Tikkabik

Months ago I traded in my old cable box to Comcast for a model with digital video recording (DVR) capabilities. It's changed my TV viewing habits 180 degrees.

I've got a whole bunch of shows that I watch on a regular basis. 24, Lost, The Shield, Enterprise (at least until it ends in May), Stargate SG:1, Stargate Atlantis and Battlestar Galactica round out my absolute must-watch shows. The kids have a few cartoons they like to see, and Bonnie has her things as well (amazingly, none of our shows overlap). I've set the DVR up to record them all.

It may seem that having a DVR would cause me to watch more TV, but in fact, I'm watching a lot less. I'm sure Comcast and advertisers don't want to hear that, but it's true. It sounds counterintuitive, but it's absolutely the case.

Now that I know with some reliability that the shows I watch are going to be recorded so I can watch them later, I'm not likely to watch TV at the same times as I usually do. Before the DVR, if there was one show I wanted to watch during the night, I probably would -- and I'd often sit for an hour before or after the show channel surfing, trying to find something to entertain me. I don't do that anymore.

I can fit TV viewing into my schedule -- Battlestar Galactica is a perfect case in point. I'm often starting to doze off at 10PM on Friday night (I know, it's pathetic). Lately I've been watching it on Saturday morning instead.

Best of all, I don't feel obliged to watch something rather than do something else. I can get a bit of work done during prime-time, for example, or I can watch a Netflix disc (tonight's a perfect example -- The Shield is on at 10, but Bonnie just came home from the library tonight with Ray on DVD).

The biggest win is the ability to scan right through ads. It's nice to ride right over those annoying-as-hell Seaworld ads without having to hear that shrieking jingle. Or blast past Toyota's blanket ad coverage.

I've got some problems with the interface of the Motorola DVR that Comcast distributes. The software isn't nearly as well-designed as TiVo's. The user interface just plain sucks. It's good enough for what I need to do 99 percent of the time, however. And its integration with the cable tuner makes a difference, as does the low monthy rate I pay (I save myself having to buy a discrete unit -- it's just $10 more a month to have the DVR added to my cable bill).