A Horrific Discovery

Dear DVR,

Why is your default recording setting "record 5 episodes"? Don't you realize by now that I (and I would imagine many, many DVR owners) don't tend to watch all of our TV in a reasonable amount of time?

Case in point:

As of this afternoon, I still had a good 20 episodes of Oprah left. I flipped on the DVR because I realized that it was the beginning of July, and to be 2 months behind on a syndicated talk show was not really good form. So during my lunch, I turned on the episode with the Obamas, only to discover that this was also the day after Osama bin Laden had been killed (it's been 2 months, folks! Can you believe it?), which meant that the local news had preempted Oprah to discuss bin Laden (note that Ellen did not get preempted. Who's more powerful in television now?).

No big deal, I thought. I'll just start taping the summer reruns and see if the Obama episode would come back on.

I set the DVR to tape the season and then flipped on the next episode in my queue: Shania Twain. I watched part of it, then went back to work.

Fast forward to this evening, when I want to see why Shania lost her voice. Except that I can't--I've gone from 20 episodes of Oprah in my queue to 5.


Say what?


Oh yeah. If you want to record a TV series with my DVR, the default setting is "keep the 5 most recent episodes." When Oprah recorded this afternoon, it started the Oprah cycle all over again.

In a sense, it's not a shame -- I should've kept up a little bit better -- but it's a sign that I probably shouldn't watch so much TV. Still, it's the final few episodes (20's a few, right?!), and it's fun to watch the end of an era.  I guess I'll just have to see what else I can catch this summer on reruns or through the Oprah: Behind the Scenes show (you're watching it, right?!  It's excellent!  I love seeing how shows get put together!)

Anyway, I've certainly gotten today's lesson on checking and doublechecking. Whenever I'll learn that lesson is a different story.

Your pal,
Jill