We have a PVR on our TV and one of the biggest benefits for me is the ability to all but avoid commercials – either by recording programs and watching them at a later time or even while watching a show in near real-time.
This is especially useful for “event” television like oh, I don’t know, the SUPER BOWL? (Did anybody catch Dana Carvey on SNL last night? I’m having flashbacks obviously!)
I’ve become a master of watching the first five or so minutes of a program then going away and doing something else for half an hour or an hour then coming back and watching the rest of the program in near-real time. With the ability to fast forward through all the commercials. I’ve even become so skilled that I frequently am able to “catch up” to live TV just as the hockey game or football game or whatever is nearly over so I can still watch the ending live!
It’s so wonderful to “gain” that hour at the start of the show to do something constructive rather than “getting more chips” or “bathroom break” which is about all you have time to do during the commercials if you’re watching live.
The only caveat – make sure you *never* log in to Facebook, Twtiter or pretty much anywhere online if you don’t want to have the score spoiled for you! (Even last night, watching the Flames game on HNIC, my iPhone kept beeping with push notifications every time a goal was scored. I didn’t look at it so at least I didn’t know *who* had scored!)