How hating Oprah helped me figure out DVR recording problems

Once a day, like clockwork, Oprah Winfrey snarked off my wife.

The problem began when she sat down and cued up our digital video recording of Oprah, only to find the first four minutes of Winfrey's show missing.

Every weekday. Like clockwork.

Which led my wife — and, eventually, her beleaguered TV critic husband — to wonder why. If my wife tells the Bright House cable DVR to record Oprah every day, and the show starts at 3:56 p.m. every day, why does the recording start four minutes late, every day?

Answering that question led me on a quest over many months, ranging from technicians at the cable company to the top programming guys at CBS. I eventually probed similar problems with recording shows such as NBC's Heroes, CBS's Late Show with David Letterman and Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

The short answer is, sometimes nobody notices something is wrong. Even when it's very, very wrong.

Figuring out the Oprah problem required calling a Bright House spokesman, who assured me I could just tell my DVR to start a few minutes early.

"But why should I have to do that when the show starts at 3:56 p.m. every day?" I whined, wary of any extra effort on my end.

After some persistence, I talked to a Bright House technician, who sent me to Tribune Media Services, the company that provides TV scheduling information for cable systems, newspapers, Web sites and TiVo units across the country. (By the way, Tribune Media Services is not connected to the Tampa Tribune.)

After a few weeks of back and forth, we discovered the problem. WFLA hadn't told Tribune they actually aired Oprah at 3:56 p.m.

WFLA general manager Mike Pumo said the station corrected the problem when it changed the system used to schedule air times, without providing specifics. Pumo also couldn't say why the station aired 0prah at 3:56 p.m. for so long — at least 10 years — in the first place.

One down, two more head-scratchers to go.

While researching the Oprah incident, I noticed other shows didn't record well. Heroes, for example, cut off one minute early — usually just as a climactic plot point was revealed.

If you record Letterman, the recording ends 28 seconds before the show does, which means you often miss the last joke.

The NBC problem was simple; the network didn't tell Tribune when they extended the running time of Heroes by one minute. So viewers across the country had to tell their DVRs to record one minute longer or record the show that came after — forcing me to sit through way too many episodes of My Own Worst Enemy.

But CBS is where things got interesting. Turns out, the Late Show with David Letterman has been airing 28 seconds longer than the already odd scheduled time — 11:35 p.m. to 12:37 a.m. — for as long as 10 years.

According to a CBS executive, the extra 28 seconds may have been tacked on to sneak in an extra commercial, back in the days before DVRs. But now that the show continues 28 seconds past its scheduled end, it messes with fans like me, who like to record the show and watch it when time allows.

Issues like this will only grow as more households get DVRs. A recent study from Leichtman Research Group indicated 27 percent of U.S. households own DVRs; another study found 63 percent of households earning $100,000 or more annually have them.

Networks often air shows at odd times — sometimes to squeeze in more commercials, sometimes to make it harder for you to watch the competition. But if they don't keep the scheduling companies aware of the changes, you may not find out until that very special episode of Grey's Anatomy cuts off two minutes early.

If you have a DVR, you can thank me for getting your Oprah and Heroes times adjusted correctly. CBS doesn't seem inclined to change what it's doing in late-night programming, and because DVRs can only schedule on the minute, viewers will always lose a piece of Letterman or gain a piece of Ferguson's show until the shows themselves are rescheduled.

Of course, solving one problem sometimes creates another: Now my DVR stops recording Winfrey's hourlong show after 58 minutes.

For now, looks like my wife will just have to survive on two minutes less Oprah.

*

Comments

[Chris R.]

Thanks for the post. I don't watch Oprah, but this is good information.

Do you think you can work your magic with "The Daily Show" and the "Colbert Report"??? It seems they are always messed up. A lot of times they are not marked as "new" and don't record at all. I have WOW (Wide Open West), but from what I have seen online a lot of people have issues with these shows.

[Ben W]

Godbless DirecTV. They're schedules are always accurately updated on their DVR's. If a show goes over by 1 minute or starts a few seconds early, it always auto corrects itself.
Just letting you know that this issue appears to not exist with DirecTV.

[jp]

I have Bright House DVR and when I add three minutes, say 10:03 pm, to the end of a program, it defaults back to 10:00 pm, and the finale, credits and previews are lost. Bright House hasn't a clue as to how to resolve this.

[Gretz]

Wow, and it's somehow a suprise to people that people feel no regrets for downloading shows. If the producers and broadcasters can't get their act togeather to have shows start and end on hour or half hour marks, with the consumer in mind, why should said consumer care when they skip over the advertizing?

I got fed up with it, and dropped the 'basic digital' package down to the 'ZOMG you're a luddite' 2 dozen channels. I got sick of paying 700 a year for the priviledge of watching commercials.

Netflix, baby.

[SP]

Another annoyance, we have our TV set to block TV-14 and higher, because we have small children in the house. If I'm watching a show that runs past a minute based on the cable box (we have Verizon FIOS), and the next scheduled show is TV-14, it shuts off until I plug in the password. Of course by then the last joke is over! I agree that it should be technologically simple to go by show title rather than clock time!

I'll never forget a UF-UT game many years ago, it went very long due to an injury and I think weather, and our VHS tape ran out and we didn't have cable and it was before the internet and it was hours before I knew if we'd won or not!

[cathy]

i was just considering getting a dvr. instead i'm getting a headache.

[Angry Gazebo]

Friend, you really need to get a life.

[Eric Deggans]

At least i'm smart enough to know when a line in a column is a joke...

You were *forced* to watch entire episodes of other shows just to catch the last minute of Heroes?

Idiot.

[Kelly]

It has nothing to do with DVR's (well, not entirely) and everything to do with trying to get you to purposely miss the start of a show on another channel. Ratings, not a concern for TIVO.

[Andrew Hartsell]

I've had more problems with NBC programs than any other network; for example: not one single episode of Law and Order has been flagged as a new episode since it started back up in January -- after missing the first two new episodes, I had to set my DVR to record every episode in the time slot (rather than just new episodes).

(I have another DVR in another room that is still set to record just the "new" episodes, and the last L&E episode it recorded was in December).

[Ralph]

I remember having to set a VCR for 5-10 minutes earlier and 5-10 minutes later than a show's scheduled times. The big problem was when you wanted to record two shows back to back.
PBS sends a signal for automatic time sync. Some VCR or TV brands would auto-sync, but not all stations were set to the same time.
Off subject, I hated the volume differences during commercials, or "Riding the Gain."

[joe mcclintock]

or you could download the show . takes about 2 or 3 minutes with fast speed .

[Eric Deggans]

I know the TV industry can be thickheaded, but i don't think there's a TV executive in their right mind who thinks that shaving a minute or two off the timing of a show will keep people from using DVRs.

And if that was the strategy, then why do the vast majority of TV show record correctly?

The reason many TV shows run one or two minutes past the hour is to make it difficult for you to record competing TV shows, that is true.

But in many of those cases, the DVR actually records the show correctly.

I think the explanation for this is a little simpler; corporate dimwittedness

[Oh Please]

Oh Please. Come on.

There is one and only one reasons that show end 4 minutes late or start 3 minutes early.

It's because television stations hate DVRs. It costs them revenue (you're not watching commercials). They intentionally change the times to mess with your DVR recordings, so you miss parts of your favorite shows, and in turn blame your DVR.

If you believe the television station did this by "mistake" or on "accident", you are truly the fool.

[Eric Deggans]

The point of the story isn't that it is possible to tell your DVR to record the shows. I know it is possible to tack on a few extra minutes here or there to record your favorite shows.

But if the show airs at the same time, for the same duration, day after day, why doesn't the DVR's internal schedule reflect the actual airtime?

Frankly, customers shouldn't have to tell their DVR to record an extra minute here or there. The internal DVR schedule should be accurate.

[slartibartfast]

Just set your dvr to record a few minutes early and run a few minutes late. Usually the option is under advanced options.

[GlennS.]

There's got to be a better way in these technological times.

By the way, you're not missing any extra jokes in that last 28 seconds of Letterman. It usually consists of the musical guests hitting their last note and Dave walking out with a copy of their latest CD. I know because I always catch those 28 seconds when I set my DVR to record Craig Ferguson.

[joe hillman]

eric:

your first problem was that your house is wired to out house netwrorks. my directv dvr begins recording at :59 instead of the top of the hour... or four minutes late.

[Vernon Davis]

STOP being held to the mercy of the DVR. Get yourself a nice tv card, insert it into your PC, and make you a PVR. This service only costs $20 a year for the programming guide, how much you paying for that DVR box a month anyways.

GO Personal Video Recorders(they also happen to be able to do dual recordings).

Vernon 3.0 is Coming!

[Eric Deggans]

The program providers do tell the scheduling companies when a show begins and ends. But sometimes, when they change the length of a show, they don't let the scheduling companies know. Or, in the case of Letterman, they change it in such a way that the DVR can't end recording exactly when the show does...

[Anon]

The broadcasters need to start inserting beginning and end marks for all shows, and the DVR's need to be adjusted to just record "David Letterman", or any show, by recognizing those marks - much the same way CD's allow you to fast forward to the beginning of each song and doesn't require you to, for example, forward 3:58, where the next song should start. As one of the last very few people without a DVR, I find it extremely odd you still have to setup recording the same way you had to set VCR's in the 80's, by specifying the time/length/start/end.