# "mark as unread / unviewed" for shows?



## rbrome (Aug 18, 2006)

I would REALLY love to see an option to let you mark a show as "not watched", much like marking an email as "unread" in my email inbox.

I often find myself playing a show, only to stop it right away, thinking "oh it IS that new episode" or "oh it IS that episode I missed last year and wanted to watch." ... but I don't want to watch it just then. I want to stop it and flag it in a way that I won't forget to watch it at a later time. Or I might get half-way through a show and simply decide that I need to get to bed... but I don't want to forget to watch the end!

Perhaps it's because most of my TV-watching is at night, right before I go to bed, as a way to wind down. It works really well that way for me. I LOVE that my DVR allows me to put my TV-watching on my schedule, when I'm ready to start tuning out the real word and winding down for sleep.

But when my eyelids are finally falling, I don't want to have to stay up an extra hour just because I started a show five minutes ago that I don't want to miss, and I don't want to forget about it the next night when it shows up in my list greyed-out (meaning already-watched).

I need a way to say "save this for later / I'm not finished watching this".

Right now, I have to keep a notebook of unwatched and half-watched shows and keep it updated between my living room and bedroom. That's *crazy*! This functionality is simple and should be part of my DVR.

I bought a DVR because I like TV, but I need it to work around MY schedule. 2- and 1-hour programs are LONG. If I have to plan my whole night around them, or stay up late and be tired the whole next day to watch them, then the DVR isn't making TV fit my schedule, which is supposed to be the whole point!


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## inkahauts (Nov 13, 2006)

Notebook? Why don't you just erase all shows you have watched in their entirety? (it prompts you at the end of a show to delete) Then you will know that if its in your playlist, you haven't finished it yet. I could see them making it so that you had to watch the first 15 min of a program to shade to watched or something, but not what your asking for...


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## GregLee (Dec 28, 2005)

inkahauts said:


> Why don't you just erase all shows you have watched in their entirety?


My wife may not have watched them.


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## Redlinetire (Jul 24, 2007)

rbrome said:


> I often find myself playing a show, only to stop it right away, thinking "oh it IS that new episode" or "oh it IS that episode I missed last year and wanted to watch." ... but I don't want to watch it just then.


I watch a TON of old TV on RTN, but before I watch an episode I just look at the guide data to see if I've seen it before. Wouldn't that be simpler than two notebooks? (although if you're syncing between two DVRs, that would be harder)

Granted, the guide data isn't always the best but it is improving....


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## Redlinetire (Jul 24, 2007)

GregLee said:


> My wife may not have watched them.


In that scenario, how would you and your wife know what each other has watched?

You would want a separate 'unwatched' flag for each user?


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## dcowboy7 (May 23, 2008)

1. i thought the unwatched shows are highlited in the playlist ?

2. if u watch 10 miutes of a 30 minute show and stop...the next time u go into the show it will have a resume option....so then u know u watched up to that point before.


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## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

I would use this, and I encourage rbrome to collaborate with Steve to put this on the Wish List.


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## Greg Alsobrook (Apr 2, 2007)

There have been several times where my wife or I would have used this... Good call rbrome.... I vote yes...


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## bradfjoh (Jul 18, 2007)

+1. I would definitely use this.


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## GregLee (Dec 28, 2005)

Redlinetire said:


> In that scenario, how would you and your wife know what each other has watched?


Who says we would?

By the way, I think you can actually mark shows as unwatched: by watching them. When the resume pointer has gone to the end but the show not deleted, it shows as bright again in the program guide. At least, I think I've noticed that.


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## Thaedron (Jun 29, 2007)

Would be nice to "unwatch" something that you peeked at, but didn't watch. 

Per user flagging would be nice as well, but that's probably only available as a feature in fantasy land.


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## Thaedron (Jun 29, 2007)

GregLee said:


> By the way, I think you can actually mark shows as unwatched: by watching them. When the resume pointer has gone to the end but the show not deleted, it shows as bright again in the program guide. At least, I think I've noticed that.


I've never experienced this behavior.


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## evan_s (Mar 4, 2008)

I think the concept of users would be great for a DVR. I can see several things that would tie in well.

Content restrictions could be tied into users. Different users could have different content restriction levels.

Keep until watched by X users would be great for those situations where you have multiple people interested in a show but may not be watching it at the same time. This will be even more useful once MRV is implemented and they don't even have to view it on that receiver.


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## Valor55 (Dec 31, 2003)

I just watched the most recent Deadliest Catch. My wife is gonna be pissed when she sees I watched it without her. I'd love a "Mark Unwatched" option. 

Seriously, I would like this to help keep track of what and when we all watch something.


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## dbronstein (Oct 21, 2002)

evan_s said:


> I think the concept of users would be great for a DVR. I can see several things that would tie in well.
> 
> Content restrictions could be tied into users. Different users could have different content restriction levels.
> 
> Keep until watched by X users would be great for those situations where you have multiple people interested in a show but may not be watching it at the same time. This will be even more useful once MRV is implemented and they don't even have to view it on that receiver.


This is a great idea in theory. I'm having trouble seeing how it could be implemented without being really annoying. You'd have to log in every time you start watching TV. I really don't want to enter a user name (or select one from a list) and password every time I watch TV. And you would need to use passwords if it is going to be tied to content restrictions.

And I don't see how "mark as read" is useful without being tied to users. If you have a single user, you watch something and delete it. If it's not deleted, you know you haven't finished watching it. With multiple viewers, it doesn't do any good to mark a show as read if you don't know who's watched it and who hasn't. You still have to ask everyone.


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## GregLee (Dec 28, 2005)

dbronstein said:


> This is a great idea in theory. I'm having trouble seeing how it could be implemented without being really annoying.


We'd need a video camera add-on so the system software could sense who is watching and play or refuse to play requested recordings under the appropriate circumstances. You're watching an R-rated movie and your 11-year old enters the room. The Hxxx reacts immediately by blanking the screen and flashing a large red message demanding that the child leave -- and it watches to see that he does.


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## xzi (Sep 18, 2007)

Media Center handles this with a "keep until" function where you choose...

1. Until I Watch
2. Until I Decide
2. Until I Need Space
3. Forever

something along those lines. Can't wait for the HDPC-20... DirecTV programming with the Media Center DVR (which had done MRV for years now, BTW) would be the best. Oh, and no DVR fees...


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## mogulman (Mar 19, 2007)

xzi said:


> Media Center handles this with a "keep until" function where you choose...
> 
> 1. Until I Watch
> 2. Until I Decide
> ...


That isn't the same thing. I could keep something for a very long time with a 1 TB drive. I just want to know if the show is watched or not.

Having the ability to change the flag manually would be great for me. I usually let the DVR change it from bright to gray for being watched. Sometimes you hit play for a sec or something and it changes to gray. I'd love to be able to change it back to being unwatched.


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## Drew2k (Aug 16, 2006)

I would use this. I often have a full playlist and have accidentally clicked on the wrong title in the list and had to back out, and don't like that it's no longer listed as "New" because I watched 1 second of it.


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## rbrome (Aug 18, 2006)

inkahauts said:


> Notebook? Why don't you just erase all shows you have watched in their entirety? (it prompts you at the end of a show to delete) Then you will know that if its in your playlist, you haven't finished it yet. I could see them making it so that you had to watch the first 15 min of a program to shade to watched or something, but not what your asking for...


I don't delete shows unless I'm really sure I will never care to watch it again. I let the DVR delete them as necessary.

There are too many times where I mention something great I saw on TV to a friend, they say "I missed that" and I want to say "it's on my DVR, come over and watch it" or, if we're already at my house: "here, let's watch it now!"


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## rbrome (Aug 18, 2006)

Redlinetire said:


> I watch a TON of old TV on RTN, but before I watch an episode I just look at the guide data to see if I've seen it before. Wouldn't that be simpler than two notebooks? (although if you're syncing between two DVRs, that would be harder)
> 
> Granted, the guide data isn't always the best but it is improving....


I don't have every episode title memorized for the shows I like. Heck, I don't even pay attention to episode titles most of the time. The descriptions are either too short or just suck for most shows. I know that's not DirecTV's fault, but it means I often find myself forced to start watching a show to know what episode it is.

Then there are shows like The Daily Show, which never have any useful guide data... ever.


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## Valor55 (Dec 31, 2003)

GregLee said:


> We'd need a video camera add-on so the system software could sense who is watching and play or refuse to play requested recordings under the appropriate circumstances. You're watching an R-rated movie and your 11-year old enters the room. The Hxxx reacts immediately by blanking the screen and flashing a large red message demanding that the child leave -- and it watches to see that he does.


It would be easier to just keep the Holodeck door locked.


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## GregLee (Dec 28, 2005)

rbrome said:


> The descriptions are either too short or just suck for most shows. I know that's not DirecTV's fault, ...


It isn't? The TitanTV on-line guide has much more information than D*. Here's a random example: a movie on HBO about Joe Louis coming up shortly is described in the D* guide this way -- _The iconic boxer's life and career._ But in the TitanTV guide, it's _The life of one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time, Joe Louis, known as the "Brown Bomber" is chronicled, as celebrities, including Maya Angelou and Jerry Lewis, discuss the man who became an iconic figure during World War II._


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## xzi (Sep 18, 2007)

mogulman said:


> That isn't the same thing. I could keep something for a very long time with a 1 TB drive. I just want to know if the show is watched or not.
> 
> Having the ability to change the flag manually would be great for me. I usually let the DVR change it from bright to gray for being watched. Sometimes you hit play for a sec or something and it changes to gray. I'd love to be able to change it back to being unwatched.


Yes, I know. The next closest thing on Media Center is that if you re-watch a show it says "resume" isntead of "Play" so you know you've already watched it. The combination of these two can be used to do what you want to do.

Also, since Media Center is just .dvr-ms files, you can always look at "last accessed" dates and know what you'd watched already. Hell, you can setup a "watched" folder with a script that runs that moves files into a "watched" folder. Tons of options.

Oh, and it automatically skips commercials too


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