Since F1 races normally air at some godforsaken hour of the morning on Sundays, I generally record the race and then watch it later. This is one of the many reasons I am in love with my DVR. It has changed the way I watch television, and I can't say enough good things about it. Now, my wife hates Formula 1, so finding a time to watch the race can be tricky.
For example, I just got around to watching the German GP from July 22. In the 9 days between when the race aired and when I watched it, I imposed Fortress of Solitude style isolation on myself to avoid finding out who won. Luckily, no one else in the US likes Formula 1, so I could happily browse ESPN.com worry free. I managed to avoid hearing anything about the race, which turned out to be awesome. There was a ton of rain, a red flag, and 5 cars skidding off the track in the same corner within about 30 seconds of each other. Basically, it was everything I look for in a great F1 race.
Except that my DVR cut off the last 10 laps. I can't blame the DVR for this, because the race went long on account of the red flag period. It's not really SPEED's fault, either, because they have to schedule the race into their tight time constraints. Losing the last bit is one of the risks you run when recording sports events. It got so bad with some earlier seasons of The Ultimate Fighter that I resorted to recording the show after TUF so I wouldn't miss the end of the fight every single week.
The other big risk of watching tape-delay sports events is, of course, that you'll find out the result before watching the event. But which is worse? If you DVR a game/race/fight, are you more worried about hearing the result, or that your DVR cut off the ending? Hearing the result is more common, but even if you find out who won, you can still enjoy the event like it was on ESPN Classic. With the ending cut off, you might have missed the most exciting 15 minutes.
I guess the final verdict is: it depends. If it's an exciting ending, I'd rather hear who won but still have a chance to watch the ending. If it's a blowout, I'd rather watch without knowing who won, but miss the anticlimactic ending. The clear solution here is to record for 2 hours after any sports event I want to watch, and to never talk to anyone about sports ever again. That way I won't have to deal with any more DVR disasters.
July 31, 2007
DVR Disasters
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8 Responses:
Set your DVR to record the show(s) following the race. (I assume it cut out just as Alonso was passing Massa? That's when I had to switch from the race recording to the post-race show. Poor you; hell of a pass.)
I wish I had made it that far. It cut out just as everyone was starting to come in for rain tires. In a normal race, I get the whole thing and most of the post-race show without any problem.
And yeah, I'm pretty pissed that I didn't get to see the pass. Anyone have a YouTube link?
Or you can just set your DVR to record the program until 1 hour after the posted end time. That's what I do whenever I record a sporting event.
My co-worker told me that it was the best race of the season. Sucks that you had to miss it.
I'm trying to get a full tape of the race...
Racing sucks
Shortly after Hamilton's crash in qualifying, YouTube/GoodleVideo had footage of it, but all was removed by Monday morning, and we were left with a banner stating: "Removed by request of Formula One Management." Likewise, of course, good luck finding any footage of the Alonso/Massa pass in the race. More wrongheaded decisions from F1; *not* letting fans and potential fans see online what they can't see anywhere else?! Did you see the Alonso/Massa playing around in P1 that Friday morning? The race pass was more of the same fun stuff.
Yeah, F1 is crazy about pulling stuff from YouTube. It's not even like UFC, where the events are pay-per-view, so you don't want them available online the next day.
I did see the pass in practice, it doesn't seem like Alonso and Massa like each other. A rivalry between the two of them is great for the sport.
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