How are you watching the Olympics?

I feel like I'm drowning in the opiate of the Olympics.

I know that it's possible to keep up-to-the-minute track of how events are going, either by mobile phone (if your wireless carrier is AT&T), or online through the official site or host network NBC (long as you have a Windows XP or later operating system for the network's clips; stuck with Windows 2000 at work -- I know! Shut up! -- I can't even watch NBC's online highlights here at Times Central). But that doesn't matter to me.

Because I'm using my digital video recorder to turn the olympics into a time-shifted, family-friendly event.

Basically, my TiVo-like DVR has been commanded to record the Today show and NBC's prime time Olympics coverage. Not to quibble with this olympics/DVR dissertation by my St. Petersburg neighbor and media guru Frank Maggio, but I find with my two-tuner DVR, I can make dinner or watch some other programming until about 9 p.m., click onto NBC's ongoing coverage and watch only the coolest events.

The Today show has proven a great place to catch up on results that may not have been shown in prime time or that went late (I missed the USA men's gymnastics results fro a few days ago, for example, but caught them on Today the next morning). Waking at 8 a.m., I can similarly breeze through parts of the morning show I can't stand and focus on the stuff that matters to me.

Since I'm not a sports fan, this works well; the kids, my wife and I can check out gymnastics and swimming and breeze past the beach volleyball (maybe I'll watch that later alone :) ).

And while I'm still a little snarked by NBC's light touch on the negatives -- and mystified that the network hired maniacal Romanian ex-coach Bela Karolyi as an analyst when you can only understand every other word coming out his mouth -- I find this approach works very well for me.

What about you, blog buddies? How are you keeping up with the 3,600 hours of coverage NBC is offering this time around?      

Comments

[John]

I watch only the NBC broadcast. No cable. But I usually have it on from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. with a novel handy for the numerous commercial breaks.

Whatever faking NBC and the Chinese have done and however many medals Michael Phelps ends up with, the image that burns deepest with me is the dense and dirty smog in every daytime outdoor shot of Beijing.

[joe hillman]

i haven't watched one minute of the olympics. too busy with baseball and football.

[SM]

Ugh.. the dreaded return of alarm clock agony. School starts in just under 2 weeks up here.

Truth be told Eric, I've been slacking off a little since our day camp isn't overly picky about what time we get there. Yet I never seem to actually remain asleep beyond 7am, try as I might!

We haven't been relying on tivo too much for the Olympics. I'm so impressed with the level of athleticism involved to compete at this level that I'll tune in to whatever's featured during the primetime coverage. Doesn't mean I'll watch all of it, but I like checking it out. My husband, on the other hand, will tivo certain events.

[Eric Deggans]

That's my summer sked. Once the kids get back in school, I'll be up at 6 a.m. daily again...

[SM]

I'm still just trying to get over my sleep envy that you wake at 8am!

[VWolf]

Our family's Olympic viewing has been sporatic. Numerous times during the gymnastics we muted sound/commentary due to it's overwhelming negativity.

Can we not enjoy these feats of agility, form, and grace without non-stop nitpicking ie: "they blew that in practice" and "s/he is inexperienced" and "that routine isn't as contemporary as other teams". Does this impress that "experts" know better than the casual viewer - hardly.

In a similar vein: I take issue with your fellow "Times" sports writer who branded Mark Spitz a "whiner". Spitz reacted to not being afforded the courtesy of an invitation. That isn't a whine; that's trying to deal with a world class insult - pure and simple.