DVR With a Mind of Its Own

Our DVR has really changed how we watch TV.  In the dark ages, aka the days of the VCR, if we wanted to record a show we needed to first find a VCR tape with enough space for the show.  Then, we needed to set the time and day.  After recording, when we wanted to watch our shows, we would need to remember which tapes held which shows and then would need to fast-forward to just the right spot to begin our show.  If we completed a show in the middle of the tape, we often needed to wait for more shows before and after it to be watched before the tape could be reused.  It was so inconvenient that we would often simply opt not to watch a show at all.

When we got the DVR, that all changed.  We could pick a show to record from a listing, hit record and have it ready to go.  We could even tell the DVR to record all new episodes of a particular show.  When we were ready to watch, there was no tape-position-juggling.  We just selected it from the list and we were watching it.  When we were done, we could just hit delete and the space was available for new shows to record.

Recently, however, our DVR has developed a mind of its own.  It started slowly, recording a rouge program here or there.  It wasn’t consistent and, frankly, I thought it was NHL trying to record new shows to watch.  Then, the DVR began recording old episodes of shows when we had told it to only record new episodes.  Finally, it started branching out into completely new shows.  The shows wouldn’t appear in any listing, but would wind up being recorded anyway.

I’m not too sure what our options are.  Check that.  I know exactly what our option is and I don’t like it.  We’ve had DVRs go bad before and they were replaced.  This is nice, but it means that we lose all of the recordings that we had before.  Apparently, there is no way to transfer them from one box to another and no way to export them.

I’m not worried about the average recorded show, but there are some recordings on there that have sentimental value.  Things that won’t ever be replayed, released on DVD or streamed via Roku.  I’d rather not lose those if at all possible.

So, until we figure out a solution, it looks like we’ll have to put up with our crazy DVR.