# Who watches two live programs at once?



## Wolffpack (Jul 29, 2003)

Those of you with a DTivo and two SAT lines connected....How many of you switch between two live shows at the same time? Quite often I find I want to watch a live program and not wait for commercials. So as I hit a commercial I press pause and switch to the other tuner to find something else to watch for a bit.

I watch that until a commercial (or if it's a movie channel for a long enough time so I know my first show is out of commercial). Then I switch to the other tuner and skip ahead and watch it until commercial. Then I switch to the other tuner.....you can see where this is going.

I do this a couple of times a week with my DTivos. Does anyone else?


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## damondlt (Feb 27, 2006)

I don't. why would you? I think I used my PIP on my tv once.Just to see what it looked like. I sure as heck wouldn't pay extra for it.Or run two wires for it .DVD RECORDER.,, VCR. Thats what they are for.


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## spanishannouncetable (Apr 23, 2002)

I do this during football season, keeping 2 games going and skipping commercials.

Otherwise I just timeshift everything else. NFL games are as close as I get to live TV any more


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## opus74 (Mar 8, 2006)

spanishannouncetable said:


> I do this during football season, keeping 2 games going and skipping commercials.
> 
> Otherwise I just timeshift everything else. NFL games are as close as I get to live TV any more


Same here. 2 tuners are great for NFL.


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## socceteer (Apr 22, 2005)

I am the ultimate surfer....i would switch channels even when I am interested in watching some show. I as well switch to other inputs or channels while the show is recorded and then go back and skip commercials. unfortunately I bought a new TV without PIP, and If I am recording 2 shows, I jump back and forth. It drives my finance crazy. I think I am ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) :lol:


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## Earl Bonovich (Nov 15, 2005)

Both of them being live?

That is pretty much only usually on on Sunday's (all year round).
Two football games, I will toggle between them... usually watching my primary game, but on brakes checking the others.

Lately (like last Sunday) kept an eye on some College basketball games, while the Ford Championship Golf was on the other tuner.

Other than that.... everything else is watched via recordings (some I start about 50% into them, but a good 80% are watched days later)


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## spartanstew (Nov 16, 2005)

I do it with sports quite a bit (every weekend).


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## morgantown (Nov 16, 2005)

Primarily sports. 

But also with other programs just to do a quick check of the news (CNN, ESPN, etc.) or whatever else may be "breaking news" or whatever, of the day.

It is nice to be able to pause what you might be even half watching and just channel surf for a couple of minutes and then be able to go back and FF the commercials.


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## carl6 (Nov 16, 2005)

Wife factor is a major consideration.

If she is watching with me, NEVER. She hates channel surfing or switching during commercials, etc.

If she is not watching with me, not too often. Typically during the day I might have two news channels tuned, and swap between them sometimes.

I'm not much of a sports fan, so most often find the TV off on Sundays.

However, I can fully appreciate the functionality of dual live buffers, and on the rare occasions that I do use them, I love them. However I also find that I can live without them (on the R15) if I have to. Would rather have them than not and do hope to see them added to the R15.

Carl


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## crkeehn (Apr 23, 2002)

The only time I use it is when baseball and football interlap and the REdskins and Nationals are playing at the same time. Then I flip back and forth. Otherwise I primarily watch prerecorded.


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## skitzel (Mar 4, 2006)

I do that constantly. I thought it was the best feature of it.


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## Wolffpack (Jul 29, 2003)

The original reason for my post was that I believe dual live buffers are the toys a true channel surfer needs.

By channel surfer, and I'm referring to myself, I'm talking about someone that watches one show live but when the commercials hit feel the need to surf. I put the primary tuner on pause, switch to the other tuner and go at it. Find something to watch other than the other show I'm watching. A true Man thing.

When I run short of other shows to watch, jump back to my main show, skip past the commercial that original caused me to start surfing, and continue watching until the next commercial.

Hey, from my standpoint the R15 really needs this feature.


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## morgantown (Nov 16, 2005)

Wolffpack said:


> The original reason for my post was that I believe dual live buffers are the toys a true channel surfer needs.
> 
> By channel surfer, and I'm referring to myself, I'm talking about someone that watches one show live but when the commercials hit feel the need to surf. I put the primary tuner on pause, switch to the other tuner and go at it. Find something to watch other than the other show I'm watching. A true Man thing.
> 
> ...


AMEN.


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## NVBlue (Aug 4, 2005)

I record one show and watch another at times.


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## Bobman (Jan 3, 2006)

Wolffpack said:


> By channel surfer, and I'm referring to myself, I'm talking about someone that watches one show live but when the commercials hit feel the need to surf.


I always thought from being in the TiVo Coummunity forums for many years that the entire point of having a DVR is so you dont have to do what you are doing. You just record everything and anything that interests you so you can watch it on your schedule.

I myself dont care about the buffers at all and they are fine how they are for my uses.


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## cheer (Nov 9, 2005)

I'd say that's generally true -- 90% of what I watch is recorded stuff.

However there are times when I need/want to watch live tv:

Sports
News
Nothing good recorded
All the recorded stuff is stuff my wife and I watch together, but she's not here or asleep or something
In those cases, it's convenient to have dual buffers.


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## skitzel (Mar 4, 2006)

Your preaching to the choir here Wolfpack.


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## KSbugeater (Feb 17, 2005)

I, too, used the dual buffers to toggle between NFL games not involving my team (meaning I don't care as much). Sometimes I'd even have a 3rd game in PIP via my TV's tuner (but I can't rewind that one).

I have a feeling that next week I'll be doing this with NCAA tournament games. I won't want to actually use disk space, but our local CBS affiliate is going to show other games on subchannels. I can watch the analog game with the TV tuner, and the alternate games on the 2 subchannels with the HD TiVo. And the image will be bigger/clearer than on D*s NCAA mix channel. 

March Madness - better than ever this year!


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## RCY (Nov 17, 2005)

Yes, I do that quite a bit, and as others have said, often in football season.


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## spartanstew (Nov 16, 2005)

Bobman said:


> I always thought from being in the TiVo Coummunity forums for many years that the entire point of having a DVR is so you dont have to do what you are doing. You just record everything and anything that interests you so you can watch it on your schedule.
> 
> I myself dont care about the buffers at all and they are fine how they are for my uses.


We watch recorded stuff when it's family viewing time (in the evening when the wife and I are sitting down to watch TV without distractions).

During the day (weekends) and early evening (weeknights) when we're doing other things and watching TV (paying bills, cooking dinner, laundry, etc.) we're usually watching live TV (or sometimes one of our guilty pleasures - peoples court, blind date) so that we don't have to pay a lot of attention. It's during these times that I do a lot of channel surfing and switching tuners.


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## Wolffpack (Jul 29, 2003)

Most of my Live TV viewing is in the middle of the night. As Cheer mentioned I wouldn't dream of watching one of the shows my wife and I record with her sleeping so I hunt around to find two or three things to watch live.


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## LacyinTX (Jan 4, 2006)

I did it just last night. American Idol and Survivor were on at the same time. I switched between the two at commercial breaks. Thursday nights are usually the only time I do that, but I like to BE ABLE to do it. I miss this feature in my R15.


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## AMike (Nov 21, 2005)

KSbugeater said:


> I, too, used the dual buffers to toggle between NFL games not involving my team (meaning I don't care as much). Sometimes I'd even have a 3rd game in PIP via my TV's tuner (but I can't rewind that one).


That is exactly what I do in my theater room or as my wife refers to it as "the lair". I have 3 satellite connections in that room (2 going to the Tivo, 1 to the H20). My television has picture-by-picture so during football season (both college & NFL) I always have 2 games on at the same time. When one of the games on the Tivo goes to commerical, I press the down button on the Tivo to switch to the other game on that tuner.

I have done the same during March Madness in the past, but this will be the first year I've not subscribed to Mega March Madness since the local CBS affilate will be showing other games on their -2 and -3 channels.


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## hongcho (Mar 25, 2004)

Not often, but if I am viewing live, I do it.

Hong.


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## Chris Blount (Jun 22, 2001)

I don't do too much tuner switching. I just record everything and watch it later. I have used the buffer to recover from a goof. Sometimes I accidently delete a show but have the ability to go back in the buffer to recover some if not all of the show. That comes in handy.


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## The_Geyser (Nov 21, 2005)

carl6 said:


> Wife factor is a major consideration.
> 
> If she is watching with me, NEVER. She hates channel surfing or switching during commercials, etc.
> 
> ...


My wife uses the two tuners all of the time. She says the Tivo is not fast enough for her.


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## cybok0 (Jan 5, 2006)

Normaly I record 90% of my shows but football I go back and forth,
and in the am I watch mike & mike and during commercials I switch to sportscenter 
on the other tuner.


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## rrbhokies (May 10, 2004)

I'll do it alot, especially with sports. I hate sitting through commercials!!!


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## morgantown (Nov 16, 2005)

rrbhokies said:


> I'll do it alot, especially with sports. I hate sitting through commercials!!!


Definately a huge plus with all the sports packages.


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## Wolffpack (Jul 29, 2003)

The_Geyser said:


> My wife uses the two tuners all of the time. She says the Tivo is not fast enough for her.


A female surfer. Cool.


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## carl6 (Nov 16, 2005)

Well, now I've got dual 90 minute buffers. Put UHF modulators on my two R15's, and remote extenders, so can flip back and forth between them by changing channels on the tv. Easy way to get to the 4-tuner, dual live buffer DVR.

Carl


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## Wolffpack (Jul 29, 2003)

Just that start of your R15 farm, right?


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## carl6 (Nov 16, 2005)

Wolffpack said:


> Just that start of your R15 farm, right?


Also have an R10 - and I'm not irrigating the farm, so hopefully it won't grow anymore

Carl


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