Tech Blog

[#1]

These days I rarely watch 'live' TV. Once upon a time, you planted your butt on the couch and grabbed the remote. Done, TV was being watched.

That was then, this is now.

Since the days of the home VCR, timeshifting my TV watching activity has been the best way to make my own TV schedule and not be at the mercy of the network's broadcasting schedule.

And since technology is never one to let a good solution alone, we now have a huge variety of ways to watch our favourite TV programs, I'll look at a few:

Service-based PVR - provided by your TV provider, this is the modern equivalent of the Home VCR. Just program in which programs you want to record, and then watch them later - with commercials included, for your viewing pleasure.

Stream to your computer - visit the TV Show website and watch older episodes there. Disadvantage is that you have to be at your computer to watch TV, not the most comfortable chair in the house.

Purchase

• Online - Various online stores let you buy and download single episodes of TV shows and movies, for viewing on your computer or mobile entertainment system (iPod, iPhone, etc). Nice that you can watch the show on the bus or train, but the image is small and depending on the anti-piracy scheme, may prevent you from copying the show to other devices.
• DVD - Traditional brick & mortar shops as well as online stores all offer popular TV shows, neatly bundled up in seasons, for your viewing pleasure. Upside is that this is likely the best quality you can get, and you can watch the shows, commercial free, when you want. Downside is that the media can be damaged and is also subject to agressive anti-piracy measures which, depending on your hardware setup, may prevent you from viewing the show.

Download via Torrent - This one is in a legal grey area, but it is another way you can catch up on shows you've missed etc. Again, you have to watch them on your computer, or networked Home Media Centre. Advantage is that once you've got the show,  you can move it to whichever device you need to view it on. Disadvantage is that the quality can be worse. You could also expose your computer to malware. 

Of course, there are other ways to view your shows - devices like the slingbox let you watch your home TV/PVR remotely through the internet on a laptop, desktop or mobile device. Which is kinda cool when you need to catch up on Lost before your afternoon coffee break bull-session at work

But that's just me, how do you watch TV these days? Do you 'couch potatoe' it or carefully plan and program?

Message Edited by bgrier on 10-21-2009 02:45 PM

[#2]

Visiting a tv program website is a good idea, but many of those US-based websites do not allow us folk in Canada to watch episodes on their sites, and block our IPs.  Most of the Canadian networks are posting complete episodes of shows on their websites, but it is not every show of course, so there is a good chance a favorite program won't be available by that method.

[#3]

Yeah, TV is getting stranger and stranger. The businesses don't seem to care about the viewer, just maintaining their business model.

I heard that by using anonymous proxy software, you can get some of the foreign TV websites to playback their content, but I've not tried it myself. It's far easier to rent/borrow DVDs from the library