# ...And The Winner Of American Idol Is (My DVR Stops At That Very Second) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 22, 2008, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-winner-of-american-idol-is-my-dvr-stops-at-that-very-second/450219 "2008-05-22T07:33:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2008, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-winner-of-american-idol-is-my-dvr-stops-at-that-very-second/450219/1 "2008-05-22T07:33:28Z")
I swear, my DVR stopped recording exactly mid-sentence of the announcement. The two hours scheduled for the show was over, and that was that. Granted, I only had to go on-line and look it up, but man that pisses me off when a show runs over a few minutes, but my stupid DVR stops exactly when the scheduled time is up. ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2008, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-winner-of-american-idol-is-my-dvr-stops-at-that-very-second/450219/2 "2008-05-22T12:46:54Z")
My experience wasn’t as bad as that, but my TiVo cut off as soon as Seacrest said “Cook”. I missed the final emotion and song and all of the hoo-hah, but I think someone in the Idol thread linked to the Youtube video of the end of the show. Which will no doubt be removed by the time I get home and am able to watch it. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2008, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-winner-of-american-idol-is-my-dvr-stops-at-that-very-second/450219/3 "2008-05-22T13:24:57Z")
My DVR lets me record up to 15 minutes of overrun for live programming. Are you sure yours won’t? ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2008, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-winner-of-american-idol-is-my-dvr-stops-at-that-very-second/450219/4 "2008-05-22T16:27:51Z")
We wouldn’t have this problem if Fox simply made sure the program ended at 8:59:59 so the next program could start at 9:00:00, as scheduled. Instead, they’ve been running long and squeezing the next show down to 55 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2008, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-winner-of-american-idol-is-my-dvr-stops-at-that-very-second/450219/5 "2008-05-22T16:35:37Z")
I don’t have a DVR, but can you not set it to record (say) from 7.57 to 9.10 to be sure of catching the end? Or can you only select programmes from a menu rather than setting the actual start and end times? If the latter, once again technology goes backwards… my old VCR could start and stop at whatever time I wanted it to, subject to length of tape. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![howye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9adbd/32.png) [@howye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/howye)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2008, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-winner-of-american-idol-is-my-dvr-stops-at-that-very-second/450219/6 "2008-05-22T16:36:11Z")
[QUOTE=gotpasswords] We wouldn’t have this problem if Fox simply made sure the program ended at 8:59:59 so the next program could start at 9:00:00, as scheduled. Instead, they’ve been running long and squeezing the next show down to 55 minutes. [/QUOTE] Or they actually reported to the companies that provide this data to DVR’s that they were going to go over by five minutes. Some networks do that, but either way its an attempt to get us to watch shows as they are broadcast and not use those evil commercial skipping DVR’s. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2008, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-winner-of-american-idol-is-my-dvr-stops-at-that-very-second/450219/7 "2008-05-22T17:37:12Z")
[QUOTE=Colophon] I don’t have a DVR, but can you not set it to record (say) from 7.57 to 9.10 to be sure of catching the end? Or can you only select programmes from a menu rather than setting the actual start and end times? If the latter, once again technology goes backwards… my old VCR could start and stop at whatever time I wanted it to, subject to length of tape. 🙂 [/QUOTE] Oh sure, you can set your DVR to whatever you want, but unlike in Germany (and maybe most of Europe?) where shows often go a little longer than planned, it is very rare for a US television show to go overtime. Thus you simply set your DVR to record the program and, ideally, you should get the entire program. Only rarely does a show go past the scheduled time (Oscar telecast is one instance that always goes overtime, so I would have planned accordingly). So yeah, in part it was my fault, but again - it happens so rarely that I never gave it any thought. ---
**Author:** ![Caricci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Caricci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caricci)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2008, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-winner-of-american-idol-is-my-dvr-stops-at-that-very-second/450219/8 "2008-05-22T17:44:35Z")
It did it to me too, but thank goodness I was watching live while recording. Last year it happened and I didn’t get to see the real end. You’d think I would have learned. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2008, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-winner-of-american-idol-is-my-dvr-stops-at-that-very-second/450219/9 "2008-05-22T18:46:05Z")
[QUOTE=DMark] Oh sure, you can set your DVR to whatever you want, but unlike in Germany (and maybe most of Europe?) where shows often go a little longer than planned, it is very rare for a US television show to go overtime. Thus you simply set your DVR to record the program and, ideally, you should get the entire program. Only rarely does a show go past the scheduled time (Oscar telecast is one instance that always goes overtime, so I would have planned accordingly). So yeah, in part it was my fault, but again - it happens so rarely that I never gave it any thought. [/QUOTE] Clearly, you aren’t an NFL or wrestling fan. Those broadcasts overrun on a weekly basis. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2008, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-winner-of-american-idol-is-my-dvr-stops-at-that-very-second/450219/10 "2008-05-22T19:14:09Z")
[QUOTE=Really Not All That Bright] Clearly, you aren’t an NFL or wrestling fan. [/QUOTE] Uh…no. But that is the point - for sporting events, sure - nobody has a clue how long they will go and if I were to record any of those, I would have set the DVR to at least an hour longer than scheduled, just in case… But let’s be honest here…American Idol is scripted down to the last word…and with Ryan Seacrest’s ability to make three words last 60 seconds when he feels like it, it seems like it shouldn’t be a big deal to look at a clock and say, “hey, we have 5 minutes left - let’s wrap this puppy up.” Or is someone going to tell me there wasn’t a single wasted minute during the entire two hour broadcast? ---
**Author:** ![MissMossie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@MissMossie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissMossie)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2008, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/and-the-winner-of-american-idol-is-my-dvr-stops-at-that-very-second/450219/11 "2008-05-22T21:26:23Z")
I feel your pain. I Tivoed an America’s Next Top Model marathon once (okay, okay, I’ved Tivoed ANTM marathons more than once) and spent an entire day off being a slob and watching trashy television. Around five-thirty or so in the evening, I made it to the final judging. Tyra said, “America’s Next Top Model is…” and then Tivo asked me if I wanted to save or delete the recording. It was a bit upsetting.