple that with a smaller quarterly loss than anticipated and the company sees a bright future.

Let me be honest here...I got thanks coming out of the wazoo. I have a wonderful family, a good job, food on the table, clothes on my back, and a roof over my head. Plus, I am dashingly handsome, which allowed me to obtain the wonderful family, the good job, etc. But, since this isn't Slashfood or ParentDish I'm really not going to list why I am thankful for the items I listed.

No, this is a list describing why I am thankful for the most important piece of my life: television (Uh, don't tell my wonderful family about that). I mean, without television I would probably be an incredibly literate scholar of 17th century mathematics who is a hit at social gatherings. And, that would pretty much suck, wouldn't it? Television is where it's at, baby, and here are some reasons why I'm thankful for it.

Several of my colleagues here at TV Squad have listed personal video recorders as one of the things they're most thankful for this holiday season.

I wholeheartedly agree with them and think the list could even be extended a little bit further.

We live in an age where our televisions, computers, cellphones, PDAs, PMPs, video game consoles, and a myriad of other products can all communicate with other devices wirelessly and at broadband speeds - all in the pursuit of making the TV watching experience as convenient as possible.

From a technology perspective, it's never been a better time to be a fan of watching TV. Here is a list of the TV related items I'm most thankful for this holiday season.

To be honest, I don't usually think of television as something to be thankful for. This time of year I usually reflect on how lucky I am to have loving husband, a supportive family, and loyal friends. Also, as I'm sure most people do, I pause for a moment of gratitude for the things I take for granted most days: my health, my job, enough to eat, the clothes on my back, etc.

But now that I think about it, after I say thank-you for all the above, I guess I am rather thankful for television (especially on the weeknights). After a long day at work or running errands, I can't say I'm not grateful that a new episode of Cane, The Office, or Boston Legal is on. And on Sundays, the inevitable dreaded Monday morning is made more bearable by Desperate Housewives or some HBO series (I used to love Rome).

Until this week, it was assumed that ABC had won the ratings battle for the first week of the new fall season. But now that they've counted DVR playback, it looks like it was actually CBS that won that week.

But it was close after all the numbers were counted. CBS averaged 12.5 million viewers, while ABC averaged 12.4 million. NBC averaged 10.5 million, FOX averaged 7.3 million, and I think The CW had some shows on that week too.

Living without cable can be a real hassle... especially when one's job depends on it. "TV blogger" kind of implies the need for TV. I recently moved into an apartment where there is absolutely no option for cable television and had no choice but to look into alternative methods of getting quick access to TV. Enter Slingbox, about which I have been hearing nothing but glowing reviews. It's been around for a while, sure, but I haven't had any need for it until now.

For those of you who don't know what a Slingbox is, here's the short explanation: It's a box that you hook up to your home's cable and Internet. Once you grant that Slingbox remote access, you can watch your home's cable TV and access TiVo or DVR on your computer, from anywhere in the world. No subscription is required; it's a one-time purchase. The only catch is that if you're watching your home TV with your laptop in a hotel states away, your family back in the house cannot change channels on that home TV. Not too big of a deal, I think, unless you're already an inconsiderate TV hog. Anyway, since my current apartment isn't my permanent residence, I have cable set up in my house in Florida and I'm doing this whole Slingbox thing.

I was originally going to buy the basic tuner from the official website for about $129, but then I checked out Amazon and saw the same thing for $99.99. Just as I was about to buy it, my family in Florida insisted that they look around in stores before I buy anything, to save on shipping and handling. So here's the best part...

The Digital Video Recorder (known henceforth as DVR) is a heavenly, yet evil, device. On the one hand, it lets you record and store shows for easy retrieval. Some models even permit you to record two shows that are airing at the same time. On the other hand, it lets you record and store shows, some of them airing at the same time, that you may never, ever get to watch.

I thought about this as I went through my own list of DVR recordings. Some shows I have on the unit are from the beginning of the summer. Others are items that my wife saves. Still others are those recorded by my six-year-old daughter, who recently learned how to program the darn thing (kid needs to be in M.I.T.).

So, what I wanted to know from you, the devoted TV Squad reader, is what shows you have on your DVR. I'll tell you mine (after the jump) if you tell me yours.

According to a recent survey that answer may be 'yes'. However, since the survey was conducted by IBM there may be a bit of favoritism towards the Superinternethighway. Not that I'm pointing fingers or anything, but the survey was conducted by IBM.

Did I say that the survey was conducted by computer company IBM? Just wanted to make sure.

What the survey found was that more people are spending time on the Internet rather than with their TV. Nineteen percent said that they spend six hours or more surfing the web. This is opposed to the 8% who watch television for the same amount of time. Ironically, these Internet users are spending most of their time on sites that contain television material. Thirty-nine percent of those surveyed mentioned that they spend most of their time viewing content on YouTube, while 33% go over to network TV sites.

While PVR remains nowhere to be seen in the official Merriam-Webster dictionary, DVR has made it onto a list of new words in the latest version of the dictionary. Since personal video recorders and digital video recorders are pretty much the same thing, we're going to take that as a good start.

For the record, the definition is exactly three words long: digital video recorder. Deep. Here's a few of the other words that made this year's list:

• ginormous
• Bollywood
• crunk
• IED (improvised explosive device)
• telenovelas
• smackdown
• speed dating
• soduku

What criteria did the dictionary editors use? Basically, they've decided that these words are not just popular today, but have staying power and are likely to be used in years to come.

Personal video recorders are great at letting you record a library of shows and watch them on your own schedule. But for TV viewers who prefer to watch their programs according to their broadcast schedule, the most attractive features of a PVR might be the ability to pause and rewind "live" TV.

It looks like several manufacturers are working on a "Pause TV" reference design that would let you pause and rewind television shows without recording complete programs to a hard drive.

Pause TV would most likely use flash memory, although it could also be hard drive based. A TV tuner and flash memory would be integrated into a TV set, allowing you to hit pause, go get a snack, come back and keep watching. 4GB of flash memory would be enough to record about an hour of video at DVD quality.

But there are some technical limits. In order to work, your TV will have to record every program you watch to flash memory. And flash memory has limited write cycles. That's not generally a problem with the flash card in your digital camera, because it's only used periodically and not really expected to last ten years. But you don't want your flash memory dying before the rest of the TV set. Unless you really need an excuse to buy a new TV in a few years anyway.

"A commercial has to be like a DVD extra. It has to be an added value, not an inconvenience."

That quote comes from Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University. Thompson's quote is part of this article that looks at the myriad ways networks are trying to get around the problem of DVRs and ad skipping.

I lead off with Thompson's quote because I think he's right. It used to be enough to just inundate viewers with advertisements of various quality, but now that we have more control over what we watch, advertisers need to work harder to keep our attention.