Cooler temperatures have finally arrived and the summer is finally coming to an end, marking one of my favorite times of year. With the blockbuster movie season wrapping up we will soon turn our attention to the “small screen” as the 2011 Fall TV Lineup lands in our living rooms. Are you prepared? Do you know what you will be watching? Better yet, do you know what your DVR will be recording, so you can watch it later.
I’d venture a guess that most everyone who reads this article has at least one DVR in their home. In many cases, it might be more. These devices are absolute genius and have completely altered TV viewing in my house. We can now watch an hour-long program in 40 minutes and a half-hour program in about 20. We can store up several episodes of a show and have our own mini-marathon on Saturday to get caught up. There is only one prerequisite for all of this. We have to actually set the DVR to record the programs that we want to watch later and that can sometimes be a bit of a challenge. What shows are on? When does the season start? What time slot are my shows in now? Are there multiple shows I want to watch airing at the same time?
WHATS ON THE DVR GUIDE
The Fall TV Guide from Entertainment Weekly (my favorite magazine of the year) landed in my mailbox this weekend. Armed with that and websites like TVGuide.com and tv.com I set out to produce a calendar that contains all of the Fall TV shows (new and returning) with times and start dates. The result is the 2011 Fall TV Lineup – Channel Guide, available as a PDF from the link below (next section). Before you dive in, here are a few features of the guide:
- Major Channels: All the major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and CW) are listed in grid form
- Cable Networks: Additional shows (from other networks) are highlighted below each day of the week in the Other Programs of Interest section
- More Info: Each program title is a link to the official website of the show (so you can see what each program is and read up, to make your decision on whether to watch)
- Start Date: The start date for each program is listed out to the side
- Calendar Oddities: Start dates that stood out as “odd” are highlighted in yellow
Features of the DVR Guide
TAKE ME TO THE GUIDE
To get the guide, simply click on the link below to open in Adobe Acrobat. If you don’t already have the Adobe Acrobat reader (a FREE program), you’ll need to install it first
2011 Fall TV Lineup – Channel Guide
TIPS ON USING THE GUIDE
If you are a multiple DVR owner and want to really plan out what to record and on which DVR, here are a few helpful tips.
- Print out the guide
- Highlight the shows that you want to watch, using a different color highlighter for each DVR
- Make sure you don’t have any overlap (ie. more than the number of shows you can record on each DVR)
- Set each show to record
- Verify the “priority” of the shows against the guide (so you don’t end up missing out on key recordings)
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Tags: ABC, broadcast, cable, CBS, DVR, Fall TV, FOX, guide, NBC, program, programming, recording, TiVo
